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Light flows the shining azure vest,
And all the angel stands confess'd..

I view'd the change with sweet surprise;
And, oh! I panted for the skies;

Thank'd heav'n that e'er I drew my breath;
And triumph'd in the thoughts of death.

CHAPTER III.

DIDACTIC PIECES.

COTTON.

SECTION I.

The vanity of wealth.

NO more thus brooding o'er yon heap,
With avarice painful vigils keep;
Still unenjoy'd the present store,

Still endless sighs are breath'd for more.
Oh! 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 unbrild'd, unbought.
Cease then on trash thy hopes to bind;
Let nobler views engage thy mind.

SECTION II.

Nothing formed in vain.

LET no presuming impious railer tax
Creative wisdom; as if aught was form'd
In vain, or not for admirable ends.

DR. JOHNSON.

Shall little haughty ignorance pronounce
His works unwise, of which the smallest part
Exceeds the narrow vision of her mind?
As if, upon a full proportion'd dome,

On swelling columns heav'd, the pride of art!
A critic fly, whose feeble rays scarce spread
An inch around, with blind presumption bold,
Should dare tax the structure of the whole.

And lives the man, whose universal eye

Has swept at once th' unbounded scheme of things;
Mark'd the dependence so, and firm accord,
As with unfalt'ring accent to conclude,
That this availeth nought? Has any seen
The mighty 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 smilling eyes his servant-sun.

SECTION III.

On pride.

THOMSON

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 it large recruits of needful pride!
For, as in bodies, thus in sou's, 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.
If once right reason drives that cloud away,
That breaks upon us with resistless day.
Trust not yourself; but your defects to know,
Make use of ev ry friend-and ev'ry foe.
A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or tates nor the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain;
And drinking largely sobers us again.

Fir'd at first sight with what the nuse 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 !
So, pleas'd at first the tow'ring Alps we try,
Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky;
Th'eternal snows appear already past;

And the first clouds and mountains seem the last :
But those attain'd, we tremble to survey
The growing labours of the lengthen'd way;

The increasing prospect tires our wand'ring eyes;
dls peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise.

POPE.

SECTION IV.

Cruelty to beasts censured.

I WOULD not enter on my list of friends,

(Though grac'd with polish'd manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility,) the man

Who needlesly sets foot upon a worm.
An inadvertent step may crush the snail,
That crawls at evening in the public path;
But he that has humanity, forewarn'd,
Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.
The creeping vermine, loathsome to the sight,
And charg'd perhaps with venom, that intrudes
A visitor unwelcome into scenes

Sacred to neatness and repose, th' alcove,
The chamber, or refectory, may die.

A necessary act incurs no blame.

Not so, when held within their proper bounds,
And guiltless of offence, they range the air,
Or take their pastime in the spacious field:
There they are privileg d. And he that hunts
Or harms them there, is guilty of a wrong;
Disturbs th' economy of nature's realm,
Who, when she form'd, design'd them an abode.
The sum is this: if man's convenience, health,
Or safety interfere. his rights and claims
Are paramount, and must extinguish theirs.
Else they are all-the meanest things that are,
As free to live and to enjoy that life,
As God was free to form them at the first,
Who, in his sovreign wisdom, made them all.
Ye, therefore, who loye mercy, teach your sons
To love it too. The spring-time of our years
Is soon dishonour'd and defil'd, in most,
By budding ills, that ask a prudent hand
To check them. But, alas! none suoner shoots
If unrestrain'd into luxuriant growth,
Than cruelty most dev'lish of them all.
Mercy to him that shows it, is the rule
And righteous limitation of its act.

By which Heav'n moves in pard'ning guilty man ;
And he that shows none, being ripe in years,
And conscious of the outrage he commits,
Shall seek it, and not find it in his turn.

SECTION V.

COWPER.

A paraphrase on the latter part of the 6th chapter of St. Mat

thew.

When iny breast labours with oppressive care,
And o'er my cheek descends the falling tear ;

U

While all my warring passions are at strife,
Oh! let me listen to the words of life!
Raptures deep-felt his doctrine did impart,
And thus be rais'd from earth the drooping heart.
"Think not, when all your scanty stores afford,
Is spread at once upon the sparing board;
Think not, when worn the homely robe appears,
While on the root the howling tempest bears;
What farther shall this feeble lite sustain,
And what shall clothe these shiv'ring limbs again,
Say, does not life its nourishment exceed?
And the fair body its investing weed?
Behold! and look away your low despair-
See the light tenants of the barren air :

To them, nor stores, nor granaries, belong;
Nought, but the woodland, and the pleasing song;
Yet, your kind heay'nly Father bends his eye
On the least wing that flits along the sky:
To him they sing when spring renews the plain;
To him they cry, in winter's pinching reign;
Nor is their music, nor their plaint in vain :
He hears the gay, and the distressful call;
And with unsparing bounty fills them all.

"Observe the rising lily's snowy grace; Observe the various vegetable race:

}

They neither toil nor spin, but careless grow;
Yet see how warm they blush! how bright they glow!
What regal vestments can with them compare!
What king so shining! or what queen so fair!

"6 If, ceaseless, thus, the fowles of heav'n he feeds;
If o'er the fields such lucid robes he spreads;
Will he not care for you, ye faithless, say?
Is he unwise? or are ye less than they?"

SECTION VI.

The death af a good man a strong incentive to virtue. THE chamber where the good man meets his fate, Is privileg'd beyond the common walk Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heav'n. Fly ye profane! if not, draw near with awe, Receive the blessing, and adore the chance, That threw in this Bethesda your disease: If unrestor'd by this, despair your cure. For, here, resistless demonstration dwells; A death-bed's a detector of the heart Here tir'd Dissimulation drops her mask, Thro' life's grimace, that mistress of the scene! Here real, and apparent, are the same.

You see the man; you see his hold on heav'n,

If sound his virtue, as Philander's sound.

Heav'n waits not the last moment; owns her friends
On this side death; and points them out to men;
A lecture, silent, but of sov'reign pow'r!
To vice, confusion; and to virtue, peace,
Whatever farce the boastful hero plays,

Virtue alone has majesty in death;

And greater still, the more the tyrant frowns. YOUNG.

SECTION VII.

Reflections on a future state, from a review of winter. 'Tis done! dread winter spreads his latest glooms, And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year. How dead the vegetable kingdom lies!

How dumb the tuneful! Horror wide extends

His desolate doma n. Behold, fond man!

See here they pictur'd life: pass some few years, Thy flow'ring spring, thy summer's ardent strength, Thy sober autumn fading into age,

And pale concluding winter comes at last,

And shuts the scene. Ah! whither now are fled
Those dreams of greatness? those unsolid hopes
Of happiness? those longings after fame ?

Those restless cares? those busy bustling days?

Those gay-spent, festive nights? those veering thoughts,
Lost between good and ill, that shar'd thy life!
All now are vanish'd! Virtue sole survives,
Immortal never-failing friend of man,
His guide to happiness on high. And see!
'Tis come, the glorious morn the second birth
Of heaven and earth! awak'ning nature hears
The new creating word; and starts to life,
In ev'ry heighten'd form, from pain and death
For ever free. The great eternal scheme,
Involving all, and in a perfect whole
Uniting as the prospect wider spreads,
To reason's eye refin'd clears up apace.

Ye vainly wise! Ye blind presumptuous! now,
Confounded in the dust, adore that Power,
And Wisdom oft arraigned: see now the cause
Why unassuming worth in secret liv'd,

And died neglected: why the good man's share
In life was gall and bitterness of soul:
Why the lone widow and her orphans pip'd
In starying solitude; while luxury,
In palaces, lay straining her low thought,
To form unreal wants; why heav'n-born truth,
And moderation fair, wore the red marks
Of superstition's scourge: why licens'd pain,

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