Poems on Several Occasions :: :: University of Virginia Library

Sole, uncreated, Self-Existent Cause!
Being unconfin'd! uncircumscrib'd by Laws!
Nature's Parent! Motion's Spring!
Inhabitant of vast Eternity!
Imagination's Boundary!
Teach me by thy Pow'r to sing,

How to sing, and sing of Thee;
Flame Cœlestial! lead along,
Fix the Barrier of my Song;
Whence must I raise
The lofty Numbers, equal to thy Praise?

II.

In vain with all the Batteries of Wit
Thy Presence we explore,
In vain with Reason's Ballast do we try
The Ocean of Eternity,
Unfathom'd, without Shore;
Lost and bewilder'd in the Maze,
We sail the dark, immeasurable Way,
Our Lamp denies a steddy Blaze,
And only casts a feeble Ray;
So all our Knowledge terminates in This,
Thou art from all Eternity Alone,
Immensity unknown.

III.

All Learning does but strive in vain,
Learning! that mazy Cobweb of the Brain,
That renders all the Avenues
Of Truth, that in itself is plain,
Impervious and abstruse,
Perplex'd and intricate,
By that false Engine of our Mind, Debate.

IV.

Man! fond, mistaken Man!
Tho' his capacious Head, the sacred Ark!
Where a whole World of Science does imbark,
Has steer'd and labour'd all it can,
As Reason fill'd the Sail,
Yet what does all this fruitless search avail?
Learn'd Wretch! he fondly would pretend,
His Port is gain'd, his Race is run,
And all his tiresom Voy'ge is done;

Is done! how far? but just enough to shew,
That all his Knowledge is but empty Show,
A Pageant Dream! a Point! an End!
No wiser thro' the tedious Course he ran
Fond! mistaken Man!
Than when he first began.

V.

Whate'er we see, whate'er we feel,
Does all the God reveal,
Confirms the Grand Mistake
Of Those, whose Eagle-Thoughts would make
His Seat so wondrous high,
Beyond the Limits of the Sky,
Out beyond the World's wide Sphear,
And fix his Habitation there.

VI.

Think not He's God, because his Place
By Man's mistaken Race

Is fix'd on high;
The whole Creation speaks his Presence nigh;
Who on the Universal Frame,
Sole Principle! himself has spread,
On Earth, and in the Ocean's Bed,
Still varying, and still the Same.

VII.

In each new-rising Thought we feel
The Energy Divine;
And hence our Being prove,
From Him, who first stretch'd out the Line
Of Entity on Motion's Wheel,
And by his Power gave it Play,
To run it's destin'd Way,
Unbounded and Eternal Love!

VIII.

Whate'er we in this World pursue
Still points an Omnipresence out to View;

Our Passions and our Will declare
(In that we never act in vain,)
Whose is the grand and Sov'reign Care,
Who 'tis, that holds the Rein.
Our Life and Actions all proclaim,
With all this Universal Frame,
Who guides the Whole, and whence it came.

IX.

Say, Man! mistaken Man!
Now tell me, if you can;
Canst Thou behold this whole Creation,
The Godhead's Emanation!
Canst Thou behold it, and not raise
Thy staggering Reason up to him, whose ways
Are trac'd thro' all
This Universal Ball!
Whose Presence fills Immensity
In Beauteous Variety.

Whether in the River's Flow,
Or where, the Plants and Herbage grow,
Tis He, that guides and actuates the Whole,
Of all the World both Eye and Soul.

X.

Whether we send our Reason's piercing Rays
Beneath the Great, unbounded Deep,
Where Storms and Tempests sleep,
Whether unrein'd Imagination strays
Thro' the black, Howling Desart's pathless Ways,
The Deep and Howling Wilderness declare
The Omnipresent Godhead there:
The Calms and Tempests both proclaim
By wondrous Contrariety
The Presence of the Deity,
Tho' various the Effects, the Godhead still the same.

XI.

Whether amid the Gloom we stray,
And send our Intellectual Ray

Up to the pure, cærulean Plains on high,
There all the Glories of the Sky,
As round the liquid Space
They run their bright, ætherial Race,
Declare the God, who guides their Dance,
And makes 'em to the self-same Place,
Where they begun
Their Course to run,
At certain Periods advance.

XII.

Each vocal Planet, fill'd with Light,
As o'er the Bosom of the Night
It wheels it's Course
Declares the Omnipresent Source,
From whence it's Splendour came,
And glories to proclaim
Thro' all the wide, ætherial Way,
The Fountain of Eternal Day,

Who lives in All, tho' still the same,
The Great, Invisible, Prolifick Flame.

XIII.

Now fond, mistaken Man!
Thy baffled Knowledge bow,
And Know, with Rev'rence Know,
That all you see, and all you feel,
The Presence of the Godhead does reveal:
Nor think to hide
Thy boasted Pride,
But down with all thy Learned Store,
And with thy humbled Heart adore
Him, whose Immediate Presence rules
This Universall Globe, of All
Sole Principle and Life.