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LEWESDON HILL.
9
Who know our frame and fashion, who can tell
The substance and the properties of man,
As they had seen him made; aye and stood by
Spies on Heaven's work. They also can discourse
Wisely, to prove that what must be must be,
And shew how thoughts are jogg'd out of the brain
By a mechanical impulse; pushing on
The minds of us, poor unaccountables,
To fatal resolution. Know they not,
That in this mortal life, whate'er it be,
We take the path that leads to good or evil,
And therein find our bliss or misery?
And this includes all reasonable ends
Of knowledge or of being; farther to go
Is toil unprofitable, and th' effect
Most perilous wandering. Yet of this be sure;
Where Freedom is not, there no Virtue is:
If there be none, this world is all a cheat,
And the divine stability of Heaven
(That assured seat for good men after death)
Is but a transient cloud; display'd so fair
To cherish virtuous hope, but at our need
The substance and the properties of man,
As they had seen him made; aye and stood by
Spies on Heaven's work. They also can discourse
Wisely, to prove that what must be must be,
And shew how thoughts are jogg'd out of the brain
By a mechanical impulse; pushing on
The minds of us, poor unaccountables,
To fatal resolution. Know they not,
That in this mortal life, whate'er it be,
We take the path that leads to good or evil,
And therein find our bliss or misery?
And this includes all reasonable ends
Of knowledge or of being; farther to go
Is toil unprofitable, and th' effect
Most perilous wandering. Yet of this be sure;
Where Freedom is not, there no Virtue is:
If there be none, this world is all a cheat,
And the divine stability of Heaven
(That assured seat for good men after death)
Is but a transient cloud; display'd so fair
To cherish virtuous hope, but at our need
Eludes