Thine is redemption; they just gave the key : Conception unconfin'd wants wings to reach him : 'Tis thine to raise, and eternize, the song ; Beyond his reach, the Godhead only, more. Though human, yet divine : for should not this He, the great Father! kindled at one flame Raise man o'er man, and kindle seraphs here? The world of rationals; one spirit pour'd Redemption ! 'twas creation more sublime ; From spirit's awful fountain : pour'd himself Redemption ! 'twas the labor of the skies; Through all their souls; but not in equal stream, Far more than labor—It was death in Heaven. Profuse, or frugal, of th' aspiring God, A truth so strange! 'twere bold to thin true; As his wise plan demanded ; and when past Their various trials in their various spheres, Resorbs them all into himself again; What then on Earth? On Earth, which struck the His throne their centre, and his smile their crown. blow? Why doubt we, then, the glorious truth to sing, Who struck it? Who -0 how is man enlarg'd Though yet unsung, as deem'd, perhaps, too bold? Seen through this medium! how the pigmy towers ! Angels are men of a superior kind ; How counterpois'd his origin from dust! Angels are men in lighter habit clad, How counterpois'd, to dust his sad return! High o'er celestial mountains wing'd in flight; How voided his vast distance from the skies! And men are angels loaded for an hour, How near he presses on the seraph's wing ! Who wade this miry vale, and climb with pain, Which is the seraph ? Which the born of clay? And slippery step, the bottom of the sleep. How this demonstrates, through the thickest cloud Angels their failings, mortals have their praise; Of guilt, and clay condens'd, the son of Her ven! While here, of corps ethereal, such enroll’d, 'The double son ; the made, and the re-ma .e! And summond to the glorious standard soon, And shall Heaven's double property be ! ost? Which flames eternal crimson through the skies. Man's double madness only can destroy. Nor are our brothers thoughtless of their kin, To man the bleeding cross has promis'd all; Yet absent; but not absent from their love. The bleeding cross has sworn eternal grace; Michael has fought our battles ; Raphael sung Who gave his life, what grace shall he deny? Our triumphs; Gabriel on our errands flown, Oye! who, from this rock of ages, leap, Sent by the Sovereign: and are these, O man! A postates, plunging headlong in the deep! Thy friends, thy warm allies? and thou (shame burn What cordial joy, what consolation strong, The cheek to cinder!) rival to the brute ? Whatever winds arise, or billows roll, Religion 's All. Descending from the skies Our interest in the master of the storm! To wretched man, the goddess, in her left, Cling there, and in wreck'd Nature's ruin smile ; Holds out this world, and, in her right, the next; While vile apostales tremble in a calm. Religion ! the sole voucher man is man; Man! know thyself. All wisdom centres there; Supporter sole of man above himself; To none man seems ignoble, but to man; E'en in this night of frailty, change, and death, Angels that grandeur, men o'erlook, admire : She gives the soul a soul that acts a god. How long shall human nature be their book, Religion ! Providence ! an after-state ! Degenerate mortal! and unread by thee ? Here is firm footing; here is solid rock! The beam dim reason sheds shows wonders there; This can support us; all is sea besides ; What high contents ! Illustrious faculties! Sinks under us; bestorms, and then devours. But the grand comment, which displays at full His hand the good man fastens on the skies, Our human height, scarce sever'd from divine, And bids Earth roll, nor feels her idle whirl. By Heaven compos’d, was publish'd on the cross. As when a wretch, from thick, polluted air, Who looks on that, and sees not in himself Darkness and stench, and suffocation-damps, And dungeon-horrors, by kind fate, discharg’d, A glorious partner with the Deity Climbs some fair eminence, where ether pure In that high attribute, immortal life ? Surrounds him, and Elysian prospects rise, If a god bleeds, he bleeds not for a worm: His heart exults, his spirits cast their load ; I gaze, and, as I gaze, my mounting soul As if new-born, he triumphs in the change; Catches strange fire, Eternity! at thee; So joys the soul, when, from inglorious aims, And drops the world—or rather, more enjoys : And sordid sweets, from feculence and froth How chang'd the face of Nature ! how improv'd ! of ties terrestrial, set at large, she mounts What seem'd a chaos, shines a glorious world, To reason's region, her own element, Or, what a world, an Eden; heighten'd all! Breathes hopes immortal, and affects the skies. Ii is another scene! another self! Religion ! thou the soul of happiness ; And still another, as time rolls along ; And, groaning Calvary, of thee! There shine And that a self far more illustrious still. The noblest truths; there strongest motives sting; Beyond long ages, yet rollid up in shades There sacred violence assaults the soul; Unpierc'd by bold conjecture's keenest ray, There, nothing but compulsion is forborne. What evolutions of surprising fate! Can love allure us? or can terror awe? How Nature opens, and receives my soul He weeps the falling drop puts out the Sun ; In boundless walks of raptur'd thought! where gods He sighs—the sigh Earth's deep foundation shakes Encounter and embrace me! What new births If in his love so terrible, what then Of strange adventure, foreign to the Sun; His wrath inflam'd ? his tenderness on fire ? Where what now charms, perhaps, whate'er exists, Like soft, smooth oil, outblazing other fires ? Old time, and fair creation, are forgot! Can prayer, can praise, avert it ?– Thou, my AU ! Is this extravagant? Of man we form My theme! my inspiration! and my crown! Extravagant conception, to be just : My strength in age! my rise in low estate ! My soul's ambition, pleasure, wealth my world! This mouldering, old, partition-wall throw down? Great future! glorious patron of the past, And present! when shall I thy shrine adore ? From Nature's continent, immensely wide, Divides us. Happy day! that breaks our chain; Knew I the name devout archangels use, That manumits; that calls from exile home; Devout archangels should the name enjoy, That leads to Nature's great metropolis, By me unrivall’d; thousands more sublime, And readmits us, through the guardian hand None half so dear, as that, which, though unspoke, Of elder brothers, to our Father's throne; Still glows at heart: 0 how omnipotence Who hears our Advocate, and, through his wounds Is lost in love! Thou great philanthropist! Beholding man, allows that tender name. Father of angels! but the friend of man! "Tis this makes Christian triumph a command : Like Jacob, fondest of the younger born! 'Tis this makes joy a duty to the wise ; Thou, who didst save him, snatch the smoking brand 'Tis impious in a good man to be sad. From out the flaines, and quench it in thy blood ! See thou, Lorenzo! where hangs all our hope ? How art thou pleas'd, by bounty to distress! Touch'd by the cross, we live; or, more than die; To make us groan beneath our gratitude, That touch which touch'd not angels; more divine Too big for birth! to favor, and confound! Than that which touch'd confusion into form, To challenge, and to distance all return! And darkness into glory: partial touch ! or lavish love stupendous heights to soar, Ineffably pre-eminent regard ! And leave praise panting in the distant vale! Sacred io man, and sovereign through the whole Thy right, too great, defrauds thee of thy due; Long golden chain of miracles, which hangs And sacrilegious our sublimest song. From Heaven through all duration, and supports But since the naked will obtains thy smile, In one illustrious and amazing plan, Beneath this monument of praise unpaid, Thy welfare, Nature ! and thy God's renown; And future life symphonious to my strain, That louch, with charm celestial, heals the soul (That noblest hymn to Heaven!) for ever lie Diseas'd, drives pain from guilt, lights life in death, Intomb'd my fear of death! and every fear, Turns Earth to Heaven, to heavenly thrones transThe dread of every evil, but thy frown. forms Whom see I, yonder, so demurely smile? The ghastly ruins of the mouldering tomb. Laughter a labor, and might break their rest. Dost ask me when ? When he who died returns ; Ye quietists, in homage to the skies! Returns, how chang'd! Where then the man of Serene! of soft address! who mildly make woe? An unobtrusive tender of your hearts, In glory's terrors all the Godhead burns; And all his courts, exhausted by the tide Of pomp, and multitude; a radiant band Nature is Christian ; preaches to mankind; And bids dead matter aid us in our creed. Oh ye cold-hearted, frozen formalists! Hast thou ne'er seen the comer's flaming Night ? On such a theme, 'tis impious to be calm; Th' illustrious stranger, passing, terror sheds Passion is reason, transport temper, here. On gazing nations ; from his fiery train Shall Heaven, which gave us ardor, and has shown or length enormous, takes his ample round Her own for man so strongly, not disdain Through depths of ether; coasts unnumber'd worlds, What smooth emollients in theology, Of more than solar glory ; doubles wide Recumbent virtue's downy doctors, preach; Heaven's mighty cape: and then revisits Earth, That prose of piety, a lukewarm praise ? From the long travel of a thousand years. Rise odors sweet from incense uninflam'd? Thus, at the destin'd period, shall return Devotion, when lukewarm, is undevout; He, once on Earth, who bids the comet blaze : But when it glows, its heat is struck to Heaven; And, with him, all our triumph o'er the tomb. To human hearts her golden harps are strung; Nature is dumb on this important point; High Heaven's orchestra chants amen to man. Or hope precarious in low whisper breathes ; Hear I, or dream I hear, their distant strain, Faith speaks aloud, distinct ; e'en adders hear: Sweet to the soul, and tasting strong of Heaven, But turn, and dart into the dark again. Sofl-wafted on celestial pity's plume, Faith builds a bridge across the gulf of Death, Through the vast spaces of the universe, To break the shock blind Nature cannot shun, To cheer me in this melancholy gloom? And lands thought smoothly on the further shore. Oh when will Death (now stingless,) like a friend, Death's terror is the mountain faith removes ; Admit me of their choir ? O when will Death! That mountain barrior between man and peace. ܪ a "Tis faith disarms destruction; and absolves Know ye how wise your choice, how great your gain ? From every clamorous charge, the guiltless tomb. Behold the picture of Earth's happiest man: Why disbelieve ? Lorenzo !" Reason bids, • He calls his wish, it comes; he sends it back, All-sacred Reason.”—Hold her sacred still; And says, he call'd another; that arrives, Nor shalt thou want a rival in thy flame : Meets the same welcome; yet he still calls on ; All-sacred reason! source, and soul, of all Till one calls him, who varies not his call, Demanding praise, on Earth, or Earth above ! But holds him fast, in chains of darkness bound, My heart is thine : deep in its inmost folds, Till Nature dies, and judgment sets him free ; Live thou with life; live dearer of the two. A freedom far less welcome than his chain." Wear I the blessed cross, by fortune stamp'd But grant man happy ; grant him happy long : On passive Nature, before thought was born ? Add to life's highest prize her latest hour; My birth's blind bigot! fir'd with local zeal! That hour, so late, is nimble in approach, No! Reason re-baptiz'd me when adult; That, like a post, comes on in full career : Weigh'd true and false, in her impartial scale ; How swift the shuttle flies, that weaves thy shroud! My heart became the convert of my head, Where is the fable of thy former years ? And made that choice, which once was but my fate. Thrown down the gulf of time; as far from thee "On argument alone my faith is built;" As they had ne'er been thine; the day in hand, Reason pursu'd is faith ; and unpursued Like a bird struggling to get loose, is going ; Fond as we are, and justly fond, of faith, Bathing for ever in the font of bliss! O give it leave to speak ; 'twill speak ere long. The fading flower shall die ; but reason lives Thy leave unask'd: Lorenzo! hear it now, Immortal, as her father in the skies. While useful its advice, its accent mild. When faith is virtue, reason makes it so. By the great edict, the divine decree, Wrong not the Christian; think not reason yours : Truth is deposited with man's last hour; 'Tis reason our great Master holds so dear; An honest hour, and faithful to her trust. 'Tis reason's injur'd rights his wrath resents; Truth, eldest daughter of the Deity; "Tis reason's voice obey'd his glories crown; Truth, of his council, when he made the worlds ; To give lost rcason life, he pour'd his own : Nor less, when he shall judge the worlds he made Believe, and show the reason of a man; Though silent long, and sleeping ne'er so sound, Believe, and taste the pleasure of a God! Smother'd with errors, and opprest with joys, Believe, and look with triumph on the tomb: That Heaven-commission'd hour no sooner calls Through reason's wounds alone thy faith can die; But, from her cavern in the soul's abyss, Which dying, tenfold terror gives to death, Like him they fable under Ætna whelm'd, And dips in venom his twice-mortal sting. The goddess bursts, in thunder, and in fame; Learn hence what honors, what loud peans, due Loudly convinces, and severely pains. To those, who push our antidote aside ; Dark demons I discharge, and hydra stings ; Those boasted friends to reason and to man, The keen vibration of bright truth-is Hell: Whose fatal love stabs every joy, and leaves Just definition ! though by schools untaught. Death's terror heighten'd, gnawing on his heart. Ye deaf to truth! peruse this parson'd page, These pompous sons of reason idoliz'd And trust, for once, a prophet, and a priest ; And vilified at once; of reason dead, Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die." Then deified, as monarchs were of old; What conduct plants proud laurels on their brow? While love of iruth through all their camp resounds, They draw Pride's curtain o'er the noontide ray, NIGHT THE FIFTH. Spike up their inch of reason, on the point THE RELAPSE. of philosophic wit, call'd argument; And then, exulting in their taper, cry, TO THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF LITCHFIELD. “ Behold the Sun :" and, Indian-like, adore. Talk they of morals ? O thou bleeding Love ! LORENZO! to recriminate is just. Thou maker of new morals to mankind ! Fondness for fame is avarice of air. The grand morality is love of thee. I grant the man is vain who writes for praise, As wise as Socrates, if such they were, Praise no man e'er deserv'd, who sought no more. (Nor will they 'bate of that sublime renown) As just thy second charge. I grant the Muse As wise as Socrales, might justly stand Has often blush'd at her degenerate sons, Retain'd by sense to plead her filthy cause ; As if to magic numbers' powerful charm | 'Twas given, to make a civel of their song And lifts our swine-enjoyments from the mire. (For such alone the Christian banner fly) The fact notorious, nor obscure the cause, We wear the chains of pleasure and of pride. And, feeling, give assent; and their assent Wit dares attempt this arduous enterprise. A Muse that will not pain thee with thy praise ; o thou! Blest Spirit! whether the supreme, Wit hammers out a reason new, that stoops Great antemundane Father! in whose breast To sordid scenes, and meets them with applause. Embryo creation, unborn being, dwelt, Wit calls the graces the chaste zone to loose ; And all its various revolutions rollid Nor less than a plump god to fill the bowl : Present, though future ; prior to themselves; A thousand phantoms, and a thousand spells, Whose breath can blow it into nought again; A thousand opiates scatters, to delude, Or, from his throne some delegated power, To fascinate, inebriate, lay asleep, Who, studious of our peace, dost turn the thought And the fool'd mind delightfully confound. [more; From vain and vile, to solid and sublime ! Thus that which shock'd the judgment, shocks no Unseen thou lead'st me to delicious draughts That which gave pride offence, no more offends. Of inspiration, from a purer stream, Pleasure and pride, by nature mortal foes, And fuller of the god, than that which burst At war eternal, which in man shall reign, From fam'd Castalia: nor is yet allay'd By wit's address, patch up a fatal peace, My sacred thirst; though long my soul has rang'd And hand in hand lead on the rank debauch, Through pleasing paths of moral and divine, From rank, refin'd to delicate and gay. By thee sustain'd, and lighted by the stars. Art, cursed art! wipes off th' indebted blush By them best lighted are the paths of thought ; From Nature's cheek, and bronzes every shame. Nights are their days, their most illumin'd hours. Man smiles in ruin, glories in his guilt, By day, the soul, o'erborne by life's career, And infamy stands candidate for praise. Stunn’d by the din, and giddy with the glare, All writ by man in favor of the soul, Reels far from reason, jostled by the throng. The sensual ethics far, in bulk, transcend. By day the soul is passive, all her thoughts The flowers of eloquence, profusely pour'd Impos'd, precarious, broken ere mature. O'er spotted vice, fill half the letter'd world. By night, from objects free, from passion cool, Can powers of genius exorcise their page, Thoughts uncontrolld, and unimpress'd, the births And consecrate enormities with song ? Of pure election, arbitrary range, Not to the limits of one world confin'd; Let Indians, and the gay, like Indians, fond Darkness has more divinity for me ; To visit being universal there, It strikes thought inward; it drives back the soul And being's Source, that utmost Alight of mind! To settle on herself our point supreme ! Yet, spite of this so vast circumference, There lies our theatre! there sits our judge. Well knows, but what is moral, nought is great. Darkness the curtain drops o'er life's dull scene ; Sing syrens only? Do not angels sing? 'Tis the kind hand of Providence stretch'd out There is in poesy a decent pride, "Twixt man and vanity ; 'tis reason's reign, Which well becomes her when she speaks to prose, And virtue's too; these tutelary shades Her younger sister; haply, not more wise. Are man's asylum from the tainted throng. Think'st thou, Lorenzo! to find pastimes here? Night is the good man's friend, and guardian too; No guilty passion blown into a flame, It no less rescues virtue, than inspires. No foible flatter'd, dignity disgrac'd, Virtue, for ever frail, as fair, below, No fairy field of fiction, all on flower, Her tender nature suffers in the crowd, No rainbow colors, here, or silken tale: Nor touches on the world, without a stain: But solemn counsels, images of awe, The world 's infectious; few bring back at eve, Truths, which eternity lets fall on man Immaculate, the manners of the morn. With double weight, through these revolving spheres, Something we thought, is blotted! we resolv'd, This death-deep silence, and incumbent shade: Is shaken; we renounc'd, returns again. Thoughts, such as shall revisit your last hour; Each salutation may slide in a sin Visit uncall'd, and live when life expires; Unthought before, or fix a former flaw. And thy dark pencil, midnight! darker still Nor is it strange: light, motion, concourse, noise, In melancholy dipt, embrowns the whole. All, scatter us abroad; though outward bound, Yet this, even this, my laughter-loving friends! Neglectful of our home affairs, flies off Lorenzo! and thy brothers of the smile! In fume and dissipation, quits her charge, Strikes, like a pestilence, from breast to breast; The blush of weakness to the bane of woe. The noblest spirit, fighting her hard fate, In this damp, dusty region, charg'd with storms, From smiling man. A slight, a single glance, But feebly flutters, yet untaught to fly; And shot at random, often has brought home Or, flying, short her flight, and sure her fall. A sudden fever to the throbbing heart, Our utmost strength, when down, to rise again; Of endy, rancor, or impure desire. And not to yield, though beaten, all our praise. We see, we hear, with peril; safety dwells 'Tis vain to seek in men for more than man. Remote from multitude; the world's a school Though proud in promise, big in previous thought, Of wrong. and what proficients swarm around ! Experience damps our triumph. I who late, We must or imitate ; or disapprove; Emerging from the shadows of the grave, Must list as their accomplices, or foes; Where grief detain'd me prisoner, mounting high, That stains our innocence; this wounds our peace. Threw wide the gates of everlasting day, From Nature's birth, hence, wisdom has been smit And callid mankind to glory, shook off pain, With sweet recess, and languish'd for the shade. Mortality shook off, in ether pure, This sacred shade, and solitude, what is it? And struck the stars ; now feel my spirits fail ; 'Tis the felt presence of the Deity. They drop me from the zenith ; down I rush, Few are the faults we flatter when alone, Like him whom fable Medgid with waxen wings, Vice sinks in her allurements, is ungilt: In sorrow drown'd—but not in sorrow lost. And looks, like other objects, black by night. How wretched is the man who never mourn'd! By night an atheist half-believes a God. I dive for precious pearl in sorrow's stream: Night is fair virtue's immemorial friend ; Not so the thoughtless man that only grieves ; The conscious Moon, through every distant age, Takes all the torment, and rejects the gain, Has held a lamp to wisdom, and let fall, (Inestimable gain !) and gives Heaven leave On contemplation's eye, her purging ray. To make him but more wretched, not more wise. The fam'd Athenian, he who wood from Heaven If wisdom is our lesson (and what else Philosophy the fair, to dwell with men, Ennobles man? what else have angels learnt ?) And form their manners, not inflame their pride, Grief! more proficients in thy school are made, While o'er his head, as fearful to molest Than genius, or proud learning, e'er could boast. His laboring mind, the stars in silence slide, Voracious learning, often over-fed, And seem all gazing on their future guest, Digests not into sense her motley meal. See him soliciting his ardent suit This book-case, with dark buoty almost burst, In private audience : all the livelong night, This forager on others' wisdom, leaves Rigid in thought, and motionless, he stands; Her native farm, her reason, quite untillid. Nor quits his theme, or posture, till the Sun With mixt manure she surfeits the rank soil, (Rude drunkard rising rosy from the main !) Dung'd, but not dressid ; and rich to beggary. Disturbs his nobler intellectual beam, A pomp untamable of weeds prevails. And gives him to the tumult of the world. Her servant's wealth, encumber'd wisdom mourns. Hail, precious moments! stol'n from the black waste And what says genius ? - Let the dul be wise." Of murder'd time! Auspicious midnight! hail ! Genius, too hard for right, can prove it wrong; The world excluded, every passion husht, And loves to boast, where blush men less inspir'd. And open'd a calm intercourse with Heaven, It pleads exemption from the laws of sense ; Here the soul siis in council; ponders past, Considers reason as a leveller; Predestines future action ; sees, not feels, And scorns to share a blessing with the crowd. Tumultuous life, and reasons with the storm : That wise it could be, thinks an ample claim All her lies answers, and thinks down her charms. To glory, and to pleasure gives the rest. What awful joy! what mental liberty ! Crassus but sleeps, Ardelio is undone. I am not pent in darkness ; rather say, Wisdom less shudders at a fool, than wit. (If not too bold,) in darkness I'm embower'd. But wisdom smiles, when humbled mortals weep. Delightful gloom! the clustering thoughts around When sorrow wounds the breast, as plows the Spontaneous rise, and blossom in the shade ; glebe, But droop by day, and sicken in the sun. And hearts obdurate feel her softening shower; Thought borrows light elsewhere; from that first fire, Her seed celestial, then, glad wisdom sows; Fountain of animation! whence descends Her golden harvest triumphs in the soil. Urania, my celestial guest! who deigns If so, Narcissa! welcome my Relapse ; Nightly to visit me, so mean; and now, I'll raise a tax on my calamity, Conscious how needful discipline to man, And reap rich compensation from my pain. From pleasing dalliance with the charms of night I'll range the plenteous intellectual field; My wandering thought recalls, to what excites And gather every thought of sovereign power Far other beat of heart! Narcissa's tomb! To chase the moral maladies of man ; Or is it feeble Nature calls me back, Thoughts, which may bear transplanting to the skies, And breaks my spirit into grief again? Though natives of this coarse penurious soil: Is it a Stygian vapor in my blood ? Nor wholly wither there, where seraphs sing, A cold, slow puddle, creeping through my veins ? Refin'd, exalted, not annull’d, in Heaven. Or is it thus with all men !—Thus with all. Reason, the sun that gives them birth, the same What are we? How unequal! Now we soar, In either clime, though more illustrious there. And now we sink: to be the same, transcends These choicely cull'd, and elegantly rang’d, Our present prowess. Dearly pays the soul Shall form a garland for Narcissa's tomb; For lodging ill; too dearly rents her clay. And, peradventure, of no fading flowers. Reason, a baffled counsellor! but adds Say on what themes shall puzzled choice descond) a |
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