Down to the gloom of Tartarus profound,
There too I find thee, in the lowest bounds
Of Erebus, and read thee in the scenes
Of complicated wrath: I see thee clad
In all the majesty of darkness there.

If, on the ruddy morning's purple wings
Upborne, with indefatigable course
I seek the glowing borders of the east,
Where the bright sun, emerging from the deeps,
With his first glories gilds the sparkling seas,
And trembles o'er the waves; ev'n there thy hand§
Shall thro' the watery desert guide my course,
And o'er the broken surges pave my way,
While on the dreadful whirls I hang secure,
And mock the warring ocean. If, with hopes
As fond as false, the darkness I expect
To hide, and wrap me in its mantling shade,
Vain were the thought; for thy unbounded ken
Darts thro' the thick'ning gloom, and pries thro'
The palpable obscure. Before thy eyes
The vanquish'dnight throws off herduskyshrowd,
And kindles into day: the shade and light
To man still various, but the same to thee.
On thee is all the structure of my frame
Dependant. Lock'd within the silent womb
Sleeping I lay, and rip'ning to my birth; [there;
Yet, Lord, thy outstretch'd arm preserv'd ine
Before I mov'd to entity, and trod

The verge of being. To thy hallow'd name
I'll pay
due honors; for thy mighty hand
Built this corporeal fabric, when it laid
The ground-work of existence. Hence I read
The wonders of thy art. This frame I view
With terror and delight; and, wrapt in both,
I startle at myself. My bones, unform'd
As yet, nor hardening from the viscous parts,
But blended with th' unanimated mass,
Thy eye distinctly view'd; and, while I lay
Within the earth, imperfect, nor perceiv'd
The first faint dawn of life, with ease survey'd
The vital glimmerings of the active seeds,
Just kindling to existence, and beheld
My substance scarce material. In thy book
Was the fair model of this structure drawn,
Where every part, in just connection join'd,
Compos'd and perfected th' harmonious piece,
Ere the dim speck of being learn'd to stretch
Its ductile form, or entity had known
To range and wanton in an ampler space.
How dear, how rooted in my inmost soul,
"Are all thy counsels, and the various ways
Of thy eternal providence! the sum
So boundless and immense, it leaves behind
The low account of numbers; and outflies
All that imagination e'er conceiv'd: [shores,
Less numerous are the sands that crowd the
The barriers of the ocean. When I rise
Froin my soft bed, and softer joys of sleep,
I rise to thee. Yet lo! the impious flight
Thy mighty wonders. Shall thie sons of vice
Elude the vengeance of thy wrathful hand,
And mock thy ling'ring thunder which withhok!
Its forky terrors from their guilty heads?
Thou great tremendous Gop!-- Avaunt, and

[fly

All ye who thirst forblood!--for swolnwithpride,
Each haughtywretchblasphemes thysacredname,
And bellows his approaches to affront

Thy glorious Majesty. Thy foes I hate
Worse than my own. O Lord! explore my soul!
See if a flaw or stain of sin infects

My guilty thoughts; then, lead me in the way
That guides my feet to thy own heaven and thice.

27. An Hymn to the Supreme Being. An Imitation of the 104th Psalm. Blacklock.

Quid prius dicam solitus parentis
Laudibus qui res hominum ac deorum,
Qui mare & terras, varitsque mundum
Temperat horis ?

Hor.

ARISE, my soul! on wings seraphic rise! And praise th' almighty Sov'reign of the skies; [all In whom alone essential glory shines, Which not the heav'n of heavn's, nor boundless space confines.

When darkness rul'd with universal sway,
He spoke, and kindled up the blaze of day
First, fairest offspring of th' omnific word!
Which like a garment cloth'd its sov'rign Lord.
On liquid air he bade the columns rise,
That prop the starry concave of the skies;
Diffus'd the blue expanse from pole to pole,
And spread circumfluent æther round the whole.
Soon as he bids impetuous tempests fly,
To wing his sounding chariot thro' the sky,
Impetuous tempests the command obey,
Sustain his flight, and sweep th' aërial way.
Fraught with his mandates, from the realms on
Unnumber'd hosts of radiant heralds fly [high,
From orb to orb, with progress unconfind,
As lightning swift, resistless as the wind.

In ambient air this pond'rous ball he hung,
And bade its centre rest for ever strong;
Heav'n, air, and sea, with all their storms in vain
Assault the basis of the firm machine.
At thy Almighty voice old Ocean raves,
Wakes all his force, and gathers-all his waves;
Nature lies mantled in a wat'ry robe,
And shoreless billows revel round the globe;
O'er highest hills the higher surges rise,
Mix with the clouds, and meet the fluid skies.
But when in thunder the rebuke was giv'n,
That shook th' eternal firmament of heav'n;
The grand rebuke th' affrighted waves obey,
And in confusion scour their uncouth way;
And posting rapid to the place decreed,
Winddown thehills,andsweep thehumble maad.
Reluctant in their bounds the waves subside;
The bounds, impervious to the lashing tide,
Restrain its rage; whilst, with incessant roar,
It shakes the caverns, and assaults the shore..

By him, from mountains cloth'd in lucid snow,
Through fertile vales the mazy rivers flow.

Here the wild horse, unconscious of the rein,
That revels boundless o'er the wide campaign,
Imbibes the silver surge, with heat opprest,
To cool the fever of his glowing breast.

Here

And ye, whose bolder note is heard afar,
Who shake th'astonish'd world, lift high toheav'n
Th'impetuous song, and say from whom you rage
His praise, ye brooks, attune, ye trembling rills;
And let me catch it as I muse along.
Ye headlong torrents, rapid and profound:
Ye softer floods that lead the humid maze
Along the vale; and thou majestic main,
A secret world of wonders in thyself,
Sound his stupendous praise, whose greater voice
Or bids you roar, or bids your roaring fall.
So roll your incense, herbs,and fruits and flowers,
In mingled clouds to Him, whose sun exalts,
Whose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil
paints.

When even at last the solemn hour shall come,
And wing my mystic flight to future worlds,
I cheerful will obey; there, with new powers,
Will rising wonders sing: I cannot go
Where universal love not smiles around,
Sustaining all yon orbs, and all their suns :
From seeming evil still adducing good,
And better thence again, and better still,
In infinite progression. But I lose
Myself in Him, in light ineffable!
Come then, expressive silence, muse his praise.

Ye forests bend, ye harvests wave to Him;
Breathe your still song into the reaper's heart,
As home he goes beneath the joyous moon.
Ye that keep watch in heav'n, as earth asleep
Unconscious lies, effuse your mildest beams,
Ye constellations, while your angels strike,
Amid the spangled sky, the silver lyre.
Great source of day! blest image here below
Of thy Creator, ever pouring wide,
From world to world, the vital ocean round,
On nature write with every beam his praise.
The thunder rolls be hush'd the prostrate world;
While cloud to cloud returns the solemn hymn.
Bleat out afresh, ye hills; ye mossy rocks,
Retain the sound: the broad responsive low,
Ye valleys, raise; for the Great Shepherd reigns;
And his unsuffering kingdom yet will come.
Ye woodlands, all awake: a boundless song
Burst from the groves! and when the restless day,
Expiring, lays the warbling world asleep,
Sweetest of birds! sweet Philomela, charm

The listening shades,andteach the nighthis praise.
Ye chief for whom the whole creation smiles;
At once the head, the heart, the tongue of all,
Crown the great hymn! In swarming cities vast,
Assembled men to the deep organ join
The long resounding voice, oft breaking clear,
At solemn pauses, thro' the swelling base;
And as each mingling flame increases each,
In one united ardor rise to heav'n.
Or if you rather choose the rural shade,
And find a fane in every sacred grove :
There let the shepherd's flute the virgin's lay,
The prompting seraph, and the poets lyre,
Still sing the God of Seasons as they roll.
For me, when I forget the darling theme,
Whether the blossom blows; the Summer ray
Russets the plain; inspiring Autumnn gleams;
Or Winter rises in the blackening east:
Be my tongue mute, my fancy paint no more,
And, dead to joy, forget my heart to beat.

Should fate command me to the farthest verge
Of the green earth, to distant barbarous climes,
Rivers unknown to song; where first the sun
Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beam
Flames on th' Atlantic isles, 'tis nought to me:
Since God is ever present, ever felt,
In the void waste as in the city full;

§ 31. Hymn to Humanity. Langhorne.

1

PARENT of virtue, if thine ear

Attend not now to sorrow's cry;
If now the pity-streaming tear

Should haply on thy cheek be dry;
Indulge my votive strain, O sweet humanity!

2.

Come, ever welcome to my
breast!
A tender, but a cheerful guest.
Nor always in the gloomy cell
Of life-consuming sorrow dwell;
For sorrow, long-indulg'd and slow,
Is to Humanity a foe;
And grief, that makes the heart its prey,
Wears Sensibility away,

Then comes, sweet nymph, instead of thee,
The gloomy fiend, Stupidity.

3.

O may that fiend be banished far,
Though passions hold eternal war!
Nor ever let me cease to know
The pulse that throbs at joy or woe.
Nor let my vacant cheek be dry,

When sorrow fills a brother's eye;
Nor may the tear that frequent flows
E'er make this pleasing sense depart,
From private or from social woes,
Ye Cares, O harden not my heart!

4.

If the fair star of fortune smile,
Let not its flattering power beguile;
Nor, borne along the fav'ring tide,
My full sails swell with bloating pride.
Let me from wealth but hope content,
Remembering still it was but lent;
To modest merit spread my store,
Unbar my hospitable door;
Nor feed, for pomp, an idle train,
While want unpitied pines in vain.

5.

If Heaven, in every purpose wise,
The envied lot of wealth denies;
If doom'd to drag life's painful load
Through poverty's uneven road,
And, for the due bread of the day,
Destin'd to toil as well as pray;
To thee, Humanity, still true,
I'll wish the good I cannot do;
And give the wretch, that passes by;

And where He vital spreads, there must be joy. A soothing word —a teaṛ—a sigh.

6. How

Beyond its sphere shall human wisdom go,
And boldly censure what it cannot know?
"Tis ours to cherish what Heav'n deign'd to give,
And thankful for the gift of being live.
and faculties that rise
Progressive powers,
From earth's low vale, to grasp the golden skies,
Though distant far from perfect, good, or fair,
Claim the due thought, and ask the grateful

care.

Life, fill'd with grief's distressful train,
For ever asks the tear humane.
Pehold in yon unconscious grove
The victims of ill-fated love!
Heard you that agonizing throe?
Sure this is not romantic woe!
The golden day of joy is o'er;
And now they part-
-to meet no more.
Assist them, hearts from anguish free!
Assist them, sweet Humanity!

10.

Come, then, thou partner of my life and name, Froin one dear source, whom Nature form'd the

same,

heart!

Ally'd more nearly in cach nobler part,
my
And more the friend, than brother of
Let us, unlike the lucid twins that rise
At different times, and shine in distant skies,
With mutual eye
this mental world survey,
Mark the slow rise of intellectual day,
View reason's source, if man the source may find,
An trace each Science that exalts the mind.

"Thou self-appointed lord of all below!
Ambitious man, how little dost thou know?
For once let Fancy's towering thoughts subside,
Look on thy birth, and mortify thy pride!
A plaintive wretch, so blind, so helpless born,
The brute sagacious might behold with scorn.
How soon, when Nature gives him to the day,
In strength exulting, does he bound away;
By instinct led, the fostering teat he finds,
Sports in the ray, and shuns the searching winds.
No grief he knows, he feels no groundless fear,
Feeds without cries, and sleeps without a tear.
Did he but know to reason and compare,
See here the vassal, and the master there,
What strange reflections must the scene afford,
That shew'd the weakness of his puling Lord!"

Thus sophistry unfolds her specious plan,
Forin'd not to humble, but depreciate man.
Unjust the censure, if unjust to rate
His pow'rs and merits from his infant-state.
For, grant the children of the flow'ry vale
By instinct wiser, and of limbs more hale,
With equal eye their perfect state explore,
And all the vain comparison 's no more.

་་

But why should life, so short by Heav'n ordain'd,

Parent of virtue, if thine ear

Attend not now to Sorrow's cry; If now the pity-streaming tear

Should haply on thy cheek be dry, Indulge my votive strain, O sweet Humanity!

§ 33. EPISTLE II.

To William Langhorne, M. A. 1760.
LIGHT heard his voice, and, eager to obey,
From all her orient fountains burst away.

At Nature's birth, O! had the power divine
Commanded thus the moral sun to shine,
Beam'd on the mind all reason's influence bright,
And the full day of intellectual light,
Then the free soul on Truth's strong pinion borne,
Had never languish'd in this shade forlorn.

Yet thus imperfect form'd, thus blind and vain,
Doom'd by long toil a glimpse of truth to gain;

Be long to thoughtless infancy restrain'd—
To thoughtless infancy, or vainly sage,
Mourn through the languors of declining age?"

O blind to truth! to Nature's wisdom blind!,
And all that she directs, or Heav'n design'd!
Behold her works in cities, plains and groves,
Or life that vegetates, and life that moves!
In due proportion, as each being stays
In perfect life, it rises and decays

Is man long helpless? Through each tender
hour,

See love parental watch the blooming flow'r!
By op'ning charms, by beauties fresh display'd,
And sweets unfolding, see that love repaid!
Has age its pains? For luxury it may
The temp rate wear insensibly away,
While sage experience and reflection clear
Beam a gay sunshine on life's fading year.

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