" Nor grudge I, Adam, those fall'n fons of thine, "Fleth of thy flesh, to share a seat with mine, "By him fublim'd into a nobler sphere; "So they flay not their younger brothers, here. "But, through much grief, this glory must be won; "Flesh, foil'd by fin, by death must be undone; "Muft drop the world, wherein it felt its force, "And, giant-like, rejoic'd to run its course; "Muft drop each organ of its late delight; "Must bid a long adieu to sense and fight, "A long adieu to ev'ry darling luft; "Muft yield its paffive members, duft to duft, "Within the potter's furnace to be fin'd, "And leave its groffnefs, with its guilt, behind. "Meanfpace, thofe forms of flesh, thofe fons of fin, "Shall ferve to hold my priceless pearls within; "As golden grain within prolific clay, "To shoot and ripen tow'rd a future day. "Yon maggot, vileft offspring of vile earth, "Answers the genial baseness of his birth: "Lo, where he rolls and battens, with delight, "In filth, to finell offenfive, foul to fight! "Well pleas'd, he drinks the ftench, the dirt devours, "And prides him in the puddle of his powers; "Careless, unconscious of the beauteous guest, "Th' internal speck committed to his breast. "Yet, in his breaft, th' internal fpeck grows warm, "And quickens into motion, life, and form; "Far other form than that its foft'rer bore, High o'er its parent-worm ordain'd to foar: "The } "The fon, still growing as the fire decays, "In radiant plumes his infant shape arrays; Matures, as in a foft and filent womb, "Then, opening, peeps from his paternal tomb; "Now, ftruggling, breaks at once into the day, "Tries his young limbs, and bids his wings display, "Expands his lineaments, erects his face, "Rifes fublime o'er all the reptile race; "From new-dropt bloffoms fips the nectar'd stream, "And bafks within the glory of the beam. "Thus, to a fenfual, to a finful shrine, "The SAVIOUR fhall entrust his speck-divine; "In fecret animate his chofen feed, "Fill with his love, and with his fubftance feed; "Inform it with fenfations of his own, "And give it appetites, to flesh unknown. "So fhall the lufts of man's old worm give place, "His fervor languish, and his force decrease; "Till fpoil'd of ev'ry object, gross or vain, "His pride and paffions humbled, crush'd, and flain; "From a falfe world to his firft kingdom won, "His will, and fin, and fenfe, and felf undone; "His inward man from death shall break away, "And foar, and mingle with eternal day!" This (in a word) THE FATHER spoke and streight And pierc'd the darkness with his living beam; G 3 The The good from evil he did then divide, And fet man's darkness from GOD's light afide : Wide, from the heart, he bids his will be done, And there plac'd CONSCIENCE as a central fun; Whence REASON, like the moon, derives, by night, A weak, a borrow'd, and a dubious light. But, down the foul's abyss, a region dire! He caus'd the Stygian horrors to retire; From whence afcends the gloom of many a peft, Dark'ning the beam of heaven within the breast; Atrocious intimations, causeless care, Diftruft, and hate, and rancour, and despair. As in creation, when THE WORD gave birth In ev'ry mode of LOVE, a fragrant throng, Divine effufions of the human breast, Within the very act of bleffing, bleft; Faint emblems, yet of virtue to proclaim Thoughts that from earth, with wing'd emotion, foar, Thus, in the womb of man's abyfs are sown Of all th' almighty works of GOD, is man; This dæmon, this divinity within, This flame eternal, this foul mould'ring clod- O, the fell conflict, the intestine ftrife, That, That, in thy wrath, pollution shall expire, ( 1 · TO A FRIEND, ON HIS OWNING THAT THE EXTERIOR CHARMS OF A YOUNG LADY HAD ENGAGED HIS AFFECTIONS. S W 'HY hang thy hopes on beauty's fading flower, The blooming offspring of fome genial shower? To-day it buds to-morrow's dawning fun, With rifing wonder, views its bloffoms gone. E'en fo those charms which now create defire, Ere long must wither, languifh, and expire; With those less fair, receive one common doom, And wafte their luftre in the filent tomb. ΤΟ |