Offspring of God, no lefs thy pedigree,
What thou once wert, art now, and still may
Thy God alone can tell, alone decree;
Faultless thou drop'dst from his unerring fkill,
With the bare power to fin, fince free of will:
Yet charge not with thy guilt his bounteous love,
For who has power to walk, has power to rove:
Who acts by force impell'd, can nought deferve;
And wisdom short of infinite may fwerve.
Borne on thy new-imp'd wings, thou took'ft thy flight,
Left thy Creator, and the realms of light;
Difdain'd his gentle precept to fulfil;
And thought to grow a god by doing ill:
Though by foul guilt thy heavenly form defac'd,'
In nature chang'd, from happy mansions chas'd,
Thou still retain'ft fome fparks of heav'nly fire,
Too faint to mount, yet reftlefs to afpire;
Angel enough to feek thy blifs again,
And brute enough to make thy fearch in vain.
The creatures now withdraw their kindly use,
Some fly thee, fome torment, and fome feduce;
Repast ill fuited to fuch diff'rent guests,
For what thy fenfe defires, thy foul diftaftes;
Thy luft, thy curiofity, thy pride,
Curb'd, or deferr'd, or balk'd, or gratify'd,
Rage on, and make thee equally unbless'd,
In what thou want'ft, and what thou haft poffefs'd.
In vain thou hop'ft for bliss on this poor clod,
Return, and feek thy Father, and thy God:
Yet think not to regain thy native sky,
Borne on the wings of vain philofophy;
Mysterious paffage! hid from human eyes;
Sooring you'll fink, and finking you will rife:
Let humble thoughts thy wary footsteps guide,
Repair by meekness what you loft by pride.
Tam patiens urbis, tam ferreus ut teneat fe? Juv.
HOUGH grief and fondness in
When injur'd THALES bids the town farewel,
Yet ftill my calmer thoughts his choice commend,
I praise the hermit, but regret the friend;
Laudo, tamen, vacuis quod fedem figere Cumis
Deftinet, atque unum civem donare Sibyllæ.
Who now refolves, from vice and LONDON far,
To breathe in diftant fields a purer air,
And, fix'd on Cambria's folitary fhore,
Give to St. David one true Briton more.
For who would leave, unbrib'd, Hibernia's land, Or change the rocks of Scotland for the Strand? There none are swept by fudden fate away, But all whom hunger fpares, with age decay; Here malice, rapine, accident, conspire, And now a rabble rages, now a fire; Their ambush here relentless ruffians lay, And here the fell attorney prowls for prey; Here falling houses thunder on your head, And here a female atheist talks you dead.
While THALES waits the wherry that contains
Of diffipated wealth the small remains,
On Thames's bank in filent thought we stood,
Where Greenwich smiles upon the filver flood.
- Ego vel Prochytam præpono Suburræ.
Nam quid tam miferum, tam folum vidimus, ut non
Deterius credas horrere incendia, lapfus
Tectorum affiduos, et mille pericula fævæ
Urbis, & Augufto recitantes menfe poetas ?
Sed, dum tota domus rhedâ componitur unâ,
Subftitit ad veteres arcus.-
Struck with the feat that gave * Eliza birth,
We kneel, and kifs the confecrated earth;
In pleafing dreams the blissful age renew,
And call Britannia's glories back to view;
Behold her cross triumphant on the main,
The guard of commerce, and the dread of Spain.
Ere masquerades debauch'd, excife opprefs'd,
Or English honour grew a standing jest.
A tranfient calm the happy fcenes bestow,
And for a moment lull the sense of woe.
At length awaking with contemptuous frown,
Indignant THALES eyes the neighb'ring town.
d Since worth, he cries, in these degen'rate days
Wants ev❜n the cheap reward of empty praise;
In thofe curs'd walls, devote to vice and gain,
Since unrewarded fcience toils in vain;
Since hope but fooths to double my distress,
And every moment leaves my little less;
d Hic tunc Umbricius: Quando artibus, inquit, honeftis
Nullus in urbe locus, nulla emolumenta laborum,
Res hodie minor eft, heri quam fuit, atque eadem cras
Deteret exiguis aliquid proponimus illuc
Ire, fatigatas ubi Dedalus exuit alas;
Queen Elizabeth born at Greenwich.
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