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RETIREMENT.

-ftudiis florens ignobilis otî.
VIRG. GEOR. LIB. 4.

HACKNEY'D in bufiness, wearied at that oar

Which thousands, once fast chain'd to, quit no more,
But which when life at ebb runs weak and low,
All with, or feem to wish they could forego;
The statesman, lawyer, merchant, man of trade,
Pants for the refuge of fome rural fhade,
Where all his long anxieties forgot
Amid the charms of a fequefter'd spot,
Or recollected only to gild o'er

And add a fmile to what was fweet before,
He may poffefs the joys he thinks he fees,
Lay his old age upon the lap of case,

Improve

:

Improve the remnant of his wafted fpan,
And having liv'd a trifler, die a man..
Thus confcience pleads her caufe 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 felfifh ends and aims,
From what debilitates and what inflames,
From cities, humming with a restless crowd,
Sordid as active, ignorant as loud,
Whose highest praife is that they live in vain,
The dupes of pleafure, or the flaves of gain,
Where works of man are cluster'd clofe around,
And works of God are hardly to be found,
To regions where in fpite of fin and woe,
Traces of Eden, are ftill feen below,
Where mountain, river, foreft, field and grove
Remind him of his Maker's pow'r and love..
'Tis well if look'd for at fo late a day,
In the laft fcene of fuch a fenfeless play,
True wifdom 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 threefcore years employ'd with ceafelefs care,,
In catching fmoke and feeding upon air,

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Converfant only with the ways of men,
Rarely redeem the fhort remaining ten.
Invet'rate habits choak th' unfruitful heart,
Their fibres penetrate its tend'reft part,
And draining its nutritious pow'rs to feed
Their noxious growth, ftarve ev'ry better feed.
Happy if full of days-but happier far
If ere we yet discern life's ev'ning star,
Sick of the service of a world that feeds
Its patient drudges with dry chaff and weeds,
We can escape from cuftom's idiot fway,
To ferve the fov'reign we were born t' obey..
Then sweet to muse upon his skill difplay'd,
(Infinite fkill) in all that he has made!

To trace in nature's most minute defign,
The fignature and ftamp of pow'r divine,
Contrivance intricate, exprefs'd with eafe,
Where unaffifted fight no beauty fees,
The shapely limb and lubricated joint,
Within the fmall dimenfions of a point,
Muscle and nerve miraculously fpun,
His mighty work who fpeaks and it is done,
Th' invifible in things fcarce feen reveal'd,
To whom an atom is an ample field.

To wonder at a thousand infect forms,.
Thefe hatch'd, and thofe refufcitated' worms,

New

New life ordain'd and brighter fcenes to share, Once prone on earth, now buoyant upon air, Whofe fape would make thein, had they bulk and

fize,

More hideous foes than fancy can devise,
With helmet heads and dragon fcales adorn'd,
The mighty myriads, now fecurely fcorn'd,
Would mock the majesty of man's high birth,
Defpife his bulwarks and unpeople earth.
Then with a glance of fancy to furvey,
Far as the faculty can flretch away,
Ten thousand rivers pour'd at his command
From urns that never fail through ev'ry land,
These like a deluge with impetuous force,
Those winding modeftly a filent course;
The cloud-furmounting Alps, the fruitful vales,
Seas on which ev'ry nation fpreads her fails,
The fun, a world whence other worlds drink light,
The crefcent moon, the diadem of night,
Stars countlefs, each in his appointed place,
Faft anchor'd in the deep abyfs of space-

At fuch a fight to catch the poet's flame,

And with a rapture like his own exclaim,
These are thy glorious works, thou fource of good,
How dimly feen, how faintly understood!
Thine, and upheld by thy paternal care,
This univerfal frame, thus wond'rous fair;

Thy

Thy pow'r divine and bounty beyond thought,
Ador'd and prais'd in all that thou haft wrought.
Absorb'd in that immensity I fee,

I shrink abas'd, and yet afpire to thee;
Instruct me, guide me to that heav'nly day,

Thy words, more clearly than thy works difplay,
That while thy truths my groffer thoughts refine,

I

may resemble thee and call thee mine.

Oh bleft proficiency! furpaffing all

That men erroneously their glory call
The recompence that arts or arms can yield,
The bar, the senate, or the tented field.
Compar'd with this fublimeft life below,

Ye kings and rulers, what have courts to show?
Thus ftudied, us'd and confecrated thus,
What ever is, feems form'd indeed for us,
Not as the plaything of a froward child,
Fretful unless diverted and beguiled,
Much lefs to feed and fan the fatal fires
Of pride, ambition or impure defires,
But as a fcale by which the foul afcends-
From mighty means to more important ends,
Securely, though by steps but rarely trod,
Mounts from inferior beings up to God,
And fees by no fallacious light or dim,
Earth made for man, and man-himfelf for him.

Not

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