Pleasure, though not from virtue, should prevail :
'Tis balm to life, and gratitude to Heaven.
How cold our thanks for bounties unenjoy'd!

The love of pleasure is man's eldest born,
Born in his cradle, living to his tomb;

595

Wisdom, her younger sister, though more grave,
Was meant to minister, and not to mar,

Imperial Pleasure, queen of human hearts.

Lorenzo! thou, her majesty's renown'd,
Though uncoift counsel, learned in the world!
Who think'st thyself a Murray, with disdain
Mayst look on me : yet, my Demosthenes!
Canst thou plead Pleasure's cause as well as I?
Know'st thou her nature, purpose, parentage?
Attend my song, and thou shalt know them all;
And know thyself; and know thyself to be
(Strange truth!) the most abstemious man alive.
Tell not Calista, she will laugh thee dead,
Or send thee to her hermitage with L.
Absurd presumption! thou, who never knew'st

600

605

610

A serious thought! shalt thou dare dream of joy?

No man e'er found a happy life by chance,

Or yawn'd it into being with a wish:

Or with a snout of grovelling Appetite

615

E'er smelt it out, and grubb'd it from the dirt.

An art it is, and must be learn'd; and learn'd
With unremitting effort, or be lost,

620

And leaves us perfect blockheads in ur bliss.
The clouds may drop down titles ana estates;
Wealth may seek us; but Wisdom must be sought;
Sought before all; but (how unlike all else
We seek on earth!) 'tis never sought in vain. [see ⚫
First, Pleasure's birth, rise, strength, and grandeur
Brought forth by Wisdom, nursed by Discipline, 625
By Patience taught, by Perseverance crown'd,

She rears her head majestic; round her throne,
Erected in the bosom of the just,

Each virtue, listed, forms her manly guard.

For what are virtues? (formidable name!)
What but the fountain or defence of joy?

Why then commanded? need mankind commands, At once to merit and to make their bliss!

630

Of Pleasure, next, the final cause explore;

Its mighty purpose, its important end.
Not to turn human brutal, but to build

640

Divine on human, Pleasure came from Heaven :
In aid to Reason was the goddess sent,

To call up all its strength by such a charm.

Pleasure, first, succours Virtue; in return,

645

Virtue gives Pleasure an eternal reign.

What but the pleasure of food, friendship, faith,
Supports life natural, civil, and divine?

"Tis from the pleasure of repast we live;

'Tis from the pleasure of applause we please ;
'Tis from the pleasure cf belief we pray
(All prayer would cease, if unbelieved the prize ;)
It serves curselves, our species, and our God;
And to serve more is past the sphere of man.
Glide then, for ever, Pleasure's sacred stream!
Through Eden, as Euphrates ran, it runs,
And fosters every growth of happy life;
Makes a new Eden where it flows,-but such

650

655

As must be lost, Lorenzo! by thy fall.

'What mean I by thy fall?'-Thou'lt shortly sa. 660 While Pleasure's nature is at large display'd,

Already sung her origin and ends :

Those glorious ends by kind, or by degree,

When Pleasure violates, 'tis then a vice,
And vengeance too; it hastens into pain.
From due refreshment life, health, reason, joy;
From wild excess pain, grief, distraction, death

665

Heaven's justice this proclaims, and that her love.
What greater evil can I wish my foe,

Than this full draught of pleasure from a cask 670 Unbroach'd by just authority, ungaged

By temperance, by reason unrefined?

A thousand demons lurk within the lee.

Heaven, others, and ourselves! uninjured these,

Drink deep; the deeper, then, the more divine:
Angels are angels from indulgence there.
'Tis unrepenting pleasure makes a god!

675

Dost think thyself a god from other joys?

A victim rather! shortly, sure to bleed.

[fail?

The wrong must mourn. Can Heaven's appointments

Can man outwit omnipotence? strike out
A self-wrought happiness, unmeant by Him
Who made us, and the world we would enjoy?
Who forms an instrument ordains from whence
Its dissonance or harmony shall rise.

681

685

Heaven bid the soul this mortal frame inspire;
Bid Virtue's ray divine inspire the soul

With unprecarious flows of vital joy ;

And without breathing man as well might hope

For life, as, without piety, for peace.

690

'Is virtue, then, and piety the same?'

No; piety is more; 'tis Virtue's source,
Mother of every worth, as that of joy.
Men of the world this doctrine ill digest;

They smile at piety, yet boast aloud

695

'Good will to men,' nor know they strive to part

What Nature joins, and thus confute themselves.
With piety begins all good on earth;
'Tis the first born of Rationality!

Conscience, her first law broken, wounded lies;
Enfeebled, lifeless, impotent to good.

700

A feign'd affection bounds her utmost power.
Some we can't love, but for the' Almighty's sake ;
A foe to God was ne'er true friend to man.

Some sinister intent taints all he does,
And in his kindest actions he's unkind.
On piety humanity is built,
And on humanity much happiness,
And yet still more on piety itself

705

A soul in commerce with her God is heaven;
Feels not the tumults and the shocks of life,

710

The whirls of passions, and the strokes of heart.

A Deity believed, is joy begun :

A Deity adored, is joy advanced;

A Deity beloved, is joy matured!

715

Each branch of piety delight inspires ;

Faith builds a bridge from this world to the next,

O'er Death's dark gulf, and all its horror hides:
Praise, the sweet exhalation of our joy,
That joy exalts, and makes it sweeter still:
Prayer ardent opens Heaven, lets down a stream
Of glory on the consecrated hour

720

Of man in audience with the Deity!

Who worships the great God, that instant joins
The first in heaven, and sets his foot on hell.

725

Lorenzo! when wast thou at church before? Thou think'st the service long: but is it just ?— Though just, unwelcome. Thou hadst rather tread Unhallow'd ground: the Muse, to win thine ear, Must take an air less solemn. She complies. Good Conscience! at the sound the world retires; Verse disaffects it, and Lorenzo smiles; Yet has she her seraglio full of charms,

730

And such as age shall heighten, not impair.

Art thou dejected? is thy mind o'ercast?

735

Amid her fair ones thou the fairest choose

To chase thy gloom.-' Go, fix some weighty truth;
Chain down some passion; do some generous good;
Teach Ignorance to see, or Grief to smile;
Correct thy friend; befriend thy greatest foe;
Or, with warm heart and confidence divine,

740

745

Spring up, and lay strong hold on Him who made thee.'
Thy gloom is scatter'd, sprightly spirits flow,
Though wither'd is thy vine, and harp unstrung.
Dost call the bowl, the viol, and the dance,
Loud mirth, and laughter? Wretched comforters'
Physicians! more than half of thy disease!
Laughter, though never censured yet as sin,
(Pardon a thought that only seems severe)
Is half-immortal, is it much indulged.
By venting spleen, or dissipating thought,
It shows a scorner, or it makes a fool,
And sins; as hurting others, or ourselves.
"Tis pride, or emptiness, applies the straw
That tickles little minds to mirth effuse;

Of grief approaching the portentous sign!

The house of laughter makes a house of woe

A man triumphant is a monstrous sight;

A man dejected is a sight as mean.

750

755

What cause for triumph, where such ills abound? 760
What for dejection, where presides a Power
Who call'd us into being-to be bless'd?

So grieve, as conscious grief may rise to joy
So joy, as conscious joy to grief may fall.
Most true, a wise man never will be sad;
But neither will sonorous, bubbling mirth,

A shallow stream of happiness betray;

Too happy to be sportive, he's serene.

765

Yet wouldst thou laugh (but at thy own expense) This counsel strange should I presume to give- "70 'Retire, and read thy Bible, to be gay'

There truths abound of sovereign aid to peace:
Ah! do not prize them less because inspired
As thou and thine are apt and proud to do.
If not inspired, that pregnant page had stood,
Time's treasure! and the wonder of the wise!
Thou think'st, perhaps, thy soul alone at stake
Alas!-should men mistake thee for a fool,-
What man of taste for genius, wisdom, truth,

775