What treason to the majesty of Man! Of Man immortal! Hear the lofty style: “If so decreed, th' almighty will be done. "Let earth dissolve, yon pond'rous orbs descend, 745 "And grind us into dust: The Soul is safe; "The Man emerges; mounts above the wreck, "As tow'ring flame from Nature's fun'ral pyre; "O'er devastation, as a gainer, smiles; "His charter, his inviolable rights, 750 "Well pleas'd to learn from thunder's impotence, "Death's pointless darts, and Hell's defeated storms." But these chimeras touch not thee, LORENZO! The glories of the world, thy sev'nfold shield. Other ambition than of crowns in air, And superlunary felicities, Thy bosom warm. I'll cool it, if I can; And turn those glories that enchant, against thee. If wise, the cause that wounds thee is thy cure. (To mount LORENZO never can refuse;) 755 760 And from the clouds, where Pride delights to dwell, Look down on Earth-What seest thou? Wondrous things! Terrestrial wonders, that eclipse the skies. What lengths of labour'd lands! what loaded seas! 765 770 775 780 785 And gild our landscape with their glitt❜ring spires. What monument of genius, spirit, pow'r! And now, LORENZO, raptur'd at this scene, Whose glories render Heav'n superfluous! say, 790 795 800 Whose footsteps these?-Immortals have been here. Could less than souls immortal this have done? Earth's cover'd o'er with proofs of souls immortal; To flatter thy grand foible, I confess, These are Ambition's works: And these are great: But this, the least immortal souls can do; 805 810 Transcend them all.-But what can these transcend? 'Tis moral grandeur makes the mighty Man: And that it crowns.-Here cease we: But, ere long, More pow'rful proof shall take the field against thee, Stronger than death, and smiling at the tomb. PREFACE ΤΟ NIGHT THE SEVENTH. As we are at war with the power, it were well if we were at war with the manners, of France.. A land of levity is a land of guilt. A serious mind is the native soil of every virtue, and the single character that does true honour to mankind. The soul's immortality has been the favourite theme with the serious of all ages. Nor is it strange; it is a subject by far the most interesting, and important, that can enter the mind of Man. Of highest moment this subject always was, and always will be. Yet this its highest moment seems to admit of increase at this day; a sort of occasional importance is superadded to the natural weight of it; if that opinion, which is advanced in the Preface to the preceding Night, be just. It is there supposed, that all our infidels, whatever scheme, |