365

The centre mov'd, a circle strait succeeds,
Another still, and still another spreads;
Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace;
His country next; and next all human race;
Wide and more wide, th? o’erflowings of the mind
Take every creature in, of every kind;

370 Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty bleft, And Heaven beholds its image in his breast.

Come then, my Friend! my Genius! come along; Oh master of the poet, and the song! And while the Muse now stoops, or now ascends, 375 To Man's low passions, or their glorious ends, Teach me, like thee, in various Nature wife, To fall with dignity, with temper rise; Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer, From grave to gay, from lively to severe; Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease, Intent to reason, or polite to please. Oh! while along the stream of Time thy name Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame; Say, shall my little bark attendant fail,

385 Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale ?

When

380

VARIATION.

Ver. 373. Come then, my Friend ! &c.] In the MS. thus,

And now transported o'er so vast a plain,
While the wing'd courser flies with all her rein,
While heaven-ward now her mounting wing the feels,
Now scatter'd fools fly trembling from her heels,
Wilt thou, my St. John! keep her course in light,
Confine her fury, and affisther Alight?

When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose,
Whofe fons shall blush their fathers were thy foes,
Shall then this verse to future age pretend
Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend?

390
That, urg'd by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art,
From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart;
For Wit's false mirror held up Nature's light;
Shew'd erring Pride, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT;
That REASON, Passion, answer one great aim; 395
That true SELF-LOVE and Social are the same;
That VIRTUE only makes our Bliss below;
And all our knowledge is, OURSELVES TO KNOW.

VARIATION.
Ver. 397. That Virtue only, &c.] In the MS. thus,

That just to find a God is all we can,
And all the Study of Mankind is Man,

THE

IT may be proper to observe, that some passages, in

the preceding Essay, having been unjustly suspected of a tendency towards Fate and Naturalism, the author composed this Prayer as the sum of all, to shew that his system was founded in free-will, and terminated in piety: That the first cause was as well the Lord and Governor of the Universe as the Creator of it; and that, by submission to his will (the great principle enforced throughout the Essay) was not meant the suffering ourselves to be carried along by a blind determination, but the resting in a religious acquiescence, and confidence full of Hope and Immortality. To give all this the greater weight, the poet chose for his model the Lord's Prayer, which, of all others, best deserves the title prefixed to this Paraphrase.

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER.

DEO OPT. MAX.

FAT
ATHER of All! in every Age,

In every Clime ador'd,
By Saint, by Savage, and by Sage,

Jehovah, Jove, or Lord !
Thou Great First Cause, least understood;

Who all my Sense confin'd
To know but this, that Thou art Good,

And that myself am blind;
Yet

gave me, in this dark Estate,

To see the Good from Ill; And, binding Nature faft in Fate,

Left free the Human Will.

What Conscience dictates to be done,

Or warns me not to do,
This, teach me more than Hell to Thun,

That, more than Heaven pursue.
What Blessings thy free Bounty gives,

Let me not cast away;
For God is paid when Man receives,

T' enjoy is to obey.
Yet not to Earth's contracted Span

Thy Goodness let me bound,
Or think Thee Lord alone of Man,

When thousand Worlds are round: