Her eyes emit a haggard glare; Her mien a savage soul expressed; With grim Medusa's snaky hair; And all the father stood confessed. The groves, which once, in green array, Pale was the sun, with clouds obscure; Wild Lamentation mourned in vain To cleanse the soul, with guilt impure, And reinstate the golden reign. Beauty's a flower of early doom, The thorn is left, a bleeding heart. Triumphant Vice to his drear courts Returns to rule the infernal plains; There Misery with her sire resorts, To forge for man her torturing chains. But Virtue, to redeem the earth, In Eden opes his tranquil seats; Asylum safe of injured worth, Here Happiness with him retreats! Virtue and Vice, with clashing sway, But Virtue is the surest guide. Vice, in whose form no grace is seen, While Virtue, in each beauty decked, Our wandering footsteps would direct, Severe Experience soon will learn1o The opened eyes too late discern, But see a kind deliverer rise! Her feeling breast Compassion warms, To purge this film from mortal eyes, And strip delusion of its charms. Behold Self-Knowledge quits the skies! Ithuriel's magick spear she bears; From her approach pale Error flies, And all the mind's dark host appears.11 Disrobed of all his borrowed plumes, Gay Vice no more the eye allures; While Virtue's native lustre blooms, And with its charms the soul secures. The wreath of once triumphant Vice Ye, whose excursive souls pretend The Almighty's boundless power to scan; Whose thoughts against the heavens contend, Nor stoop to earth to think on man; Who, like the lion in his cave, Or eagle on his rocky height, With swelling pride austerely grave, Who proudly view with scornful eyes Hear, learned fools: When life shall end, Will stars or spheres from heaven descend; Virtue alone can smooth the brow Of haggard Death with smiles of joy; Be Virtue then by all caressed! Virtue the glooms of life will cheer; With eye impartial search thy breast, While Virtue lends a listening ear. "Homo sum; humani nihil a me alienum puto." TERENCE, Heaut I am a man, and interested in all the concerns of humanity. [Written April 13, 1791.] YE, who enjoy the bliss of social ease, Who drink the sweets of Freedom's passing breeze, Taught by your fortune, learn, with generous mind, To soothe the woes, and feel for all mankind. While Pride's imperial sons in splendour vie, Behold the generous soul, who feels for man, Sweet are the pleasures, that from loye arise; Sweet the warm rapture, when, with eager eyes, And swelling with the gairish hopes of youth, Young genius springs to clasp a long sought truth ; But more extatick joys, those scenes impart, The generous heart with pleasing transport bless. Bright are thy features, as the blush of even, When savage Nature her dominion kept, And each mild Virtue in oblivion slept, Then pale eyed Misery and Oppression rose, And plunged mankind adown the abyss of woes. Dire Rage and War around the nations strode, And Havock grimly smiled o'er seas of blood. The dearest ties of love were stained with gore, And Peace and Friendship ruled the world no more. The sprightly virgin in her tender bloom, Torn from her lover's arms, by cruel doom, With tears of anguish, trickling from her eyes, O'er his dear marble bids the cypress rise. |