A

COPIOUS SELECTION

OF

INSTRUCTIVE, MORAL, AND ENTERTAINING

PASSAGES,

FROM THE MOST

EMINENT POETS,

VOLUME I.

BOOK I. II:

DEVOTIONAL AND MORAL,

NEW-YORK:

PUBLISHED BY KIRK & MERCEIN,

22, WALL-STREET.

CIR

PUBLIC LIBRARY

ELEGANT EXTRACTS,

FROM THE

MOST EMINENT POETS.

BOOK I.

DEVOTIONAL AND MORAL. PART I.

REFLECTIONS ON THE BEING OF A GOD.

RETIRE ;-the world shut out ;-thy thoughts call Imagination's airy wing repress ;

(home ;Lock up thy senses ; let no passion stir ;Wake all to Reason ;-let her reign alone :Then in thy soul's deep silence, and the depth Of Nature's silence, midnight, thus inquire

• What am I? and from whence?--I nothing knoty But that I am ; and since I am, conclude ci Something eternal : had there e'er been nought,

Nought still had been : eternal there must be.
But what eternal ? Why not human race?
And Adam's ancestors without an end ?
That's hard to be conceiv'd, since every link
Of that long-chain'd succession is so frail.

1

VOL. 1.

Can every part depend, and not the whole ?
Yet grant it true, new difficulties rise ;
I'm still quite out at sea, nor see the shore.
Whence earth, and these bright orbs ?-Eternal
Grant matter was eternal, still these orbs [too ?-
Would want some other father ;--much design
Is seen in all their motions, all their makes.
Design implies intelligence and art ;
That can't be from themselves--or man : that art
Man scarce can comprehend, could man bestow ?
And nothing greater yet allow'd than man.
Who motion, foreign to the smallest grain,
Shot through vast masses of enormous weight !
Who bid brute matter's restive lump assume
Such various forms, and gave it wings to fly?
Has matter innate motion ? then each atom,
Asserting its indisputable right
To dance, would form an universe of dust :
Has matter none ? Then whence these glorious

forms
And boundless flights, from shapeless and repos'd?
Has matter more than motion ? has it thought,
Judgment, and genius ? is it deeply learn'd
In mathematics? has it fram'd such laws,
Which but to guess a Newton made immortal ?
If art to form, and counsel to conduct,
And that with greater far than human skill,
Resides not in each block,-a Godhead reigns.--
And, if a God there is, that God how great!

Young.

CREATION OF THE EARTH, THE HEAVENS, AND

MAN.

The Son On his great expedition now appear’d, Girt with Omnipotence, with radiance crown'd Of Majesty Divine : sapience and love Immense, and all his Father in him shone. About his chariot numberless were pour'd Cherub, and Seraph, Potentates, and Thrones, And Virtues, winged Spirits, and chariots wing'd From th' armoury of God, where stand of old Myriads, between two brazen mountains lodg'd Against a solemn day, harness'd at hand, Celestial equipage ; and now came forth Spontaneous, for within them spirit liv'd Attendant on their Lord : Heaven open'd wide Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound On golden hinges moving, to let forth The King of Glory, in his powerful Word And Spirit, coming to create new worlds. On heavenly ground they stood ; and from the shore They view'd the vast immeasurable abyss Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild, Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds And surging waves, as mountains, to assault Heaven's height, and with the centre mix the pole. • Silence, ye troubled Waves, and thou Deep,

peace, Said then th’ Omnific Word; ' your discord end ! Nor staid ; but on the wings of Cherubim Uplifted, in paternal glory rode Far into Chaos, and the world unborn ; For Chaos heard his voice : Him all his train