BY DR. PORTEUS, BISHOP OF LONDON.
FRIEND to the wretch whom every friend forsakes, I woo thee, death!-In fancy's fairy paths Let the gay songster rove, and gently trill The strain of empty joy. Life and its joys I leave to those that prize them. At this hour, This solemn hour, when silence rules the world, And wearied nature makes a general pause; Wrapt in night's sable robe, through cloisters drear And charnels pale, tenanted by a throng Of meagre phantoms shooting 'cross my path With silent glance, I seck the shadowy vale Of Death. Deep in a murky cave's recess, Lav'd by Oblivion's listless stream, and fenc'd By shelving rocks, and intermingled horrors Of yew and cyprus shade, from all intrusion Of busy noontide beam, the Monarch sits In unsubstantial majesty enthron'd. At his right hand, nearest himself in place And fruitfulness of form his parent Sin, With fatal industry and cruel care Busies himself in pointing all his stings, And tipping every shaft with venom drawn From her infernal store: around him rang'd
In terrible array, and mixture strange
Of uncouth shapes, stands his dread ministers. Foremost Old age, his natural ally
And firmest friend; next him Diseases thick, A motley train; Fever with cheek of fire; Consumption wan: Palsy, half-warm with life, And half a clay-cold lump; joint-tort'ring Gout; And ever-gnawing Rheum! Convulsion wild; Swollen Dropsy; panting Asthma; Apoplex Full-gorg'd. There too the Pestilence that walks In darkness, and the Sickness that destroys At broad noon-day. These, and a thousand more, Horrid to tell, attentive wait; and, when By Heaven's command Death waves his ebon wand, Sudden rush forth to execute his purpose, And scatter desolation o'er the earth.
Ill-fated Man! for whom such various forms Of misery wait, and mark their future prey! Ah! why, all-righteous Father, didst thou make This creature, Man? Why wake the unconscious dust To life and wretchedness! O better far Still had he slept in uncreated night, If this the lot of being! Was it for this Thy breath divine kindled within his breast The vital flame? For this was thy fair image Stamp'd on his soul in godlike lineaments? For this dominion given him absolute O'er all thy works, only that he might reign Supreme in wo? From the blest source of Good Could Pain and Death proceed? Could such foul ills Fall from fair Mercy's hands? Far be the thought,
The impious thought! God never made a creature But what was good. He made a living Soul; The wretched Mortal was the work of Man. Forth from his Maker's hands he sprung to life, Fresh with immortal bloom; no pain he knew, No fear of change, no check to his desires, Save one command. That one command, which stood 'Twixt him and death, the test of his obedience, Urg'd on by wanton curiosity,
He broke. There in one moment was undone The fairest of God's works. The same rash hana That pluck'd in evil hour the fatal fruit, Unbarr'd the gates of Hell, and let loose Sin And Death, and all the family of Pain, To prey upon Mankind. Young Nature saw The monstrous crew, and shook thro' all her frame. Then fled her new-born lustre, then began Heaven's cheerful face to lower, then vapours chok'd The troubled air, and form'd a veil of clouds To hide the willing Sun. The earth convuls'd With painful throes threw forth a bristly crop Of thorns and briers; and insect, bird, and beast, That wont before with admiration fond To gaze at man and fearless crowd around him, Now fled before his face, shunning in haste The infection of his misery. He alone Who justly might, the offended Lord of Man, Turn'd not away his face; he, full of pity, Forsook not in this uttermost distress His best lov'd work. That comfort still remain'd, (That best, that greatest comfort in affliction,)
The countenance of God, and through the gloom Shot forth some kindly gleams, to cheer and warm The offender's sinking soul. Hope, sent from Heaven, Uprais'd his drooping head, and show'd afar
A happier scene of things; the Promised Seed Trampling upon the Serpent's humbled crest ; Death of his sting disarm'd; and the dark grave, Made pervious to the realms of endless day, No more the limit but the gate of life.
Cheer'd with the view, Man went to till the ground, From whence he rose; sentenc'd indeed to toil As to a punishment, yet (ev'n in wrath
So merciful is Heav'n) this toil became The solace of his woes, the sweet employ Of many a live-long hour, and surest guard Against Disease and Death. Death tho' denounc'd, Was yet a distant ill, by feeble arm Of Age, his sole support, led slowly on.
Not then, as since, the short-liv'd sons of men Flock'd to his realms in countless multitudes; Scarce in the course of twice five hundred years One solitary ghost went shivering down To his unpeopled shore. In sober state Through the sequestered vale of rural life, The venerable Patriarch guileless held The tenour of his way; Labour prepar'd His simple fare, and Temperance rul'd his board.
Tir'd with his daily toil, at early eve
He sunk to sudden rest; gentle and pure
As breath of evening Zephyr, and as sweet Were all his slumbers; with the Sun he rose,
Alert and vigorous as He, to run
His destin'd course. Thus nerv'd with giant strength,
He stemm'd the tide of time, and stood the shock
Of ages rolling harmless o'er his head.
At life's meridian point arriv'd, he stood, And looking round, saw all the valleys fill'd With nations from his loins; full well content To leave his race thus scatter'd o'er the earth, Along the gentle slope of life's decline He bert his gradual way, till full of years He dropt like mellow fruit into his grave.
Such in the infancy of Time was Man; So calm was life, so impotent was Death! O had he but preserved these few remains, The shattered fragments of lost happiness, Snatch'd by the hand of Heav'n from the sad wreck Of innocence primeval; still had he liv'd In ruin great; though fallen, yet not forlorn ; Though mortal, yet not every where beset With Death in every shape! But he, impatient To be completely wretched, hastens to fill up The measure of his woes: - 'Twas Man himself Brought Death into the world; and Man himself Gave keenness to his darts, quicken'd his pace, And multiplied destruction on mankind.
First Envy, eldest-born of Hell, embru'd - IIer hands in blood, and taught the Sons of Men To make a Death which Nature never made, And God abhorr'd; with violence rude to breal The thread of life ere half its length was run, And rob a wretched brother of his being.
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