Complete Works of Edward Young, page 31
By condescension, as Thy glory, great,
Enshrined in man! Of human hearts, if pure,
Divine inhabitant! The tie divine
Of heaven with distant earth! by whom, I trust
(If not inspired), uncensured this address
To Thee, to Them — to whom? — Mysterious Power!
Reveal’d — yet unreveal’d! darkness in light;
Number in unity! our joy! our dread!
The triple bolt that lays all wrong in ruin! 2290
That animates all right, the triple sun!
Sun of the soul! her never-setting sun!
Triune, unutterable, unconceived,
Absconding, yet demonstrable, Great God!
Greater than greatest! better than the best!
Kinder than kindest! with soft pity’s eye,
Or (stronger still to speak it) with Thine own,
From Thy bright home, from that high firmament,
Where Thou, from all eternity, hast dwelt;
Beyond archangels’ unassisted ken; 2300
From far above what mortals highest call;
From elevation’s pinnacle; look down,
Through — what? Confounding interval! through all
And more than labouring Fancy can conceive;
Through radiant ranks of essences unknown;
Through hierarchies from hierarchies detach’d
Round various banners of Omnipotence,
With endless change of rapturous duties fired;
Through wondrous being’s interposing swarms,
All clustering at the call, to dwell in Thee; 2310
Through this wide waste of worlds! this vista vast,
All sanded o’er with suns; suns turn’d to night
Before thy feeblest beam — Look down — down — down,
On a poor breathing particle in dust,
Or, lower, an immortal in his crimes. 2315
His crimes forgive! forgive his virtues, too!
Those smaller faults, half converts to the right.
Nor let me close these eyes, which never more
May see the sun (though night’s descending scale
Now weighs up morn), unpitied, and unblest!
In Thy displeasure dwells eternal pain;
Pain, our aversion; pain, which strikes me now;
And, since all pain is terrible to man, 2323
Though transient, terrible; at Thy good hour,
Gently, ah, gently, lay me in my bed,
My clay-cold bed! by nature, now, so near;
By nature, near; still nearer by disease!
Till then, be this an emblem of my grave:
Let it out-preach the preacher; every night
Let it out-cry the boy at Philip’s ear;75 2330
That tongue of death! that herald of the tomb!
And when (the shelter of Thy wing implored)
My senses, soothed, shall sink in soft repose,
Oh, sink this truth still deeper in my soul,
Suggested by my pillow, sign’d by fate,
First, in Fate’s volume, at the page of man —
Man’s sickly soul, though turn’d and toss’d for ever,
From side to side, can rest on nought but Thee:
Here, in full trust, hereafter, in full joy;
On Thee, the promised, sure, eternal down 2340
Of spirits, toil’d in travel through this vale.
Nor of that pillow shall my soul despond;
For — Love almighty! Love almighty! (sing,
Exult, creation!) Love almighty, reigns!
That death of Death! that cordial of despair!
And loud Eternity’s triumphant song!
“Of whom, no more: — For, O thou Patron-God!
Thou God and mortal! thence more God to man! 2348
Man’s theme eternal! man’s eternal theme!
Thou canst not ‘scape uninjured from our praise.
Uninjured from our praise can He escape,
Who, disembosom’d from the Father, bows
The heaven of heavens, to kiss the distant earth!
Breathes out in agonies a sinless soul!
Against the cross, Death’s iron sceptre breaks!
From famish’d Ruin plucks her human prey!
Throws wide the gates celestial to his foes!
Their gratitude, for such a boundless debt,
Deputes their suffering brothers to receive!
And, if deep human guilt in payment fails; 2360
As deeper guilt prohibits our despair!
Enjoins it, as our duty, to rejoice!
And (to close all) omnipotently kind,
Takes his delights among the sons of men.”76
What words are these — and did they come from heaven?
And were they spoke to man? to guilty man?
What are all mysteries to love like this?
The songs of angels, all the melodies
Of choral gods, are wafted in the sound;
Heal and exhilarate the broken heart; 2370
Though plunged, before, in horrors dark as night.
Rich prelibation of consummate joy!
Nor wait we dissolution to be blest.
This final effort of the moral Muse,
How justly titled!77 Nor for me alone:
For all that read; what spirit of support,
What heights of Consolation, crown my song!
Then, farewell Night! of darkness, now, no more:
Joy breaks, shines, triumphs; ’tis eternal day.
Shall that which rises out of nought complain 2380
Of a few evils, paid with endless joys? 2381
My soul! henceforth, in sweetest union join
The two supports of human happiness,
Which some, erroneous, think can never meet;
True taste of life, and constant thought of death!
The thought of death, sole victor of its dread!
Hope, be thy joy; and probity thy skill;
Thy patron He, whose diadem has dropp’d
Yon gems of heaven; eternity, thy prize:
And leave the racers of the world their own, 2390
Their feather, and their froth, for endless toils:
They part with all for that which is not bread;
They mortify, they starve, on wealth, fame, power;
And laugh to scorn the fools that aim at more.
How must a spirit, late escaped from earth, —
Suppose Philander’s, Lucia’s, or Narcissa’s, —
The truth of things new-blazing in its eye,
Look back, astonish’d, on the ways of men,
Whose lives’ whole drift is to forget their graves!
And when our present privilege is past, 2400
To scourge us with due sense of its abuse,
The same astonishment will seize us all.
What then must pain us, would preserve us now.
Lorenzo! ’tis not yet too late; Lorenzo!
Seize Wisdom, ere ’tis torment to be wise;
That is, seize Wisdom, ere she seizes thee.
For what, my small philosopher! is hell?
’Tis nothing but full knowledge of the truth,
When Truth, resisted long, is sworn our foe;
And calls Eternity to do her right. 2410
Thus, darkness aiding intellectual light,
And sacred silence whispering truths divine,
And truths divine converting pain to peace,
My song the midnight raven has outwing’d,
And shot, ambitious of unbounded scenes, 2415
Beyond the flaming limits of the world,
Her gloomy flight. But what avails the flight
Of fancy, when our hearts remain below?
Virtue abounds in flatterers, and foes;
’Tis pride, to praise her; penance, to perform.
To more than words, to more than worth of tongue,
Lorenzo! rise, at this auspicious hour;
An hour, when Heaven’s most intimate with man;
When, like a fallen star, the ray divine
Glides swift into the bosom of the just; 2425
And just are all, determined to reclaim;
Which sets that title high within thy reach.
Awake, then; thy Philander calls: awake!
Thou, who shalt wake, when the creation sleeps;
When, like a taper, all these suns expire;
When Time, like him of Gaza78 in his wrath,
Plucking the pillars that support the world,
In Nature’s ample ruins lies entomb’d;
And Midnight, universal Midnight! reigns. 2434
ENDNOTES FOR ‘NIGHT-THOUGHTS’.
2‘Thrice:’ alluding to the death of his wife, his daughter Mrs Temple, and Mr Temple. — See Life.
3‘Philander:’ Mr Temple, his son-in-law.
4‘Lorenzo:’ not Young’s son, but probably the Earl of Wharton.
5‘Veils:’ a gain, profit. — ee
6‘Mæonides:’ Homer.
7‘His, who made:’ Pope.
8‘Cytherea:’ Venus, from Cythera, one of the Ionian Islands, where she was worshipped.
9‘As some tall tower:’ Goldsmith has borrowed this fine image in his description of the good pastor’s death, in the ‘Deserted Village.’
10‘P —— :’ Portland.
11‘Didst lately borrow:’ at the Duke of Norfolk’s masquerade.
12‘Narcissa:’ Mrs Temple.
13‘Nearer to the sun:’ Mrs Temple died at Lyons, on her way to Nice, accompanied by her father.
14Lines 270-289 paraphrase Psalms 24. Lines 270-300 provided an ‘Easter Ode’ popular in early 19th-Century American musical settings.-ee
15‘Manumit:’ to free from slavery or bondage; emancipate.
16‘Pæan:’ healing song; hymn. — ee
17‘Athenian:’ Socrates.
18‘Fable fledged:’ Icarus.
19‘Glebe:’ The soil or earth; land. (Archaic.) — ee
20‘Narcissa:’ Elizabeth Lee, Dr. Young’s step-daughter. — ee
21‘Lorenzo’ was modelled on Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton (b. 21 December 1698; d. Poblet, Spain, 31 May 1731, aged 32), powerful Jacobite politician, notorious libertine and rake, profligate, and alcoholic. — ee
22‘Charles:’ Charles V.
23‘Quotidian:’ everyday; commonplace. — ee
24‘Oracle of gems:’ the Urim and Thummim.
25‘Cockade:’ an ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. — ee
26‘Votary:’ person bound by vows to a life of religious worship or service. — ee
27‘Ne’er to meet, or ne’er to part:’ hence Burns’s famous line in his verses to Clarinda: —
‘Never met, or never parted,
We had ne’er been broken-hearted.’
28‘She:’ his wife, it is supposed.
29‘Most Christian:’ Louis XIV., King of France.
30‘Ours is the cloth,’ &c.: how like the lines of Coleridge! —
‘O Lady, we receive but what we give,’ &c.
31‘Towering flame,’ &c.: these lines are reproduced in the close of Campbell’s ‘Pleasures of Hope.’
32‘Already:’ Night Sixth.
33‘Bellerophon:’ who carried letters from Proctus to Jobates, King of Lycia, which contained an order in cipher for his execution after nine days. He contrived, however, to escape.
34‘To Pyrrhus:’ by a philosopher who told him he would have been as happy had he stayed at home, instead of pursuing a career of conquest.
35‘Proud Eastern:’ Nebuchadnezzar.
36‘Thee:’ Lorenzo.
37‘Lately proved:’ in the Sixth Night.
38‘Presumption’s sacrilegious sons:’ Korah, &c.
39‘Lucia:’ probably his wife.
40‘Uriel:’ see Milton.
41‘Title:’ The Infidel Reclaimed.
42‘Bible:’ the poetical parts of it.
43‘Albion’s cost:’ Admiral Balchen, &c.
44‘Like a flag floating,’ &c.: hence Wilson’s line in his ‘Address to a Wild-Deer:’ —
‘Like a flag burning bright when the vessel is gone.’
45‘Fucus:’ an old type of makeup. — ee
46‘Snuff:’ a candle-end or wick. — ee
47‘Murray:’ Lord Mansfield.
48‘Fabled boy:’ Narcissus.
49‘Yorke:’ Lord Chancellor Hardwick.
50‘Above:’ in a former Night.
51‘Prussia:’ under Frederick the Great.
52‘One departed world:’ the world before the flood.
53‘Being lost:’ referring to the First Night.
54‘Her:’ Lucia.
55‘Favonian:’ of or relating to the west wind. Mild; benign. — ee
56‘Prometheus:’ Night Eighth.
57‘Intestine:’ adj., internal; civil. — ee
58‘Elance:’ to throw as a lance; to hurl; to dart. — ee
59‘Lately fought:’ Night Eighth.
60‘Orrery:’ a mechanical model of the solar system. — ee
61‘Grots:’ grottos. — ee
62‘Tenebrious:’ Dark and gloomy; ominous. — ee
63‘He who drank:’ Socrates.
64‘He of Tusculum:’ Cicero.
65‘Him of Corduba:’ Seneca.
66‘Defecate:’ to remove (impurities, as in a chemical solution); clarify. — ee
67‘Ajalon’s:’ “Sun, stand thou still on Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon” (Josh. 10:12). — ee
68‘Fane:’ place dedicated to some deity, a sanctuary, fr. fari to speak. — ed.
69‘Jakes:’ latrine or privy. — ee
70‘Heliopolis:’ meaning the City of the Sun.
71‘Him of Uz:’ referring to Job’s language, ‘Oh that I knew where I might find him!’ &c.
72‘Eridanus,’ or Phaeton: famous for his fall from the chariot of the sun.
73‘Great Vine:’ John xv. 1.
74‘Lately:’ Nights Sixth and Seventh.
75‘Philip’s ear:’ ‘Remember, Philip, thou art mortal.’
76Prov. viii. 31.
77‘Titled:’ The Consolation.
78‘Him of Gaza:’ Samson.
THE LAST DAY.
IN THREE BOOKS.
Venit summa dies.
— VIRG.
BOOK I.
Ipse pater, media nimborum in nocte, corusca
Fulmina molitur dextra. Quo maxima motu
Terra tremit: fugęre feræ! et mortalia corda
Per gentes humilis stravit pavor.
VIRG.
While others sing the fortune of the great;
Empire and arms, and all the pomp of state;
With Britain’s hero1 set their souls on fire,
And grow immortal as his deeds inspire;
I draw a deeper scene: a scene that yields
A louder trumpet, and more dreadful fields;
The world alarm’d, both earth and heaven o’erthrown,
And gasping nature’s last tremendous groan;
Death’s ancient sceptre broke, the teeming tomb,
The righteous Judge, and man’s eternal doom.
‘Twixt joy and pain I view the bold design,
And ask my anxious heart, if it be mine.
Whatever great or dreadful has been done
Within the sight of conscious stars or sun,
Is far beneath my daring: I look down
On all the splendours of the British crown.
This globe is for my verse a narrow bound;
Attend me, all the glorious worlds around!
O! all ye angels, howsoe’er disjoin’d,
Of every various order, place, and kind,
Hear, and assist, a feeble mortal’s lays;
’Tis your Eternal King I strive to praise.
But chiefly thou, great Ruler! Lord of all!
Before whose throne archangels prostrate fall;
If at thy nod, from discord, and from night,
Sprang beauty, and yon sparkling worlds of light,
Exalt e’en me; all inward tumults quell;
The clouds and darkness of my mind dispel;
To my great subject thou my breast inspire,
And raise my lab’ring soul with equal fire.
Man, bear thy brow aloft, view every grace
In God’s great offspring, beauteous nature’s face:
See spring’s gay bloom; see golden autumn’s store;
See how earth smiles, and hear old ocean roar.
Leviathans but heave their cumbrous mail,
It makes a tide, and wind-bound navies sail.
Here, forests rise, the mountains awful pride;
Here, rivers measure climes, and worlds divide;
There, valleys fraught with gold’s resplendent seeds,
Hold kings, and kingdoms’ fortunes, in their beds:
There, to the skies, aspiring hills ascend,
And into distant lands their shades extend.
View cities, armies, fleets; of fleets the pride,
See Europe’s law, in Albion’s channel ride.
View the whole earth’s vast landscape unconfin’d,
Or view in Britain all her glories join’d.
Then let the firmament thy wonder raise;
‘Twill raise thy wonder, but transcend thy praise.
How far from east to west? the lab’ring eye
Can scarce the distant azure bounds descry:
Wide theatre! where tempests play at large,
And God’s right hand can all its wrath discharge.
Mark how those radiant lamps inflame the pole,
Call forth the seasons, and the year control:
They shine thro’ time, with an unalter’d ray:
See this grand period rise, and that decay:
So vast, this world’s a grain; yet myriads grace,
With golden pomp, the throng’d ethereal space;
So bright, with such a wealth of glory stor’d,
‘Twere sin in heathens not to have ador’d.
How great, how firm, how sacred, all appears!
How worthy an immortal round of years!
Yet all must drop, as autumn’s sickliest grain,
And earth and firmament be sought in vain:
The tract forgot where constellations shone,
Or where the Stuarts fill’d an awful throne:
Time shall be slain, all nature be destroy’d,
Nor leave an atom in the mighty void.
Sooner, or later, in some future date,
(A dreadful secret in the book of fate!)
This hour, for aught all human wisdom knows,
Enshrined in man! Of human hearts, if pure,
Divine inhabitant! The tie divine
Of heaven with distant earth! by whom, I trust
(If not inspired), uncensured this address
To Thee, to Them — to whom? — Mysterious Power!
Reveal’d — yet unreveal’d! darkness in light;
Number in unity! our joy! our dread!
The triple bolt that lays all wrong in ruin! 2290
That animates all right, the triple sun!
Sun of the soul! her never-setting sun!
Triune, unutterable, unconceived,
Absconding, yet demonstrable, Great God!
Greater than greatest! better than the best!
Kinder than kindest! with soft pity’s eye,
Or (stronger still to speak it) with Thine own,
From Thy bright home, from that high firmament,
Where Thou, from all eternity, hast dwelt;
Beyond archangels’ unassisted ken; 2300
From far above what mortals highest call;
From elevation’s pinnacle; look down,
Through — what? Confounding interval! through all
And more than labouring Fancy can conceive;
Through radiant ranks of essences unknown;
Through hierarchies from hierarchies detach’d
Round various banners of Omnipotence,
With endless change of rapturous duties fired;
Through wondrous being’s interposing swarms,
All clustering at the call, to dwell in Thee; 2310
Through this wide waste of worlds! this vista vast,
All sanded o’er with suns; suns turn’d to night
Before thy feeblest beam — Look down — down — down,
On a poor breathing particle in dust,
Or, lower, an immortal in his crimes. 2315
His crimes forgive! forgive his virtues, too!
Those smaller faults, half converts to the right.
Nor let me close these eyes, which never more
May see the sun (though night’s descending scale
Now weighs up morn), unpitied, and unblest!
In Thy displeasure dwells eternal pain;
Pain, our aversion; pain, which strikes me now;
And, since all pain is terrible to man, 2323
Though transient, terrible; at Thy good hour,
Gently, ah, gently, lay me in my bed,
My clay-cold bed! by nature, now, so near;
By nature, near; still nearer by disease!
Till then, be this an emblem of my grave:
Let it out-preach the preacher; every night
Let it out-cry the boy at Philip’s ear;75 2330
That tongue of death! that herald of the tomb!
And when (the shelter of Thy wing implored)
My senses, soothed, shall sink in soft repose,
Oh, sink this truth still deeper in my soul,
Suggested by my pillow, sign’d by fate,
First, in Fate’s volume, at the page of man —
Man’s sickly soul, though turn’d and toss’d for ever,
From side to side, can rest on nought but Thee:
Here, in full trust, hereafter, in full joy;
On Thee, the promised, sure, eternal down 2340
Of spirits, toil’d in travel through this vale.
Nor of that pillow shall my soul despond;
For — Love almighty! Love almighty! (sing,
Exult, creation!) Love almighty, reigns!
That death of Death! that cordial of despair!
And loud Eternity’s triumphant song!
“Of whom, no more: — For, O thou Patron-God!
Thou God and mortal! thence more God to man! 2348
Man’s theme eternal! man’s eternal theme!
Thou canst not ‘scape uninjured from our praise.
Uninjured from our praise can He escape,
Who, disembosom’d from the Father, bows
The heaven of heavens, to kiss the distant earth!
Breathes out in agonies a sinless soul!
Against the cross, Death’s iron sceptre breaks!
From famish’d Ruin plucks her human prey!
Throws wide the gates celestial to his foes!
Their gratitude, for such a boundless debt,
Deputes their suffering brothers to receive!
And, if deep human guilt in payment fails; 2360
As deeper guilt prohibits our despair!
Enjoins it, as our duty, to rejoice!
And (to close all) omnipotently kind,
Takes his delights among the sons of men.”76
What words are these — and did they come from heaven?
And were they spoke to man? to guilty man?
What are all mysteries to love like this?
The songs of angels, all the melodies
Of choral gods, are wafted in the sound;
Heal and exhilarate the broken heart; 2370
Though plunged, before, in horrors dark as night.
Rich prelibation of consummate joy!
Nor wait we dissolution to be blest.
This final effort of the moral Muse,
How justly titled!77 Nor for me alone:
For all that read; what spirit of support,
What heights of Consolation, crown my song!
Then, farewell Night! of darkness, now, no more:
Joy breaks, shines, triumphs; ’tis eternal day.
Shall that which rises out of nought complain 2380
Of a few evils, paid with endless joys? 2381
My soul! henceforth, in sweetest union join
The two supports of human happiness,
Which some, erroneous, think can never meet;
True taste of life, and constant thought of death!
The thought of death, sole victor of its dread!
Hope, be thy joy; and probity thy skill;
Thy patron He, whose diadem has dropp’d
Yon gems of heaven; eternity, thy prize:
And leave the racers of the world their own, 2390
Their feather, and their froth, for endless toils:
They part with all for that which is not bread;
They mortify, they starve, on wealth, fame, power;
And laugh to scorn the fools that aim at more.
How must a spirit, late escaped from earth, —
Suppose Philander’s, Lucia’s, or Narcissa’s, —
The truth of things new-blazing in its eye,
Look back, astonish’d, on the ways of men,
Whose lives’ whole drift is to forget their graves!
And when our present privilege is past, 2400
To scourge us with due sense of its abuse,
The same astonishment will seize us all.
What then must pain us, would preserve us now.
Lorenzo! ’tis not yet too late; Lorenzo!
Seize Wisdom, ere ’tis torment to be wise;
That is, seize Wisdom, ere she seizes thee.
For what, my small philosopher! is hell?
’Tis nothing but full knowledge of the truth,
When Truth, resisted long, is sworn our foe;
And calls Eternity to do her right. 2410
Thus, darkness aiding intellectual light,
And sacred silence whispering truths divine,
And truths divine converting pain to peace,
My song the midnight raven has outwing’d,
And shot, ambitious of unbounded scenes, 2415
Beyond the flaming limits of the world,
Her gloomy flight. But what avails the flight
Of fancy, when our hearts remain below?
Virtue abounds in flatterers, and foes;
’Tis pride, to praise her; penance, to perform.
To more than words, to more than worth of tongue,
Lorenzo! rise, at this auspicious hour;
An hour, when Heaven’s most intimate with man;
When, like a fallen star, the ray divine
Glides swift into the bosom of the just; 2425
And just are all, determined to reclaim;
Which sets that title high within thy reach.
Awake, then; thy Philander calls: awake!
Thou, who shalt wake, when the creation sleeps;
When, like a taper, all these suns expire;
When Time, like him of Gaza78 in his wrath,
Plucking the pillars that support the world,
In Nature’s ample ruins lies entomb’d;
And Midnight, universal Midnight! reigns. 2434
ENDNOTES FOR ‘NIGHT-THOUGHTS’.
2‘Thrice:’ alluding to the death of his wife, his daughter Mrs Temple, and Mr Temple. — See Life.
3‘Philander:’ Mr Temple, his son-in-law.
4‘Lorenzo:’ not Young’s son, but probably the Earl of Wharton.
5‘Veils:’ a gain, profit. — ee
6‘Mæonides:’ Homer.
7‘His, who made:’ Pope.
8‘Cytherea:’ Venus, from Cythera, one of the Ionian Islands, where she was worshipped.
9‘As some tall tower:’ Goldsmith has borrowed this fine image in his description of the good pastor’s death, in the ‘Deserted Village.’
10‘P —— :’ Portland.
11‘Didst lately borrow:’ at the Duke of Norfolk’s masquerade.
12‘Narcissa:’ Mrs Temple.
13‘Nearer to the sun:’ Mrs Temple died at Lyons, on her way to Nice, accompanied by her father.
14Lines 270-289 paraphrase Psalms 24. Lines 270-300 provided an ‘Easter Ode’ popular in early 19th-Century American musical settings.-ee
15‘Manumit:’ to free from slavery or bondage; emancipate.
16‘Pæan:’ healing song; hymn. — ee
17‘Athenian:’ Socrates.
18‘Fable fledged:’ Icarus.
19‘Glebe:’ The soil or earth; land. (Archaic.) — ee
20‘Narcissa:’ Elizabeth Lee, Dr. Young’s step-daughter. — ee
21‘Lorenzo’ was modelled on Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton (b. 21 December 1698; d. Poblet, Spain, 31 May 1731, aged 32), powerful Jacobite politician, notorious libertine and rake, profligate, and alcoholic. — ee
22‘Charles:’ Charles V.
23‘Quotidian:’ everyday; commonplace. — ee
24‘Oracle of gems:’ the Urim and Thummim.
25‘Cockade:’ an ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge. — ee
26‘Votary:’ person bound by vows to a life of religious worship or service. — ee
27‘Ne’er to meet, or ne’er to part:’ hence Burns’s famous line in his verses to Clarinda: —
‘Never met, or never parted,
We had ne’er been broken-hearted.’
28‘She:’ his wife, it is supposed.
29‘Most Christian:’ Louis XIV., King of France.
30‘Ours is the cloth,’ &c.: how like the lines of Coleridge! —
‘O Lady, we receive but what we give,’ &c.
31‘Towering flame,’ &c.: these lines are reproduced in the close of Campbell’s ‘Pleasures of Hope.’
32‘Already:’ Night Sixth.
33‘Bellerophon:’ who carried letters from Proctus to Jobates, King of Lycia, which contained an order in cipher for his execution after nine days. He contrived, however, to escape.
34‘To Pyrrhus:’ by a philosopher who told him he would have been as happy had he stayed at home, instead of pursuing a career of conquest.
35‘Proud Eastern:’ Nebuchadnezzar.
36‘Thee:’ Lorenzo.
37‘Lately proved:’ in the Sixth Night.
38‘Presumption’s sacrilegious sons:’ Korah, &c.
39‘Lucia:’ probably his wife.
40‘Uriel:’ see Milton.
41‘Title:’ The Infidel Reclaimed.
42‘Bible:’ the poetical parts of it.
43‘Albion’s cost:’ Admiral Balchen, &c.
44‘Like a flag floating,’ &c.: hence Wilson’s line in his ‘Address to a Wild-Deer:’ —
‘Like a flag burning bright when the vessel is gone.’
45‘Fucus:’ an old type of makeup. — ee
46‘Snuff:’ a candle-end or wick. — ee
47‘Murray:’ Lord Mansfield.
48‘Fabled boy:’ Narcissus.
49‘Yorke:’ Lord Chancellor Hardwick.
50‘Above:’ in a former Night.
51‘Prussia:’ under Frederick the Great.
52‘One departed world:’ the world before the flood.
53‘Being lost:’ referring to the First Night.
54‘Her:’ Lucia.
55‘Favonian:’ of or relating to the west wind. Mild; benign. — ee
56‘Prometheus:’ Night Eighth.
57‘Intestine:’ adj., internal; civil. — ee
58‘Elance:’ to throw as a lance; to hurl; to dart. — ee
59‘Lately fought:’ Night Eighth.
60‘Orrery:’ a mechanical model of the solar system. — ee
61‘Grots:’ grottos. — ee
62‘Tenebrious:’ Dark and gloomy; ominous. — ee
63‘He who drank:’ Socrates.
64‘He of Tusculum:’ Cicero.
65‘Him of Corduba:’ Seneca.
66‘Defecate:’ to remove (impurities, as in a chemical solution); clarify. — ee
67‘Ajalon’s:’ “Sun, stand thou still on Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon” (Josh. 10:12). — ee
68‘Fane:’ place dedicated to some deity, a sanctuary, fr. fari to speak. — ed.
69‘Jakes:’ latrine or privy. — ee
70‘Heliopolis:’ meaning the City of the Sun.
71‘Him of Uz:’ referring to Job’s language, ‘Oh that I knew where I might find him!’ &c.
72‘Eridanus,’ or Phaeton: famous for his fall from the chariot of the sun.
73‘Great Vine:’ John xv. 1.
74‘Lately:’ Nights Sixth and Seventh.
75‘Philip’s ear:’ ‘Remember, Philip, thou art mortal.’
76Prov. viii. 31.
77‘Titled:’ The Consolation.
78‘Him of Gaza:’ Samson.
THE LAST DAY.
IN THREE BOOKS.
Venit summa dies.
— VIRG.
BOOK I.
Ipse pater, media nimborum in nocte, corusca
Fulmina molitur dextra. Quo maxima motu
Terra tremit: fugęre feræ! et mortalia corda
Per gentes humilis stravit pavor.
VIRG.
While others sing the fortune of the great;
Empire and arms, and all the pomp of state;
With Britain’s hero1 set their souls on fire,
And grow immortal as his deeds inspire;
I draw a deeper scene: a scene that yields
A louder trumpet, and more dreadful fields;
The world alarm’d, both earth and heaven o’erthrown,
And gasping nature’s last tremendous groan;
Death’s ancient sceptre broke, the teeming tomb,
The righteous Judge, and man’s eternal doom.
‘Twixt joy and pain I view the bold design,
And ask my anxious heart, if it be mine.
Whatever great or dreadful has been done
Within the sight of conscious stars or sun,
Is far beneath my daring: I look down
On all the splendours of the British crown.
This globe is for my verse a narrow bound;
Attend me, all the glorious worlds around!
O! all ye angels, howsoe’er disjoin’d,
Of every various order, place, and kind,
Hear, and assist, a feeble mortal’s lays;
’Tis your Eternal King I strive to praise.
But chiefly thou, great Ruler! Lord of all!
Before whose throne archangels prostrate fall;
If at thy nod, from discord, and from night,
Sprang beauty, and yon sparkling worlds of light,
Exalt e’en me; all inward tumults quell;
The clouds and darkness of my mind dispel;
To my great subject thou my breast inspire,
And raise my lab’ring soul with equal fire.
Man, bear thy brow aloft, view every grace
In God’s great offspring, beauteous nature’s face:
See spring’s gay bloom; see golden autumn’s store;
See how earth smiles, and hear old ocean roar.
Leviathans but heave their cumbrous mail,
It makes a tide, and wind-bound navies sail.
Here, forests rise, the mountains awful pride;
Here, rivers measure climes, and worlds divide;
There, valleys fraught with gold’s resplendent seeds,
Hold kings, and kingdoms’ fortunes, in their beds:
There, to the skies, aspiring hills ascend,
And into distant lands their shades extend.
View cities, armies, fleets; of fleets the pride,
See Europe’s law, in Albion’s channel ride.
View the whole earth’s vast landscape unconfin’d,
Or view in Britain all her glories join’d.
Then let the firmament thy wonder raise;
‘Twill raise thy wonder, but transcend thy praise.
How far from east to west? the lab’ring eye
Can scarce the distant azure bounds descry:
Wide theatre! where tempests play at large,
And God’s right hand can all its wrath discharge.
Mark how those radiant lamps inflame the pole,
Call forth the seasons, and the year control:
They shine thro’ time, with an unalter’d ray:
See this grand period rise, and that decay:
So vast, this world’s a grain; yet myriads grace,
With golden pomp, the throng’d ethereal space;
So bright, with such a wealth of glory stor’d,
‘Twere sin in heathens not to have ador’d.
How great, how firm, how sacred, all appears!
How worthy an immortal round of years!
Yet all must drop, as autumn’s sickliest grain,
And earth and firmament be sought in vain:
The tract forgot where constellations shone,
Or where the Stuarts fill’d an awful throne:
Time shall be slain, all nature be destroy’d,
Nor leave an atom in the mighty void.
Sooner, or later, in some future date,
(A dreadful secret in the book of fate!)
This hour, for aught all human wisdom knows,
