His high discoveries fing? when but a few
Of the deep-studying race can stretch their minds
To what he knew? in Fancy's lighter thought, 135
How shall the Muse then grafp the mighty theme?
What wonder, then, that his devotion swell'd
Responsive to his knowledge! for could he,
Whose piercing mental eye diffusive faw
The finish'd university of things
In all its order, magnitude, and parts,
Forbear inceffant to adore that Power
Who fills, fustains, and actuates the whole?
Say, ye who best can tell, ye happy few!
Who faw him in the softeft lights of life,
All unwith-held, indulging to his friends
The vast unborrow'd treasures of his mind,
Oh, fpeak the wondrous Man! how mild, how calm,
How greatly humble, how divinely good;
How firm establish'd on eternal truth;
Fervent in doing well, with every nerve
Still pressing on, forgetful of the past,
And panting for perfection; far above
Those little cares and visionary joys
That so perplex the fond impaffion'd heart
Of ever-cheated, ever-trusting man.
And you, ye hopeless, gloomy-minded Tribe!
You who, unconscious of those nobler flights
That reach impatient at immortal life,
Against the prime endearing privilege
Volume II.
Of being dare contend, say, can a foul
Of such extensive, deep, tremendous powers,
Enlarging still, be but a finer breath
Of spirits dancing thro' their tubes a while,
And then for ever lost in vacant air?
But hark! methinks I hear a warning voice, Solemn as when some awful change is come, [full; Sound thro' the world" 'Tis done- The measure's "And I resign my charge." - Ye mouldering Stones! That build the towering pyramid, the proud
Triumphal arch, the monument effac'd
By ruthless ruin, and whate'er supports
The worshipp'd name of hoar Antiquity,
Down to the dust! what grandeur can ye boaft,
While Newton lifts his column to the skies,
Beyond the waste of time. Let no weak drop
Be shed for him. The virgin in her bloom
Cut off, the joyous youth, and darling child,
These are the tombs that claim the tender tear
And elegiac song; but Newton calls
For other notes of gratulation high,
That now he wanders thro' those endless worlds
He here so well descried, and wondering talks,
And hymns their Author with his glad compeers.
O Britain's boast! whether with angels thou 185
Sittest in dread difcourse, or fellow-blest,
Who joy to fee the honour of their kind;
Or whether mounted on cherubic wing,
Thy swift career is with the whirling orbs,
Comparing things with things, in rapture lost, 190
And grateful adoration, for that light
So plenteous ray'd into thy mind below,
From Light himself; Oh! look with pity down
On human-kind, a frail, erroneous race!
Exalt the spirit of a downward world!
O'er thy dejected Country chief preside,
And be her Genius called! her studies raise,
Correct her manners, and inspire her youth :
For, thoughdeprav'd and sunk, she brought thee forth,
And glories in thy name; she points thee out 200
To all her fons, and bids them eye thy star;
While in expectance of the second life,
When time shall be no more, thy facred dust
Sleeps with her kings, and dignifies the scene.
Of the Right Honourable the
LORD TALBOT,
LATE CHANCELLOR OF GREAT-BRITΑΙΝ.
WHILE, with the public you, my Lord, lament
A friend and father loft, permit the Muse,
The Muse assign'd of old a double theme,
To praise dead worth and humble living pride,
Whose generous task begins where int'rest ends: 5
Permit her on a Talbot's tomb to lay
This cordial verse sincere, by Truth inspir'd,
Which means not to bestow, but borrow fame.
Yes, she may sing his matchless virtues now
Unhappy that she may. But where begin?
How from the diamond fingle out each ray,
Where all, tho' trembling with ten thousand hues,
Effuse one dazzling undivided light ?
Let the low-minded of these narrow days
No more prefume to deem the lofty tale
Of ancient times, in pity to their own,
Romance. In Talbot we united saw
The piercing eye, the quick-enlighten'd foul,
The graceful ease, the flowing tongue of Greece,
Join'd to the virtues and the force of Rome.
Eternal Wisdom, that all-quick'ning fun, Whence every life, in just proportion, draws Directing light and actuating flame, Ne'er with a larger portion of its beams Awaken'd mortal clay. Hence steady, calm, Diffusive, deep, and clear, his reason saw, With instantaneous view, the truth of things; Chief what to human life and human bliss Pertains, that noblest science, fit for man; And hence, responsive to his knowledge, glow'd 30 His ardent virtue. Ignorance and vice In confort foul agree, each heightening each,
While virtue draws from knowledge brighter fire.
What grand, what comely, or what tender fense,
What talent, or what virtue, was not his ?
What that can render man or great or good,
Give useful worth or amiable grace?
Nor could he brook in studious shade to lie,
In soft retirement, indolently pleas'd
With selfish peace. The Syren of the wife,
(Who steals th' Aonian song, and in the shape
Of Virtue wooes them from a worthless world)
Tho' deep he felt her charms, could never melt
His strenuous spirit, recollected, calm
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