To wade into perdition, through contempt,
Not of poor bigots only, but thy own?
For I have peep'd into thy cover'd heart,
And seen it blush beneath a boastful brow;
For, by strong guilt's most violent assault,
Conscience is but disabled, not destroy'd.

O thou most awful being, and most vain!
Thy will, how frail! how glorious is thy power!
Though dread eternity has sown her seeds

Of bliss, and woe, in thy despotic breast;
Though heaven, and hell, depend upon thy choice;
A butterfly comes 'cross, and both are fled.
Is this the picture of a rational?

This horrid image, shall it bè most just ?
LORENZO! no: it cannot-shall not, be,
If there is force in reason; or, in sounds,
Chanted beneath the glimpses of the moon,
A magic, at this planetary hour,

When slumber locks the general lip, and dreams
Through senseless mazes hunt souls uninspired.
Attend-the sacred mysteries begin-

My solemn night-born adjuration hear;
Hear, and I'll raise thy spirit from the dust;
While the stars gaze on this enchantment new;
Enchantment, not infernal, but divine!

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By Silence, death's peculiar attribute;

By Darkness, guilt's inevitable doom;

By Darkness, and by Silence, sisters dread! "That draw the curtain round night's ebon throne,

"And raise ideas, solemn as the scene!

By Night, and all of awful, night presents

"To thought, or sense, (of awful much, to both, "The goddess brings!) By these her trembling fires, "Like VESTA's, ever burning; and, like hers, "Sacred to thoughts immaculate, and pure! 66 By these bright orators, that prove, and praise, "And press thee to revere, the DEITY;

"Perhaps, too, aid thee, when revered a while, "To reach his throne; as stages of the soul,

"Through which, at different periods, she shall pass, Refining gradual, for her final height,

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"And purging off some dross at every sphere !

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By this dark pall thrown o'er the silent world! "By the world's kings, and kingdoms, most re

nown'd,

1

"From short ambition's zenith set for ever;
"Sad presage to vain boasters, now in bloom!
By the long list of swift mortality,

"From ADAM downward to this evening knell, "Which midnight waves in fancy's startled eye; "And shocks her with a hundred centuries,

"Round death's black banner throng'd, in human thought!

"By thousands, now, resigning their last breath,

"And calling thee-wert thou so wise to hear!

ઃઃ

By tombs o'er tombs arising; human earth

"Ejected, to make room for-human earth; "The monarch's terror! and the sexton's trade!

By pompous obsequies, that shun the day, "The torch funereal, and the nodding plume,

"Which makes poor man's humiliation proud; "Boast of our ruin! triumph of our dust!

By the damp vault that weeps o'er royal bones; "And the pale lamp, that shews the ghastly dead, "More ghastly through the thick incumbent gloom! By visits (if there are) from darker scenes, "The gliding spectre! and the groaning grave! and miseries that groan

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and

graves,

"By groans, "For the grave's shelter! By desponding men, "Senseless to pains of death, from pangs of guilt!

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By guilt's last audit! By yon moon in blood, "The rocking firmament, the falling stars,

“And thunder's last discharge, great nature's knell! "By second chaos; and eternal night"

BE WISE-Nor let PHILANDER blame my charm;
But own not ill discharged my double debt,
Love to the living, duty to the dead.

For know, I'm but executor; he left

This moral legacy; I make it o'er

By his command: PHILANDER hear in me,
And Heaven in both.-If deaf to these, oh! hear
FLORELLO's tender voice; his weal depends
On thy resolve; it trembles at thy choice:
For his sake-love thyself. Example strikes
All human hearts; a bad example more;
More still a father's; that ensures his ruin.
As parent of his being, wouldst thou prove
Th' unnatural parent of his miseries,

And make him curse the being which thou gavest?
Is this the blessing of so fond a father?

If careless of LORENZO, spare, oh!

spare

FLORELLO's father, and PHILANDER's friend!
FLORELLO'S father ruin'd, ruins him

;

And from PHILANDER's friend the world expects
A conduct, no dishonour to the dead.
Let passion do, what nobler motive should;
Let love, and emulation, rise in aid

To reason; and persuade thee to be-bless'd.
This seems not a request to be denied ;
Yet (such th' infatuation of mankind!)
'Tis the most hopeless, man can make to man.
Shall I, then, rise in argument, and warmth;
And urge PHILANDER's posthumous advice,
From topics yet unbroach'd?

But, oh! I faint! my spirits fail!-Nor strange!
So long on wing, and in no middle clime!
To which my great Creator's glory call'd:
And calls-but, now, in vain. Sleep's dewy wand
Has stroked my drooping lids, and promises
My long arrear of rest; the downy god
(Wont to return with our returning peace)

Will pay, ere long, and bless me with repose.

Haste, haste, sweet stranger! from the peasant's cot,
The ship-boy's hammock, or the soldier's straw,
Whence sorrow never chased thee: with thee bring,
Not hideous visions, as of late; but draughts
Delicious of well-tasted, cordial, rest;
Man's rich restorative; his balmy bath,
That supples, lubricates, and keeps in play,
The various movements of this nice machine,

Which asks such frequent periods of repair.
When tired with vain rotations of the day,
Sleep winds us up for the succeeding dawn;
Fresh we spin on, till sickness clogs our wheels,
Or death quite breaks the spring, and motion ends.
When will it end with me?

"THOU Only know'st,

"Thou, whose broad eye the future, and the past, "Joins to the present; making one of three "To mortal thought! Thou know'st, and Thou alone, "All-knowing!-all-unknown!-and yet well known! "Near, though remote! and, though unfathom'd, felt! And, though invisible, for ever seen!

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"And seen in all! the great, and the minute : "Each globe above, with its gigantic race,

"Each flower, each leaf,with its small people swarm'd,

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(Those puny vouchers of OMNIPOTENCE!)

"To the first thought, that asks, " From whence?" "declare

"Their common Source. Thou Fountain, running o'er "In rivers of communicated joy!

"Who gavest us speech for far, far humbler themes! Say, by what name shall I presume to call "HIM I see burning in these countless suns, "As MOSES, in the bush? Illustrious Mind! "The whole creation, less, far less, to Thee, "Than that to the creation's ample round. "How shall I name THEE?-How my labouring soul "Heaves underneath the thought, too big for birth! "Great System of perfections! Mighty Cause