Swim'd on the maze of Harmony. Awhile

He eyed the scene perplex'd, and thus began.

"AH! what to gain bright Pleasure's genial fmile "Avails the pride of Virtue? Rough and hard, 661 "Amidst entangling thorns her rugged road "Lies pathlefs. Labour is the envied meed "Her hand confers; and near her Poverty

"Sits shivering. Dark are Heav'n's mysterious ways. "Yet whence this paufe?-Yon cooling fhades invite My step; to man's affiduous toil, the palm "Of Happiness is yielded. Indolence

"O'erlooks the mark; and sleepy dreams of bliss, "When Reafon calls to action. Lives not Peace, 670 "Reigns not fair Virtue, in these happy groves? "She reigns! 'tis bigot fear that from her train "Would chafe the Pleasures. Should my fearch be " crown'd

"With conqueft; riches, honour, power conferr'd; "The Stranger's lips fhall bless me. Should I fail; "To dare is noble.-Let me try."—He spoke, And plunged amid the ftream, and stemm'd its tide With nervous arm. Light o'er the fwelling waves Awhile he fails triumphant. On his view,

Each moment widening breaks the beauteous fcene 680 With heightned pomp; and now its spicy bank

Perfumes

Perfumes the whispering gale. The people pour
Thro' the dark wood; and to his ardent gaze
Young Pleasure radiant as the star of Eve
Extends a golden circlet. But the tide

Breaks o'er him; and the rough ftones ragged fides
Roll'd down the current, tear his fhatter'd limbs,
Or check his meditated course, or turn

His aim abrupt: and now his dizzy brain

685

Wheels, thro' his noftrils darts the flashing stream: 690
He pants by fits, and starting gafps for air!

Then whirls, and finks precipitate. The waves
Close round him. Snatch'd at once from life, from joy;
From sweet domestic quiet; from his home,

Where the weak infant round a widow's neck

Clasp'd its young arms; afar the Father lay

695

In Death's cold grafp. The throbbing heart that thrill'd Humane, to Mifery's defponding wail;

Forgot each gentler feeling; and his eyes

Wrapt in dark shade, were closed to wake no more.

ARE these, Benevolence, the great rewards Of noble deeds? thus gains th' expanded heart

701

That pants for others good, the generous aim,

By god-like Piety infpired; nor dafh'd

By Reason's cool research that weighs the means? 75 Stands Death's grim front full in the rugged porch

Where

Where Virtue leads her fons, in act to pierce

The breaft that melts to fympathetic woe:

While Vice stalks flow, and with contemptuous leer At ease beholds them ?-From the thought of man 710 How deeply fcreen'd are Heav'n's unfathom'd ways!

THUS wildly-wavering, roll'd the dubious mind From thought to thought, uncertain where its fearch Should end. Yet from my lips, no whisper'd plaint Told its weak muttering. But Attention rapt The liftening ear, when thus the Sage refumed.

SAY weeps not pity o'er yon mournful scene In foftned anguifh? Let the copious ftream Burft from thy feeling heart. The manly tear Belongs to virtue. Be the wretch accurfed, Whose bofom melts not to another's woe.

715

720

YET know, what man's falfe guefs miftakes for ill,
In God's unbounded plan, promotes the good
Of All; and as of All, the feparate bliss

Of Individuals. As the man whofe thought
Explores with deep defign the fecret fprings
That work the heart; can cooly trace the Cause,
While Folly wonders on th' Effect; and light,
Skims the fmooth face of Life's deceitful stream:

725

Sa

So God, whefe inftant glance furveys a Whole,
Where human Wifdom to one link confined,
Glimmers; with boundless reach adjusts the means
To boundlefs knowledge. Hence the wildering maze
Where Reafon gropes in darkness. Hence the tear

On Pity's kindling cheek, that speaks the man,
Tho' weak, yet virtucus; noble in the deed
That marks his imperfection. As a man,

Line 732, 3. With boundless reach, &c.] Thus Ariftotie fays of the Divine Mind, A^^ Tolo v To deloΠαζον το μέλα ρασωνης, και απλης κινησως παντοδαπας απολελειν ιδιας, ωσπερ αμέλει δρωσιν οι Μεγαλαζέροι δια μιας οργανου χαστήριο ας, πολλας και ποικίλας ενέργειας loves, De Man. This defcription of the Deity is conformable to what is faid of Him in the facred writings. Cicero appears to have had it in his eye, when he says, Nec vero Deus ipfe qui intelligitur a nobis ; alio modo intelligi poteft; nifi Mens foluta quædam, & libera; fegregata ab omne concretione mortali; omnia fentiens, & movens, &c. Tufc. Quæft. lib. i. It is proper to obferve here, that the author ought pot to be miflaken, as if in this, and in fome other parts of the work, he intended to depreciate human reafon below its proper value; and

730

735

to reprefent it as inadequate to purposes which it is able to effectuate. the preceding, and fome other quatations from the Ancients, are inferted principally to fhow, that Philofophers who were led by the light of Nature, conceived juft ideas of the Supreme Being, both as to his natural and moral attributes. We mean therefore only to fay, that this faculty, like a fine telescope, fhows the compleat proportions of every object which is placed within its fphere; but when it is employed to furvey fuch as are too complicated of texture, or too distant in their pofition; it reprefents these obfcurely, and gives the eye no juft idea of their nature or dimenfions.

Line 736, 7. Though weak yet virtuous.] Weak in this inftance, because perhaps he is lamenting as an evil, what ought really to be confidered as an advantage: and

virtuous

He

740

He feels, he weeps, where the Superior Power
Would triumph: Should he smile, his smile were more,
Or less than human. Yet be Reason cool,
While Paffion melts. Thou faw'ft a joyous tribe,
Gay Pleasure's aery fons, amid the grove
Loofe-wandering: Nature shower'd her richest spoils
To bless with new delight each circling hour.
Thou faw'ft a wretch yet reeking with the blood 745
Of Age; a Father's blood: thou faw'ft him left
Careless, to riot in his wealth; the crime

By heav'n unpunish'd; fave where Confcience ftings
The guilty heart, or what the fiery breath

Of burning Fever kindles in the veins.

virtuous at the fame time, becaufe this amiable feeling is in Him commendable. There is indeed fometimes an high degree of Virtue difcovered in the fuppreffion of pity. Thus Virgil, as an instance of the fortitude and resolution of Æneas, fays that when this hero was implored in the moft paffionate manner to continue with Dido,

750

frailty of human nature which is unable to trace remote confequences; he is deeply affected with incidents which to a Superior Being who was capable to see further into futurity, would afford reafon for exultation and triumph.

Line 748, 49. Save where Confcience ftings, &c.] These were formerly mentioned as the natural

Mens immota manet; lacrymæ confequences of Vice, fuppofing a

volvuntur inanes.

Eneid. IV.

Line 738, 39. He weeps, where the fuperior Power, &c.] From the

ftate of future rewards and punishment to be out of the queftion. See P. 152 1. 330, &c.

IN