Young's Night Thoughts Part 34

What words are these--and did they come from heaven?

And were they spoke to man? to guilty man?

What are all mysteries to love like this?

The songs of angels, all the melodies Of choral G.o.ds, are wafted in the sound; Heal and exhilarate the broken heart; 2370 Though plunged, before, in horrors dark as night.

Rich prelibation of consummate joy!

Nor wait we dissolution to be blest.

This final effort of the moral Muse, How justly t.i.tled![77] Nor for me alone: For all that read; what spirit of support, What heights of Consolation, crown my song!

Then, farewell Night! of darkness, now, no more: Joy breaks, shines, triumphs; 'tis eternal day.

Shall that which rises out of nought complain 2380 Of a few evils, paid with endless joys? 2381 My soul! henceforth, in sweetest union join The two supports of human happiness, Which some, erroneous, think can never meet; True taste of life, and constant thought of death!

The thought of death, sole victor of its dread!

Hope, be thy joy; and probity thy skill; Thy patron He, whose diadem has dropp'd Yon gems of heaven; eternity, thy prize: And leave the racers of the world their own, 2390 Their feather, and their froth, for endless toils: They part with all for that which is not bread; They mortify, they starve, on wealth, fame, power; And laugh to scorn the fools that aim at more.

How must a spirit, late escaped from earth,-- Suppose Philander's, Lucia's, or Narcissa's,-- The truth of things new-blazing in its eye, Look back, astonish'd, on the ways of men, Whose lives' whole drift is to forget their graves!

And when our present privilege is past, 2400 To scourge us with due sense of its abuse, The same astonishment will seize us all.

What then must pain us, would preserve us now.

Lorenzo! 'tis not yet too late; Lorenzo!

Seize Wisdom, ere 'tis torment to be wise; That is, seize Wisdom, ere she seizes thee.

For what, my small philosopher! is h.e.l.l?

'Tis nothing but full knowledge of the truth, When Truth, resisted long, is sworn our foe; And calls Eternity to do her right. 2410 Thus, darkness aiding intellectual light, And sacred silence whispering truths divine, And truths divine converting pain to peace, My song the midnight raven has outwing'd, And shot, ambitious of unbounded scenes, 2415 Beyond the flaming limits of the world, Her gloomy flight. But what avails the flight Of fancy, when our hearts remain below?

Virtue abounds in flatterers, and foes; 'Tis pride, to praise her; penance, to perform.

To more than words, to more than worth of tongue, Lorenzo! rise, at this auspicious hour; An hour, when Heaven's most intimate with man; When, like a fallen star, the ray divine Glides swift into the bosom of the just; 2425 And just are all, determined to reclaim; Which sets that t.i.tle high within thy reach.

Awake, then; thy Philander calls: awake!

Thou, who shalt wake, when the creation sleeps; When, like a taper, all these suns expire; When Time, like him of Gaza[78] in his wrath, Plucking the pillars that support the world, In Nature's ample ruins lies entomb'd; And Midnight, universal Midnight! reigns. 2434

[1]'Ercles' vein:' a rousing, somewhat bombastic manner of public speaking or writing.--ee

[2]'Thrice:' alluding to the death of his wife, his daughter Mrs Temple, and Mr Temple.--See _Life_.

[3]'Philander:' Mr Temple, his son-in-law.

[4]'Lorenzo:' not Young's son, but probably the Earl of Wharton.

[5]'Veils:' a gain, profit.--ee

[6]'Maeonides:' Homer.

[7]'His, who made:' Pope.

[8]'Cytherea:' Venus, from Cythera, one of the Ionian Islands, where she was worshipped.

[9]'As some tall tower:' Goldsmith has borrowed this fine image in his description of the good pastor's death, in the 'Deserted Village.'

[10]'P----:' Portland.

[11]'Didst lately borrow:' at the Duke of Norfolk's masquerade.

[12]'Narcissa:' Mrs Temple.

[13]'Nearer to the sun:' Mrs Temple died at Lyons, on her way to Nice, accompanied by her father.

[14]Lines 270-289 paraphrase Psalms 24. Lines 270-300 provided an 'Easter Ode' popular in early 19th-Century American musical settings.-ee

[15]'Manumit:' to free from slavery or bondage; emanc.i.p.ate.

[16]'Paean:' healing song; hymn.--ee

[17]'Athenian:' Socrates.

[18]'Fable fledged:' Icarus.

[19]'Glebe:' The soil or earth; land. (Archaic.)--ee

[20]'Narcissa:' Elizabeth Lee, Dr. Young's step-daughter.--ee

[21]'Lorenzo' was modelled on Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton (b. 21 December 1698; d. Poblet, Spain, 31 May 1731, aged 32), powerful Jacobite politician, notorious libertine and rake, profligate, and alcoholic.--ee

[22]'Charles:' Charles V.

[23]'Quotidian:' everyday; commonplace.--ee

[24]'Oracle of gems:' the Urim and Thummim.

[25]'c.o.c.kade:' an ornament, such as a rosette or knot of ribbon, usually worn on the hat as a badge.--ee

[26]'Votary:' person bound by vows to a life of religious worship or service.--ee

[27]'Ne'er to meet, or ne'er to part:' hence Burns's famous line in his verses to Clarinda:-- 'Never met, or never parted, We had ne'er been broken-hearted.'

[28]'She:' his wife, it is supposed.

[29]'Most Christian:' Louis XIV., King of France.

[30]'Ours is the cloth,' &c.: how like the lines of Coleridge!-- 'O Lady, we receive but what we give,' &c.

[31]'Towering flame,' &c.: these lines are _reproduced_ in the close of Campbell's 'Pleasures of Hope.'

[32]'Already:' Night Sixth.

[33]'Bellerophon:' who carried letters from Proctus to Jobates, King of Lycia, which contained an order in cipher for his execution after nine days. He contrived, however, to escape.

[34]'To Pyrrhus:' by a philosopher who told him he would have been as happy had he stayed at home, instead of pursuing a career of conquest.

[35]'Proud Eastern:' Nebuchadnezzar.

[36]'Thee:' Lorenzo.

[37]'Lately proved:' in the Sixth Night.

[38]'Presumption's sacrilegious sons:' Korah, &c.