And leaves us perfect blockheads, in our bliss.
The clouds may drop down titles and estates;
Wealth may seek us; but wisdom must be sought;
Sought before all; but (how unlike all else
We seek on earth!) 'tis never sought in vain.
First, pleasure's birth rise, strength and grandeur see
Brought forth by wisdom, nursed by discipline,
By patience taught, by perseverance crown'd,
She rears her head majestic; round her throne,
Erected in the bosom of the just,

Each virtue, listed, forms her manly guard.
For what are virtues? (formidable name!)
What, but the fountain, or defence, of joy?
Why then commanded? Need mankind commands,
At once to merit, and to make, their bliss ?-
Great legislator! scarce so great, as kind!
If men are rational, and love delight,
Thy gracious law but flatters human choice;
In the transgression lies the penalty;
And they the most indulge, who most obey.
Of pleasure, next, the final cause explore:
Its mighty purpose, its important end.
Not to turn human brutal, but to build
Divine on human, pleasure came from heaven.
In aid to reason was the goddess sent;
To call up all its strength by such a charm.
Pleasure, first, succours virtue; in return,
Virtue gives pleasure an eternal reign.
What, but the pleasure of food, friendship, faith,
Supports life natural, civil, and divine?
'Tis from the pleasure of repast, we live;
"Tis from the pleasure of applause, we please;
'Tis from the pleasure of belief, we pray
(All prayer would cease, if unbelieved the prize):
It serves ourselves, our species, and our God;
And to serve more is past the sphere of man.
Glide, then, for ever, pleasure's sacred stream!
Through Eden, as Euphrates ran, it runs,
And fosters ev'ry growth of happy life;
Makes a new Eden where it flows;-but such
As must be lost, Lorenzo! by thy fall.

"What mean I by thy fall?"--Thou'lt shortly see, While pleasure's nature is at large display'd; Already sung her origin, and ends.

Those glorious ends, by kind, or by degree,
When pleasure violates, 'tis then a vice,
A vengeance too; it hastens into pain.
From due refreshment, life, health, reason, joy;
From wild excess, pain, grief, distraction, death;
Heaven's justice this proclaims, and that her love.
What greater evil can I wish my foe,

Than his full draught of pleasure, from a cask
Unbroached by just authority, ungauged
By temperance, by reason unrefined?

A thousand demons lurk within the lee.
Heaven, others, and ourselves! uninjured these,
Drink deep; the deeper, then, the more divine;
Angels are angels, from indulgence there;
'Tis unrepenting pleasure makes a god.

Dost think thyself a god from other joys?

A victim rather! shortly sure to bleed.

The wrong must mourn: can heaven's appointments fail?
Can man outwit Omnipotence? strike out

A self-wrought happiness unmeant by him
Who made us, and the world we would enjoy?
Who forms an instrument, ordains from whence
Its dissonance, or harmony, shall rise.

Heaven bid the soul this mortal frame inspire!
Bid virtue's ray divine inspire the soul
With unprecarious flows of vital joy;

And, without breathing, man as well might hope
For life, as without piety, for peace.

"Is virtue, then, and piety the same?".
No; piety is more; 'tis virtue's source;
Mother of ev'ry worth, as that of joy.
Men of the world this doctrine ill digest;
They smile at piety; yet boast aloud

Good will to men; nor know they strive to part
What nature joins; and thus confute themselves.
With piety begins all good on earth;
'Tis the first-born of rationality.

Conscience, her first law broken, wounded lies;
Enfeebled, lifeless, impotent to good;

A feign'd affection bounds her utmost power.
Some we can't love, but for the Almighty's sake;
A foe to God was ne'er true friend to man;
Some sinister intent taints all he does;
And, in his kindest actions, he's unkind.

On piety, humanity is built;
And, on humanity, much happiness;
And yet still more on piety itself.

A soul in commerce with her God, is heaven,
Feels not the tumults and the shocks of life;
The whirls of passions, and the strokes of heart.
A deity believed, is joy begun ;
A deity adored, is joy advanced;
A deity beloved, is joy matured.

Each branch of piety delight inspires;

Faith builds a bridge from this world to the next,
O'er death's dark gulf, and all its horror hides;
Praise, the sweet exhalation of our joy,
That joy exalts, and makes it sweeter still;
Prayer ardent opens heaven, lets down a stream
Of glory on the consecrated hour

Of man, in audience with the Deity.

Who worships the great God, that instant joins
The first in heaven, and sets his foot on hell.

Lorenzo! when wast thou at church before?
Thou think'st the service long: but is it just?
Though just, unwelcome: thou hadst rather tread
Unhallow'd ground; the muse, to win thine ear,
Must take an air less solemn. She complies.
Good conscience! at the sound the world retires;
Verse disaffects it, and Lorenzo smiles;
Yet has she her seraglio full of charms;
And such as age shall heighten, not impair.
Art thou dejected? Is thy mind o'ercast?
Amid her fair ones, thou the fairest choose,

To chase thy gloom.-" Go, fix some weighty truth;
Chain down some passion; do some gen'rous good;
Teach ignorance to see, or grief to smile;
Correct thy friend; befriend thy greatest foe;
Or with warm heart, and confidence divine,

Spring up and lay strong hold on Him who made thee."
Thy gloom is scatter'd, sprightly spirits flow;
Though wither'd is thy vine, and harp unstrung.
Dost call the bowl, the viol, and the dance,

Loud mirth, mad laughter? Wretched comforters!
Physicians more than half of thy disease.
Laughter, though never censured yet as sin
(Pardon a thought that only seems severe),
Is half-immoral: is it much indulged?

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