Yet

gave me,

in this dark Eftate,

To fee the Good from Ill;

And binding Nature fast in Fate,

Left free the Human Will.

What Confcience dictates to be done,
Or warns me not to do,

This, teach me more than Hell to fhun,
That, more than Heav'n pursue.

What Bleffings 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.

of Hope and Immortality. To give all this the greater weight, the poet chofe for his model the LORD'S PRAYER, which, of all others, beft deferves the title prefixed to his Paraphrafe.

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 fo,
Since quick'ned by thy Breath;

Oh lead me wherefoe'er I go,

Thro' this day's Life or Death.

NOTES.

If I am right, the grace impart,-
If I am wrong, O teach my heart]

As the imparting grace on the chriftian fyftem is a ftronger ex-
ertion of the divine power, than the natural illumination of the
heart, one would expect that right and wrong should change
places; more aid being required to reftore men to the right
than to keep them in it. But as it was the poet's purpose to
infinuate that Revelation was the right, nothing could better
express his purpose than the making the right fecured by the
guards of grace.
3

This day, be Bread and Peace my Lot:

All elfe beneath the Sun,

Thou know'ft if beft beftow'd or not,

And let Thy Will be done.

To thee, whofe Temple is all Space, Whofe Altar, Earth, Sea, Skies!

One Chorus let all Being raise!

All Nature's Incenfe rife!

Moral Effays

IN

FOUR EPISTLES

то

Several Perfons.

Eft brevitate opus, ut currat fententia, neu fe
Impediat verbis laffis onerantibus aures :
Et fermone opus eft modo trifti, fæpe jocofo,
Defendente vicem modo Rhetoris atque Poetæ,
Interdum urbani, parcentis viribus, atque
Extenuantis eas confultò.

HOR.