Poems on Several Occasions With Anne Boleyn to King Henry VIII. An Epistle. By Mrs. Elizabeth Tollet. The Second Edition |
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 | Poems on Several Occasions |  |
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Occasioned by a Passage in Tully de Senectute, relating to the Immortality of the Soul.
Si in hoc erro libenter erro, &c.
When the foreboding Soul, with firm Presage,
Contemns the narrow Bounds of human Age,
O'erleaps the Bars which Fate and Nature place,
To fix the Limits of a scanted Space,
And, upward on extended Wings sublime
Shoots thro' the vast Abyss of future Time,
Secure that Heav'n in virtuous Toil bestows
A blissful State, interminate Repose.
If 'tis an Error, if the fleeting Breath
Resolves to Air, and dissipates in Death:
If subtile Matter and the vital Fire,
Corporeal Parts, to Elements retire;
While no reflective Pow'r, survives to show
That Virtue meets Reward, and Vice produces Woe.
Willful I err; and with Delight I find
The kind Delusion fortify my Mind.
For, if deceiv'd of her expected Skies,
The Soul with her material Partner dies,
Reduc'd to Nothing, No-where doom'd to go,
If waste, unpeopled Realms extend below;
Philosophizing Ghosts shall ne'er upbraid
The pleasing Error to my wand'ring Shade,
From some new System of the human Frame:
From scatter'd Atoms, or extinguished Flame.
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And weighty Reason turn the doubtful Scale,
The sure Decrees of heav'nly Justice wait
A permanent Award, and future State.
| Poems on Several Occasions | |