And made that choice which once was but my fate
'On argument alone my faith is built,'
Reason pursued is Faith; and unpursued,
Where proof invites, 'tis reason then no more.
And such our proof, that or our Faith is right,
Or Reason lies, and Heaven designed it wrong.
Absolve we this! what then is blasphemy?-
Fond as we are, and justly fond of Faith,
Reason, we grant, demands our first regard;
The mother honour'd, as the daughter dear.
Reason the root, fair Faith is but the flower:
The fading flower shall die, but Reason lives
Immortal, as her Father in the skies!
When Faith is virtue, Reason makes it so.
Wrong not the Christian; think not Reason yours, Tis Reason our great Master holds so dear; 'Tis Reason's injured rights his wrath resents; 'Tis Reason's voice obey'd his glories crown: To give lost Reason life he pour'd his own. Believe, and show the reason of a man ; Believe, and taste the pleasure of a god;
Believe, and look with triumph on the tomb.
Through Reason's wounds alone thy Faith can die,
Which dying, tenfold terrcr gives to Death,
And dips in venom his twice mortal sting.
Learn hence what honours, what loud peans, due
To those who push our antidote aside;
Those boasted friends to Reason and to man,
Whose fatal love stabs every joy, and leaves
Death's terror heighten'd, gnawing on his heart. 770
These pompous sons of Reason idolized,
And vilified at once; of Reason dead,
Then deified, as monarchs were of old;
What conduct plants proud laurels on their brow? While love of truth through all their camp resound They draw Pride's curtain o'er the noontide ray, 776 Spike up their inch of reason on the point
Of philosophic wit, call'd Argument,
And then exulting in their taper, cry,
'Behold the Sun!' and, Indianlike, adore.
Talk they of morals? O thou bleeding Love.
Thou Maker of new morals to mankind!
The grand morality is love of Thee.
As wise as Socrates, if such they were
(Nor will they bate of that sublime renown,)
As wise as Socrates might justly stand
The definition of a modern fool.
A Christian is the highest style of man!
And is there who the blessed Cross wipes off,
As a foul blot, from his dishonour'd brow?
If angels tremble, 'tis at such a sight:
The wretch they quit, desponding of their charge,
More struck with grief or wonder who can tell?
Ye sold to sense! ye citizens of earth' (For such alone the Christian banner fly) Know ye how wise your choice, how great your gain. Behold the picture of Earth's happiest man : 'He calls his wish, it comes: he sends it back, And says he call'd another: that arrives, Meets the same welcome; yet he still calls on; Till one calls him, who varies not his call, But holds him fast, in chains of darkness bound, Till Nature dies, and Judgment sets him free; A freedom far less welcome than his chain.'
But grant man happy, grant him happy long; 805 Add to life's highest prize her latest hour;
That hour, so late, is nimble in approach,
That, like a post, comes on in full career.
How swift the shuttle flies that weaves thy shroud. Where is the fable of thy former years?
Thrown down the gulf of time; as far from thee
As they had near been thine; the day in hand,
Like a bird struggling to get loose, is going;
Scarce now possess'd, so suddenly 'tis gone;
And each swift moment fled, is death advanced
By strides as swift. Eternity is all;
And whose eternity? who triumphs there?
Bathing for ever in the font of bliss'
For ever basking in the Deity!
Lorenzo! who?-thy conscience shall reply.
O give it leave to speak; 'twill speak ere long
Thy leave unask'd. Lorenzo! hear it now,
While useful its advice, its accent mild.
By the great edict, the divine decree,
Truth is deposited with man's last hour;
An honest hour, and faithful to her trust;
Truth! eldest daughter of the Deity!
Truth! of his council when he made the worlds;
Nor less, when he shall judge the worlds he made;
Though silent long, and sleeping ne'er so sound, 830
Smother'd with errors, and oppress'd with toys,
That heaven-commission'd hour no sooner calls,
But from her cavern in the soul's abyss,
Like him they fable under Etna whelm'd,
The goddess bursts in thunder and in flame,
Loudly convinces, and severely pains.
Dark demons I discharge, and hydra-stings;
The keen vibration of bright Truth-is Hell;
Just definition! though by schools untaught.
Ye deaf to truth! peruse this parson'd page,
And trust, for once, a prophet and a priest ;—
'Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die.'
TO THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF LITCHFIELD.
LORENZO to recriminate is just.
'Fondness for fame is avarice of air.'
I grant the man is vain who writes for praise :
Praise no man e'er deserved, who sought no more.
As just thy second charge. I grant the Muse
Has often blush'd at her degenerate sons,
Retain'd by Sense to plead her filthy cause,
To raise the low, to magnify the mean,
And subtilize the gross into refined;
As if to magic numbers' powerful charm
"Twas given to make a civet of their song
Obscene, and sweeten ordure to perfume.
Wit, a true pagan, deifies the brute,
And lifts our swine enjoyments from the mire.
The fact notorious, nor obscure the cause.
We wear the chains of pleasure and of pride:
These share the man, and these distract him too;
Draw different ways, and clash in their commands.
Pride, like an eagle, builds among the stars;
But Pleasure, larklike, nests upon the ground.
Joys, shared by brute creation, Pride resents;
Pleasure embraces; man would both enjoy,
And both at once: a point how hard to gain!
But what can't Wit, when stung by strong desire?
Wit dares attempt this arduous enterprise.
Since joys of Sense can't rise to Reason's taste,
In subtle Sophistry's laborious forge
Wit hammers out a reason new, that stoops
To sordid scenes, and meets them with applauso.
Wit calls the Graces the chaste zone to loose,
Nor less than a plump god to fill the bowl:
A thousand phantoms and a thousand spells,
A thousand opiates scatters to delude,
To fascinate, inebriate, lay asleep,
And the fool'd mind delightfully confound.
Thus that which shock'd the judgment shocks no more;
That which gave pride offence, no more offends.
Pleasure and Pride, by nature mortal foes,
At war eternal, which in man shall reign
By Wit's address patch up a fatal peace,
And hand in hand lead on the rank debauch,
From rank, refined to delicate and gay.
Art, cursed Art! wipes off the' indebted blush
From Nature's cheek, and bronzes every shame.
Man smiles in ruin, glories in his guilt,
And Infamy stands candidate for praise.
All writ by man in favour of the soul,
These sensual ethics far, in bulk, transcend.
The flowers of eloquence, profusely pour'd
O'er spotted Vice, fill half the letter'd world.
Can powers of genius exercise their page,
And consecrate enormnities with song!
But let not these inexpiable strains
Condemn the Muse that knows her dignity,
Nor meanly stops at time, but holds the world
As 'tis, in Nature's ample field, a point,
A point in her esteem; from whence to start,
And run the round of universal space,
To visit being universal there,
And being's Source, that utmost flight of mind
Yet spite of this so vast circumference,
Well knows but what is moral nought is great.
Sing sirens only? do not angels sing?
There is in Poesy a decent pride,
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