THE

Universal Prayer.

DEO OPT. MAX.

F

Ather of All! in ev'ry Age,

In ev'ry Clime ador'd,
By Saint, by Savage, and by Sage,

Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!

Thou Great First Cause, least understood :

Who all my Sense confin'd
To know but this, that Thou art Good,

And that myself am blind ;

Universal Prayer.] It may be proper to observe, that some passages, in the preceding Ejay, having been unjustly suspected of a tendency towards Fate and Naturalism, the author composed this Prayer as the sum of all, to shew that his system 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 submission to his will (the great principle inforced throughout the Ejay) 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 chose for his model the Lord's PRAYIR, which, of all others, best deserves the title refixed to his Paraphrase.

Yet gave me, in this dark Estate,

To see the Good from I1l ; And binding Nature fast in Fate,

Left free the Human Will.

What Conscience dictates to be done,

Or warns me not to do, This, teach me more than Hell to shun,

That, more than Heav'n pursue.

What Blessings thy free Bounty gives,

Let me not caft away;
For God is paid when Man receives,

T' enjoy is to obey .

Yet not to Earth's contracted Span

Thy goodness let me bound, Or think Thee Lord alone of Man,

When thousand Worlds are round:

Let not this weak, unknowing hand

Presume thy bolts to throw, And deal damnation round the land,

On each I judge thy Foe.

If I am right, thy grace impart,

Still in the right to stay ; If I am wrong, oh teach my

heart To find that better way.

Save me alike from foolish Pride,

Or impious Discontent,
At aught thy wisdom has deny'd,

Or aught thy Goodness lent.

Teach me to feel another's Woe,

To hide the Fault I fee;
That Mercy I to others show,

That Mercy show to me.

Mean tho’ I am, not wholly so,

Since quick'ned by thy Breath;
Oh lead me wheresoe'er I

go,
Thro' this day's Life or Death.

This day, be Bread and Peace my Lot:

All else beneath the Sun,
Thou know't if best bestow'd or not,

And let Thy Will be done.

To Thee, whose Temple is all Space,

Whose Altar, Earth, Sea, Skies! One Chorus let all Being raise !

All Nature's Incense rise !

Moral Effays

IN

OUR EPISTLES

TO

Several Persons.

Eft brevitate opus, ut currat fententia, neu se
Impediat verbis laflis onerantibus aures :
Et sermone opus eft modo tristi, fæpe jocoso,
Defendente vicem modo Rhetoris atque Poetæ,
Interdum urbani, parcentis viribus, atque
Extenuantis eas consultó.

HOR.