ON TIME DEATII, AND FRIENDSHIP. TO THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF WILMINGTON. WHEN the cock crew, he wept,'-smote by that eye Which looks on me, on all; that Power who bids This midnight sentinel, with clarion shri!l, Emblem of that which shall awake the dead, Rouse souls from slumber, into thoughts of Heaven. 5 Shall I too weep? where then is fortitude? And fortit: de abandon'd, where is man? 10 I know the terms on which he sees the light: Of dear Philander's dust. He thus, though dead, 15 price, Death, friendship, and Philander's final scene. So could I touch these themes as might obtain 20 Where is that thirst, that avarice of Time, (O glorious avarice!) thought of death inspires, O Time than gold more sacred; more a load 25 30 35 Fast binds, and vengeance claims the full arrear That time is mine, O Mead! to thee I owe; 40 Fain would I pay thee with eternity. But ill my genius answers my desire : My sickly song is mortal, past thy cure. Accept the will:-that dies not with my strain. For what calls thy disease, Lorenzo? not 45 For Esculapian, but for moral aid. Thou think'st it folly to be wise too soon. 50 And what it's worth, ask deathbeds; they can tell. Part with it as with life, reluctant; big With holy hope of nobler time to come; Time higher aim'd, still nearer the great mark Of men and angels, virtue more divine. (These Heaven benign in vital union binds) And sport we like the natives of the bough, When vernal suns inspire? Amusement reigns, Man's great demand: to trifle is to live: CO Thou say'st I preach, Lorenzo! 'tis confess'd What if, for once, I preach thee quite awake? 70 Will toys amuse when medicines cannot cure? 75 80 Virtue, or purposed virtue, still be thine; This cancels thy complaint at once; this leaves In act no trifle, and no blank in time. This greatens, fills, immortalizes all; This the bless'd art of turning all to gold; 85 This the good heart's prerogative to raise A royal tribute from the poorest hours: 90 Our outward act, indeed, admits restrairt: Tis not in things o'er thought to domineer. Guard well thy thought: our thoughts are heard in Heaven! On all important time, through every age, 95 Though much, and warm, the wise have urged, the man Is yet unborn who duly weighs an hour. 'I've lost a day,'--the prince who nobly cried, [lad been an emperor without his crown. 100 Of Rome? say, rather, lord of human race: So should all speak: so reason speaks in all 105 For rescue from the blessings we possess? Pregnant with all that makes archangels smile. Who murders Time, he crushes in the birth 110 Ah! how unjust to Nature and himself Like children babbling nonsense in their sports We censure Nature for a span too short; 115 That span too short we tax as tedious too; Torture invention, all expedients tire, To lash the lingering moments into speed, And whirl us (happy riddance!) from ourselves. Art, brainless Art! our furious charioteer, 120 (For Nature's voice unstifled would recal) Drives headlong towards the precipice of death; Death most our dread, death thus more dreadful madə O what a riddle of absurdity! 125 Leisure is pain; takes off our chariot wheels: 130 135 Ages to years. The telescope is turn'd: Leave to thy foes these errors and these ills; To Nature just, their cause and cure explore. Not short Heaven's bounty, boundless our expense; No niggard Nature, men are prodigals. 140 145 We waste, not use our time; we breathe, not live. 130 And bare existence man, to live ordain'd, Wrings and oppresses with enormous weight. And why? since time was given for use, not waste, Enjoin'd to fly, with tempest, tide, and stars, To keep his speed, nor ever wait for man. 155 Time's use was doom'd a pleasure, waste a pain, That man might feel his error if unseen, And, feeling, fly to labour for his cure; Not, blundering, split on idleness for ease. 159 Life's cares are comforts; such oy Heaven design'd; He that has none must make them, or be wretched. Cares are employments, and without employ The soul is on a rack, the rack of rest, To souls most adverse, action all their joy. Here then the riddle, mark'd above, unfolds; 105 170 |