TRUTH.

52

53

TRUTH.
While struggling in the vale of tears below,
That never fail'd, nor shall it fail me now.
Angelic gratulations rend the skies,
Pride falls uopitied, never more to rise,
ilemility is crowu'd, aud Faith receives the

prize,

Shall find them rated at their fal sex
The good he scori'd all carried to arādi

Marshalling all his terrours as de care,
Thunder, and earthquake, and determine drita
From Sinai's top Jehovah gave the lar,
Lite for obedience, death for er'is tar.
When the great Sor’reiga would kis vil der
He gives a perfect rule; what can be less'
And guards it with a sanctiog as severe
As vengeance can inflict, or sugers fear:
Else his own glorious rights he reald disdan
Aud man might safely triße with bts dans,
He bids him glow with anrem tung last
To all on Earth, and to himself above;
Condemos th'iojurious deed, tie slandros bar
The thought that meditates a brother's site
Brings not alone the more conspicuous path
llis conduct, to the test, bat tries bisbert

Hark! universal cature shook and guat?
Tufas the last trumpet-sce the Judge estima
Rouse all your courage at your etnost terase
Now sumnon er'ry virtue, stand and plas!
What! silent? Is your boasting heard no me?
That seli renouncing wisdom, iearo'd befart
Had shed immortal glories on your bros,
That all your virtues cannot purchase 10".

All joy to the belieror! He can spesi-
Trembling yet happy, conbideat yet neeš.

Since the dear hour, that brought me to list ***
And cut up all my follies by the root,
I never trusted in an arm but thise,
Nor hop'd, but in the righteousness divize:
Bly pray'rs and alnis, imperfect and deild,
Were but the feeble efforts of a child
Hlowe'er perform'd, it was their brightest parla
That they proceeded from a grateful heart;
Cleans'd in thise own all-purifyiag blood,
Forgive their evil, and accept their good;
I cast them at thy feet-my ooly plea
Is what it was, dependence upon thee,

van het strane opere his thlich:

WHY weeps the muse for England? What appears
In Eugland's case, to move the muse to tears?
From side to side of her delightful isle
Is she not cloth'd with a perpetual smile?
Can Nature add a charm, or Art coufer
A new-found luxury not seen in her?
Where under Heav'n is pleasure more pursued,
Or where does cold reflection less intrude?
Iler fields a rich expanse of wavy core,
Pour'd out from Plenty's overflowing hvorn;
Ambrosial gardens, in which ast supplies
The fervour and the force of Indian skies;
Her peaceful shores, where busy Commerce waits
To pour his golden tide through all her gates ;
Whom fiery suns, that scorclı the russet spice
Of eastern groves, and oceans floor'd with ica
Forbid in vain to push his daring way
To darker climes, or climes of brighter day;
Whom the winds waft where'er the billows roll,
From the World's girdle to the frozen pole;
The chariots bounding in her wheel-worn streets,
Her vaults below, where ev'ry vintage meets;
Her theatres, her revels, and her sports;
The scenes, to which not youth alone resorts,
But age, in spite of weakness and of pain,
Still haunts, in hope to dream of youth again;
All speak ber happy: let the muse look round
From East to West, no sorrow can be found :

Tantane, tam patiens, bullo certain

Her princes Captive, and her treasures spoil'd;

happy: let the muse look rood

EXPOSTULATION

Dooa sides.

WHY
weeps

the muse for Englsed 2006
In England's case, to move the nose ty teas
From side to side of her delightful isie
Is she not cloth'd with a perpetual sale?
Can Nature add a charm, or Art cobfer
A new-found luxury not seen in her!
Where under Hear'a is pleasure more pays
Or where does cold reflection less iatrode
Her fields a rich expanse of wars core,
Pour'd out from Plenty's overniowing w;
Ambrosial gardens, in which art suppies
The ferrour and the force of lodian ses;
Her peaccful shores, where busy Connette
To pour his golden tide through all ter plates
Whom fiery suns, that scorch tbe russet spare
Of eastern groves, and oceans floor'd with the
Forbid in vain to push his daring way
To darker climes, or clines of brighter das;
Whom the winds wart where'er the billoni pe
From the World's girdle to the frozen pait;
The chariots bounding in her wheel. Forn stay
Her vaults below, where ev'ry vintage meet
Her theatres, her revels, and her sports;
The scenes, to which bot youth alone resorts
But age, in spite of weakness and of paja,

Lut wept, and stamp'd, and snote his thigh in vain,
Pleasure is deaf when told of future pain,

And sounds prophetic are too rough to suit
Still hausts, in hope to dream or youts sus:

Lars long accustcm'd to the pleasing lute :
All speak

Or only what, in cottages confin'd,
Sigis unregarded to the passing wind.
Then wherefore weep for England? What appears
1. Lagland's case, to move the muse to tears ?
The prophet wept for Israel; wisti'd his eyes
Here fountaius fed with infinite supplies :
Te Israel dealt in robbery and wrong;
There were the scorner's and the sland'rer's tongue;
Datas, os'd as playthings or convenient tools,
Aj intrest biass'd knaves, or fashion fools ;
Adultry, neighing at his neighbour's door;
Uppression, lab'ring hard to grind the poor ;
The partial balance, and deceitful weight;
The treach'rous smile, a mask for secret late;
ilipocrisy, formality in pray'r,
kad the dull service of the lip were tliere.
Her women, insolent and self-caress'd,
Fy Vanity's unwearied finger dress'd,
Forgot the blush, that virgin fears impast
do fodest cheeks, and borrow'd one from art;
were just such trifles, without worth or use,
As silly pride and idleness produce;
Carl'd, scented, furbelow'd, and flounc'd around,
Voith feet too delicate to touch the ground,
They streteh'd the neck, and roll’d the wanton eye,
And sigh'd for ev'ry fool that futter'd by.

He saw his people slaves to ev'ry lust,
levd, avaricious, arrogant, unjust;
He becard the wheels of an avenging God
Groan heavily along the distant road;
Sew Babylon set wide her two-leav'd brass
lo let the military deluge pass;
Jerusalem a prey, ber glory soil'd,
Wept till all Israel heard his bitter cry,
stamp'd with his foot, and smote upon his thigh:

From East to West, no sorrow can be found:

57

They scoru'd his inspiration and his tisze,
Pronounc'd him frantic, atd has lears a dret
With self-indulgence wing'd the teama ko?
Till the foe found them, and dog fel 2013

Long time Assyria bound then in het ce
Till penitence bad pare'd the publik sten:
And Cyrus, with relenting pity at
Return'd them happy to the lacd they love;
There, proof agaiast prosperity, subte
They stood the test of her ensoaring
And had the grace in sodes et peace of skin
The virtue, they had leara'd in scenes
But man is frail, and can but ill sustain
A long immunity from griei and pain;
And aiter all the joys that Pleaty leads,
With tiptoe step Vice silently succeeds.

When he that rul'd them with a shepherd's
In form a man, in dignity a God,
Came, not expected in that bumble guise,
To sift and search then with opernia eps
He found, conceal'd beneath a tarr outside,
The filth of rottenness, and worm or perda
Their piety a system of deceit,
Scripture employ'd to sanctify the chest;
The pharisee the dupe of his owe athy
Seli-idoliz'd, and yet a knave at beart.

When nations are to perish in their ses
'Tis in the church the leprosy begins;
The priest, whose office is with real sizcen
To watch the fountain, and preserve il cies',
Carelessly nods and sleeps upon the brick,

Tir'd up with gifts they wever understood
Trough all he spoke a noble plainness ran-
Are far too mean for him, that rules the skies.

11 astonish'd vulgar trembled while he tore While others poison what the flock must draat

You'd that they follow'd all they seened to shah;
Is the litics, he Urat dwelt in it disdaiuld;

Filed unde, that at cotvenient times
Lould ect extortion and the worst of crimes,

D 5

Then God's own image on the soul impressid
Becomes a mock'ry, and a standing jest ;
And faith, the root whence only can arise
Te graces of a life that wins the skies,
Lees at once all value and esteem,
Pronounc'd by graybeards a pernicious dream':
Toen Ceremony leads her bigots forth,
Prepar'd to fight for shadows of no worth;
unde truths, ons which eternal thing's depend,
Tied

not, or hardly find, a single frierid:
As soldiers watch the signal of command,
Tass learn to bow, lo kneel, to sit, to stand;
Hlapps to fill religion's vacant place
a tu hollow forn, and gesture, aud' grimace:
Such, when the Teacher of his church was there,
Teople and priest, the sons of Israel were ;
is in the letter, lax in the design
Aed import, of their oracles divine;
Their learning legendary, false, absurd,
And yet exalted above God's own word;
by drew a curse from an intended good,
II. jadg'u them with as terrible a frown,
so it not love, but wrath', liad brought him down?'
let de was gentle as soft'summer airs,
blad grace for others' sins, but none for theirs;
Retrie is artifice, the work of nan;
Aad tricks and turns, that fancy may devise,

Tat taask frotni Faces never seen before';
He stripp'd th’ impostors iú the noonday son,

Seir pray’rs made poblic, their excesses kept
as private as the chambers where they íslept; '
te temple and it's holy rites prófur J

Or, waking at the call of lust alone,
Infuses lies and errours of his own;
His unsuspecting sheep believe it pare:
And, tainted by the very means of cure,
Catch from each other a contagious spot,
The foul fore-runner of a gen'ral rot.
Then Truth is hush'd, that lleresy nas preces
And all is trash, that Reason canpol react :