Nature, thy daughter, ever-changing birth All change, no death: day follows night, and night The dying day: stars rise, and set, and rise: 676 Earth takes the' example. See, the Summer gay, 680 Then melts into the Spring: soft Spring, with breath 686 As in a wheel, all sinks to reascend: Emblems of man, who passes, not expires. With this minute distinction, emblems just, 690 Nature revolves, but man advances; both Eternal: that a circle, this a line : That gravitates, this soars. The' aspiring soul, 695 No single atom, once in being, lost, With change of counsel charges the Most High. 700 What hence infers Lorenzo? Can it be? Matter immortal? and shall spirit die? Above the nobler shall less noble rise? Shall man alone, for whom all else revives, 705 Deplore its period, by the spleen of Fate, 710 715 Abhor divorce. What love of union reigns! 720 Half-life, half-death, join there : here life and sense, There sense from reason steals a glimmering ray; 725 And part ethereal grant the soul of man Where Death hath no dominion? Grant a make : Eternal, or in man the series ends. Wide yawns the gap; connexion is no more; 730 Check'd Reason halts; her next step wants support; Striving to climb, she tumbles from her scheme, A scheme Analogy pronounced so true; Analogy! man's surest guide below. Thus far all Nature calls on thy belief; And will Lorenzo, careless of the call, False attestation on all Nature charge, 735 Rather than violate his league with Death? Renounce his reason, rather than renounce The dust beloved, and run the risk of Heaven? 740 O what indignity to deathless souls! What treason to the majesty of man! Of man immortal! hear the lofty style: 'If so decreed, the' Almighty Will be done. Let earth dissolve, yon ponderous orbs descend, 745 And grind us into dust. The soul is safe; As towering flame from Nature's funeral pyre: Well pleased to learn from Thunder's impotence, And superlunary felicities, Thy bosom warms. I'll cool it, if I can; And turn those glories that enchant, against thee. 750 755 If wise, the cause that wounds thee is thy cure. 760 (To mount Lorenzo never can refuse!) And from the clouds, where Pride delights to dwell, Look down on earth.-What seest thou? wondrous things! Terrestrial wonders, that eclipse the skies. What lengths of labour'd lands; what loaded seas! 765 770 775 780 High through mid air, here streams are taught to flow 785 790 Whole rivers there, laid by in basons, sleep. 795 800 And now, Lorenzo! raptured at this scene, Whose glories render heaven superfluous! say, Whose footsteps these ?-Immortals have been here Could less than souls immortal this have done? Earth's cover'd o'er with proofs of souls immortal, And proofs of Inmortality forgot. To flatter thy grand foible, I confess These are Ambition's works; and these are great: 805 81C Transcends them all.-But what can these transcend' / "Tis moral grandeur makes the mighty man! 815 How little they, who think aught great below! PART II. THE INFIDEL RECLAIMED. CONTAINING THE NATURE, PROOF, AND IMPORTANCE OF IMMORTALITY : PREFACE. As we are at war with the power, it were well if we were at war with the manners of France. A land of levity is a land of gui.t. A serious mind is the native soil of every virtue, and the single character that does true honour to mankind. The soul's immortality has been the favourite theme with the serious of all ages. Nor is it strange it is a subject by far the most interesting and important that can enter the mind of man. Of highest moment this subject always was, and always will be yet this its highest moment seems to admit of increase at this day; a sort of occasional importance is super.. added to the natural weight of it, if that opinion which is advanced in the Preface to the preceding Night be just. It is there supposed that all our Infidels (whatever scheme, for argument's sake, and to keep themselves in countenance, they patronize) are betrayed into their deplorable error by some doubt of their immortality at the bottom: and the more I consider this point, the more I am persuaded of the truth of that opinion. Though the distrust of a futurity is a strange error, yet it is an error into which bad men may naturally be distressed; for it is impossible to bid defiance to final ruin, without some refuge in imagination, some presumption of escape. And what presumption is there? there are but two in Nature; but two within the compass of human thought; and these are, -That either God will not or cannot punish. Considering the divine attributes, the first is too gross to be digested by our strongest wishes; and, since Omnipotence is as much a divine attribute as Holiness, that God cannot punish is as absurd a supposition as the former. God certainly can punish, as long as wicked men exist. In nonexistence, therefore, is their only refuge; and, consequently, nonexistence is their strongest wish; and strong wishes have a strange influence on our opinions; they bias the judgment in a manner almost incredible. And since, on this member of their alternative there are some very small appearances in their favour, and none at all |