Unequal tafk! a passion to resign,
For hearts so touch'd, so pierc'd, fo loft as mine.
Ere fuch a foul regains its peaceful state,
How often muft it love, how often hate!
How often hope, despair, resent, regret,
Conceal, difdain,do all things but forget,
But let heav'n feize it, all at once 'tis fir'd;
Not touch'd, but rapt not waken'd, but inspir'd!
Oh come! oh teach me nature to subdue,
Renounce my love, my life, myself
Fill my fond heart with God alone, for he
Alone can rival, can fucceed to thee.
How happy is the blameless Veftal's lot?
The world forgetting, by the world forgot :
Eternal fun-fhine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each with refign'd; 210
Labour and reft, that equal periods keep;
"Obedient: flumbers than can wake and weep,"
Defires compos'd, affections ever ev❜n;
Tears that delight, and fighs that waft to heav'n.
Grace fhines around her with ferenest beams,
And whisp'ring Angels prompt her golden dreams.
For her th'unfading rofe of Eden blooms,
And wings of Seraphs fhed divine perfumes,
VER. 212. Obedient slumbers etc.] Taken from Crashaw.
For her the Spouse prepares the bridal ring,
For her white virgins Hymenæals fing,
To founds of heav'nly harps she dies away,
And melts in vifions of eternal day.
Far other dreams my erring foul employ,
Far other raptures, of unholy joy:
When at the close of each fad, forrowing day, 225
Fancy restores what vengeance snatch'd away,
Then conscience fleeps, and leaving nature free,
All my loose foul unbounded springs to thee.
O curft, dear horrors of all-conscious night!
How glowing guilt exalts the keen delight!
Provoking Dæmons all restraint remove,
And stir within me ev'ry fource of love.
I hear thee, view thee, gaze o'er all thy charms,
And round thy phantom glue my clasping arms.
I wake : -no more I hear, no more I view,
The phantom flies me, as unkind as you.
I call aloud; it hears not what I fay:
I ftretch my empty arms; it glides away.
To dream once more I close my willing eyes;
Ye foft illufions, dear deceits, arife!
Alas, no more! methinks we wand'ring go
Thro' dreary waftes, and weep each other's woe, Where round some mould'ring tow'r pale ivy creeps, And low-brow'd rocks hang nodding o'er the deeps.
Sudden you mount, you beckon from the fkies;
Clouds interpofe, waves roar, and winds arise.
I fhriek, start up, the fame fad prospect find,
And wake to all the griefs I left behind.
For thee the fates, feverely kind, ordain
A cool fufpenfe from pleasure and from pain; 250
Thy life a long dead calm of fix'd repose;
No pulfe that riots, and no blood that glows.
Still as the fea, ere winds were taught to blow,
Or moving spirit bade the waters flow;
Soft as the flumbers of a faint forgiv❜n,
And mild as op'ning gleams of promis'd heav'n.
Come, Abelard! for what haft thou to dread?
The torch of Venus burns not for the dead.
Nature ftands check'd; Religion disapproves ;
Ev'n thou art cold—yet Eloïfa loves.
Ah hopeless, lafting flames! like those that burn
To light the dead, and warm th’unfruitful urn.
What scenes appear where'er I turn my view?
The dear Ideas, where I fly, pursue,
Rife in the grove, before the altar rife,
Stain all my foul, and wanton in my eyes.
I waste the Matin lamp in fighs for thee,
Thy image steals between my God and me,
Thy voice I seem in ev'ry hymn to hear,
With ev'ry bead I drop too foft a tear,
When from the cenfer clouds of fragrance roll,
And swelling organs lift the rifing soul,
One thought of thee puts all the pomp to flight,
Priests, tapers, temples, swim before my fight:
In feas of flame my plunging foul is drown'd,
While Altars blaze, and Angels tremble round.
While proftrate here in humble grief I lie,
Kind, virtuous drops juft gath'ring in my eye,
While praying, trembling, in the duft I roll,
And dawning grace is op'ning on my foul:
Come, if thou dar'ft, all charming as thou art!
Oppose thyself to heav'n; difpute my heart;
Come, with one glance of thofe deluding eyes
Blot out each bright Idea of the skies;
Take back that grace, thofe forrows, and thofe tears;
Take back my fruitless penitence and pray'rs; 286
Snatch me, juft mounting, from the bleft abode;
Affift the fiends, and tear me from my God!
No, fly me, fly me, far as Pole from Pole;
Rife Alps between us! and whole oceans roll!
Ah, come not, write not, think not once of me,
Nor fhare one pang of all I felt for thee.
Thy oaths I quit, thy memory refign;
Forget, renounce me, hate whate'er was mine.
Fair eyes, and tempting looks (which yet I view!) Long lov'd, ador'd ideas, all adieu!
O Grace ferene! oh virtue heav'nly fair! . ·
Divine oblivion of low-thoughted care!
Fresh blooming Hope, gay daughter of the sky!
And Faith, our early immortality!
Enter, each mild, each amicable guest; Receive, and wrap me in eternal rest! See in her cell fad Eloïfa spread, Propt on fome tomb, a neighbour of the dead. In each low wind methinks a Spirit calls, And more than Echoes talk along the walls. Here, as I watch'd the dying lamps around, From yonder fhrine I heard a hollow found. "Come, fifter, come! (it faid, or feem'd to fay) "Thy place is here, fad fifter, come away! 310 "Once like thyfelf, I trembled, wept, and pray'd, "Love's victim then, tho' now a fainted maid : "But all is calm in this eternal fleep; "Here grief forgets to groan, and love to weep, "Ev'n fuperftition loses ev'ry fear :
315 "For God, not man, abfolves our frailties here."
I come, I come! prepare your rofeate bow'rs,
Celestial palms, and ever-blooming flow'rs.
Thither, where finners may have reft, I go,
Where flames refin'd in breafts feraphic glow:
Thou, Abelard! the laft fad office pay,
And smooth my paffage to the realms of day;
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