In his elegant Latin poem on the Immortality of the Soul, Isaac Hawkins Browne, Esq. supposes man in a degenerat state of nature, unsanctified and unenlightened by Divine revelation, to hold similar language to the infidel Libertines, spoken of in page 107, of Euthanasia:
Quare age, vina liques: epulæ, convivia, lusus,
Psallere docta Chloe, citharæque perita Neæra,
Non absint; volucris rape lætus dona dici;
Quærere nec cures quid crastina proferat hora.
and, after describing mere Nature to be incapable of affording any prospect of a better state of things, thus pleasingly speaks of that immortal principle in man which will live forever.
Gaudia quinetiam non hæc fugientia poscit,
At magis opta sibi, vicibusque obnoxia nullis;
Gaudia perpetuum non interitura per ævuni.
No fleeting joys she asks, which must depend
On the frail senses, and with them must end;
But such as suit her own immortal fame,
Free from all change, eternally the same.
A few more gleanings from this highly-cultivated field of classic literature shall adorn these notes, to illustrate the present work; its author being honoured with the friendship of a relation of the writer of that justly admired poem.
Præteria esse aliquid verè quod pertinet ad nos,
Morte obita, nemo secum non concipit; intus,
Monstratum est intus; testatur docta vetustas;
Publica vox clamat; neque gens tam barbara quæ non
Prospiciat trans funus, et ulteriora requirat.
That there's a self, which after death shall live,
All are concern'd about, and all believe;
That something's ours, when we from life depart
This all conceive--all feel it at the heart;
The wise of learn'd antiquity proclaim
This truth, the public voice declares the same;
No land so rude but looks beyond the tomb
For future prospects in a world to come.
Finely does he thus reprove the Epicureans noticed in page 121, &c. of Euthanasia.
I nunc, usuram vitæ mirare caducam;
Sedulus huc illuc, ut musca, nitentibus alis
Pervolita, rorem deliba, vescere et aura
Paulisper, mox in nihilum rediturus et exspes.
Hæccine vitai summa est? Sic irrita vota?
Huc promissa cadunt? En quantò verius illa,
İlla est vita hominis, dabitur cum cernere Verum,
Non, ut nunc facimus, sensim, longasque coacti
Ire per ambages meditando, at protinùs uno
Intuitu, nebulaque omni jam rebus adempta.
Go then, forgetful of its toil and strife,
Pursue the joys of this fallacious life;
Like some poor fly, who lives but for a day,
Sip the fresh dews, and in the sunshine play,
Then into nothingness dissolve away.
Are these man's great pursuits,--is this to live?
These all the hopes this much-lov'd world can give!
How much more worthy envy is their fate
Who search for Truth in a superior state?
Not groping step by step, as we pursue,
And following reason's much entangled clue,
But with one great, and instantaneous view.
The ills incident to age,man going to his long home, and the mourners passing along the streetsso pathetically described by the pen of Solomon, as introduced page 49, are briefly alluded to in these lines:
Qui prior abscedit, portum prior occupat; Eja!
Totos pande sinus, ne fortè viatica desint.
Quid cessas? subeunt morbique et acerba Tuorum
Funera, et insidiis circùm undique septa Senectus.
Who first set
sail, the peaceful port first gain;
Hold then! no farther launch into the main:
Contract your sails: life nothing can bestow
By long continuance, but continued woe;
The wretched privilege daily to deplore
The funerals of friends who go before:
Diseases, pains, anxieties, and cares,
And age surrounded with a thousand snares.
After painting, in strong colours, the inquietudes of vice, during life, and its horrors, on the approach of death, from an anticipation of that eternity in woe to which the polluted soul will be doomed after death, the author contrasts the happiness of
-Who Virtue's radiant course has run,
Descending like a mildly-setting sun;
concluding the pleasing picture with a fine eulogy to "Worcester's good Bishop," who is introduced in Euthanasia, page 131, 132.
Hic, sese excutiens sibi plaudit et aureus ut Sol
Usque sub occasum diffuso lumine ridet;
Hic, matura dies cum mortis venerit, ævum
Suspicit immortale, Hic spe meliore triumphans
Colecolûm jam nunc prælibat gaudia votis,
Talis erat grata semper quem mente recordor
Ille, Decus Mitræ, Libertatisque Satelles,
Dum tanti tempus propugnatoris egebat
HOUGHIUS! Hic, numeros prope centenarius omnes
Cum vitæ explêrat; florenti plenus honore,
Sensibus integris, sine morbo, expersque doloris,
Vivendique satur, sic vita exibat, ut Actor
E scena egregius toto plaudenta Theatro;
Aut qui post stadium summa cum laude peractum
Victor Olympiacæ poscit sibi præmia palmæ.
His thoughts, triumphant, Heav'n alone employs,
And Hope anticipates his future joys.
-So good, so blest, the illustrious HOUGH we find,
Whose Image dwells with pleasure on my mind;
The mitre's glory,-Freedom's constant friend,
In times which ask'd a champion to defend ;
Who, after near a hundred virtuous years,
His senses perfect, free from pains and fears,
Replete with life, with honours, and with age,
Like an applauded actor left the stage;
Or like some victor in the Olympic games,
Who, having run his course, the crown of glory claims.
EXTRACT FROM A POEM ON THE SOUL,
DEDICATED TO QUEEN ELIZABETH,
And as the moisture, which the thirsty earth
Sucks from the sea, to fill her empty veins,
From out her womb at last doth take a birth,
And runs a lymph along the grassy plains.
Long doth she stay, as loth to leave the land,
From whose soft side she first did issue make!
She tastes all places, turns to ev'ry hand,
Her flow'ry banks unwilling to forsake.
|