While they keep wateh, or nightly rounding walk
With heav'nly touch of instrumental sounds,
In full harmonic number join'd, their songs
Divide the night, and lift our thoughts to heav'n."
Thus talking hand in hand alone they pass'd
On to their blissful bow'r-
- There arriv'd, both stood,
Both turn'd; and under open sky ador'd
The God that made both sky, air, earth, and heav's.
Which they beheld, the moon's resplendent globe,
And starry pole. "Thou also mad'st the night,
Maker omnipotent, and thou the day,
Which we, in our appointed work employ'd,
Have finish'd, happy in our mutual help,
And mutual love, the crown of all our bliss
Ordain'd by thee; and this delicious place
For us too large, where thy abundance wants
Partakers, and uncropt falls to the ground.
But thou hast promis'd from us two a race,
To fill the earth, who shall with us extol
Thy goodness infinite, both when we wake,
And when we seek, as now, thy gift of sleep.
Lo! a form divinely bright
Descends and bursts upon my sight;
A seraph of illustrious birth!
(Religion was her name on earth ;)
Supremely sweet her radiant face,
And blooming with celestial grace !
Three shining cherubs form'd her train,
Wav'd their light wings, and reach'd the plaine
Faith, with sublime and piercing eye,
And pinions flutt'ring for the sky:
Here Hope, that smiling angel stands,
And golden anchors grace her hands;
There Charity in robes of white,
Fairest and fav'rite maid of light..
The seraph spoke-" "Tis reason's part
To govern and to guard the heart;
To full the wayward soul to rest,
When hopes and fears distract the breast
Reason may calm this doubtful strife, And steer thy bark through various life: But when the storms of death are nigh, And midnight darkness veils the sky,.. Shall Reason then direct thy sail, Disperse the clonds, or sink the gale? Stranger, this skill alone is mine, Skill that transcends his seanty line. "Revere thyself-thou'rt near allied To angels on thy better side. How various e'er their ranks or kinds, Angels are but unbodied minds: When the partition walls decay, Men emerge angels from their clay. Yes, when the frailer body dies, The soul asserts her kindred skies. But minds, though sprung from heavenly race Must first be tutor'd for the place : The joys above are understood, And relish'd only by the good, Who shall assume this guardian care, • Who shall secure their birthright there? Souls are my charge to me 'tis giv'n To train them for their native heav'n.
"Know then, who bow the early knee, And give the willing heart to me; Who wisely, when Temptation waits, Elude her frauds, and spurn her baits; Who dare to own my injur'd cause, 'Though fools deride my suered laws; Or scorn to deviate to the wrong, Though persecution lifts her thong; Though all the sons of hell conspire To raise the stake and light the fire; Know, that for such superiour souls, There lies a bliss beyond the poles; Where spirits shine with purer ray, And brighten to meridian day: Where love, where boundless friendship rules; (No friends that change, no love that cools;) Where rising floods of knowledge roll, And pour, and pour, upon the soul!
"But where's the passage to the skies? The road through death's black valley dies.
Nay, do not shudder at my tale;
'Though dark the shades, yet safe the vale.
This path the best of men have trod;
And who'd decline the road to God?
Oh! 'tis a glorious boon to die!
This favour can't be priz'd too high."
While thus she spoke, my looks express'd
The raptures kindling in my breast;
My soul a fix'd attention gave;
When the stern Monarch of the grave
With haughty strides approach'd-amaz'd
I stood, and trembled as I gaz'd.
The seraph calm'd each anxious fear,
And kindly wip'd the falling tear;
Then hasten'd with expanded wing
To meet the pale terrifie king.
But now what milder scenes arise!
The tyrant drops his hostile guise;
He seems a youth divinely fair,
In graceful ringlets waves his hair;
His wings their whit'ning plumes display,
His burnish'd plumes reflect the day;
Light flows his shining azure vest,
And all the angel stands confess'd.
I view'd the change with sweet surprise;
And. Oh! I panted for the skies;
Thank'd heav'n, that e'er I drew my breath;
And triumph'd in the thoughts of death.
SECTION I.
The Vanity of Wealth.
NO more thus brooding o'er yon heap,
With av'rice painful vigils keep;
Still unenjoy'd the present store,
Still endless sighs are breath'd for more
O! quit the shadow, catch the prize,
Which not all India's treasure buys!
To purchase heav'n has gold the pow'r
Can gold remove the mortal hour?
In life can love be bought with gold?
Are friendship's pleasures to be sold ?
No; all that's worth a wish, a thought,
Fair virtue gives unbrib'd, unbought.
Cease then on trash thy hopes to bind;
Let nobler views engage thy mind.
SECTION II.
Nothing formed in Vain.
LET no presuming impious railer tax
Creative wisdom, as if aught was form'd
In vain, or not for admirable ends.
Shall little haughty ignorance pronounce
His works unwise, of which the smallest part
Exceeds the narrow vision of her mind?
As if, upon a full proportion'd dome,
On swelling columus heav'd the pride of art!
A critic fly, whose feeble ray searce spreads
An inch around, with blind presumption bold,
Should dare to tax the structure of the whole.
And lives the man, whose universal eye
Has swept at once th' unbounded scheme of things;
Mark'd k'd their dependence so, and firm accord,
As with unfalt'ring accent to conclude,
That this availeth nought? Has any scen
The mighty chain of beings, less'ning down
From infinite perfection to the brink
Of dreary nothing, desolate abyss!
From which astonish'd thought, recoiling, turns P
Till then alone let zealous praise ascend,
And hymns of holy wonder, to that POWER,
Whose wisdom shines as lovely in our minds,
As on our smiling eyes his servant sun.
Of all the causes, which conspire to blind
Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is pride, the never failing vice of fools.
Whatever nature has in worth deny'd,
She gives in large recruits of needful pride!
For, as in bodies, thus in souls, we find
What wants in blood and spirits, swell'd with wind
Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence,
And fills up all the mighty void of sense.
If once right reason drives that cloud away,
Truth breaks upon us with resistless day.
Trust not yourself; but, your defects to know,
Make use of ev'ry friend, and ev'ry foe.
A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain;
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fir'd at first sight with what the muse impartsy
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts,
While, from the bounded level of our mind,
Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind;
But, more advane'd behold, with strange surprise,
New distant scenes of endless science rise!
So pleas'd at first the tow'ring Alps we try,
Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky
Th' eternal snows appear already past,
And the first clouds and mountains seem the last:
But, those attain'd, we tremble to survey
The growing labours of the lengthen'd way;
Th' increasing prospect tires cur wand'ring eyes;
Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise.
SECTION IV.
Cruelty to Brutes censured.
I WOULD not enter on my list of friends, (Though grac'd with polish'd manners and fine sense,
Yet wanting sensibility,) the man
Who nee needlessly sets foot upon
An inadvertent step may crush the snail,
That crawls at evening in the public path;
But he that has humanity, forewarn'd,
Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.
The creeping vermin, loathsome to the sight,
And charg'd perhaps with venom, that intrudes
A visitor unwelcome into scenes
Sacred to neatness and repose, th' alcove,
The chamber, or refectory, may die.
A necessary act incurs no blame,
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