Some happier island in the wat❜ry waste;
Where slaves once more their native land behold, No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold. 5. To be, contents his natural desire;
He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.
Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense,
Weigh thy opinion against Providence ;
Call imperfection what thou fanciest such;
Say here he gives too little, there too much.-
6. In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies;
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes;
Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel:
And who but wishes to invert the laws
Of ORDER, Sins against th' ETERNAL CAUSE.
SECTION X.
Selfishness reproved.
HAS God, thou fool! work'd solely for thy good,
Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food?
Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn,
For him as kindly spreads the flow'ry lawn.
Is it for thee the lark ascends and sings?
Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings.
Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat?
Loves of his own, and raptures swell the note.
2. The bounding steed you pompously bestride,
Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride.
Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain ?
The birds of heav'n shall vindicate their grain.
Thine the full harvest of the golden year?
Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer.
The hog, that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call,
Lives on the labours of this lord of all.
3. Know, nature's children all divide her care;
The fur that warms a monarch, warm'd a bear.
While man exclaims, “See all things for my use !”
"See man for mine!" replies a pamper'd goose.
And just as short of reason he must fall,
Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.
4. Grant that the pow'rful still the weak control:
Be man the wit and tyrant of the whole :
Nature that tyrant checks; he only knows,
And helps another creature's wants and woes.
Say will the falcon stooping from above,
Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove?
Admires the jay, the insect's gilded wings?
Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings?
5. Man cares for all: to birds he gives his woods,
To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods :
For some his int'rest prompts him to provide,
For more his pleasures, yet for more his pride.
All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy
Th' extensive blessing of his luxury.
6. That very life his learned hunger craves,
He saves from famine, from the savage saves;
Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feast:
And till he ends the being, makes it blest:
Which sees no more the stroke, nor feels the pain,
Than favour'd man by touch ethereal slain.
The creature had his feast of life before;
'Thou too must perish, when thy feast is o'er! РОРЬ.
SECTION XI
Human frailty.
1. WEAK and irresolute is man;
The purpose of to-day,
Woven with pains into his plan,
To-morrow rends away.
2. The bow well bent, and smart the spring,
Vice seems already slain;
But passion rudely snaps the string,
And it revives again.
2. Some foe to his upright intent
Finds out his weaker part;
Virtue engages his assent,
But pleasure wins his heart.
4. 'Tis here the folly of the wise,
Through all his art we view;
And while his tongue the charge denies
His conscience owns it true.
5. Bound on a voyage of awful length,
And dangers little known,
A stranger to superior strength,
Man vainly trusts his own.
6. But oars alone can ne'er prevail
To reach the distant coast;
The breath of heav'n must swell the sail,
Or all the toil is lost.
SECTION XII.
Ode to peace.
1. COME, peace of mind, delightful guest
Return, and make thy downy nest
Once more in this sad heart:
Nor riches I, nor pow'r pursue,
Nor hold forbidden joys in view;
We therefore need not part.
2. Where wilt thou dwell, if not with me,
From av'rice and ambition free,
And pleasure's fatal wiles;
For whom, alas! dost thou prepare
The sweets that I was wont to share,
The banquet of thy smiles?
S. The great, the gay, shall they partake
The heav'n that thou alone canst make;
And wilt thou quit the stream,
That murmurs through the dewy mead,
The grove and the sequester'd shade,
To be a guest with them?
4. For thee I panted, thee I priz'd,
For thee I gladly sacrific'd
Whate'er I lov'd before;
And shall I see thee start away,
And helpless, hopeless, hear thee say-
Farewell, we meet no more?
SECTION XIII.
Ode to adversity.
1. DAUGHTER of Heav'n, relentless pow'r,
Thou tamer of the human breast,
Whose iron scourge, and tort'ring hour,
The bad affright, afflict the best!
Bound in thy adamantine chain,
The proud are taught to taste of pain,
And purple tyrants vainly groan
With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone.
2. When first thy sire to send on earth
Virtue, his darling child, design'd,
To thee he gave the heav'nly birth,
And bade to form her infant mind.
Stern rugged nurse! thy rigid lore
With patience many a year she bore.
What sorrow was, thou bad'st her know;
And from her own she learn'd to melt at others' wo.
3. Scar'd at thy frown terrific, fly
Self-pleasing folly's idle brood,
Wild laughter, noise, and thoughtless joy,
And leave us leisure to be good.
Light they disperse; and with them go
The summer-friend, the flatt'ring foe.
By vain prosperity receiv'd,
To her they vow their truth, and are again believ'd.
4. Wisdom, in sable garb array'd,
Immers'd in rapt'rous thought profound,
And melancholy, silent maid,
With leaden eye that loves the ground,
Still on thy solemn steps attend;
Warm charity, the gen'ral friend,
With justice to herself severe,
And pity, dropping soft the sadly pleasing tear,
5. Oh gently on thy suppliant's head,
Dread pow'r, lay thy chast'ning hand!
Not in thy gorg or terrors clad,
Nor circled with the vengeful band,
(As by the impious thou art seen,)
With thund'ring voice, and threat'ning mien
With screaming horror's fun'ral cry,
Despair, and fell disease, and ghastly poverty.
6. Thy form benign, propitious, wear,
Thy milder influence impart ;
Thy philosophic train be there,
To soften, not to wound my heart.
The gen'rous spark extinct revive;
Teach me to love, and to forgive;
Exact my own defects to sean;
What others are to feel; and know myself a man. GRAY.
SECTION XIV.
The creation required to praise its Author.
1. BEGIN my soul, th' exalted lay!
Let each enraptur'd thought obey,
And praise th' Almighty's name :
Lo! heaven and earth, and seas and skies,
In one melodious concert rise,
To swell th' inspiring theme.
2. Ye fields of light, celestial plains,
Where gay transporting beauty reigns,
Ye scenes divinely fair!
Your Maker's wondrous pow'r proclaim,
Tell how he form'd your shining frame,
And breath'd the fluid air.
3. Ye angels, catch the thrilling sound!
While all the adoring thrones around
His boundless mercy sing:
Let every list'ning saint above
Wake all the tuneful soul of love,
And touch the sweetest string.
4. Join, ye loud spheres, the vocal choir;
Thou dazzling orb of liquid fire,
The mighty chorus aid:
Soon as gray evening gilds the plain,
Thou moon, protract the melting strain,
And praise him in the shade.
5. Thou heav'n of heav'ns, his vast abode ;
Ye clouds, proclaim your forming God,
Who call'd yon worlds from night:
"Ye shades dispel!"-th' Eternal said:
At once th' involving darkness fled,
And nature sprung to light.
6. Whate'er a blooming world contains, That wings the air, that skims the plains, United praise bestow :
Ye dragons, sound his awful name
To heav'n aloud; and roar acclaim,
Ye swelling deeps below.
7. Let ev'ry element rejoice;
Ye thunders burst with awful voice
TO HIM who bids you roll:
His praise in softer notes declare,
Each whispering breeze of yielding air,
And breathe it to the soul.
3. To him, ye graceful cedars bow;
Ye towering mountains, bending low,
Your great Creator own;
Tell, when affrighted nature shook,
How Sinai kindled at his look,
And trembled at his frown.
|