preying vultures, Ixion's wheel, the fruitless toil of Sisyphus, and of the Belides, &c. to punish and torment the wicked! Such wild and romantic dreams though set off with never so much air of wit, humour, or fancy, can never be of any real force to reach the secret springs of passion. And little better are any of those gay images of false lustre, bestowed upon the fictitious atchievements of Gods and heroes; which make up the main subject, and are the chief embellishment of heathen song. "The dignity of the Christian theme is infinitely more bright and dazzling; from the native charms of truth, the endearing sweetness and beneficence of its design, and the irresistible force of its divine authority: being not only fitted to raise, attract, and govern the most tender passions of love, wonder, and joy; but powerful enough to transport the soul above all the little scenes of time and chance, with very strong and anticipating views of the remotest futurity. Those representations of unchangeable blessedness or misery; that awful solemnity of the supreme tribunal; the irreversible sentence to be passed upon all mankind, at the end of a temporary probation; and the vastly different states of the two eternal worlds, authoritatively declared in the sacred canon, are every way adapted to take place in a reasonable mind; and have a natural tendency to awaken the most leading passions of hope and fear, into a watchful care and diligence to obtain the one and avoid the other. "What I would infer from the whole argument is, that the inspired writings, have abundantly afforded the best helps in the world, for an useful employment of a poetic genius; whether in the more easy and practicable way of ode, or the elaborate and more exalted strain of the epic kind. If the mean, trifling, and improbable stories which usually furnish out the tragical drama, are of so great force when set off by a brightness and majesty of expression, as to govern the rational powers, to triumph over the passions, and command alternate smiles or tears: what a powerful influence might such a happy talent have upon the moral conduct of mankind, if it were employed with an equal pleasure and application in beautifying scenes of natural and revealed religion with its proper colours; placing them in a true light, and displaying its native charms of sweetness and majesty! How easily might those ennobling christian virtues, which are by many, too often heard with a cold indifference, in the ordinary way of a set discourse, by this more alluring method, lead captive the lower faculties, with a kind of irresistible force; so as to draw insensibly the more noble and superior powers of the soul into a real love and practice of them untill it becomes happily inured to intermix with the innocent diversions of this life, a strong and predominant regard to the higher concerns of religion and eternity! "The reader will easily perceive that such is the scope of this mean essay: and I need not tell him that I have made the great Milton my pattern; though I am very far from having the vanity to think myself capable of following him æquis passibus, either in respect of his incomparable sublimity of thought, or brightness of diction. Yet whilst I have endeavoured to imitate his manner and style, I have purposely avoided his uncouth and antiquated words; apprehending that an affected obscurity, or harshness of language, adds nothing to the grandeur of the subject, or to a true elevation of the mind. "If this specimen, such as it is, may but serve to excite others of great abilities, to engage farther in so good a design as restoring the Muses to their ancient dignity and usefulness, in promoting the excellent ends of Religion and Virtue; I shall think a few broken hours of amusement, in the intervals of other different studies, very happily employed." EIRENODIA: A Poem, sacred to Peace, and the promotion of Human Celestial dove! by whose enliv'ning warmth, With beams reviving on rebellious man, Devoid of hope, to exile doom'd and death. What heights and depths, unknown to finite minds, From heav'ns unvaried counsels rise! What gleams Of light and joy divine renascent, raise To views sublime, the soul's awaken'd powers! Say how the dreadful breach was clos'd; and whence That wond'rous compact by the sacred Three (One infinite, unchang'd, eternal mind) Was seal'd in heav'n; and ratified on earth, And unconceiv'd by thought: where hallow'd minds Or mind angelic, which effac'd the stains Spotless, assum'd the trembling sinner's place; Speak, how the filial Godhead, form divine In whom perfections infinite, truth, love, O sacred theme inexplicable! View How mean His birth-place; his attendants vile! From death The lord of life, to die for helpless worms! |