Look Nature through, 'tis neat gradation all.
By what minute degrees her scale ascends!
Each middle nature join'd, at each extreme,
To that above it join'd, to that beneath,
Parts into parts reciprocally shot,
Abhor divorce. What love of union reigns!
Here dormant matter waits a call to life;
Half-life, half-death, join there: here life and sense,
There sense from reason steals a glimmʼring ray :
Reason shines out in man. But how preserv'd
The chain unbroken upward, to the realms
Of incorporeal life? those realms of bliss
Where Death hath no dominion? Grant a make
Half-mortal, half-immortal; earthy part,
And part ethereal: grant the soul of man
Eternal, or in man the series ends.
Wide yawns the gap; connexion is no more;
Check'd Reason halts; her next step wants support;
Striving to climb, she tumbles from her scheme,
A scheme Analogy pronounc'd so true:
Analogy! man's surest guide below.
Thus far all Nature calls on thy belief;
And will Lorenzo, careless of the call,
False attestation on all Nature charge,
Rather than violate his league with Death?
Renounce his reason, rather than renounce
The dust belov'd, and run the risk of heav'n?
O what indignity to deathless souls! What treason to the majesty of man! Of man immortal! Hear the lofty style: "If so decreed, th' Almighty will be done. "Let earth dissolve, yon pond'rous orbs descend, "And grind us into dust. The soul is safe; "The man emerges: mounts above the wreck, "As tow'ring flame from Nature's fun❜ral pyre; "O'er devastation, as a gainer, smiles; "His charter, his inviolable rights,
"Well-pleas'd to learn from thunder's impotence, "Death's pointless darts, and Hell's defeated storms." But these chimeras touch not thee, Lorenzo! The glories of the world thy sev'nfold shield. Other ambition than of crowns in air,
And superlunary felicities,
Thy bosom warm. I'll cool it if I can,
And turn those glories that enchant against thee.
What ties thee to this life proclaims the next.
If wise, the cause that wounds thee is thy cure.
Come, my ambitious! let us mount together,
(To mount Lorenzo never can refuse)
And from the clouds, where Pride delights to dwell, Look down on earth.-What seest thou? wondrous
Terrestrial wonders, that eclipse the skies.
Vhat lengths of labour'd lands! what loaded seas!
Loaded by man for pleasure, wealth, or war !
Seas, winds, and planets, into service brought,
His art acknowledge, and promote his ends.
Nor can th' eternal rocks his will withstand:
What levell'd mountains! and what lifted vales!
O'er vales and mountains sumptuous cities swell,
And gild our landscape with their glitt'ring spires.
Some 'mid the wond'ring waves majestic rise,
And Neptune holds a mirror to their charms.
Far greater still! (what cannot mortal might?)
See wide dominions ravish'd from the deep!
The narrow'd deep with indignation foams.
Or southward turn, to delicate and grand,
The finer arts there ripen in the sun.
How the tall temples, as to meet their gods,
Ascend the skies! the proud triumphal arch
Shews us half heav'n beneath its ample bend.
High thro' mid air here streams are taught to flow;
Whole rivers there, laid by in basons sleep.
Here plains turn oceans; there vast oceans join
Thro' kingdoms channell❜d deep from shore to shore,
And chang'd creation takes its face from man.
Beats thy brave breast for formidable scenes,
Where fame and empire wait upon the sword?
See fields in blood; hear naval thunders rise;
Britannia's voice! that awes the world to peace..
How yon enormous mole projecting breaks
The mid sea, furious waves! their roar amidst
Out speaks the Deity, and says, “O Main!
"Thus far, nor farther; new restraints obey."
Earth's disembowel'd! measur'd are the skies!
Stars are detected in their deep recess !
Creation widens! vanquish'd Nature yields
Her secrets are extorted! art prevails!
What monument of genius, spirit, pow'r!
And now, Lorenzo! raptur'd at this scene,
Whose glories render heav'n superfluous! say
Whose footsteps these?-Immortals have been here;
Could less than souls immortal this have done?
Earth's cover'd o'er with proofs of souls immortal,
And proofs of immortality forgot.
To flatter thy grand foible, I confess
These are Ambition's works; and these are great:
But this, the least immortal souls can do,
Transcend them all.-But what can these transcend?
Dost ask me what? one sigh for the distrest.
What then for Infidels? a deeper sigh.
'Tis moral grandeur makes the mighty man.
How little they who think aught great below?
All our ambitions death defeats but one,
And that it crowns.-Here cease we; but, ere long,
More pow'rful proof shall take the field against thee,
Stronger than death, and smiling at the tomb.
|