The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside Part 30

4 Give me to learn each secret cause; Let Number's, Figure's, Motion's laws Reveal'd before me stand; These to great Nature's scenes apply, And round the globe, and through the sky, Disclose her working hand.

5 Next, to thy n.o.bler search resign'd, The busy, restless, Human Mind Through every maze pursue; Detect Perception where it lies, Catch the Ideas as they rise, And all their changes view.

6 Say from what simple springs began The vast ambitious thoughts of man, Which range beyond control, Which seek eternity to trace, Dive through the infinity of s.p.a.ce, And strain to grasp the whole.

7 Her secret stores let Memory tell, Bid Fancy quit her fairy cell, In all her colours dress'd; While prompt her sallies to control, Reason, the judge, recalls the soul To Truth's severest test.

8 Then launch through Being's wide extent; Let the fair scale with just ascent And cautious steps be trod; And from the dead, corporeal ma.s.s, Through each progressive order pa.s.s To Instinct, Reason, G.o.d.

9 There, Science! veil thy daring eye; Nor dive too deep, nor soar too high, In that divine abyss; To Faith content thy beams to lend, Her hopes to a.s.sure, her steps befriend And light her way to bliss.

10 Then downwards take thy flight again, Mix with the policies of men, And social Nature's ties; The plan, the genius of each state, Its interest and its powers relate, Its fortunes and its rise.

11 Through private life pursue thy course, Trace every action to its source, And means and motives weigh: Put tempers, pa.s.sions, in the scale; Mark what degrees in each prevail, And fix the doubtful sway.

12 That last best effort of thy skill, To form the life, and rule the will, Propitious power! impart: Teach me to cool my pa.s.sion's fires, Make me the judge of my desires, The master of my heart.

13 Raise me above the Vulgar's breath, Pursuit of fortune, fear of death, And all in life that's mean: Still true to reason be my plan, Still let my actions speak the man, Through every various scene.

14 Hail! queen of manners, light of truth; Hail! charm of age, and guide of youth; Sweet refuge of distress: In business, thou! exact, polite; Thou giv'st retirement its delight, Prosperity its grace.

15 Of wealth, power, freedom, thou the cause; Foundress of order, cities, laws, Of arts inventress thou!

Without thee, what were human-kind?

How vast their wants, their thoughts how blind!

Their joys how mean, how few!

16 Sun of the soul! thy beams unveil: Let others spread the daring sail On Fortune's faithless sea: While, undeluded, happier I From the rain tumult timely fly, And sit in peace with thee.

LOVE. AN ELEGY.

Too much my heart of Beauty's power hath known, Too long to Love hath reason left her throne; Too long my genius mourn'd his myrtle chain, And three rich years of youth consumed in vain.

My wishes, lull'd with soft inglorious dreams, Forgot the patriot's and the sage's themes: Through each Elysian vale and fairy grove, Through all the enchanted paradise of love, Misled by sickly Hope's deceitful flame, Averse to action, and renouncing fame. 10

At last the visionary scenes decay, My eyes, exulting, bless the new-born day, Whose faithful beams detect the dangerous road In which my heedless feet securely trod, And strip the phantoms of their lying charms That lured my soul from Wisdom's peaceful arms.

For silver streams and banks bespread with flowers, For mossy couches and harmonious bowers, Lo! barren heaths appear, and pathless woods, And rocks hung dreadful o'er unfathom'd floods: 20 For openness of heart, for tender smiles, Looks fraught with love, and wrath-disarming wiles; Lo! sullen Spite, and perjured l.u.s.t of Gain, And cruel Pride, and crueller Disdain; Lo! cordial Faith to idiot airs refined, Now coolly civil, now transporting kind.

For graceful Ease, lo! Affectation walks; And dull Half-sense, for Wit and Wisdom talks.

New to each hour what low delight succeeds, What precious furniture of hearts and heads! 30 By nought their prudence, but by getting, known, And all their courage in deceiving shown.

See next what plagues attend the lover's state, What frightful forms of Terror, Scorn, and Hate!

See burning Fury heaven and earth defy!

See dumb Despair in icy fetters lie!

See black Suspicion bend his gloomy brow, The hideous image of himself to view!

And fond Belief, with all a lover's flame, Sink in those arms that point his head with shame! 40 There wan Dejection, faltering as he goes, In shades and silence vainly seeks repose; Musing through pathless wilds, consumes the day, Then lost in darkness weeps the hours away.

Here the gay crowd of Luxury advance, Some touch the lyre, and others urge the dance: On every head the rosy garland glows, In every hand the golden goblet flows.

The Syren views them with exulting eyes, And laughs at bashful Virtue as she flies. 50 But see behind, where Scorn and Want appear, The grave remonstrance and the witty sneer; See fell Remorse in action, prompt to dart Her snaky poison through the conscious heart; And Sloth to cancel, with oblivious shame, The fair memorial of recording Fame.

Are these delights that one would wish to gain?

Is this the Elysium of a sober brain?

To wait for happiness in female smiles, Bear all her scorn, be caught with all her wiles, 60 With prayers, with bribes, with lies, her pity crave, Bless her hard bonds, and boast to be her slave; To feel, for trifles, a distracting train Of hopes and terrors equally in vain; This hour to tremble, and the next to glow; Can Pride, can Sense, can Reason, stoop so low: When Virtue, at an easier price, displays The sacred wreaths of honourable praise; When Wisdom utters her divine decree, To laugh at pompous Folly, and be free? 70

I bid adieu, then, to these woeful scenes; I bid adieu to all the s.e.x of queens; Adieu to every suffering, simple soul, That lets a woman's will his ease control.

There laugh, ye witty; and rebuke, ye grave!

For me, I scorn to boast that I'm a slave.

I bid the whining brotherhood be gone; Joy to my heart! my wishes are my own!

Farewell the female heaven, the female h.e.l.l; To the great G.o.d of Love a glad farewell. 80 Is this the triumph of thy awful name?

Are these the splendid hopes that urged thy aim, When first my bosom own'd thy haughty sway?

When thus Minerva heard thee, boasting, say-- 'Go, martial maid, elsewhere thy arts employ, Nor hope to shelter that devoted boy.

Go teach the solemn sons of Care and Age, The pensive statesman, and the midnight sage; The young with me must other lessons prove, Youth calls for Pleasure, Pleasure calls for Love. 90 Behold, his heart thy grave advice disdains; Behold, I bind him in eternal chains.'-- Alas! great Love, how idle was the boast!

Thy chains are broken, and thy lessons lost; Thy wilful rage has tired my suffering heart, And pa.s.sion, reason, forced thee to depart.

But wherefore dost thou linger on thy way?

Why vainly search for some pretence to stay, When crowds of va.s.sals court thy pleasing yoke, And countless victims bow them to the stroke? 100 Lo! round thy shrine a thousand youths advance, Warm with the gentle ardours of romance; Each longs to a.s.sert thy cause with feats of arms, And make the world confess Dulcinea's charms.

Ten thousand girls with flowery chaplets crown'd, To groves and streams thy tender triumph sound: Each bids the stream in murmurs speak her flame, Each calls the grove to sigh her shepherd's name.

But, if thy pride such easy honour scorn, If n.o.bler trophies must thy toil adorn, 110 Behold yon flowery antiquated maid Bright in the bloom of threescore years display'd; Her shalt thou bind in thy delightful chains, And thrill with gentle pangs her wither'd veins, Her frosty cheek with crimson blushes dye, With dreams of rapture melt her maudlin eye.

Turn then thy labours to the servile crowd, Entice the wary, and control the proud; Make the sad miser his best gains forego, The solemn statesman sigh to be a beau, 120 The bold coquette with fondest pa.s.sion burn, The Baccha.n.a.lian o'er his bottle mourn; And that chief glory of thy power maintain, 'To poise ambition in a female brain.'

Be these thy triumphs; but no more presume That my rebellious heart will yield thee room: I know thy puny force, thy simple wiles; I break triumphant through thy flimsy toils; I see thy dying lamp's last languid glow, Thy arrows blunted and unbraced thy bow. 130 I feel diviner fires my breast inflame, To active science, and ingenuous fame; Resume the paths my earliest choice began, And lose, with pride, the lover in the man.

TO CORDELIA.

JULY 1740.

1 From pompous life's dull masquerade, From Pride's pursuits, and Pa.s.sion's war, Far, my Cordelia, very far, To thee and me may Heaven a.s.sign The silent pleasures of the shade, The joys of peace, unenvied, though divine!

2 Safe in the calm embowering grove, As thy own lovely brow serene; Behold the world's fantastic scene!

What low pursuits employ the great, What tinsel things their wishes move, The forms of Fas.h.i.+on, and the toys of State.

3 In vain are all Contentment's charms, Her placid mien, her cheerful eye, For look, Cordelia, how they fly!

Allured by Power, Applause, or Gain, They fly her kind protecting arms; Ah, blind to pleasure, and in love with pain!

4 Turn, and indulge a fairer view, Smile on the joys which here conspire; O joys harmonious as my lyre!

O prospect of enchanting things, As ever slumbering poet knew, When Love and Fancy wrapt him in their wings!

5 Here, no rude storm of Pa.s.sion blows, But Sports and Smiles, and Virtues play, Cheer'd by Affection's purest ray; The air still breathes Contentment's balm, And the clear stream of Pleasure flows For ever active, yet for ever calm.

SONG.