We enter'd, where, in well-rang'd order, stood Th' inftructive volumes of the wife and good. Thefe friends (faid he) though I defert mankind, Good angels never would permit behind. Each genius, youth conceals, or time displays, I know; each work fome feraph here conveys, Retirement thus prefents my fearchful thought, What heaven inspir'd, and what the Muse has taught; What Young fatiric and fublime has writ,
Whofe life is virtue, and whose Muse is wit.
Rapt I foresee thy Mallet's early aim
Shine in full worth, and shoot at length to fame.
Sweet fancy's bloom in Fenton's lay appears,
And the ripe judgment of inftructive years.
In Hill is all that generous fouls revere,
To Virtue and the Mufe for ever dear :
And Thomfon, in this praise, thy merit fee,
The tongue, that praises merit, praises thee.
Thefe fcorn (faid I) the verfe-wright of their age, 335
Vain of a labour'd, languid, useless page;
To whofe dim faculty the meaning song
Is glaring, or obfcure, when clear, and strong;
Who, in cant phrases, gives a work disgrace;
His wit, and oddness of his tone and face;
Let the weak malice, nurs'd to an essay,
In fome low libel a mean heart display;
Thofe, who once prais'd, now undeceiv'd, despise,
It lives contemn'd a day, then harmless dies.
* He had then juft written THE EXCURSION.
Or fhould fome nobler bard, their worth, unpraise, 345 Deferting morals, that adorn his lays,
Alas! too oft each fcience fhews the fame,
The great grow jealous of a greater name :
Ye bards, the frailty mourn, yet brave the shock;
Has not a Stillingfleet oppos'd a Locke?
Oh, ftill proceed, with facred rapture fir'd!
Unenvy'd had he liv'd, if unadmir'd.
Let Envy, he replied, all ireful rife,
Envy pursues alone the brave and wife;
Maro and Socrates infpire her pain,
And Pope, the monarch of the tuneful train !
To whom be Nature's, and Britannia's praise !
All their bright honours rush into his lays!
And all that glorious warmth his lays reveal,
Which only poets, kings, and patriots feel!
Though gay as mirth, as curious thought sedate,
As elegance polite, as power elate;
Profound as reason, and as justice clear;
Soft as compaffion, yet as truth fevere;
As bounty copious, as perfuafion fweet,
Like nature various, and like art complete ;
So fine her morals, fo fublime her views,
His life is almoft equal'd by his Muse.
O Pope-Since Envy is decreed by fate,
Since the purfues alone the wife and great;
In one fmall, emblematic landscape see,
How vat a distance 'twixt thy foe and thee!
Truth from an eminence furveys our scene
(A hill, where all is clear, and all ferene).
Rude earth-bred ftorms o'er meaner valleys blow, 375
And wandering mists roll, blackening, far below;
Dark, and debas'd, like them, is Envy's aim,
And clear, and eminent, like Truth, thy fame.
Thus I. From what dire caufe can envy spring?
Or why embofom we a viper's fting?
'Tis Envy ftings our darling paffion, pride.
Alas! (the man of mighty foul replied)
Why chufe we miferies? Moft derive their birth
From one bad fource—we dread superior worth ;
Prefer'd, it feems a fatire on our own;
Then heedlefs to excel we meanly moan:
Then we abstract our views, and Envy fhow,
Whence fprings the mifery, pride is doom'd to know.
Thus folly pain creates : By wisdom's power,
We fhun the weight of many a restless hour 390
Lo! I meet wrong; perhaps the wrong I feel
Tends, by the fcheme of things, to public weal.
I, of the whole, am part-the joy men fee,
Muft circulate, and fo revolve to me.
Why fhould I then of private lofs complain ?
Of lofs, that proves, perchance, a brother's gain?
The wind, that binds one bark within the bay,
May waft a richer freight its wifh'd-for way.
If rains redundant flood the abject ground,
Mountains are but supplied, when vales are drown'd; 400
If, with foft moisture fwell'd, the vale looks gay,
The verdure of the mountain fades away.
Shall clouds but at my welfare's call defcend?
Shall gravity for me her laws fufpend?
For me fhall funs their noon-tide course forbear? 405
Or motion not fubfift to influence air?
Let the means vary, be they frost, or flame,
Thy end, O Nature! ftill remains the fame!
Be this the motive of a wife man's care,-
To fhun deserving ills, and learn to bear.
HILE thus a mind humane, and wife, he shows,
All eloquent of truth his language flows.
Youth, though deprefs'd, through all his form appears;
Through all his fentiments the depth of years.
Thus he-Yet farther Industry behold,
Which confcious waits new wonders to unfold.
Enter my chapel next-Lo! here begin
The hallow'd rites, that check the growth of fin.
When first we met, how foon you feem'd to know
My bofom, labouring with the throbs of woe!
Such racking throbs!-Soft! when I rouse those cares,
On my chill'd mind pale Recollection glares!
When moping Frenzy ftrove my thoughts to sway,
Here prudent labours chac'd her power away.
Full, and rough-rifing from yon fculptur'd wall, 15
Bold prophets nations to repentance call!;
Meek martyrs fmile in flames! gor'd champions groan!
And muse-like cherubs tune their harps in stone!
Next fhadow'd light a rounding force bestows,
Swells into life, and speaking action grows!
Here pleafing, melancholy fubjects find,
To calm, amufe, exalt the penfive mind!
This figure tender grief, like mine, implies,
And femblant thoughts, that earthly ponip defpife.
Such penitential Magdalene reveals;
Loose-veil'd, in negligence of charms she kneels.
Though drefs, near-ftor'd, its vanity fupplies,
The vanity of drefs unheeded lies.
The finful world in forrowing eye she keeps,
As o'er Jerufalem Meffiah weeps.
One hand her bofom fmites; in one appears
The lifted lawn, that drinks her falling tears.
Since evil outweighs good, and fways mankind, True fortitude affumes the patient mind:
Such prov'd Meffiah's, though to fuffering born, 35
To penury, repulfe, reproach, and scorn.
Here, by the pencil, mark his flight design'd;
The weary'd virgin by a stream reclin'd,
Who feeds the child. Her looks a charm express,
A modest charm, that dignifies distress.
Boughs o'er their heads with blushing fruits depend,
Which angels to her bufied confort bend.
Hence by the fmiling infant seems discern'd,
Trifles, concerning Him, all heaven concern'd.
Here the transfigur'd Son from earth retires:
See! the white form in a bright cloud aspires!
Full on his followers burts a flood of rays,
Proftrate they fall beneath th' o'erwhelming blaze!
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