To ftore up Treafure, with inceffant Toil,
This is Man's Province, This his highest Praise.
To this great End keen Inftinct ftings him on.
To guide that Instinct, Reason! is thy Charge;
"Tis Thine to tell us where true Treasure lies:
But, Reason failing to discharge her Trust,
Or to the Deaf discharging it in vain,
A Blunder follows; and blind Industry,

Gall'd by the Spur, but Stranger to the Course, (The Course where Stakes of more than Gold are won) O'erloading, with the Cares of diftant Age,

The jaded Spirits of the prefent Hour,

Provides for an Eternity below.

66

"Thou shalt not covet," is a wife Command; But bounded to the Wealth the Sun furveys: Look farther, the Command ftands quite revers'd, And Av'rice is a Virtue most divine.

Is Faith a Refuge for our Happiness?

Moft fure: And is it not for Reafen too?
Nothing this World unriddles, but the next.
Whence inextinguishable Thirst of Gain ?
From inextinguishable Life in Man :

Man, if not meant, by Worth, to reach the Skies
Had wanted Wing to fly fo far in Guilt.
Sour Grapes, I grant, Ambition, Avarice:

Yet ftill their Root is Immortality.

Thefe its wild Growths fo bitter, and so base,
(Pain and Reproach!) Religion can reclaim,
Refine, exalt, throw down their pois'nous Lee,
And make them sparkle in the Bowl of Bliss.

See, the Third Witness laughs at Bliss remote,
And falfly promises an Eden here:
Truth fhe fhall fpeak for once, tho' prone to lye,
A common Cheat, and Pleasure is her Name.

To Pleasure never was LORENZO deaf;

Then hear her now, now first thy real Friend.
Since Nature made us not more fond than proud
Of Happiness (whence Hypocrites in Joy!
Makers of Mirth! Artificers of Smiles!)

Why should the Joy moft poignant Sense affords,
"Burn us with Blushes, and rebuke our Pride?
Thofe Heav'n-born Blushes tell us Man defcends,
Ev'n in the Zenith of his earthly Blifs :
Should Reason take her Infidel Repose,
This honeft Instinct speaks our Lineage high;
This Inftinct calls on Darkness to conceal

Our

rapturous Relation to the Stalls.
Our Glory covers us with noble Shame,
And he that's unconfounded, is unmann'd.
The Man that blushes, is not quite a Brute.
Thus far with Thee, LORENZO! will I clofe;
Pleafure is good, and Man for Pleasure made;
'But Pleafure full of Glory, as of Joy;
Pleasure, which neither blushes, nor expires.

The Witneffes are heard; the Caufe is o'er ; Let Confcience file the Sentence in her Court, Dearer than Deeds that half a Realm convey: Thus, feal'd by Truth, th' authentic Record runs. "Know, All; Know, Infidels,-unapt to Know! ""Tis Immortality your Nature solves; ""Tis Immortality decyphers Man,

"And opens all the Myft'ries of his Make.

"Without it, half his Instincts are a Riddle;

"Without it, all his Virtues are a Dream. "His very Crimes atteft his Dignity;

“His fatelefs Thirit of Pleasure, Gold, and Fame, “Declares him born for Blessings infinite:

"What lefs than infinite, makes un-abfurd

Pafions, which all on Earth but more inflames?

"Fierce

"Fierce Paffions, fo mif-meafur'd to this Scene,

Stretch'd out, like Eagles Wings, beyond our Neft,

"Far, far beyond the Worth of all below,

For Earth too large, prefage a nobler Flight, "And evidence our Title to the Skies."

Ye gentle Theologues, of calmer Kind!
Whofe Conftitution dictates to your Pen,

Who, cold yourselves, think Ardor comes from Hell
Think not our Paffions from Corruption fprung,
Tho' to Corruption now they lend their Wings;
That is their Mistress, not their Mother. All
(And justly) Reafon deem Divine: I fee,

I feel a Grandeur in the Paffions too,

Which speaks their high Descent, and glorious End
Which speaks them Rays of an Eternal Fire.
In Paradise itself they burnt as strong,
Ere ADAM fell; tho' wifer in their Aim.
Like the proud Eaftern, ftruck by Providence,
What tho' our Paffions are run mad, and stoop
With low, terreftrial Appetite, to graze

On Trash, on Toys, dethron'd from high Defire
Yet ftill, thro' their Difgrace, a feeble Ray
Of Greatness shines, and tells us whence they fell :
But Thefe (like that fall'n Monarch when reclaim'd),
When Reason moderates the Rein aright,

Shall re-afcend, remount their former Sphere,
Where once they foar'd Illustrious; ere feduc'd
By wanton EvE's Debauch, to stroll on Earth,
And fet the fublunary World on Fire.

But grant their Phrenfy lafts; their Phrenfy fails-
To disappoint one providential End,

For which Heav'n blew up Ardor in our Hearts:
Were Reason filent, boundless Paffion speaks
A future Scene of boundless Objects too,
And brings glad Tidings of eternal Day.
H 6

Eternal

Eternal Day! 'Tis that enlightens All;
And All, by that enlighten'd, proves it sure.
Confider Man as an immortal Being,
Intelligible All; and All is Great ;

A crystalline Transparency prevails,

And ftrikes full Luftre thro' the Human Sphere:
Confider Man as mortal, all is dark,

And wretched; Reafon weeps at the Survey.

The learn'd LORENZO cries, "And let her weep, "Weak, modern Reason: Antient Times were wife. "Authority, that venerable Guide,

"Stands on my Part; the fam'd Athenian Porch

(And who for Wisdom so renown'd as They?) "Deny'd this Immortality to Man."

I grant it; but affirm, they prov'd it too.
A Riddle This!-Have Patience; I'll explain.
What noble Vanities, what moral Flights,
Glitt'ring thro' their romantic Wisdom's Page,
Make us, at once, defpife them, and admire ?
Fable is flat to These high-season'd Sires ;
They leave th' Extravagance of Song below.
"Flesh fhall not feel; or, feeling, fhall enjoy
"The Dagger, or the Rack; to them, alike
"A Bed of Rofes, or the burning Bull."

In Men exploding all beyond the Grave,

Strange Doctrine, This! As Doctrine, it was ftrange;
But not, as Prophecy; for fuch it prov'd,

And, to their own Amazement, was fulfill'd:
They feign'd a Firmness Chriftians need not feign.
The Chriftian truly triumph'd in the Flame:
The Stoic faw, in double Wonder loft,
Wonder at Them, and Wonder at Himself,
To find the bold Adventures of his Thought
Not bold, and that he strove to lye in vain.

Whence,

Whence, then, thofe Thoughts? Those tow'ring [Thoughts, that flew

Such monftrous Heights?-From Inftinct, and from Pride.
The glorious Instinct of a deathlefs Soul,
Confus'dly conscious of her Dignity,

Suggested Truths they could not understand.
In Luft's Dominion, and in Paffion's Storm,
Truth's Syftem broken, fcatter'd Fragments lay,
As Light in Chaos, glimm'ring thro' the Gloom :
Smit with the Pomp of lofty Sentiments,

Pleas'd Pride proclaim'd, what Reafon difbeliev'd.
Pride, like the Delphic Prieftefs, with a Swell,
Rav'd Nonfenfe, deftin'd to be Future Sense,
When Life Immortal, in full Day, fhould fhine;
And Death's dark Shadows fly the Gospel Sun.
They spoke, what nothing but Immortal Souls
Could speak; and thus the Truth they question'd, prov'd.
Can then Abfurdities, as well as Crimes,

Speak Man Immortal? All Things speak him fo.
Much has been urg'd; and dost thou call for more?
Call; and with endless Questions be distrest,

All unrefolveable, if Earth is All.

66

Why Life, a Moment; Infinite, Defire ? "Our Wish, Eternity? Our Home, the Grave? "Heav'n's Promife dormant lies in human Hope; "Who wishes Life Immortal, proves it too. "Why Happinefs purfu'd, tho' never found? "Man's Thirst of Happiness declares It is "(For Nature never gravitates to nought); "That Thirst unquencht declares It is not Here. "My LUCIA, Thy CLARISSA, call to Thought; "Why cordial Friendship riveted so deep,

As Hearts to pierce at firft, at parting, rend, "If Friend, and Friendship, vanish in an Hour? Is not This Torment in the Mask of Joy?

"Why