And propagate-the glories of the mind! What is it, but the love of praise, inspires, Matures, refines, embellishes, exalts, Earth's happiness? from that the delicate, The grand, the marvellous, of civil life, Want and convenience, under-workers, lay The basis on which love of glory builds. 410 415 Nor is thy life, O Virtue! less in debt To praise, thy secret stimulating friend. Were men not proud, what merit should we miss 420 And whets his appetite for moral good. Here a fifth proof arises, stronger still. 425 Why this so nice construction of our hearts? 130 This constitutional reserve of aid To succour Virtue when our Reason fails If Virtue, kept alive by care and toil, And oft the mark of injuries on earth, 435 Of disciplines and pains unpaid) must die? 440 This her chief maxim, which has long been thine: 445 The wise and wealthy are the same 'I grant it. T'o store up treasure with incessant toiì, A blunder follows; and blind Industry, 450 Gall'd by the spur, but stranger to the course, 455 (The course where stakes of more than gold are won) O'erloading with the cares of distant age The jaded spirits of the present hour, Provides for an eternity tow. Thou shalt not covet,' is a wise command, 460 But bounded to the wealth the Sun surveys. Look farther, the command stands quite reversed, And avarice is a virtue most divine. Is Faith a refuge for our happiness? Most sure; and is it not for reason too? 465 Nothing this world unriddles but the next. Whence inextinguishable thirst of gain? From inextinguishable life in man : Man, if not meant, by worth, to reach the skies, Had wanted wing to fly so far in guilt. .470 Sour grapes, I grant, ambition, avarice; Yet still their root is immortality: These its wild growths, so bitter and so base, (Pain and reproach!) religion can reclaim. Refine, exalt, throw down their poisonous lee, 475 See, the third witness laughs at bliss remote, And falsely promises an Eden here : Truth she shall speak for once, though prone to lie, A common cheat, and Pleasure is her name. To Pleasure never was Lorenzo deaf; Then hear her now, now first thy real friend. Since Nature made us not more fond than proud Of happiness, (whence hypocrites in joy! 480 Makers of mirth! artificers of smiles!) 48 490 This honest instinct speaks our lineage high; This instinct calls on darkness to conceal Our rapturous relation to the stalls. Our glory covers us with noble shame, And he that's unconfounded is unmann'd. 495 500 The witnesses are heard, the cause is o'er; Let Conscience file the sentence in her court: Thus, seal'd by Truth, the' authentic record runs. 'Know all; know, Infidels,--unapt to know! Tis immortality your nature solves; 505 'Tis immortality deciphers man, And opens all the mysterics of his make · Without it, half his instincts are a riddle, Without it, all his virtues are a dream : 510 His very crimes attest his dignity; His sateless thirst of pleasure, gold, and fame, Declares him born for blessings infinite. What less than infinite makes unabsurd Passions, which all on earth but more inflames ' 515 For earth too large, presage a nobler flight, 520 Ye gentle theologues of calmer kind! Whose constitution dictates to your pen, Who, cold yourselves, think ardour comes from Hell I feel a grandeur in the passions too, Which speaks their high descent and glorious end; Which speaks them rays of an eternal fire: In Paradise itself they burn'd as strong, 530 Ere Adam fell; though wiser in their aim. Like the proud Eastern, struck by Providence, What though our passions are run mad, and stoop, 535 On trash, on toys, dethroned from high desire ? And set the sublunary world on fire. 540 But grant their frenzy lasts; their frenzy fails 545 To disappoint one providential end, For which Heaven blew up ardour in our hearts Were Reason silent, boundless Passion speaks A future scene of boundless objects too, And brings glad tidings of eternal day. 550 Eternal day! 'tis that enlightens all, And all, by that enlighten'd, proves it sure. The learn'd Lorenzo cries, And let her weep; Weak modern Reason: ancient times were wise. 560 Authority, that venerable guide, Stands on my part; the famed Athenian Porch (And who for wisdom so renown'd as they?) Denied this immortality to man.' I grant it; but affirm, they proved it too. 565 570 In men exploding all beyond the grave, 575 Strange doctrine this! as doctrine it was strange, They feign'd a firmness Christians need not feign. The Christian truly triumph'd in the flame; 580 The Stoic saw, in double wonder lost, Not bold, and that he strove to lie in vain. Whence, then, those thoughts? those towering thoughts, that flew 585 Such monstrous heights?-From instinct and from pride. Suggested truths they could not understand. In Lust's dominion, and in Passion's storm, When life immortal, in full day should shine ; 590 595 |