With look erect, I dart my longing eye,
Seem wing'd to part, and gain my native sky,
I strive to mount, but ftrive, alas! in vain,
Ty'd to this maffy globe with magic chain.
Now with swift thought I range from pole to pole,
View worlds around their flaming centers roll:
What steady powers their endless motions guide,
Through the fame tracklefs paths of boundless void!
I trace the blazing comet's fiery trail,

And weigh the whirling planets in a scale:
These godlike thoughts while eager I pursue,
Some glittering trifle offer'd to my view,
A gnat, an infect, of the meaneft kind,
Erafe the new-born image from my mind;
Some beastly want, craving, importunate,
Vile as the grinning maftiff at my gate,
Calls off from heav'nly truth this reas'ning me,
And tells me, I'm a brute as much as he.
If on fublimer wings of love and praise,
My foul above the starry vault I raise,
Lur'd by fome vain conceit, or shameful luft,
I flag, I drop, and flutter in the duft.

The tow'ring lark thus from her lofty strain,
Stoops to an emmet, or a barley grain,

By adverse gufts of jarring instincts toft,
I rove to one, now to the other coaft;
To bliss unknown my lofty foul aspires,
My lot unequal to my vast desires.

As 'mongst the hinds a child of royal birth
Finds his high pedigree by conscious worth
So man, amongst his fellow brutes expos'd,
Sees he's a king, but 'tis a king depos'd.
Pity him, beasts! you by no law confin'd,
Are barr'd from devious paths by being blind;
Whilst man, through op'ning views of various ways
Confounded, by the aid of knowledge strays;
Too weak to choofe, yet choofing still in hafte,
One moment gives the pleasure and distaste ;
Bilk'd by past minutes, while the present cloy,
The flatt'ring future ftill muft give the joy :
Not happy, but amus'd upon the road,
And (like you) thoughtless of his laft abode,
Whether next fun his being shall restrain
To endless nothing, happiness or pain.

Around me, lo, the thinking thoughtless crew,
(Bewilder'd each) their diff'rent paths pursue;
Of them I ask the way; the firft replies,
Thou art a god; and fends me to the skies:

Down

Down on the turf, the next, thou two-legg'd beast,
There fix thy lot, thy blifs and endless rest:
Between these wide extremes the length is fuch,

I find I know too little or too much.

"Almighty Power, by whose most wife command, "Helpless, forlorn, uncertain here I stand;

"Take this faint glimmering of thyself away,
"Or break into my foul with perfect day!"
This faid, expanded lay the facred text,

The balm, the light, the guide of fouls perplex'd.
Thus the benighted traveller that strays

Through doubtful paths, enjoys the morning rays;
The nightly mist, and thick defcending dew,
Parting, unfold the fields, and vaulted blue.
"O Truth divine! enlighten'd by thy ray,

I grope and guess no more, but fee my way;
"Thou clear'dst the secret of my high descent,
"And told me what those myftic tokens meant ;
"Marks of my birth, which I had worn in vain,
"Too hard for worldly fages to explain.
"Zeno's were vain, vain Epicurus' fchemes,

"Their systems falfe, delufive were their dreams: "Unskill'd my two-fold nature to divide,

"One nurs'd my pleafure, and one nurs'd my pride:

"Those jarring truths which human art beguile,
"Thy facred page thus bids me reconcile."
Offspring of God, no lefs thy pedigree,

What thou once wert, art now, and still may be,
Thy God alone can tell, alone decree;

Faultless thou drop'dft from his unerring skill,
With the bare power to fin, fince free of will:
Yet charge not with thy guilt his bounteous lové,
For who has power to walk, has power to rove:
Who acts by force impell'd, can nought deserve;
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;
Disdain'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 manfions chas'd,
Thou still retain'ft fome fparks of heav'nly fire,
Too faint to mount, yet restless to aspire;
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 some seduce;

I

}

Repaft

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Repaft 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 blifs on this poor clod,
Return, and seek 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.

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