Man formed for Heaven's high Purposes.
Or recollected only to gild o'er
And add a smile to what was sweet before, He may possess the joys he thinks he sees, Lay his old age upon the lap of ease, Improve the remnant of his wasted span, And, having liv'd a trifler, die a man.
Thus conscience pleads her cause within the breast, Though long rebell'd against, not yet suppress'd, And calls a creature form'd for God alone, For heav'ns high purposes, and not his own; Calls him away from selfish ends and aims, From what debilitates and what inflames, From cities, humming with a restless crowd, Sordid as active, ignorant as loud, Whose highest praise is that they live in vain, The dupes of pleasure, or the slaves of gain, Where works of man are cluster'd close around, And works of God are hardly to be found, To regions where in spite of sin and woe, Traces of Eden are still seen below,
Danger of Procrastination.
Where mountain, river, forest, field, and grove, Remind him of his Maker's pow'r and love. 'Tis well if, look'd for at so late a day, In the last scene of such a senseless play, True wisdom will attend his feeble call, And grace his action ere the curtain fall. Souls that have long despis'd their heav'nly birth, Their wishes all impregnated with earth, For threescore years employ'd with ceaseless care In catching smoke and feeding upon air, Conversant only with the ways of men, Rarely redeem the short remaining ten, Invet'rate habits choke th' unfruitful heart, Their fibres penetrate its tenderest part, And, draining its nutritious pow'rs to feed Their noxious growth, starve ev'ry better seed. Happy, if full of days but happier far,
If, ere we yet discern life's evening star, Sick of the service of a world that feeds
Its patient drudges with dry chaff and weeds,
We can escape from custom's idiot sway, To serve the Sov'reign we were born t'obey. Then sweet to muse upon his skill display'd (Infinite skill) in all that he has made! To trace, in nature's most minute design, The signature and stamp of pow'r divine, Contrivance intricate, express'd with ease, Where unassisted sight no beauty sees, The shapely limb and lubricated joint, Within the small dimensions of a point, Muscle and nerve miraculously spun, His mighty work, who speaks and it is done, Th' invisible in things scarce seen reveal'd, To whom an atom is an ample field:
To wonder at a thousand insect forms, These hatch'd, and those resusciated worms, New life ordain'd and brighter scenes to share, Once prone on earth, now buoyant upon air, Whose shape would make them, had they bulk
More hideous foes than fancy can devise;
The glorious Works of God but faintly understood.
With helmet heads and dragon scales adorn'd, The mighty myriads, now securely scorn'd, Would mock the majesty of man's high birth, Despise his bulwarks, and unpeople earth : Then with a glance of fancy to survey, Far as the faculty can stretch away,
Ten thousand rivers pour'd at his command From urns that never fail through every land; These like a deluge with impetuous force, Those winding modestly a silent course; The cloud-surmounting alps, the fruitful vales ; Seas on which ev'ry nation spreads her sails; The sun, a world whence other worlds drink.
The crescent moon, the diadem of night; Stars countless, each in his appointed place, Fast-anchor'd in the deep abyss of space- At such a sight to catch the poet's flame, And with a rapture like his own exclaim, These are thy glorious works, thou source of good, How dimly seen, how faintly understood!
The glorious Works of God but faintly understood.
Thine, and upheld by thy paternal care, This universal frame, thus wondrous fair; Thy pow'r divine, and bounty beyond thought, Ador'd and prais'd in all that thou hast wrought. Absorb'd in that immensity I see,
I shrink abas'd, and yet aspire to thee; Instruct me, guide me, to that heav'nly day
Thy words more clearly than thy works display, That, while thy truths my grosser thoughts refine, I may resemble thee and call thee mine.
Oh blest proficiency! surpassing all
That men erroneously their glory call, The recompense that arts or arms can yield, The bar, the senate, or the tented field. Compar'd with this sublimest life below,
Ye kings and rulers, what have courts to show? Thus studied, us'd and consecrated thus,
On earth what is, seems form'd indeed for us; Not as the plaything of a froward child, Fretful unless diverted and beguil'd,
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