Still girt to execute commands,
Or embaffy to feet or hands,
Shall be disbanded from their coafts,
And hurry'd away from their attended post,
Or ftupid fink, unable to disclose
Occurring friends or foes;
When the rich palace with its tower on high
(The facred microcofin's court,
Where now ideas of all qualities refort,)
Shall fall, and in its fatal ruins lye ;
When the bright regent, fcar'd by this decay,
Shall take her forc'd relenting flight away,
From her old tenanted, inhospitable clay.
Then in what shape will death appear!
What alter'd apprehenfions will he bring?
Death! that has fo often walk'd fo near,
In grandeur of a proud remorseless king!
The hect'ring ghoft, at whose black triumphs gain'd
I have fo oft been entertain'd;;
Whose breathless trophies, fcatter'd all around,
Have so augmented, and enrich'd the ground?
Dread heaven's infatiate minifter, that still
Is eager, and impatient to fulfill
His bloody old commiffion, flay and kill!
That haft paft ages into darkness hurl'd,
And still difpeoples the fucceeding world ;
Death, the inceffant fting, and future bane
Of all the galled guilty and prophane!
The undisturb'd retreat, th' immortal ease
Of wash'd and undefiled confciences:
Sworn enemy to all that's brave and bright:
Sole ufher to the world of joys and light.
Death! the strange finite, uncreated thing,
The abfolute, the poor, precarious king;
The potent, metaphyfic fhade, which all
The learned will but mere privation call.
Great fov'reign! who exalts his fubjects moft,
Yet tramples them to filence and to duft:
The legal monarch, whofe juft pow'r and throne
Is founded in unrighteousness alone :
In fealing up the lips and eyes?
Refentment; that unfriendly they
Wou'd ftudiously prevent my stay,
Or my effay'd returns into the cooling clay!
Or will fome friendly ghost be near,
By fympathifing kindness brought,
By late experience taught,
His following brethren to relieve and chear?
What foreign garb will he prepare
To clothe a naked stranger there;
To dress me for the world where I must dwell,
Or carve thick night and darkness palpable ?
A fultry, finoking vehicle,
The gloomy robes of death and hell!
Robes ever unconfum'd, that are
The badges of confufion and despair!
Or, by divine commiffion frame
Æthereal vesture for a ghost,
Strait bound for the celeftial coaft,
Cut out of orient azure fring'd with lambent flame?
The temporary garb, that only may
A while fupply and indicate
The office of the fublimated clay,
When rais'd to glory and immortal state!
Or, rather will fome cherub ftand,
By fpecial office charg'd at hand,
Long skill'd in this deep exercife,)
To learn me immaterial myfteries?
Will he with charming meffage faid
Difmifs my fears, and make me glad?
Will he come teach an unfledg'd foul to fly,
To fee, without the optics of an eye?
Teach to distinguish founds and hear
Without the grave formality of an ear?
Teach me to speak the troubles of a mind,
That's forc'd to leave his tongue, and head, and heart be
Will he come guide, and guard my way,
(That can't but it exactly know
By often trav❜ling to and fro)
To the exalted realms of everlasting day?
Come then, let's mount and fly
On winged wills to the rich worlds on high.
Oh me! my guide, what wonders here
In all our road fucceffively appear?
What natures now, what shapes these atoms wear,
That form this fluid, this elastic air !
Atoms too fine for mortal fight,
But large and gross to immaterial light!
See, with what rage they from each other rove,
Renouncing still the law of mutual love!
See, in what whirling streams they flow!
What diff 'rent streams embrace them as they go !
Look there, how fwell'd voluminous vapour flies
From raging feas into the calmer skies!
What flaming floods difcharged there
What loud volcano's finge the atmosphere,
From hidden mines and treasures up they come,
From each or friendly or infectious womb!
Look how cloy'd planets yonder vomit forth
Their heterogeneous humours t'wards the earth.
What rendezvous is here? no wonder hence
Strange airy laws, quick life or death commence!
See how they marshal, how their forces join ;
Now meet and fight, now separate, then combine!
Alas! poor native globe, whofe various fate
Hangs on the turns of this embroiled state !
Welcome, ah! welcome, bleft informing light,
That cures my old mistakes, and scouts
My num'rous philofophic doubts,
And chafes all my fcepticifin quite!
Now are first feeds and principles disclos'd,
Effential forms and textures all expos'd;
Immortal feeds, that intermingled lye
The ground of unaccountable variety;
Textures by which brisk flames do upward ride,
And those by which pellucid waters glide;
Without tyr'd study now, the central charms appear, Which bodies restless make, till they come there. Now the mysterious love at last I trace
That binds and acts the vast corporeal whole,
That plays the univerfal foul,
Affigning all their order, and their place.
No wonder, fouls breathe union and agree,
Made up of love and harmony!
No wonder, facred fpirits (whofe glorious head
Has upon them attractive unction fhed)
Are by a stronger gravitation join'd,
Whofe love and harmony is all refign'd.
This whole world's law, and life appears to be
Nought elfe but love and harmony;
Ev'n matter's self is urg'd with am'rous fuit,
Inclin'd in all its parts to mutual falute;
Mysterious love, whofe binding power constrains
The flipp'ry'ft faces with the closest chains :
That teaches bleeding fteel to wound by stealth,
Or greeting fend, and sympathetic health ;
Infpires dead fibres, in th' harmonious tone,
At once to warble, and dance unifon ;
Magnetic virtues and their puzzling caufe
Which unmechanic feem'd, and fprung from laws
Of fome strange foreign fyftem, now I find
No riddles are to love, and to a naked mind.
I fee, why the touch'd needle still fcents about,
Till it has found its darling quarter out;
And why, unconftant grown, it fometimes takes
New fprung amours, and its dear North forfakes;
Why flow'ring vines, tho' fix'd in diftant foil,
Prompt wines in England to ferment and boil;
How blooming trees (as 'twere, for future birth)
Unftain dy'd cloths, and call their atoms forth;
Why dark'ned feas pretend to scatter light,
As if they truly lodg'd the fun by night;
I fee, (philofophy I long'd to know,
But was too deep for poring minds below)
Why lift'ning feas fo daily watch the shore,
Crowd up the roads, down which they ran before,
As if they yet remember'd old command,
Or crav'd new leave to drown the guilty land;
Heav'n's fhops and magazines unlock'd I view,
What cool alembic drops the rain and dew;
What earth fo turns, what art japans the bow,
What looms prepare and weave the fleecy fnow;;
In what tight mills the icy balls are ground,
Why fmall or larger made, why white and round ;
How the fun's banner ftormy fight prepares,
And fummons airy troops to bluft'ring wars;
What wild ingredients are together cramm'd,
And into cloudy cannons closely ramm'd,
At whofe dread roar fierce balls, and fires are hurl'd,
Omens of that, that must calcine the world;
From what low birth proud meteors climb the air,
What combs and kindles their presaging hair;
How cou'd I feast the students now below,
(Might I for their relief and ease
Delcend a θεὸς ἀπὸ μηχανῆς)
Solve their distracting problems quick, and show
Rules of reflected and refracted light,
How all the tribes of fep'rate colours grow,
And all combin'd beget the fingle white?
Learn'd death, that in one hour instructs me more
Than all my years on earth before !
Than all my academic aids cou'd do,
Than chronies, books and contemplations too!
Death! that exalts me strait to high'ft degree!
Commenc❜d a more than Newton in abstruse philosophy.
How fast we mount, my guide, my eye
Can fcarce pursue the orbs run whirling by!
Being now arriv'd at Saturn's sphere,
Let's stand a while, and take a profpect there.
These worlds cou'd ne'er be made, nor furnished
Dull mortals only to amaze,
To call them out to peep and gaze,
They're nobler entertainment for the dead!
Great God! what pow'r and fkill combine
To manage this mysterious frame,
Thy glories in each portion fhine,
'Tis big with thine almighty name
Ah! happy profpect, that infallibly confutes
Old prejudice, and ends theorical disputes!
Now, now, to fight, the controversy's done,
Whether our little globe maintain
The centre of this whirling main,
Or whisks its yearly journey round the fun?
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