In fight of mortal and immortal pow'rs,
As on a boundless, theatre to run.

The

great career of justice; to exalt His gen'rous aim to all diviner deeds;

To chafe each partial purpose from his breaft;
And through the mifts of paffion and of fense,
And through the toffing tide of chance and pain,
To hold his courfe unfalt'ring, while the voice
Of truth and virtue, up the steep afcent
Of Nature, calls him to his high reward,

Th' applauding fmile of Heav'n: Elfe wherefore burns
In mortal bofoms this unquenched hope,

That breathes from day to day fublimer things,
And mocks poffeffion? Wherefore darts the mind,
With fuch refiftless ardour to embrace
Majeftic forms; impatient to be free,
Spurning the grofs control of wilful might;
Proud of the strong contention of her toils ;
Proud to be daring? Who but rather turns
To Heav'n's broad fire his unconftrained view,
Than to the glimm'ring of a waxen flame!
Who that from Alpine heights his lab'ring eye
Shoots round the wild horizon, to furvey

Nilus or Ganges rolling his bright wave

Through mountains, plains, thro' empires black with fhade, And continents of fand! will turn his

To mark the windings of a feanty rill

gaze

That murmurs at his feet? The high-born foul
Difdains to rest her Heav'n-afpiring wing
Beneath its native quarry. Tir'd of earth
And this diurnal fcene, the fprings aloft
Through fields of air; purfues the flying ftorm;
Rides on the volley'd light'ning through the heav'ns;
Or yok'd with whirlwinds and the northern blast,
Sweeps the long tract of day. Then high fhe foars

The blue profound, and hovering round the fun,
Beholds him pouring the redundant fiream
Of light; beholds his unrelenting fway
Bend the reluctant planets to abfolve

The fated rounds of time. Thence far effus'd
She darts her fwiftnefs up the long career
Of devious comets; through its burning figns,
Exulting, meafures the perennial wheel

Of Nature, and locks back on all the stars,
Whofe blended light, as with a milky zone
Invefts the orient. Now amaz'd she views
Th' empyreal wafte, where happy fpirits hold,
Beyond this concave Heav'n, their calm abode;
And fields of radiance, whofe unfading light
Has travell'd the profound fix thousand years,
Nor yet arrives in fight of mortal things.
Ev'n on the barriers of the world untir'd
She meditates th' eternal depth below;
Till, half recoiling, down the headlong fleep
She plunges; foon o'erwhelm'd and swallow'd up
In that immenfe of being. There her hopes
Reft at the fated goal. For from the birth
Of mortal man, the fovereign Maker faid,
That not in humble nor in brief delight,
Not in the fading echoes of renown,

Pow'r's purple robes, nor Pleafure's flow'ry lap,
The foul should find enjoyment: but from these
Turning difdainful to an equal good,

Through all th' afcent of things enlarge her view,
Till every bound at length fhould disappear,
And infinite perfection clefe the fcene.

AKE'NSIDE.

CALL now to mind what high capacious po'rs
Lie folded up in man: how far beyond

The praise of mortals, may th' eternal growth.
Of nature to perfection half divine

Expand the blooming foul! What pity then
Should floth's unkindly fogs deprefs to earth
Her tender bloffom; choke the ftreams of life,
And blaft her fpring! Far otherwife defign'd
Almighty Wifdem; Nature's happy cares
Th' obedient heart far otherwife incline.

Witnefs the fprightly joy when aught unknown
Strikes the quick fenfe, and wakes each active pow'z
To brifker meafures: witnefs the neglect
Of all familiar profpects, though beheld.
With tranfport once; the fond attentive gaze
Of young aftonishment; the fober zeal
Of age. commenting on prodigious things.
For fuch the bounteous providence of leav'n,
In every breast implanting this defire
Of objects new and ft ange, to urge us on
With unremitted labour to purfue

Thofe facred ftores that wait the rip'ning foul,
In Truth's exhauftlefs bofom. What need words
To paint its pow'r? For this, the daring youth
Breaks from his weeping mother's anxious arms,
In foreign climes to rove; the penfive fage,
Heedlefs of fleep, or midnight's harmful damp,
Hangs o'er the fickly taper; and untir'd
The virgin follows,, with enchanted step,
The mazes of fome wif: and word'rous tale,
From morn to eve, unindful of her form,

Unmindful of the happy drefs that stole
The wishes of the youth, when every maid
With envy pin'd. Hence finally by night
The village matron, round the blazing hearth,
Sufpends the infant audience with her tales,
Breathing aftonishment! of witching rhimes
And evil fpirits; of the death-bed call
Of him who robb'd the widow, and devour'd
The orphan's portion; of unquiet fouls
Ris'n from the grave to eafe the heavy guilt
Of deeds in life conceal'd; of fhapes that walk
At dead of night, and clank their chains, and wave
The torch of Hell around the murd'rer's bed.

At every folemn paufe the crowd recoil,
Gazing each other fpeechlefs, and congeal'd
With fhiv'ring fighs: till eager for th' event,
Around the beldam all erect they hang,

Each trembling heart with grateful terrours quell'd.

CHAP. XXXII.

PHILANTHROPY.

WHEN erit contagion, with mephitic breath,

AKENSIDE

And wither'd Famine, urg'd the work of death;
Marseilles' good bifhop, London's gen'rous mayor,
With food and faith, with med'cine and with pray'r,
Rais'd the weak head and stay'd the parting figh,
Or with new life relum'd the fwimming eye.-
-And now, Philanthropy! thy rays divine
Dart round the globe from Zembla to the line;
O'er each dark prifon plays the cheering light,
Like northern luftres o'er the vault of night.-
From realm to realm, with crofs or crefcent crown'd,
Where'er mankind and mifery are found,

O'er

O'er burning fands, deep waves, or wilds of fnow,
Thy HowARD journeying feeks the houfe of woe.
Down many a winding ftep to dungeons dank,
Where Anguish wails aloud, and fetters clank;
To caves beftrew'd with many a mould'ring bone,
And cells, whofe echoes only learn to groan;
Where no kind bars a whifp'ring friend disclose,
No funbeam enters, and no zephyr blows,
He treads inemulous of fame or wealth,
Profufe of teil, and prodigal of health;
With foft affuafive cloquence expands

Power's rigid heart, and opes his clenching hands;
Leads ftern ey'd Jufice to the dark domains,
If not to fever, to relax the chains;

Or guides awaken'd Mercy through the gloom,
And shows the prison fifter to the tomb!-
Gives to her babes the felf-devoted wife,
To her fond husband liberty and life !—
-The fpirits of the good, who bend from high
Wide o'er thefe earthly fcenes their partial eye,
When firft, array'd in Virtue's pureft robe,
They faw her Howard traverfing the globe;
Saw round his brows her fun-like glory blaze
circles of unwearied rays;
arrowy
Miftook a mortal for an angel guest,

In

And ask'd what feraph foot the earth imprefs'd.
Onward he moves!-Difeafe and Death retire,
-And murmuring demons hate him, and admire.

CHAP. XXXIII.

THE ROSE.

DARWIN:

THE rofe had been wash'd just wash'd in a fhow'r, Which Mary to Anna convey'd,

The plentiful moisture incumber'd the flow'r, And weigh'd down its beautiful head.