Slaves build their little Babylons of straw, Echo the proud Assyrian in their hearts, And cry,---" Behold the wonders of my might!" 395 And souls immortal must for ever heave 400 Nor absolutely vain is human praise, When human is supported by divine. I'll introduce Lorenzo to himself; Pleasure and Pride (bad masters!) share our hearts. As love of pleasure is ordain'd to guard And feed our bodies, and extend our race, The love of praise is planted to protect And propagate the glories of the mind. Nor is thy life, O Virtue! less in debt To praise, thy secret-stimulating friend. Were men not proud, what merit should we miss! Praise is the salt that seasons right to man, 406 410 415 420 Reason her first, but reason wants an aid; Thirst of applause calls publick judgment in Here a fifth proof arises, stronger still. 425 Why this so nice construction of our hearts? 430 This constitutional reserve of aid To succour Virtue when our reason fails, If virtue, kept alive by care and toil, 435 440 Of disciplines and pains unpaid) must die? 444 450 'Tis thine to tell us where true treasure lies; But Reason, failing to discharge her trust, A blunder follows, and blind Industry, Gall'd by the spur, but stranger to the course, 455 (The course where stakes of more than gold are won) O'erloading with the cares of distant age The jaded spirits of the present hour, Provides for an eternity below. "Thou shalt not covet," is a wise command, 460 But bounded to the wealth the sun surveys. Look farther, the command stands quite revers'd, And av'rice is a virtue most divine. Is faith a refuge for our happiness? Most sure; and is it not for reason too? 465 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 so far in guilt. 470 Sour grapes, I grant, ambition, avarice; Yet still their root is immortality: These its wild growths, so bitter and so base, 475 See, the third witness laughs at bliss remote, And falsely promises an Eden here: Truth she shall speak for once, tho' prone to lie, Then hear her now, now first thy real friend. 480 Since Nature made us not more fond than proud Of happiness, (whence hypocrites in joy! Makers of mirth artificers of smiles! 485 Why should the joy most poignant sense affords Burn us with blushes, and rebuke our pride?-- Those heav'n-born blushes tell us man descends, This honest instinct speaks our lineage high; 490 This instinct calls on darkness to conceal Our glory covers us with noble shame, The witnesses are heard, the cause is o'er; 66 'Tis immortality your nature solves; 495 500 506 "And opens all the myst'ries of his make: His sateless thirst of pleasure, gold, and fame, 510 "Passions, which all on earth but more inflames? "Fierce passions, so mismeasur'd to this scene, 516 "Stretch'd out, like eagles' wings beyond our nest, Far, far beyond the worth of all below, "For earth too large, presage a nobler flight, And evidence our title to the skies." 529 Ye gentle Theologues of calmer kind! Whose constitution dictates to your pen, Who, cold yourselves, think ardour comes from hell! Think not our passions from corruption sprung, Tho' to corruption now they lend their wings: That is their mistress, not their mother. All (And justly) reason deem divine: I see, I feel a grandeur in the pas.ions too, Which speaks their high descent and glorious end; 525 Which speaks them rays of an eternal fire: 539 Ere Adam fell, tho' wiser in their aim. Like the proud Eastern, struck by Providence, What tho' our passions are run mad, and stoop, 535 |