The tender lambs he raifes in his arms,
Feeds from his hand, and in, his bofom warms,
Thus fhall mankind his guardian care engage,
The promis'd father of the future age.
No more fhall nation against nation rife,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes,
Nor fields with gleaming fteel be 'cover'd o'er,
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more ;**
But useless lances into fcythes fhall bend,'
And the broad faulchion in a plough-fhare end.
Then palaces fhall rise; the joyful fon
Shall finish what his fhort-liv'd fire begun;
Their vines a fhadow to their race fhall yield,
And the fame hand that fow'd shall reap the field.
The fwain in barren deferts, with furprise,
Sees lilies fpring, and fudden verdure rise;
And ftarts, amidst the thirsty wilds to hear
New falls of water murmuring in his ear.
On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,
The green leaf trembles, and the bulrush nods ;
Waste fandy vallies, once perplex'd with thorn,
The fpiry fir, and fhapely box adorn;
To leaflefs fhrubs the flow'ring palm fucceed,
And od❜rous myrtle to the noifome weed.
The lambs with wolves fhall graze the verdant mead,
And boys in flow'ry bands the tyger lead;
The fteer and lion at one crib fhall meet;
And harmless ferpents lick the pilgrim's feet;
The fmiling infant in his hand shall take
The crefted bafilifk and fpeckled fnake,
Pleas'd the green luftre of their scales survey,
And with their forky tongue fhall innocently play.
Rife crown'd with light, imperial Salem, rise!
Exalt thy tow'ry head, and lift thy eyes!
See a long race thy fpacious courts adorn,.
See future fons and daughters, yet unborn,
In crouding ranks on every fide arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies!
See bar'barous nations at thy gates attend,
Walk in the light, and in thy gates attend,
See thy bright altars throng'd with proftrate kings,
And heap'd with products of Sabæan springs.
For thee Idume's fpicy forests blow,
And feeds of gold in Ophirs mountains glow.
See heav'n its sparkling portals wide display.
And break upon thee in a flood of day.
No more the rifing fun fhall gild the morn,
Nor evening Cynthia fill her filver horn;
But loft, diffolv'd in thy fuperior rays,
One tide of glory, one unbounded blaze,
'erflow thy courts; the light himself shall shine
Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine!
The feas fhall wafte, the skies in fmoke decay,
Rocks fall to duft, and mountains melt away;
But fix'd his word, his faving pow'r remains :
Thy realm for ever lafts, thy own Meffiah reigns!
H happiness! our being's end and aim!
Good,pleafure, eafe content! whate'er thy name: That fomething ftill which prompts the eternal figh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die :
Which ftill fo near us, yet beyond us lies;
O'erlook'd, feen double, by the fool and wife;
Plant of celeftial feed! if dropt below
Say in what mortal foil thou deign't to grow?
Fair op'ning to fome court's propitious fhinė,
Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine?
Twin'd with the wreaths Parnaffian laurels yield.
Or reap'd in iron harvefts of the field?
Where grows where grows it not? if vain our toil
We ought to blame the culture, not the foil.
Fix'd to no fpot is happiness fincere,
Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where ; 'Tis never to be bought, but always free,
And fled from monarchs, St. John, dwells with thee.
Afk of the learn'd the way; the learn❜d are blind : This bids to ferve, and that to fhun, mankind. Some place the blifs in action, fome in ease, Those call it pleasure, and contentment, thefe;
Some, funk to beafts, find pleasure end in pain ;
Some, fwell'd to gods, confefs e'en virtue vain;
Or indolent to each extreme they fall,
To truft in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all,
Who thus define it, say they more or less Than this,—that happiness is happiness ?
Take nature's path, and mad opinions leave;
All states can reach it, and all heads conceive;
Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell;
There needs but thinking right, and meaning well;
And mourn our various portions as we please,
Equal is common fenfe, and common ease.
Remember, man," the Universal Caufe
"Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;"
And makes what happiness we juftly call,
Subfift not in the good of one but all.
There's not a bleffing individuals find
But fome way leans and hárkens to the kind:
No bandid fierce, no tyrant mad with pride,
No cavern'd hermit refts felf fatisfy'd.
Who moft to fhun or hate mankind pretend,
Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend:
Abstract what others feel, what others think,
All pleasure fickens, and all glories fink:
Each has his fhare; and who would more obtain,
Shall find the pleasure pays not half the pain.
Order is heav'n's first law; and this confeft.
Some are, and must be, greater than the reft;
More rich, more wife: but who infers from hence
That fuch are happier, fhocks all common fenfe.
Heav'n to mankind impartial, we confess
If all were equal in their happiness;
But mutual wants this happiness increase,
All nature's diff'rence, keeps all nature's peace,
Condition, circumftance, is not the thing;
Blifs is the fame in fubject or in king:
In who obtain defence, or who defend,
In him who is, or him who finds, a friend :
Heav'n breathes through ev'ry member of the whole
One common bleffing as one common foul.
But fortune's gifts if each alike poffeft,
And each were equal, muft not all contest?
If then to all men happiness was meant,
God in externals could not place content.
Fortune her gifts may variously dispose,
And these be happy call'd, unhappy those;
But heav'ns just balance equal will appear,
While those are plac'd in hope, and thefe in fear;
Not prefent good or ill, the joy or curse,
But future views of better, or of worse.
Oh fons of earth! attempt ye ftill to rise,
By mountains pil'd on mountains, to the fkies?
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