To catch the wand'ring notice of mankind, 140 145 Is handmaid to the purposes of Grace; By good vouchsaf'd makes known superiour good, And bliss not seen by blessings understood : That bliss, reveal'd in Scripture, with a glow Bright as the covenant ensuring bow, 150 Fires all his feelings with a noble scorn Of sensual evil, and thus hope is born. Hope sets the stamp of vanity on all That men have deem'd substantial since the fall; 155 From emptiness itself a real use ; And while she takes, as at a father's hand, From fading good derives, with chemick art, That lasting happiness, a thankful heart. 160 Hope with uplifted foot, set free from earth, Pants for the place of her ethereal birth, On steady wings sails through the immense abyss, Plucks amaranthine joys from bowers of bliss, And crowns the soul, while yet a mourner here 165 With wreaths like those triumphant spirits wear. Hope, as an anchor firm and sure, holds fast The Christian vessel, and defies the blast. 170 Hope! let the wretch, once conscious of the joy, What treasures centre, what delights in thee Had he the gems, the spices, and the land, 175 That boasts the treasure, all at his cominand ; Were light, when weigh'd against one smile of thine. Though clasp'd and cradled in his nurse's arms, He shines with all a cherub's artless charms. 180 Man is the genuine offspring of revolt, His passions, like the wat'ry stores that sleep 185 To frown, and roar, and shake his feeble form. Or, more provoking still, of nobler name, 190 The little Greeks look trembling at the scales, 195 Now see him launch'd into the world at large; If priest, supinely droning o'er his charge, 205 210 Insist on, as if each were his own pɔpe, And life abus'd, and not to be suborn'd. 215 220 Mark these, she says; these summon'd from afar, 225 There find a judge inexorably just, Peace be to those, (such peace as earth can give,) 230 And perish there, as all presumption must. Who live in pleasure, dead e'en while they live ; 235 A right to the meek honours of her name,) To men of pedigree, their noble race, To any throne, except the throne of Grace. Let cottagers and unenlighten'd swains Revere the laws they dream'd that Heav'n ordains ; 240 245 Judging, in charity, no doubt, the town 250 What they themselves, without remorse despise : 255 They die-Death lends them, pleas'd, and as in With mournful scutcheons, and dim lamps between ; Proclaim their titles to the crowd around, 266 But they that wore them move not at the sound; 'The coronet plac'd highly at their head, Adds nothing now to the degraded dead; And e'en the star, that glitters on the bier, 270 Can only say-Nobility lies here. Peace to all such--'twere pity to offend, By useless censure, whom we cannot mend; 'Twas there we found them, and must leave them there. As when two pilgrims in a forest stray, Both may be lost, yet each in his own way; So fares it with the multitudes beguil'd In vain Opinion's waste and dang'rous wild ; 275 Ten thousand rove the brakes and thorns among, 280 Some eastward, and some westward, and all wrong. But here, alas! the fatal diffrence lies, Each man's belief is right in his own eyes; And he that blames what they have blindly chose, 235 Say, botanist, within whose province fall The cedar and the hyssop on the wall, Of all that deck the lanes, the fields, the bow'rs, What parts the kindred tribes of weeds and flow rs? Sweet scent, or lovely form, or both combin`d, 290 Distinguish ev'ry cultivated kind; The want of both denotes a meaner breed, And Chloe from her garland picks the weed. Thus hopes of ev'ry sort, whatever sect Esteem them, sow them, rear them, and protect. 295 Gethsemane! in thy dear hallow`d ground, That cannot bear the blaze of Scripture light, Nor animate the soul to Christian deeds, 300 (Oh cast them from thee!) are weeds, arrant weeds. Ethelred's house, the centre of six ways, Diverging each from each, like equal rays, Lord paramount of the surrounding plains, 305 Would give relief of bed and board to none, But guests that sought it in th' appointed One; And they might enter at his open door, E'en till his spacious hall would hold no more. He sent a servant forth, by ev'ry road, 310 To sound his horn, and publish it abroad. That all might mark-knight, menial, high, and low, 315 320 |