Poems (V. 1) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: TRUTH. Pensantur trutind. Hor. Lib. II. Epist, 1. Man, on the dubious waves of error toss'd, His ship half founder'd, and his compass lost, Sees, far as human optics may command, A sleeping fog, and fancies it dry land: Spreads all his canvass, ev'ry sinew plies; Pants for't, aims at it, enters it, and dies! Then farewell all self-satisfying schemes, His well-built systems, philosophic dreams; Vol. 1. L Grace leads the right Way. Deceitful views of future bliss, farewell! He reads his sentence at the flames of hell. Hard lot of man?to toil for the reward Of virtue, and yet lose it! Wherefore hard He that would win the race must guide his horse Obedient to the customs of the course; Else, though unequall'd to the goal he flies, A meaner than himself shall gain the prize. Grace leads the right way: if you choose the wrong, Take it, and perish; but restrain your tongue, Charge not, with light sufficient, and left free, Your wilful suicide on God's decree. Oh how unlike the complex works of man, Heav'n's easy, artless, unincumberd plan! No meretricious graces to beguile, No clust'ring ornaments to clog the pile; From ostentation, as from weakness, free, It stands like the cerulean arch we see, Majestic in its own simplicity. Inscrib'd above the portal, from afar Conspicuous as the brightness of a star, The Necessity of Faith to attain Salvation. Legible only by the light they give, Stand the soul-quick'ning words?Believe, And Live ! Too many, shock'd at what should charm them most, Despise the plain direction, and are lost. Heav'n on such terms! (they cry, with proud disdain) Incredible, impossible, and vain !?. Rebel, because 'tis easy to obey; And scorn for its own sake the gracious way. . . These are the sober, in whose co...