Not e'en Philander had bespoke his shroud,
Nor had he cause; a warning was denied:
How many fall as sudden, not as safe;
As sudden, though for years admonish'd home!
Of human ills the last extreme beware;
Beware Lorenzo! a slow sudden death.
How dreadful that deliberate surprise!
Be wise to-day; 'tis madness to defer:
Next day the fatal precedent will plead;
Thus on, till wisdom is push'd out of life.
Procrastination is the thief of time;
Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves
The vast concerns of an eternal scene.
If not so frequent, would not this be strange.
That 'tis so frequent, this is stranger still.
Of man's miraculous mistakes this bears
The palm, That all men are about to live,'
For ever on the brink of being born.
All pay themselves the compliment to think
They one day shall not drivel, and their pride
On this reversion takes up ready praise;
At least their own; their future selves applauds :
How excellent that life they ne'er will lead!
Time lodged in their own hands is Folly's vails;
That lodged in Fate's, to wisdom they consign;
The thing they can't but purpose they postpone:
'Tis not in folly not to scorn a fool;
And scarce in human wisdom to do more.
All promise is poor dilatory man,
And that through ev'ry stage: when young, indeed,
In full content we sometimes nobly rest,
Unanxious for ourselves, and only wish,
As duteous sons, our fathers were more wise.
At thirty, man suspects himself a fool;
Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan;
At fifty, chides his infamous delay,
Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve;
In all the magnanimity of thought
| Resolves, and re-resolves; then dies the same.
And why? because he thinks himself immortal. All men think all men mortal but themselves : Themselves, when some alarming shock of fate Strikes thro' their wounded hearts the sudden dread; But their hearts wounded, like the wounded air, Soon close; where pass'd the shaft no trace is found, As from the wing no scar the sky retains, The parted wave no furrow from the keel, So dies in human hearts the thought of death. E'en with the tender tear, which nature sheds O'er those we love, we drop it in their grave. Can I forget Philander? that were strange! O my full heart!-But should I give it vent, The longest night, though longer far, would fail, And the lark listen to my midnight song.
The sprightly lark's shrill matin wakes the morn; Grief's sharpest thorn hard pressing on my breast, I strive, with wakeful melody, to cheer The sullen gloom, sweet Philomel! like thee, And call the stars to listen: ev'ry star
Is deaf to mine, enamour'd of thy lay.
Yet be not vain; there are who thine excel,
And charm through distant ages.
Pris ner of darkness! to the silent hours
How often I repeat their rage divine,
To lull my griefs, and steal my heart from woe!
I roll their raptures, but not catch their fire.
Dark, though not blind, like thee, Mæonides!
Or, Milton, thee! ah, could I reach your strain
Or his who made Mæonides our own.
Man, too, he sung; immortal man I sing.
Oft bursts my song beyond the bounds of life;
What now but immortality can please?
O had he press'd his theme, pursued the track
Which opens out of darkness into day!
O had he, mounted on his wing of fire,
Soar'd where I sink, and sung immortal man,
How had it blest mankind, and rescued me!
ON TIME, DEATH, AND FRIENDSHIP.
To the Right Honorable the Earl of Wilmington.
WHEN the cock crew, he wept,-smote by that eye
Which looks on me, on all; that Pow'r who bids
This midnight sentinel, with clarion shrill,
(Emblem of that which shall awake the dead)
Rouse souls from slumber into thoughts of Heav'n.
Shall I too weep? where then is fortitude?
And, fortitude abandon'd, where is man?
I know the terms on which he sees the light:
He that is born is listed: life is war;
Eternal war with woe: who bears it best
Deserves it least.-On other themes I'll dwell.
Lorenzo! let me turn my thoughts on thee;
And thine on themes may profit; profit there
Where most thy need: themes, too, the genuine
growth
Of dear Philander's dust. He thus, though dead, May still befriend-What themes? Time's wondrous price,
Death, Friendship, and Philander's final scene!
So could I touch these themes as might obtain Thine ear, nor leave thy heart quite disengaged, The good deed would delight me; half impress On my dark cloud an Iris, and from grief
Call glory.-Dost thou mourn Philander's fate?
I know thou say'st it; says thy life the same?
He mourns the dead, who lives as they desire.
Where is that thrift, that avarice of time,
(0 glorious avarice!) thought of death inspires,
As rumour'd robberies endear our gold?
O Time! than gold more sacred; more a load
Than lead to fools, and fools reputed wise.
What moment granted man without account?
What years are squander'd, wisdom's debt unpaid!
Our wealth in days all due to that discharge.
Haste, haste, he lies in wait, he's at the door.
Insidious Death! should his strong hand arrest,
No composition sets the prisoner free.
Eternity's inexorable chain
Fast binds, and vengeance claims the full arrear.
How late I shudder'd on the brink! how late
Life call'd for her last refuge in despair!
That time is mine, O Mead! to thee I owe;
Fain would I pay thee with eternity!
But ill my genius answers my desire:
My sickly song is mortal, past thy cure.
Accept the will;—that dies not with my strain.
For what calls thy disease, Lorenzo? Not
For Esculapian, but for moral aid.
Thou think'st it folly to be wise too soon.
Youth is not rich in time; it may be poor;
Part with it, as with money, sparing; pay
No moment, but in purchase of its worth;
And what its worth, ask death-beds; they can tell.
Part with it as with life, reluctant; big
With holy hope of nobler time to come:
Time higher aim'd, still nearer the great mark
Of men and angels; virtue more divine.
Is this our duty, wisdom, glory, gain?
(These Heaven benign in vital union binds)
And sport we like the natives of the bough,
When vernal suns inspire? Amusement reigns
Man's great demand: to trifle is to live:
And is it then a trifle, too, to die?
Thou say'st I preach, Lorenzo! 'Tis confest.
What if, for once, I preach thee quite awake?
Who wants amusement in the flame of battle?
Is it not treason to the soul immortal,
Her foes in arms, eternity the prize?
Will toys amuse when med'cines cannot cure? When spirits ebb, when life's enchanting scenes Their lustre lose, and lessen in our sight, As lands and cities with their glittering spires, To the poor shatter'd bark by sudden storm Thrown off to sea, and soon to perish there, Will toys amuse? No; thrones will then be toys, And earth and skies seem dust upon the scale. Redeem we time?-Its loss we dearly buy. What pleads Lorenzo for his high-prized sports? He pleads time's numerous blanks; he loudly pleads The straw-like trifles on life's common stream. From whom those blanks and trifles but from thee? No blank, no trifle, Nature made, or meant. Virtue, or purposed virtue, still be thine; This cancels thy complaint at once: this leaves In act no trifle, and no blank in time. This greatens, fills, immortalizes all; This the blest art of turning all to gold: This the good heart's prerogative to raise A royal tribute from the poorest hours; Immense revenue! every moment pays. If nothing more than purpose in thy power, Thy purpose firm is equal to the deed: Who does the best his circumstance allows, Does well, acts nobly; angels could no more. Our outward act, indeed, admits restraint: 'Tis not in things o'er thought to domineer; /Guard well thy thought: our thoughts are heard in heaven.
On all important time, through every age,
Tho' much, and warm, the wise have urged; the man
Is yet unborn who duly weighs an hour.
'I've lost a day '-the prince who nobly cried,
Had been an emperor without his crown;
Of Rome? say rather lord of human race!
|