 | 1. |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| II. |
 | The complete works, poetry and prose, of the Rev. Edward Young prefixed, a life of the author, by John Doran ... With eight illustrations on steel, and a portrait. In two volumes |  |
Lorenzo, thou hast seen (if thine to see)
All Nature, and her God, (by Nature's course,
And Nature's course controll'd,) declare for me:
The Skies above proclaim “Immortal man!”
And “Man immortal!” all below resounds.
The world's a system of theology,
Read by the greatest strangers to the schools;
If honest, learn'd; and sages o'er a plough.
Is not, Lorenzo, then, imposed on thee
This hard alternative,—or to renounce
Thy reason and thy sense, or to believe?
What then is unbelief? 'Tis an exploit;
A strenuous enterprise: to gain it, man
Must burst through every bar of common sense,
Of common shame, magnanimously wrong.
And what rewards the sturdy combatant?
His prize, repentance; infamy, his crown.
All Nature, and her God, (by Nature's course,
And Nature's course controll'd,) declare for me:
The Skies above proclaim “Immortal man!”
And “Man immortal!” all below resounds.
The world's a system of theology,
Read by the greatest strangers to the schools;
If honest, learn'd; and sages o'er a plough.
Is not, Lorenzo, then, imposed on thee
This hard alternative,—or to renounce
Thy reason and thy sense, or to believe?
What then is unbelief? 'Tis an exploit;
A strenuous enterprise: to gain it, man
Must burst through every bar of common sense,
Of common shame, magnanimously wrong.
And what rewards the sturdy combatant?
His prize, repentance; infamy, his crown.
| The complete works, poetry and prose, of the Rev. Edward Young prefixed, a life of the author, by John Doran ... With eight illustrations on steel, and a portrait. In two volumes | |