Tell it some untaught savage! with surprise He asks, "How vast must be that giant's size! "How great his pow'r, who thousands can f Blest when we reach it, wretched while we miss, Our joys, our sorrows prove, there must be bliss. "How great his force, who millions can de-Nor can this be some visionary dream, employ! stroy!" But if the savage would, more curious, know Let him explain the colic, gout, and stone? cess; Who, urg'd by nature's voice, her gifts enjoys, Nor other means, than nature's force, employs. While warm with youth the sprightly current flows, Each vivid sense with vig'rous rapture glows; And when he droops beneath the hand of age, No vicious habit stings with fruitless rage; Gradual, his strength, and gay sensations cease, While joys tumultuous sink in silent peace. Far other is his lot, who, not content Add, blend, compose, each various mixture, try, It gives us pow'rs proportion'd to that end; Το every mind, and glows in every breast. Compar'd with this, all mortal joys are vain; Inspir'd by this, we restless onward strain. High though we mount, the object mounts more high, Eludes our grasp, and mingles with the sky. With nothing less th' aspiring soul's content, For nothing less her gen'rous flame was meant Th' unerring rule which all our steps should guide, The certain test, by which true good is try'd. 1 ; Where heated fancy forms the flatt'ring scheme. Could accident produce in all the same, That only can produce consummate joy, For what is all this waste of mental force? Who fills each faculty, each pow'r can move, Whose attributes immense all bounds disdain. Long may such bliss, by such enjoy'd, attest, "Fair virtue ever is unwisely sold." For rais'd o'er these, she makes our bliss secure, § 155. Sonnets. EDWARDY. Young Wretched the man who toils ambition's slave ; Who pines for wealth, or sighs for empty fame; Who rolls in pleasures which the mind deprave, Bought with severe remorse, and guilty shame. Virtue and knowledge be our better aim; These help us Ill to bear, or teach to shun; Let Friendship cheer us with her gen'rous flame, Friendship, the sum of all our joys in one: So shall we live each moment fate has giv'n; How long, or short, let us resign to heav'n. § 157. Immortality, or the Consolation of Human Life. A Monody. I. T. DENTON, A. M. WHEN black-brow'd Night her dusky mantle spread, And wrapt in solemn gloom the sable sky; When soothing Sleep her opiate dews had shed, And seal'd in silken slumbers every eye: My wakefal thoughts admit no balmy rest, Nor the sweet bliss of soft oblivion share; But watchful woe distracts my aching breast, My heart the subject of correding care: From haunts of men with wand'ring steps and slow I solitary steal, and sooth my pensive woe. II. Yet no fell passion's rough discordant rage No harbour there could sordid av'rice find: And social tears fast trickle down my cheek; Vid. Virg. Æn. lib. iii. ver. 210, et seq. Ye And search creation's ample circuit round, Though modes of being change, all life's immortal found. XVII. See the slow reptile grov'ling o'er the green, That trails through slimy paths its cumbrous load, Start in new beauty from the lowly scene, And wing with flutt'ring pride th' etherial road; Burst their shell-prisons, see the feather'd kind, Where in dark durance pent awhile they lie, Dispread their painted plumage to the wind, Brush the brisk air, swift shooting through the sky, Hail with their coral hymns the new-born day, Distend their joy-swoln breast, and carol the sweet lay. A rainbow formed by the rays of the moon at night; an object often visible, though from its fanguid color, not often observed, Oft Oft hast thou dropt unhurt thy mortal part, XXV. Dare the grim terror then, nor dread his guilt- When just expiring hangs life's trembling less dart. light, And fell disease strikes deep the deadly dart, Reason and mem'ry burn with ardor bright, And gen'rous passions warm the throbbing heart; Oft will the vig'rous soul in life's last stage With keenest relish taste pure mental joys; Since the fierce efforts of distemper'd rage Nor 'bates her vigor, nor her pow'rs de |