Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

Just as absurd, to mourn the tasks or pains,
The great directing MIND OF ALL ordains.
All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body nature is, and God the soul:
That chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the same,
Great in the earth, as in th' etherial frame;
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees;
Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent 3
Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,
As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;
As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns,
As the rapt seraph that adores and burns;
To him, no high, no low, no great, no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.

Cease then, nor ORDER imperfection name;
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point; this kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heaven bestows on thee.
Submit. In this, or any other sphere,

Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear:
Safe in the hand of one disposing Pow'r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.
All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good:

And, spite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite,
One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.

SECTION XXI..

Confidence in Divine Protection.

How are thy servants blest, O Lord!
How sure is their defence !
Eternal wisdom is their guide,
Their help Omnipotence.

In foreign realms, and lands remote,
Supported by thy care,

Through burning climes I pass'd unhurt,
And breath'd in tainted air,

[ocr errors]

POPE.

Thy mercy sweeten'd every soil,
Made every region please;
The hoary Alpine hills it warm'd
And smooth'd the Tyrrhene seas.
Think, O my soul, devoutly think,
How, with affrighted eyes,
Thou saw'st the wide extended deep
In all its horrors rise!

Confusion dwelt in ev'ry face,
And feat in ev'ry heart,

When waves ou waves, and gulfs in gulfs,
O'ercame the pilot's art.

Yet then, from all my griefs, O Lord,
Thy mercy set me free;
While in the confidence of pray'r,
My soul took hold on thee.

For tho' in dreadful whirls we hung
High on the broken wave,

I knew thou wert not slow to hear,
Nor impotent to save.

The storm was laid, the winds retir'd
Obedient to thy will;

The sea that roar'd at thy command,
At thy command was still.

In midst of dangers, fears, and deaths,
Thy goodness I'll adore;

And praise thee for thy mercies past,
And humbly hope for more.

My life, if thou preserve my life,

Thy sacrifice shall be ;

And death, if death must be my doom,

Shall join my soul to thee.

ADDISON.

SECTION XXII.

Hymn on a Review of the Seasons.

THESE, as they change, Almighty Father! these Are but the varied God. The rolling year Is full of thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring

Thy beauty walks, thy tenderness and love.
Wide flush the fields; the soft'ning air is balm;
Echo the mountains round; the forest smiles,
And ev'ry sense and ev'ry heart is joy.

Then comes Thy glory in the summer months,
With light and heat refulgent. Then Thy sun
Shoots full perfection through the swelling year;
And oft Thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks;
And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve,
By brooks and groves, in hollow-whisp'ring gales.
Thy bounty shines in autumn uncoufin'd,
And spreads a common feast for all that lives.
In winter, awful Thou! with clouds and storms
Around Thee thrown, tempest o'er tempest roll'd,
Majestic darkness! On the whirlwind's wing,
Riding sublime, Thou bidst the world adore;
And humblest nature with Thy northern blast.
Mysterious round! what skill, what force divine,
Deep felt, in these appear! a simple train,
Yet so delightful mix'd, with such kind art,
Such beauty and beneficence combin❜d,
Shade, unperceiv'd, so soft'ning into shade,
And all so forming an harmonious whole,
That, as they still succeed, they ravish still.
But wand'ring oft, with brute unconscious gaze,
Man marks not Thee, marks not the mighty hand,
That, ever busy, wheels the silent spheres ;
Works in the secret deep: shoots, steaming thence,
The fair profusion that o'erspreads the spring;.
Flings from the sun direct the flaming day;
Feeds every creature; hurls the tempest forth;
And, as on earth this grateful change revolves,
With transport touches all the springs of life.
Nature, attend! join ev'ry living soul,
Beneath the spacious temple of the sky.
In adoration join! and, ardent, raise
One general song!-

Ye, chief, for whom the whole creation
At once the head, the heart, and ton
Crown the great hymn!

Yes,

of all,

For me, when I forget the dang theme,
Whether the blossom blows, the summer ray
Russets the plain; inspiring autumn gleams;
Or winter rises in the black'ning east ;

Be my tongue mute, may fancy paint no more,
And, dead to joy, forget my heart to beat!

Should fate command me to the farthest verge Of the green earth, to distant barb'rous climes, Rivers unknown to song; where first the sun Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beam Flames on th' Atlantic isles; 'tis nought to me; Since God is ever present, ever felt,

In the void waste as in the city full;

And where HE vital breathes there must be joy,
When e'en at last the solemn hour shall come,
And wing my mystic flight to future worlds,
I cheerful will obey; there, with new pow'rs,
Will rising wonders sing; I cannot go
Where UNIVERSAL LOVE not smiles around,
Sustaining all yon orbs, and all their suns;
From seeming evil still educing good,
And better thence again, and better still,
In infinite progression. But I lose
Myself in HIM, in light ineffable !

Come then, expressive silence, muse his praise.

[ocr errors]

SECTION XXIIP.

On Solitude.

THOMSON

O SOLITUDE, romantic maid!
Whether by nodding towers you tread,
Or haunt the desert's trackless gloom,
Or hover o'er the yawning tomb,
Or climb the Andes' clifted side,
Or by the Nile's coy source abide,
Or, starting from your half-year's sleep,
From Hecla view the thawy deep,
Or, at the purple dawn of day,
Tadmor's marble wastes survey;

You, recluse, again I woo,

And again your steps pursue.
Plum'd conceit, himself surveying,
Folly with her shadow playing,
Purse-proud elbowing insolence,
Bloated empirice, puff'd pretence,
Noise that through a trumpet speaks

Laughter in loud peals that breaks,
Intrusion, with a fopling's face,
(Ignorant of time and place,)
Sparks of fire dissension blowing,
Ductile, court-bred flattery bowing,
Restraint's stiff neck, grimace's leer,
Squint-ey'd censure's artful sneer,
Ambition's buskins, steep'd in blood,
Fly thy presence, Solitude!

Sage reflection bent with years,
Conscious virtue, void of fears,
Muffled silence, wood-nymph shy,
Meditation's piercing eye,
Alcyon peace on moss reclin'd,
Rospect that scans the mind,
Ra earth-gazing reverie,
Blusing artless modesty,

Heal that snuffs the morning, air,
Full truth with bosom bare,
Inspiro, nature's child,

Seek te sotary wild.

Why all nature's hush'd asleep,
Nor lo, nor gult, their vigils keep,
Soft yo leave your cavern'd den,
And wider o'er the works of men;
But wh Phosphor brings the dawn,
By herappled coursers drawn,
Again u to the wild retreat,
And thearly huntsman meet,
Wheres you pensive pass along,
You can the distant shepherd's song,
Or brusfrom herbs the pearly dew,
Or the ing primrose view,
Devotidends her heaven plum'd wings,
You ma, and nature with you sings.
But whmid-day fervours glow,

To upla airy shades you go,

Where er sun-burnt woodman came,

Nor span chas'd the timid

game

And thebeneath an oak reclin❜d,
With dev waterfalls. behind,

You si rest..

Till theful bird of night,

Frem eighb'ring poplar's height,

« ÎnapoiContinuă »