Bliss there is none but unprecarious bliss:

That is the gem: sell all, and purchase that.
Why go a-begging to contingencies,

970

Not gain'd with ease, nor safely loved, if gain'd?

At good fortuitous draw back, and pause;
Suspect it; what thou canst ensure, enjoy ;

And nought, but what thou givest thyself, is sure.
Reason perpetuates joy that Reason gives,
And makes it as immortal as herself:

975

To mortals, nought immortal, but their worth.
Worth, conscious Worth! should absolutely reign,

And other joys ask leave for their approach,
Nor, unexamined, ever leave obtain.

Thou art all anarchy; a mob of joys

980

Wage war, and perish in intestine broils;
Nor the least promise of internal peace!
No bosom-comfort! or unborrow'd bliss!
Thy thoughts are vagabonds; all outward-bound, 985
Mid sands, and rocks, and storms, to cruise for pleasure,
If gain'd, dear-bought; and better miss'd than gain'd.
Much pain must expiate what much pain procured,
Fancy and Sense, from an infected shore,
Thy cargo bring, and pestilence the prize,
Then such thy thirst, (insatiable thirst,
By fond indulgence but inflamed the more)
Fancy still cruises, when poor Sense is tired.
Imagination is the Paphian shop

990

Where feeble Happiness, like Vulcan, lame,
Bids foul ideas, in their dark recess,

995

And hot as hell (which kindled the black fires)
With wanton art, those fatal arrows form,

Which murder all thy time, health, wealth, and fame. Wouldst thou receive them, other thoughts there are On angel-wing, descending from above;

1001

Which these, with art divine, would counter-work,
And form celestial armour for thy peace.
In this is seen Imagination's guilt;

But who can count her follies? she betrays thee, 1005 To think in grandeur there is something great.

For works of curious art, and ancient fame,

Thy genius hungers, elegantly pain'd,

And foreign climes must cater for thy taste.

Hence, what disaster!-Though the price was paid, That persecuting priest, the Turk of Rome,

1011

1015

Whose foot, (ye gods!) though cloven, must be kiss'd,
Detain'd thy dinner on the Latian shore;
(Such is the fate of honest Protestants!)
And poor Magnificence is starved to death.
Hence just resentment, indignation, ire !—
Be pacified; if outward things are great,
'Tis magnanimity great things to scorn;
Pompous expenses, and parades august,
And courts, that insalubrious soil to peace.
True happiness ne'er enter'd at an eye;
True happiness resides in things unseen.
No smiles of Fortune ever bless'd the bad,
Nor can her frowns rob Innocence of joys;
That jewel wanting, triple crowns are poor :
So tell his Holiness, and be revenged.

1020

1025

Pleasure, we both agree, is man's chief good;

Our only contest, what deserves the name.

Give Pleasure's name to nought but what has pass'd The' authentic seal of Reason (which, like Yorke, 1030 Demurs on what it passes) and defies

The tooth of Time; when pass'd, a pleasure still;

Dearer on trial, lovelier for its age,

And doubly to be prized, as it promotes

Our future, while it forms our present joy.

1035

Some joys the future overcast, and some

Throw all their beams that way, and gild the tomb.
Some joys endear eternity; some give
Abhorr'd Annihilation dreadful charms.
Are rival joys contending for thy choice?
Consult thy whole existence, and be safe;

1040

That oracle will put all doubt to flight.
Short is the lesson, though my lecture long;
'Be good'--and let Heaven answer for the rest!
Yet, with a sigh o'er all mankind, I grant,
In this our day of proof, our land of hope,
The good man has his clouds that intervene ;
Clouds that obscure his sublunary day,
But never conquer: e'en the best must own,
Patience and Resignation are the pillars
Of human peace on earth: the pillars these,
But those of Seth not more remote from thee,
Till this heroic lesson thou hast learn'd,
To frown at pleasure, and to smile in pain.
Fired at the prospect of unclouded bliss,
Heaven in reversion, like the Sun, as yet
Beneath the' horizon, cheers us in this world;

1045

1050

1055

It sheds, on souls susceptible of light,

The glorious dawn of our eternal day.

This (says Lorenzo) is the fair harangue!

1060

But can harangues blow back strong Nature's stream,

Or stem the tide Heaven pushes through our veins,
Which sweeps away man's impotent resolves,
And lays his labour level with the world?'

Themselves men make their comment on mankind, And think nought is, but what they find at home: 1066 Thus weakness to chimera turns the truth.

Nothing romantic has the Muse prescribed.
Above,* Lorenzo saw the man of earth,

The mortal man, and wretched was the sight.
To balance that, to comfort and exalt,

Now see the man immortal: him, I mean,

1070

Who lives as such; whose heart, full bent on Heaven,

Leans all that way, his bias to the stars.

The world's dark shades, in contrast set, shall raise

His lustre more; though bright, without a foil: 1076 Observe his awful portrait, and adinire;

Nor stop at wonder; imitate, and live.

In a former Night.

Some angel guide my pencil, while I draw,
What nothing less than angel can exceed,
A man on earth devoted to the skies;

Like ships in seas, while in, above the world

With aspect mild, and elevated eye,

1080

Behold him seated on a mount serene,
Above the fogs of Sense, and Passion's storm;
All the black cares and tumults of this life,
Like harmless thunders, breaking at his feet,
Excite his pity, not impair his peace.

1085

Earth's genuine sons, the sceptred and the slave

1090

A mingled mob! a wandering herd! he sees,
Bewilder'd in the vale; in all unlike !
His full reverse in all! what higher praise?
What stronger demonstration of the right?

The present all their care, the future his. When public welfare calls, or private want, They give to Fame; his bounty he conceals. Their virtues varnish Nature, his exalt. Mankind's esteem they court, and he his own. Theirs the wild chase of false felicities;

1095

His, the composed possession of the true.

1100

Alike throughout is his consistent peace,
All of one colour, and an even thread;
While party-colour'd shreds of happiness,
With hideous gaps between, patch up for them
A madman's robe; each puff of Fortune blows
The tatters by, and shows their nakedness.

1105

He sees with other eyes than theirs: where they Behold a sun, he spies a Deity.

What makes them only smile, makes him adore.
Where they see mountains, he but atoms sees.
An empire, in his balance, weighs a grain.
They things terrestrial worship as divine;
His hopes, immortal, blow them by as dust
That dims his sight, and shortens his survey,
Which longs, in infinite, to lose all bound.
Titles and honours (if they prove his fate)

1110

1115

And nothing thinks so great in man, as man.
Too dear he holds his interest to neglect

Another's welfare, or his right invade

Their interest, like a lior lives on prey.

1125

They kindle at the shadow of a wrong;

Wrong he sustains with temper, looks on Heaven,
Nor stoops to think his injurer his foe:

Nought but what wounds his virtue wounds his peace

A cover'd heart their character defends;

1130

A cover'd heart denies him half his prais
With nakedness his innocence agrees,
While their broad foliage testifier their fall.
Their no joys end where his full feast begins;
His joys create, theirs murder, future bliss.
To triumph in existence his alone;

1135

His true existence is not yet begun.

And his alone triumphantly to think

His glorious course was, yesterday, complete;

Death then was welcome; yet life stili is sweet. 1140 But nothing charms Lorenzo like the firm

Undaunted breast.-And whose is that high praise?

They yield to pleasure, though they danger brave,
And show no fortitude but in the field;

If there they show it, 'tis for glory shown;

1145

Nor will that cordial always man their hearts.

A cordial his sustains, that cannot fail :

By pleasure unsubdued, unbroke by pain,
He shares in that Omnipotence he trusts;

All bearing, ail attempting, till he fall;

1150

And when he falls, writes l'ici on his shield.

From magnanimity all fear above;

From nobler recompense above applause,

Which owes to man's short outlook all its charms