Young's Night Thoughts Part 21

Duration gives importance; swells the price An angel, if a creature of a day, What would he be? a trifle of no weight; 1090 Or stand, or fall; no matter which; he's gone.

Because immortal, therefore is indulged This strange regard of deities to dust.

Hence, Heaven looks down on earth with all her eyes; Hence, the soul's mighty moment in her sight: Hence, every soul has partisans above, And every thought a critic in the skies: Hence, clay, vile clay! has angels for its guard, And every guard a pa.s.sion for his charge: Hence, from all age, the cabinet divine 1100 Has held high counsel o'er the fate of man.

Nor have the clouds those gracious counsels hid, Angels undrew the curtain of the throne, And Providence came forth to meet mankind: In various modes of emphasis and awe, He spoke his will, and trembling Nature heard; He spoke it loud, in thunder and in storm.

Witness, thou Sinai! whose cloud-cover'd height, And shaken basis, own'd the present G.o.d: Witness, ye billows! whose returning tide, 1110 Breaking the chain that fasten'd it in air, Swept Egypt, and her menaces, to h.e.l.l: 1112 Witness, ye flames! th' a.s.syrian tyrant blew To sevenfold rage, as impotent, as strong: And thou, earth! witness, whose expanding jaws Closed o'er Presumption's sacrilegious sons:[38]

Has not each element, in turn, subscribed The soul's high price, and sworn it to the wise?

Has not flame, ocean, ether, earthquake, strove To strike this truth, through adamantine man? 1120 If not all-adamant, Lorenzo! hear; All is delusion; Nature is wrapt up, In tenfold night, from Reason's keenest eye; There's no consistence, meaning, plan, or end, In all beneath the sun, in all above (As far as man can penetrate), or heaven Is an immense, inestimable prize; Or all is nothing, or that prize is all.-- And shall each toy be still a match for Heaven, And full equivalent for groans below? 1130 Who would not give a trifle to prevent What he would give a thousand worlds to cure?

Lorenzo! thou hast seen (if thine to see) All nature, and her G.o.d (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. 1140 Is not, Lorenzo, then, imposed on thee This hard alternative; or, to renounce Thy reason, or thy sense; or, to believe?

What then is unbelief? 'Tis an exploit; A strenuous enterprise: to gain it, man 1145 Must burst through every bar of common sense, Of common shame, magnanimously wrong: And what rewards the st.u.r.dy combatant?

His prize, repentance; infamy, his crown.

But wherefore infamy?--For want of faith, Down the steep precipice of wrong he slides; There's nothing to support him in the right. 1152 Faith in the future wanting, is, at least In embryo, every weakness, every guilt; And strong temptation ripens it to birth.

If this life's gain invites him to the deed, Why not his country sold, his father slain?

'Tis virtue to pursue our good supreme; And his supreme, his only good, is here.

Ambition, avarice, by the wise disdain'd, 1160 Is perfect wisdom, while mankind are fools, And think a turf, or tombstone, covers all: These find employment, and provide for Sense A richer pasture, and a larger range; And Sense by right divine ascends the throne, When Virtue's prize and prospect are no more; Virtue no more we think the will of Heaven.

Would Heaven quite beggar Virtue, if beloved?

"Has Virtue charms?"--I grant her heavenly fair; But if unportion'd, all will Interest wed; 1170 Though that our admiration, this our choice.

The virtues grow on immortality; That root destroy'd, they wither and expire.

A Deity believed, will nought avail; Rewards and punishments make G.o.d adored; And hopes and fears give Conscience all her power.

As in the dying parent dies the child, Virtue, with immortality, expires.

Who tells me he denies his soul immortal, 1179 Whate'er his boast, has told me, he's a knave.

His duty 'tis, to love himself alone; Nor care though mankind perish, if he smiles.

Who thinks ere long the man shall wholly die, Is dead already; nought but brute survives.

And are there such?--Such candidates there are For more than death; for utter loss of being, Being, the basis of the Deity!

Ask you the cause?--The cause they will not tell: Nor need they: oh the sorceries of Sense!

They work this transformation on the soul; 1190 Dismount her, like the serpent at the fall, Dismount her from her native wing (which soar'd Erewhile ethereal heights), and throw her down, To lick the dust, and crawl in such a thought.

Is it in words to paint you? O ye fallen!

Fallen from the wings of Reason, and of Hope!

Erect in stature, p.r.o.ne in appet.i.te!

Patrons of pleasure, posting into pain!

Lovers of argument, averse to sense!

Boasters of liberty, fast bound in chains! 1200 Lords of the wide creation, and the shame!

More senseless than th' irrationals you scorn!

More base than those you rule! than those you pity, Far more undone! O ye most infamous Of beings, from superior dignity!

Deepest in woe, from means of boundless bliss!

Ye cursed by blessings infinite! because Most highly favour'd, most profoundly lost!

Ye motley ma.s.s of contradiction strong!

And are you, too, convinced, your souls fly off 1210 In exhalation soft, and die in air, From the full flood of evidence against you?

In the coa.r.s.e drudgeries, and sinks of Sense, 1213 Your souls have quite worn out the make of Heaven, By vice new-cast, and creatures of your own: But though you can deform, you can't destroy; To curse, not uncreate, is all your power.

Lorenzo! this black brotherhood renounce; Renounce St Evremont, and read St Paul.

Ere rapt by miracle, by Reason wing'd, 1220 His mounting mind made long abode in heaven.

This is freethinking, unconfined to parts, To send the soul, on curious travel bent, Through all the provinces of human thought; To dart her flight, through the whole sphere of man; Of this vast universe to make the tour; In each recess of s.p.a.ce, and time, at home; Familiar with their wonders; diving deep; And, like a prince of boundless interests there, Still most ambitious of the most remote; 1230 To look on truth unbroken, and entire; Truth in the system, the full orb; where truths By truths enlighten'd, and sustain'd, afford An arch-like, strong foundation, to support Th' inc.u.mbent weight of absolute, complete Conviction; here, the more we press, we stand More firm; who most examine, most believe.

Parts, like half sentences, confound; the whole Conveys the sense, and G.o.d is understood; Who not in fragments writes to human race: 1240 Read his whole volume, sceptic! then reply.

This, this, is thinking free, a thought that grasps Beyond a grain, and looks beyond an hour.

Turn up thine eye, survey this midnight scene; What are earth's kingdoms, to yon boundless...o...b.., Of human souls, one day, the destined range?

And what yon boundless...o...b.., to G.o.dlike man? 1247 Those numerous worlds that throng the firmament, And ask more s.p.a.ce in heaven, can roll at large In man's capacious thought, and still leave room For ampler orbs, for new creations, there.

Can such a soul contract itself, to gripe A point of no dimension, of no weight? 1253 It can; it does: the world is such a point; And, of that point, how small a part enslaves!

How small a part--of nothing, shall I say?

Why not?--Friends, our chief treasure! how they drop!

Lucia,[39] Narcissa fair, Philander, gone!

The grave, like fabled Cerberus, has oped A triple mouth; and, in an awful voice, 1260 Loud calls my soul, and utters all I sing.

How the world falls to pieces round about us, And leaves us in a ruin of our joy!

What says this transportation of my friends?

It bids me love the place where now they dwell, And scorn this wretched spot, they leave so poor.

Eternity's vast ocean lies before thee; There, there, Lorenzo! thy Clarissa sails.

Give thy mind sea-room; keep it wide of earth, That rock of souls immortal; cut thy cord; 1270 Weigh anchor; spread thy sails; call every wind; Eye thy great Pole-star; make the land of life.

Two kinds of life has double-natured man, And two of death; the last far more severe.

Life animal is nurtured by the sun; Thrives on his bounties, triumphs in his beams.

Life rational subsists on higher food, Triumphant in His beams, who made the day.

When we leave that sun, and are left by this (The fate of all who die in stubborn guilt), 1280 'Tis utter darkness; strictly double death.

We sink by no judicial stroke of Heaven, But nature's course; as sure as plummets fall.

Since G.o.d, or man, must alter, ere they meet (Since light and darkness blend not in one sphere), 'Tis manifest, Lorenzo! who must change.

If, then, that double death should prove thy lot, Blame not the bowels of the Deity; Man shall be blest, as far as man permits.

Not man alone, all rationals, Heaven arms 1290 With an ill.u.s.trious, but tremendous, power To counteract its own most gracious ends; And this, of strict necessity, not choice; That power denied, men, angels, were no more But pa.s.sive engines, void of praise, or blame.

A nature rational implies the power Of being blest, or wretched, as we please; Else idle Reason would have nought to do; And he that would be barr'd capacity Of pain, courts incapacity of bliss. 1300 Heaven wills our happiness, allows our doom; Invites us ardently, but not compels.

Heaven but persuades, almighty man decrees; Man is the maker of immortal fates.

Man falls by man, if finally he falls; And fall he must, who learns from Death alone, The dreadful secret,--that he lives for ever.

Why this to thee?--thee yet, perhaps, in doubt Of second life? But wherefore doubtful still?

Eternal life is nature's ardent wish: 1310 What ardently we wish, we soon believe: Thy tardy faith declares that wish destroy'd: What has destroy'd it?--Shall I tell thee what?

When fear'd the future, 'tis no longer wish'd; 1314 And, when unwish'd, we strive to disbelieve.

"Thus infidelity our guilt betrays."

Nor that the sole detection! blush, Lorenzo!

Blush for hypocrisy, if not for guilt.

The future fear'd?--an infidel, and fear?

Fear what? a dream? a fable?--How thy dread, Unwilling evidence, and therefore strong, Affords my cause an undesign'd support! 1322 How disbelief affirms, what it denies!

"It, unawares, a.s.serts immortal life."-- Surprising! infidelity turns out A creed, and a confession of our sins: Apostates, thus, are orthodox divines.

Lorenzo! with Lorenzo clash no more; Nor longer a transparent visor wear.

Think'st thou, Religion only has her mask? 1330 Our infidels are Satan's hypocrites, Pretend the worst, and, at the bottom, fail.

When visited by thought (thought will intrude), Like him they serve, they tremble, and believe.

Is there hypocrisy so foul as this?

So fatal to the welfare of the world?

What detestation, what contempt, their due!

And, if unpaid, be thank'd for their escape That Christian candour they strive hard to scorn.

If not for that asylum, they might find 1340 A h.e.l.l on earth; nor 'scape a worse below.

With insolence, and impotence of thought, Instead of racking fancy, to refute, Reform thy manners, and the truth enjoy.-- But shall I dare confess the dire result?

Can thy proud reason brook so black a brand?

From purer manners, to sublimer faith, Is nature's unavoidable ascent; 1348 An honest deist, where the Gospel shines, Matured to n.o.bler, in the Christian ends.

When that bless'd change arrives, even cast aside This song superfluous; life immortal strikes Conviction, in a flood of light divine.

A Christian dwells, like Uriel,[40] in the sun; Meridian evidence puts doubt to flight; And ardent Hope antic.i.p.ates the skies.

Of that bright sun, Lorenzo! scale the sphere; 'Tis easy! it invites thee; it descends From heaven to woo, and waft thee whence it came: Read and revere the sacred page; a page 1360 Where triumphs immortality; a page Which not the whole creation could produce; Which not the conflagration shall destroy; 'Tis printed in the mind of G.o.ds for ever, In nature's ruins not one letter lost.

In proud disdain of what even G.o.ds adore, Dost smile?--Poor wretch! thy guardian angel weeps.

Angels, and men, a.s.sent to what I sing; Wits smile, and thank me for my midnight dream.

How vicious hearts fume phrensy to the brain! 1370 Parts push us on to pride, and pride to shame; Pert infidelity is Wit's c.o.c.kade, To grace the brazen brow that braves the skies, By loss of being, dreadfully secure.

Lorenzo! if thy doctrine wins the day, And drives my dreams, defeated, from the field; If this is all, if earth a final scene, Take heed; stand fast; be sure to be a knave; A knave in grain! ne'er deviate to the right: Should'st thou be good--how infinite thy loss! 1380 Guilt only makes annihilation gain. 1381 Bless'd scheme! which life deprives of comfort, death Of hope; and which Vice only recommends.

If so, where, infidels! your bait thrown out To catch weak converts? where your lofty boast Of zeal for virtue, and of love to man?

Annihilation! I confess, in these.

What can reclaim you? Dare I hope profound Philosophers the converts of a song?

Yet know, its t.i.tle[41] flatters you, not me; 1390 Yours be the praise to make my t.i.tle good; Mine, to bless Heaven, and triumph in your praise.

But since so pestilential your disease, Though sovereign is the medicine I prescribe, As yet, I'll neither triumph, nor despair: But hope, ere long, my midnight dream will wake Your hearts, and teach your wisdom--to be wise: For why should souls immortal, made for bliss, E'er wish (and wish in vain!) that souls could die?