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A

THE

COMPLAINT.

NIGHT THE FIRST.

ON

LIFE, DEATH,

AND

IMMORTALITY.

HUMBLY INSCRIBED

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

ARTHUR ONSLO W, Efq.

SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

A

THE

COMPLAINT.

NIGHT THE FIRST.

IR'D nature's fweet reftorer, balmy fleep!

THe, like the world, his ready vifit pays

Where fortune fmiles; the wretched he forfakes:
Swift on his downy pinions flies from woe,
And lights on lids unfully'd with a tear.

From fhort (as ufual) and difturb'd repofe,
I wake: how happy they who wake no more!
Yet that were vain, if dreams infeft the grave.
I wake, emerging from a fea of dreams
Tumultuous; where my wreck'd defponding thought,
From wave to wave of fancy'd misery,

At random drove, her helm of reason loft:
Tho' now reftor'd, 'tis only change of pain,
(A bitter change!) feverer for fevere.

The day too fhort for my diftrefs! and night,
Even in the zenith of her dark domain,

Is funshine, to the colour of my fate.

Night, fable goddefs! from her ebon throne,
In raylefs majefty, now ftretches forth
Her leaden fceptre o'er a flumb'ring world.
Silence, how dead! and darkness, how profound!
Nor eye, nor lift'ning ear, an object finds;
Creation fleeps. 'Tis as the general pulfe

Of life ftood ftill, and nature made a pause,
An awful paufe! prophetic of her end.
And let her prophecy be foon fulfill'd:
Fate! drop the curtain; I can lofe no more.

Silence, and darkness! folemn fifters! twins
From ancient night, who nurfe the tender thought
To reafon, and on reafon build refolve,
(That column of true majefty in man)
Affift me: I will thank you in the grave;
The grave, your kingdom: there this frame fhall fall
A victim facred to your dreary fhrine.

But what are ye?-THOU, who didft put to flight Primaeval filence, when the morning-stars, Exulting, fhouted o'er the rifing ball;

O THOU, whose word from folid darkness ftruck
That fpark, the fun, ftrike wisdom from my foul;
My foul, which flies to thee, her truft, her treasure,
As mifers to their gold, while others reft.

Thro' this opaque of nature, and of foul,
This double night, tranfmit one pitying ray,
To lighten, and to chear. O lead my mind,
(A mind that fain would wander from its woe,)
Lead it thro' various fcenes of life and death;
And from each scene, the nobleft truths infpire.
Nor lefs infpire my conduct, than my fong;
Teach my best reafon, reafon; my best will
Teach rectitude; and fix my firm refolve
Wisdom to wed, and pay her long arrear:
Nor let the phial of thy vengeance, pour'd
On this devoted head, be pour'd in vain.

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