On heedlefs vanity's fantastic toe,

Till, ftumbling at a straw, in their career,

625

Headlong they plunge, where end both dance and fong? Are there, Lorenzo? Is it poffible?

Are there on earth (let me not call them men)

Who lodge a foul immortal in their breasts;
Unconscious as the mountain of its ore;
Or rock, of its inestimable gem

630

635

When rocks fhall melt, and mountains vanish, these
Shall know their treasure; treasure, then, no more.
Are there (till more amazing!) who refift
The rifing thought? who smother, in its birth,
The glorious truth? who struggle to be brutes?
Who through this bofom-barrier burft their way,
And, with revers'd ambition, strive to fink?

Who labour downwards through th' opposing powers
Of inftinct, reafon, and the world against thein, 640
To difmal hopes, and fhelter in the shock

Of endless night; night darker than the grave's?
Who fight the proofs of immortality?

With horrid zeal, and execrable arts,

Work all their engines, level their black fires,
To blot from man this attribute divine,
(Than vital blood far dearer to the wife)
Blafphemers, and rank atheists to themselves?

To contradict them, fee all nature rife!
What object, what event, the moon beneath,
But argues, or endears, an after-scene?
To reafon proves, or weds it to defire?
All things proclaim it needful; fome advance

L 4

645

650

One

655

One precious step beyond, and prove it sure.
A thousand arguments fwarm round my pen,
From heaven, and earth, and man. Indulge a few
By nature, as her common habit, worn;
So preffing Providence a truth to teach,

Which truth untaught, all other truths were vain.
Thou! whofe all-providential Eye furveys,
Whofe Hand directs, whofe Spirit fills and warms
Creation, and holds empire far beyond!

Eternity's Inhabitant auguft!

Of two Eternities amazing Lord!

One paft, ere man's or angel's had begun;
Aid! while I rescue from the foe's affault
Thy glorious Immortality in man:

660

665

A theme for ever, and for all, of weight,

Of moment infinite! but relifh'd moft

By thofe who love Thee molt, who most adore..
Nature, thy daughter, ever-changing birth

670

Of Thee the Great Immutable, to man
Speaks wifdom; is his oracle fupreme;
And he who moft confults her, is moft wife.
Lorenzo, to this heavenly Delphos hafte;.
And come back all-immortal; all-divine:
Look nature through, 'tis revolution all;

675

All change; no death. Day follows night; and night
The dying day; fars rife, and fet, and rife;

Earth takes th' example. See, the Summer gay, 680
With her green chaplet, and ambrofial flowers,
Droops into pallid Autumn: Winter grey,
Horrid with frost, and turbulent with ftorm,

Blows.

Blows Autumn, and his golden fruits, away:

Then melts into the Spring: Soft Spring, with

685

breath

Favonian, from warm chambers of the fouth,
Recalls the first. All, to re-flourish, fades;
As in a wheel, all finks, to re-ascend.
Emblems of man, who paffes, not expires.

With this minute diftinction, emblems just,

690

Nature revolves, but man advances; both

Eternal, that a circle, this a line.

That gravitates, this foars. Th' afpiring foul,
Ardent, and tremulous, like flame, afcends,

Zeal and humility her wings, to heaven.

695

The world of matter, with its various forms,
All dies into new life. Life born from death
Rolls the vast mafs, and fhall for ever roll.
No fingle atom, once in being, loft,

With change of counsel charges the Moft High. 700.
What hence infers Lorenzo? Can it be.?

Matter immortal? And fhall Spirit die?'
Above the nobler, fhall lefs noble rife?
Shall Man alone, for whom all elfe revives,
No refurrection know? Shall Man alone,
Imperial Man! be fown in barren ground,
Lefs privileg'd than grain, on which he feeds?
Is Man, in whom alone is power to prize
The blifs of being, or with previous pain
Deplore its period, by the spleen of fate,
Severely doom'd death's fingle unredeem'd?

7°5

710

I£

If nature's revolution speaks aloud,
In her gradation, hear her louder still.
Look nature through, 'tis neat gradation all.
By what minute degrees her scale ascends !
Each middle nature join'd at each extreme,
To that above it join'd, to that beneath.
Parts, into parts reciprocally fhot,
Abhor divorce: what love of union reigns!
Here, dormant matter waits a call to life;

715

720

Half-life, half-death, join there; here, life and fente;

There, fenfe from reafon steals a glimmering ray;

Reafon fhines out in man. But how preferv'd

The chain unbroken upward, to the realms

Of incorporeal life? thofe realms of blifs,

725

Where death hath no dominion? Grant a make

Half-mortal, half-immortal; earthy, part,

And part ethereal; grant the foul of man

Eternal; or in man the feries ends,

Wide yawns the gap; connexion is no more;

730

Check'd reafon halts; her next step wants support;

Striving to climb, she tumbles from her scheme;
A fcheme, analogy pronounc'd so true;

Analogy, man's fureft guide below.

Thus far, all nature calls on thy belief. And will Lorenzo, careless of the call,

735

Falfe atteftation on all nature charge,

Rather than violate his league with death?

Renounce his reafon, rather than renounce

The duft belov'd, and run the risque of heaven?
O what indignity to deathlefs fouls!

740

What

What treafon to the majesty of man!
Of man immortal! Hear the lofty style:
"If fo decreed, th' Almighty Will be done.

"Let earth diffolve, yon pondrous orbs descend, 745 "And grind us into duft. The foul is fafe; "The man emerges; mounts above the wreck, "As towering flame from nature's funeral pyre; "O'er devaftation, as a gainer, fmiles; "His charter, his inviolable rights,

750

"Well pleas'd to learn from thunder's impotence, "Death's pointless darts, and hell's defeated storms.” But thefe chimeras touch not thee, Lorenzo! The glories of the world thy sevenfold shield. Other ambition than of crowns in air,

And fuperlunary felicities,

Thy bofom warm. I'll cool it, if I can;

And turn thofe glories that inchant, against thee.
What ties thee to this life, proclaims the next.

If wife, the cause that wounds thee is thy cure.

755

760

(To mount, Lorenzo never can refuse);

And from the clouds, where pride delights to dwell, Look down on earth.-What feeft thou? Wondrous

things!

Terreftrial wonders, that eclipfe the skies.

What lengths of labour'd lands! what loaded feas!
Loaded by man, for pleasure, wealth, or war!
Seas, winds, and planets, into fervice brought,
His art acknowledge, and promote his ends.
Nor can th' eternal rocks his will withstand;

765

770 What