Of echoing hill or thicket we have heard
Celestial voices to the midnight air.
Sole, or responsive each to others' note,
Singing their great Creator? Oft in bands,
While they kept watch, omnightly sounding walk
With heav'nly touch of instrumental sounds,
In full harmonic number join'd their songs
Divide the night, and lift our thoughts to heaven." 8. Thus talking, hand in hand alone they pass'd On to their blissful bower.
There arriv'd, both stood,
Both turned; and under open sky, ador'd
The God that made both sky, air, earth and heav'n,
Which they bebeld, the moon's resplendent globe,
And starry pole.
Thou also mad'st the night,
Maker omnipotent, and thou the day,
Which we, in our appointed work employ'd,
Have finish'd happy in our mutual help.
And mutual love, the crown of all our bliss
Ordain'd by thee; and this delicious place
For us too large, where thy abun lance wants
Partakers, and uncropt fails to the ground.
But thou has promis'd from us two, a race,
To fill the earth, who shall with us extol
Thy goodness infinite, both when we awake,
And when we seek, as now, thy gift of sleep"
SECTION VI
Religion and Death..
1. Lo! á form divinely bright
Descends, and bursts upon my sight;
A seraph of illustrious birth!
(Religion was her name on earth ;)
Supremely sweet her radient face,
And blooming with celestial grace..
Three shining cherubs form'd her train,
Wav'd their light wings, and reach'd the plain;
Faish with sublime and piercing eye,
And pinions fut'ring for the sky,
Here hope, that smiling angels stands,
And golden anchors grace her hands;
There charity in robes of white,
Fairest and fav'rite maid of light;
2. The seraph spoke-" "Tis reasons part
To govern and to guide the heart;
To all the wayward soul to rest,
W. en hopes and fears distract the breast.
Reason may calm this doubtful strife,
And steer thy bark through various life
But when the storms of death are nigh,
A midnight darkness veils the sky,
Shall reason then direct thy sail
Disperse the clouds, or sink the gale?
Stranger this skill alone is mine,
Skill that transcends his scanty line.
3. "Revere thyself thou'rt near allied
To angels on thy better side..
How various e'er their ranks or kinde
Angels are but unbodied minds:
When the partition-walls decay,
Men emerge angels from their clay.
Yes, when the trailer body dies
The soul asserts her kindred skies.
But minds though sprung from heav'nly race,
Must first be tutor'd for the place:
The joys above are understood,
And relish'd only by the good,
Who shall assume this guardian care;
Who shall secure their birth right there?
Souls are my charge to me 'tis giv'n
To train them tor their native heav'n."
4. Know then-who bow the early knee,
And give the willing heart to me;
Who wisely, when Temptation waits,
Elude her frauds, and spurn her baits;
Who dare to own my injur'd cause,
Though fools deride my sacred laws ;
Or scorn to deviate to the wrong,
Though persecution lifts her thong :
Though all the sons of hell conspire
To raise the stake and light the bre;
Know that for such superior souls,
There lies a bliss beyond the poles:
Where spirits shine with purer ray,
And brighten to meridian day;
Where love, where boundless friendship rules;
(No friends that change, no love that cools ;),
Where rising floods of knowledge roll,
And pour, and pour upon the soul!
5. But where's the passage to the skies?
The road brough death's black valley lies.
Nay do not shudder at my tale;
Tho' dark the shades, yet safe the vale.
This path the best of men have trod-
And who'd decline the road to God?
Oh! is a glorious boon to die!
This favour can't be priz'd too high.
6. While thus she spoke,my looks express'd
The raptures kindling in my breast-
My soul a fix'd attention gave-
When the stern monarch of the grave
With haughty strides approach'd-amaz'd
I stood and trembled as I gaz'd.
The seraph calın'd each anxious fear,
And kindly wiped the falling téar—
Then hastened with expanded wing
To meet the pale terrific king.
7. But now what milder scenes arise !
The tyrant drops his hostile guise-
He seems a youth divinely fair,
In graceful ringlets waves his hair-
His wings their whit'ning plumes display,
His burnish'd plumes reflect the day-
Light flows his shining azure vest,
And all the angel stands confess'd.
I viewed the change with sweet surprise-
And O! I panted for the skies-
Thank'd heav ́n, that e'er I drew my breath-
And triumph'd in the thoughts of death..
SECTION I.
The Vanity of Wealth.
No more thus brooding o'er yon heap,
With av'rice painful vigils keep—
Still unenjoy'd the present store,
Still endless sighs are breath'd for more.
O quit the shadow, catch the prize,
Which not all India's treasure buys!
To purchase heav'n has gold the pow'r?
Can gold remove the mortal hour?
In life can love be bought with gold?
Are friendship's pleasures to be sold?
No-all that's worth a wish-a thought,
Fair virtue gives unbrib'd, unbought.
Cease then on trash thy hopes to bind-
Let nobler views engage thy mind. Dr. Johnson
SECTION II.
Nothing formed in Vain.
1. LET no presuming impious railer tax
Creative wisdom, as if ought was form'd'
In vain, or not for admirable ends.
Shall little haughty ignorance pronounce
His works unwise, of which the smallest part
Exceeds the narrow vision of her mind?
As af, upon a foil-proportioned dome,
On swelling columns heav'd, the pride of art,
A critic By, whose feeble ray scarce spreads
A inch around, with blind presumption bold,
Should dare to tax the structure of the whole
2. And lives the man, whose universal eye,
Has swept at once th' unbounded scheme of things,
Mark'd their dependence so, and firm accord,
As with unfaltering accent to conclude,
That this availeth naught? Has any seen
The nighty chain of beings less'ning down
From infinite perfection, to the brink
Of dreary nothing, desolate abyss!
From which astonish'd thought, recoiling, turns.
Till then, alone let zealous praise ascend,
And hymns of holy wonder, to that POWER,
Whose wisdom shines as lovely in our minds,
As on our smiling eyes his servant sun.
. Or all the causes which conspire to blind
Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is pride, the never failing vice of fools.
Whatever nature has in worth deny'd,
She gives in large recruits of needful pride;
For, as in bodies, thus in souls, we find
What wants in blood and spirits, swell'd with wind.
Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence,
And fills up all the mighty void of sense.
2. If once right reason drives that cloud away,
Truth breaks upon us with resistless ray,
Trust not yourself; but your defects to know,
Make use of every friend-and every foe
A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the bram;
And drinking largely sobers us again.
3. Fir'd at first sight with what the muse imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts,
While, from the bounded level of our mind,
Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind;
But more advanc'd, behold, with strange surprise,
New distant scenes of endless science rise!
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