Confusion dwelt in every face, When waves on waves, and gulfs on gulfs, Yet then from all my griefs, oh Lord, Whilst in the confidence of prayer, For, though in dreadful whirls we hung I knew thou wert not slow to hear, The storm was laid, the winds retired The sea, that roared at thy command, In midst of dangers, fears, and death, And praise thee for thy mercies past, My life, if thou preserv'st my life, Thy sacrifice shall be; And death, if death must be my doom, Shall join my soul to thee. CATO'S SOLILOQUY ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE soul. It must be so-Plato, thou reason'st well, Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, Or whence this secret dread and inward horror 1 Tuscan. 2 The scene represents him as holding in his hand Plato's book on the Immortality of the Soul, a drawn sword being on the table beside him. Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul Eternity-thou pleasing-dreadful thought! Through what new scenes and changes must we pass! Through all her works,) he must delight in Virtue; And that which he delights in must be happy : But-when?-or where?-This world was made for Cæsar. I'm weary of conjectures :-This must end them. [Laying his hand on his sword. Thus I am doubly armed; my death and life, My bane and antidote are both before me. The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds. ISAAC WATTS, D. D. (1672-1717.) THE name of this eminent theologian is familiar to our nursery associations. He was born at Southampton. His parents were Protestant Dissenters, who had suffered severely for their faith during the arbitrary times of Charles II. His immense attainments in literature may be accounted for in some measure from their early commencement. He read Latin at little more than four years of age. He adhered in manhood to the faith of his fathers, and devoted himself to the ecclesiastical profession. His health was unequal to his professional duties, and, fortunately for literature and Christianity, he obtained, in the religious household of Sir Thomas Abney, a retreat in which for thirtysix years he devoted his whole energies to the Christian good of his fellowThe character of Watts is one of the most perfectly amiable and beautiful that literary history presents. Nothing was too humble for the active benevolence of his great mind. He could trace the outlines of the vast spheres of divinity and philosophy, and condescend to the simple catechism men. and the beautiful strains that continue to awaken and to fan the piety of childhood. The lyric poetry of Watts displays the easy elegance of a mind unbending itself from severer studies. His poems of "Heavenly Love" are the extatic expressions of his devotional feelings. Johnson finds fault with their sameness. "He is," the critic adds, "one of the few poets with whom youth and ignorance may be safely pleased; and happy will be that reader whose mind is disposed, by his verses or his prose, to imitate him in all but his non-conformity; to copy his benevolence to man, and his reverence to God." THE LAW GIVEN AT SINAI. His chariot was a pitchy cloud, * Sinai received his glorious flight; And rising smoke obscured the burning hill. Deep groaned the mount: it never bore It bowed and shook beneath the burden of a God. Hark, from the centre of the flame, All armed and feathered with the same, A flight of cherubs guard the words along, That glorious and that fearful name, Thy God and King. Twas I that broke Thy bondage and th' Egyptian yoke. Mine is the right to speak my will, FREE PHILOSOPHY. Custom, that tyranness of fools, No more ye slaves with awe profound, I hate these shackles of the mind, * * Thoughts should be free as fire or wind. Will through all nature fly. And with choicer plenty crown'd. Yet the silly wandering mind, If her inward worth were known, 1 Apparently implying not to be used in this world. |