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Superior duty, thus the fage addrefs'd:

• Fountain of light! from whom yon orient fun • First drew his splendour! Source of life and love! • Whose smile now wakes o'er earth's rekindling face • The boundless blufh of fpring; O Firft and Best ! Thy effence tho' from human fight and search,

• Tho' from the climb of all created thought

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Ineffably remov'd, yet man himself,

Thy loweft child of Reason, man may read

• Unbounded pow'r, intelligence fupreme,

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The Maker's hand, on all his works imprefs'd

In characters coëval with the fun,

And with the fun to laft; from world to world,
From age to age, in ev'ry clime, difclos'd,
Sole revelation thro' all time the fame.
Hail, univerfal Goodness! with full ftream

For ever flowing from beneath the throne

Thro' earth, air, fea, to all things that have life;
From all that live on earth, in air and fea,
The great community of Nature's fons,
To thee, firft Father, ceaseless praise ascend!
And in the rev'rent hymn my grateful voice

Be duly heard, among thy works not least,
• Nor lowest, with intelligence inform'd,

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To know thee, and adore; with free-will crown'd,

• Where Virtue leads, to follow and be blefs'd. i

O, whether by thy prime decree ordain'd

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To days of future life; or whether now-
• The mortal hour is inftant, ftill vouchsafe,

• Parent and friend, to guide me blameless on
• Thro' this dark scene of error and of ill,

Thy truth to light me, and thy peace to chear:
All elfe, of me unafk'd, thy will fupreme

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• Withold or grant, and let that will be done.? This from the foul in filence breath'd fincere,

The hill's steep fide with firm elastick step

He

He lightly fcal'd; fuch health the frugal board,

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The morn's fresh breath that exercise respires

In mountain walks, and confcience free from blame,
Our life's best cordial can thro' age prolong.
There, loft in thought, and self-abandon'd, lay
The man unknown, nor heard approach his hoft,
Nor rais'd his drooping head. Aurelius, mov'd
By foft compaffion, which the favage scene,
Shut up and barr'd amid furrounding feas
From human commerce, quicken'd into sense
Of sharper forrow, thus apart began.

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O fight, that from the eye of Wealth or Pride,

- E'en in their hour of vaineft thought, might draw A feeling tear! whom yesterday beheld

< By love and fortune crown'd, of all poffefs'd

That fancy, tranc'd in faireft vifion, dreams;

• Now loft to all, each hope that softens life,

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• Each bliss that chears; there on the damp earth spread,

• Beneath a heav'n unknown, behold him now!

And let the gay, the fortunate, the great,

The proud, be taught what now the wretched feel,

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The happy have to fear. O man forlorn!

Too plain I read thy heart, by fondnefs drawn

To this fad scene, to fights that but inflame

It's tender anguish!'

Hear me, Heav'n'! exclaim'd

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The frantick mourner. . Could that anguish rise

To madnefs and to mortal agony,

< I yet would bless my fate; by one kind pang,

• From what I feel, the keener pangs of thought

• For ever freed. To me the fun is loft;

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To me the future flight of days and years
Is darkness, is defpair-But who complains,
Forgets that he can die. O, fainted maid!
<For fuch in heav'n thou art, if from thy feat

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• If names on earth most facred once and dear,
A lover and a friend, if yet these names
Can wake thy pity, dart one guiding ray

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To light me where, in cave or creek, are thrown

Thy lifelefs limbs, that I-O grief fupreme!

O fate remorfelefs! was thy lover fav'd

For fuch a tafk!-that I thofe dear remains,

. With maiden rites adorn'd, at last may lodge

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Beneath the hallow'd vault, and weeping there
O'er thy cold urn, await the hour to close

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• Thefe eyes in peace, and mix this duft with thine!'
• Such, and fo dire,' reply'd the cordial friend
In Pity's look and language, fuch, alas!

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Were late my thoughts: whate'er the human heart

• Can most afflict, grief, agony, despair,

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Have all been mine, and with alternate war

This bofom ravag'd. Hearken then, good youth!

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My story mark; and, from another's fate,

Pre-eminently wretched, learn thy own,
Sad as it feems, to balance and to bear!

In me, a man behold whofe morn ferene,

Whose noon of better life, with honour spent,
In virtuous purpofe or in honest act,

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• Drew fair diftin&tion on my publick name

From those among mankind, the nobler few,

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Whose praise is fame; but there, in that true fource
Whence happiness with pureft ftream defcends,

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In home-found peace and love, fupremely blefs'd!

• Union of hearts, confent of wedded wills,

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Our hopes and fears, our earth and heav'n, the fame!

At last, Amyntor, in my failing age

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Fall'n from fuch height, and with the felon herd,

• Robbers and outlaws, number'd-thought that still

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Stings deep the heart, and cloathes the cheek with shame! 205 Then doom'd to feel what guilt alone fhould fear,

• The

• The hand of publick vengeance; arm'd by rage,
Not juftice; rais'd to injure, not redrefs;

To rob, not guard; to ruin, not defend;
And all, O fov'reign Reason! all deriv'd

• From pow'r that claims thy warrant to do wrong!
A right divine to violate unblam'd

Each law, each rule, that, by himself observ'd,
The God prescribes whose sanction kings pretend!
O Charles! O monarch! in long exile train'd,
• Whole hopeless years th' oppreffor's hand to know
How hateful and how hard; thyself reliev'd,
Now hear! thy people, groaning under wrongs
Of equal load, adjure thee by those days
Of want and woe, of danger and despair,

• As Heav'n has thine, to pity their distress!

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Yet from the plain good meaning of my heart
Be far th' unhallow'd license of abuse;
Be far the bitterness of faintly zeal,

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• That impious hid behind the patriot's name Masques hate and malice to the legal throne,

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In justice founded, circumfcrib'd by laws,

The prince to guard--but guard the people too ;
Chief, one prime good to guard inviolate,

Soul of all worth, and fum of human blifs,

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Fair Freedom! birthright of all thinking kinds;

• Reason's Great Charter, from no king deriv'd,

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By none to be reclaim'd, man's right divine;
Which God, who gave, indelible pronounc❜d!

But if, disclaiming this his heav'n-own'd right,
This first, beft tenure, by which monarchs rule;
If, meant the bleffing, he becomes the bane,
The wolf, not fhepherd, of his fubject-flock,
To grind and tear, not fhelter and protect,

• Wide-wasting where he reigns-to such a prince
Allegiance kept were treafon to mankind,

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And loyalty revolt from virtue's law:

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• For

For fay, Amyntor! does juft Heaven enjoin

That we should homage hell? or bend the knee

To earthquake or volcano, when they rage,

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• Rend earth's firm frame, and in one boundless grave Ingulph their thoufands? Yet, O grief to tell!

• Yet fuch, of late, o'er this devoted land

• Was publick rule. Our fervile ftripes and chains,
Our fighs and groans refounding from the steep
Of wint'ry hill, or wafte untravell'd heath,
• Laft refuge of our wretchedness, not guilt,

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• Proclaim'd it loud to Heav'n: the arm of pow'r Extended fatal but to cruff the head

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• It ought to fcreen, or with a parent's love

• Reclaim from error; not with deadly hate,

• The tyrant's law, exterminate who err.

• In this wide ruin were my fortunes funk;

◄ Myfelf, as one contagious to his kind,

⚫ Whom Nature, whom the focial life, renounc'd, • Unfummon'd, unimpleaded, was to death,

To shameful death! adjudg'd; against my head The price of blood proclaim'd, and at my heels • Let loose the murd'rous cry of human hounds: And this blind fury of commission'd rage,

• Of party vengeance, to a fatal foe,

Known and abhorr'd for deeds of direft name,

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Was giv'n' in charge; a foe whom blood-ftain'd zeal

For what-O hear it not, all-righteous Heav'n!

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Left thy rous'd thunder burft-for what was deem'd
Religion's caufe, had favag'd to a brute

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More deadly fell than hunger ever ftung

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To prowl in wood or wild. His band he arm'd, • Sons of perdition! mifcreants with all guiltFamiliar, and in each dire art of death

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• Train'd ruthless up as tigers on their prey On my defenceless lands thofe fiercer beafts Devouring fell; nor that sequester'd shade, ·

That

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