As in a theatre, furround this scene,

Intent on man, and anxious for his fate.

Angels look out for thee; for thee, their Lord,
To vindicate his glory; and for thee,

Creation univerfal calls aloud,

To dif-involve the moral world, and give

To nature's renovation brighter charms.

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260

Shall man alone, whofe fate, whofe final fate, Hangs on that hour, exclude it from his thought?

I think of nothing else; I fee! I feel it!

All nature, like an earthquake, trembling round! 265
All Deities, like fummer's fwarms, on wing!
All basking in the full meridian blaze!

I fee the Judge inthron'd! the flaming guard!
The volume open'd! open'd every heart!
A fun-beam pointing out each secret thought!
No patron! interceffor none! now past
The sweet, the clement, mediatorial hour!
For guilt no plea! to pain, no pause! no bound!
Inexorable, all! and all, extreme!

Nor man alone; the foe of God and man,
From his dark den, blafpheming, drags his chain,
And rears his brazen front, with thunder fcarr'd:
Receives his fentence, and begins his hell.
All vengeance paft, now, seems abundant grace :
Like meteors in a stormy fky, how roll
His baleful eyes! he curfes whom he dreads;
And deems it the first moment of his fall.

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275

'Tis prefent to my thought!—and yet where is it?

Angels can't tell me ; angels cannot gues

280

The

The period; from created beings lock'd

In darkness. But the process, and the place,
Are lefs obfcure; for these may man enquire.
Say, thou great clofe of human hopes and fears!
Great key of hearts! great finisher of fates!

285

Great end! and great beginning! fay, Where art thou? Art thou in time, or in eternity?

Nor in eternity, nor time, I find thee.

295

These, as two monarchs, on their borders meet,
(Monarchs of all elaps'd, or unarriv'd !)
As in debate, how best their powers ally'd,
May fwell the grandeur, or discharge the wrath,
Of Him, whom both their monarchies obey.
Time, this faft fabric for him built (and doom'd
With him to fall) now bursting o'er his head;
His lamp, the fun, extinguish'd; from beneath
The frown of hideous darkness, calls his fons
From their long flumber; from earth's heaving womb,
To fecond birth! contemporary throng!

300

305

Rous'd at One call, upftarted from One bed,
Preft in One croud, appall'd with One amaze,
He turns them o'er, Eternity! to thee.
Then (as a king depos'd difdains to live)
He falls on his own scythe; nor falls alone;
His greatest foe falls with him; Time, and he
Who murder'd all Time's offspring, Death, expire. 310
Time was! Eternity now reigns alone!

Aweful Eternity! offended queen !

And her refentment to mankind, how juft!

With kind intent, foliciting accefs,

How

How often has the knock'd at human hearts!

Rich to repay their hospitality,

How often call'd! and with the voice of God!

Yet bore repulfe, excluded as a cheat!

315

A dream! while fouleft foes found welcome there!
A dream, a cheat, now, all things, but her fmile. 320
For, lo! her twice ten thousand gates thrown wide,
As thrice from Indus to the frozen pole,

With banners ftreaming as the comet's blaze,

And clarions, louder than the deep in ftorms,

Sonorous as immortal breath can blow,

325

Pour forth their myriads, potentates, and powers,

Of light, of darkness; in a middle field,

Wide, as creation! populous, as wide!
A neutral region! there to mark th' event
Of that great drama, whofe preceding scenes
Detain'd them clofe fpectators, through a length
Of ages, ripening to this grand result ;
Ages, as yet unnumber'd, but by God;
Who now, pronouncing sentence, vindicates
The rights of virtue, and his own renown.

330

335

Eternity, the various fentence past, Affigns the fever'd throng distinct abodes, Sulphureous, or ambrofial: What enfues? The deed predominant! the deed of deeds! Which makes a hell of hell, a heaven of heaven. 340 The Goddess, with determin'd aspect, turns Her adamantine key's enormous fize Through deftiny's inextricable wards, Deep driving every bolt, on both their fates.

Then,

Then, from the cryftal battlements of heaven,

345

Down, down, the hurls it through the dark profound,
Ten thoufand thousand fathom; there to ruft,
And ne'er unlock her refolution more.

The deep refounds; and hell, through all her glooms,
Returns, in groans, the melancholy roar.

O how unlike the chorus of the skies!
O how unlike those shouts of joy, that shake
The whole ethereal! How the concave rings !
Nor ftrange! when deities their voice exalt ;
And louder far, than when creation rofe,
To fee creation's godlike aim, and end,
So well accomplish'd! so divinely clos'd!
To see the mighty dramatist's last act
(As meet) in glory rifing o'er the reft.
No fancy'd God, a God indeed, defcends,
To folve all knots; to strike the moral home;

To throw full day on darkest scenes of time ;

350

355

360

To clear, commend, exalt, and crown the whole.
Hence, in one peal of loud, eternal praise,

The charm'd fpectators thunder their applause! 365 And the vast void beyond, applause resounds.

What then am I ?—

Amidft applauding worlds,

And worlds celeftial, is there found on earth,

A peevish, diffonant, rebellious string,

Which jars in the grand chorus, and complains?

370

Cenfure on thee, Lorenzo! I fufpend,

And turn it on myself; how greatly due!

All, all is right; by God ordain'd or done ;

And

380

And who, but God, refum'd the friends He gave ? 375
And have I been complaining, then, so long?
Complaining of his favours; pain, and death?
Who, without pain's advice, would e'er be good?
Who, without death, but would be good in vain ?
Pain is to fave from pain; all punishment,
To make for peace; and death to fave from death
And second death, to guard immortal life;
To roufe the carelefs, the prefumptuous awe,
And turn the tide of fouls another way;
By the fame tenderness divine ordain'd,

385

That planted Eden, and high-bloom'd for man,

A fairer Eden, endless, in the skies.

Heaven gives us friends to bless the present scene Refumes them, to prepare us for the next.

All evils natural are moral goods;

390

All discipline, indulgence, on the whole.

None are unhappy: all have cause to smile,
But fuch as to themselves that cause deny.
Our faults are at the bottom of our pains ;
Error, in acts, or judgment, is the fource
Of endless fighs: We fin, or we mistake;
And nature tax, when false opinion ftings.
Let impious grief be banish'd, joy indulg'd;

395

But chiefly then, when grief puts in her claim.
Joy from the joyous, frequently betrays,

400

Oft lives in vanity, and dies in woe.

Joy, amidst ills, corroborates, exalts;

'Tis joy and conquest; joy, and virtue too. A noble fortitude in ills, delights

5

Heaven,