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VII. ANOTHER.

I.

What is great God! and what IS NOT,
Should BE, and NOT BE, to thy Praise:
Then, if my Non-Existence should but raise,
Thy Glory, I'm content thy Hand should blot
Me from the Rank of Being, and conclude my Days.
'Tis owing to thy Glory that I am,
And fit I should NOT BE, if that might raise thy Name.
Should I relapse to Nothing, scarce
Would it appear a Blank in thy vast Universe.
23

II.

Thou art th' eternal Source and Spring
Of Being and of Possibility.
Thy wise omnific Hand can bring
Non-Entity TO BE:
Then with a Sov'reign Nod Thou can'st remand
The vast Productions of thy Hand,
To dreary Nothing whence they came,—
And be it so, if that might glorify thy Name!

III.

Ah! what are Worlds compar'd with Thee,
Great everlasting All!
But Atoms hov'ring in the Air,
Bubbles and Vanity,
That at thy great Command appear,
And at thy Word to nothing fall,
Whose Pleasure gives them Leave TO BE.
Thou viewest, independent, from on high,
A Sparrow or a Hero die,
Atoms or Systems moulder into Dust,
And now a World, and now a Bubble burst.

IV.

Yet since Thy Hand did build my Frame
With Pow'r and Skill Divine,
And in my Life Thy glorious Name
Does more illustrious shine;
O! let me still exist,—But to Thy Praise,
That out of Nothing did me raise.
 

Mr. Pope, in his Essay on Man, expresses this Thought with inimitable Sublimity.

—“Who sees with equal Eye, as God of all,
A Hero perish, or a Sparrow fall;
Atoms or Systems into Ruin hurl'd,
And now a Bubble burst, and now a World.”
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