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So Truth proclaims: her awful voice I hear:

With many a folemn pause it Sowly meets my ear.

"Attend, ye Sons of Men; attend, and say, Does not enough of my refulgent ray

Break thro' the veil of your mortality ?

Say, does not reafon in this form defcry Unnumber'd, nameless giories, that furpass The Angel's floating pomp, the Seraph's glowing grace? Shall then your earth-born daughters vie With me? Shall fhe, whofe brightest eye

But emulates the diamond's blaze,

Whose cheeks but mock the peach's bloom,
Whose breath the hyacinths perfume,

Whofe melting voice the warbling woodlark's lays;
Shall the be deem'd my rival? Shall a form
Of elemental drofs, of mould'ring clay,

Vie with these charms einpyreal? The poor worm Shall prove her contest vain. Life's little day

Shall pass, and she is gone: while I appear Flush'd with the bloom of youth through Heaven's eternal year.

Know, mortals, know, ere first ye sprung,
Ere first thefe orbs in æther hung,

I fhone amid the heavenly throng;
Thefe eyes beheld Creation's day,
This voice began the choral lay,

And taught Archangels their triumphant fong.

Pleas'd I furvey'd bright nature's gradual birth,
Saw infant Light with kindling luftre fpread,
Soft vernal fragrance clothe the flow'ring earth,
And Ocean heave on its extended bed:

Saw the tall pine afpiring pierce the fky,
The tawny lion stalk, the rapid eagle fly.

Laft, Man arofe, erect in youthful grace,
Heav'n's hallow'a image ftamp'd upon his face,

And, as he rose, the high beheft was given,
"That I alone, of all the host of heav'n,

"Should reign protectress of the godlike Youth:" Thus the Almighty spake: he spake,and call'd me Truth.

I

CRUELTY TO BRUTES.

BY COWPER.

Would not enter on my lift of friends

(Though grac'd with polifh'd manners and fine fer fe

Yet wanting fenfibility) the man

Who needlessly fets foot upon a worm.

An inadvertant ftep may crufh the fnail
That crawls at evening in the public path;
But he that has humanity, forewarn'd,
Will tread afide, and let the reptile live.

The creeping vermin, loathfome to the fight,

And charged perhaps with venom, that intrudes

A vifitor unwelcome into fcenes

Sacred to neatness and repofe, th' alcove,

The chamber, or refectory, may die.
A neceffary act incurs no blame.

Not fo when held within their proper bounds
And guiltless of offence they range the air,
Or take their pastime in the spacious field;
There they are privileged. And he that hunts
Or harms them there, is guilty of a wrong,
Disturbs the œconomy of nature's realm,
Who when the form'd, defign'd them an abode.
The fum is this; if man's convenience health,
Or fafety interfere, his rights and claims
Are paramount, and must extinguish theirs.
Elfe they are all-the meaneft things that are,
As free to live and to enjoy that life,
As God was free to form them at the first,
Who, in his fov'reign wisdom, made them all.
Ye therefore who love mercy, teach your fons
To love it too. The fpring time of our years
Is foon difhonour'd and defiled in moft

By budding ills, that ask a prudent hand

To check them. But, alas! none fooner fhoots,
If unreftrain'd, into luxuriant growth,

Than cruelty, most devilish of them all.
Mercy to him that shows it is the rule

And righteous limitation of its act

By which Heav'n moves in pard'ning guilty man;
And he that shows none, being ripe in years,
And confcious of the outrage he commits,
Shall feek it, and not find it in his turn.

Diftinguifh'd much by reason, and still more
By our capacity of grace divine,

From creatures that exift but for our fake,
Which, having ferv'd us, perifh, we are held
Accountable; and God, some future day,
Will reckon with us roundly for th' abuse
Of what he deems no mean or trivial trust.
Superior as we are, they yet depend

No more on human help, than we on theirs.
Their ftrength, or speed, or vigilance, were giv'n
In aid of our defects. In fome are found
Such teachable and apprehenfive parts,

That man's attainments in his own concerns,
Match'd with th' expertnefs of the brutes in theirs,
Are oft-times vanquish'd and thrown far behind.
Some show that nice fagacity of smell,
And read with fuch difcernment, in the port
And figure of the man, his fecret aim,
That oft we owe our fafety to a skill

We could not teach, and muft despair to learn.
But learn we might, if not too proud to stoop
To quadrupede inftructors, many a good

And ufeful quality, and virtue too
D

Rarely exemplified among ourselves.
Attachment never to be wean'd or changed
By any change of fortune, proof alike
Against unkindness, abfence, and neglect ;
Fidelity, that neither bribe nor threat
Can move or warp, aud gratitude for fmall
And trivial favors, lafting as the life,
And glistening even in the dying eye.

PARADISE RESTORED.

BY THE SAME.

HE groans of nature in this nether world,

THE

Which Heav'n has heard for ages, have an end. Foretold by prophets, and by poets sung, Whofe fire was kindled at the prophets' lamp, The time of reft, the promised fabbath comes. Six thousand years of forrow have well nigh Fulfilled their tardy and difaftrous course Over a finful world. And what remains Of this tempeftuous state of human things, Is merely as the working of a fea Before a calm, that rocks itself to rest.

For he whofe car the winds are, and the clouds

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