University of Virginia Library

What wealth in senses such as these! What wealth
In Fancy fired to form a fairer scene
Than Sense surveys! in Memory's firm record!
Which, should it perish, could this world recall

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From the dark shadows of o'erwhelming years,
In colours fresh, originally bright,
Preserve its portrait, and report its fate!
What wealth in Intellect, that sovereign power,
Which Sense and Fancy summons to the bar;
Interrogates, approves, or reprehends;
And from the mass those underlings import,
From their materials sifted, and refined,
And in Truth's balance accurately weigh'd,
Forms art and science, government and law;
The solid basis and the beauteous frame,
The vitals and the grace, of civil life;
And, manners (sad exception!) set aside,
Strikes out, with master-hand, a copy fair
Of His idea, whose indulgent thought,
Long, long ere Chaos teem'd, plann'd human bliss!