And while the mufe now ftoops, or now afcends,
To man's low paffions, or their glorious ends,
Teach me, like thee, in various nature wife,
To fall with dignity, with temper rife;
Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer
From grave to gay, from lively to fevere;

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Correct with fpirit, eloquent with ease,

Intent to reason, or polite to please.

Oh! while along the ftream of time thy name

Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame;

Say, fhall my little bark attendant fail,

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Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale ?

When statesmen, heroes, kings, in duft repose,

Whose fons shall blush their fathers were thy foes,
Shall then this verfe to future age pretend
Thou wert my guide, philofopher, and friend?
That, urg'd by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art,
From founds to things, from fancy to the heart;
For wit's falfe mirror held up nature's light;
Shew'd erring pride, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT;
That Reason, Paffion, answer one great aim;
That true Self-love and Social are the fame;
That Virtue only makes our blifs below;

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And all our knowledge is, OURSELVES TO KNOW.

OTHE

Pp 2

THE

UNIVERSAL

PRAYER.

DEO O P T. MA X.

THE

UNIVERSAL PRAYER*.

DEO O PT.

MAX

ATHER of All! in ev'ry age,

FIn ev'ry clime ador'd,

By faint, by savage, and by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!

Thou Great Firft Cause, leaft understood :
Who all my fense confin'd
To know but this, that Thou art Good
And that myself am blind;

Yet gave me, in this dark eftate,
To fee the good from ill;
And binding nature faft in fate,
Left free the human will.

What confcience dictates to be done,
Or warns me not to do,
This, teach me more than hell to fhun,
That, more than heav'n purfue.
What bleffings thy free bounty gives,
Let me not caft away;

For God is paid when man receives,
T'enjoy is to obey.

* It may be proper to observe, that some paffages, in the preceding Essay, having been unjustly suspected of a tendency towards Fate and Naturalism, the author composed this Prayer as the sum of all, to fhew that his fyftem was founded in Free-will, and terminated in piety: that the first cause was as well the lord and governor of the universe as the creator of it; and that, by fubmiffion to his will (the great principle enforced throughout the Essay) was not meant the suffering ourselves to be carried along by a blind determination, but the resting in a religious acquiescence, and confidence full of Hope and Immortality. To give all this the greater weight, the poet chofe for his model the LORD'S PRAYER, which, of all others, best deferves the title prefixed to his paraphrase.

Yo