Worldly prate and babble hurt me; Unintelligible prove ; Neither teach me nor divert me; I have ears for none but Love. By conversing with the great, "Tis the secret fear of sinning Checks my tongue, or I should say, When I see the night beginning, I am glad of parting day : Love this gentle admonition Whispers soft within my breast; "Choice befits not thy condition, Acquiescence suits thee best." Henceforth, the repose and pleasure Night affords me I resign; And thy will shall be the measure, Wisdom infinite! of mine: Wishing is but inclination Quarreling with thy decrees; Wayward nature finds the occasion,— 'Tis her folly and disease. Night, with its sublime enjoyments, ON THE SAME. NIGHT! how I love thy silent shades, While sleep instils her poppy dews And when I feel a God immense With every proof he can dispense, My native meanness I lament, His purpose and his course he keeps ; When in the dust, its proper place, Our pride of heart we lay, Thou whom I serve, and whose I am, How wretched is the creature's state The night, when pass'd entire with thee, My Saviour! occupy me still Let reason slumber out the night; My soul the abode of truth and light, THE JOY OF THE CROSS. LONG plunged in sorrow, I resign That hand shall wipe my streaming eyes, Transform the falling tear. My sole possession is thy love; And though with fervent suit I pray, My rapid hours pursue the course By thy command, where'er I stray, A never-failing friend; It costs me no regret, that she, The Cross! Oh ravishment and bliss,-How grateful even its anguish is, Its bitterness how sweet! There every sense, and all the mind, Tastes happiness complete. Souls once enabled to disdain Self-love no grace in sorrow sees, In suffering her repose. Disjoin their wedded hands. The Cross has ever borne ! Oh tell me,-life is in thy voice,How much afflictions were thy choice, And sloth and ease thy scorn! Thy choice and mine shall be the same, Which must for ever blaze! JOY IN MARTYRDOM. SWEET tenants of this grove, In unison with mine : With all their boasted powers. O Thou! whose sacred charms These hearts so seldom love, Although thy beauty warms And blesses all above, How slow are human things To choose their happiest lot! All-glorious King of kings, Say why we love thee not? This heart, that cannot rest, Shall thine for ever prove; Though bleeding and distress'd, Yet joyful in thy love: 'Tis happy, though it breaks Beneath thy chastening hand; And speechless,-yet it speaks What thou canst understand. SOURCE of love, my brighter sun, Hast thou left this trembling heart? Frown of thine saw never then. Jealous of this self in me. Now of grief, and now of joy. And thine eye, so close applied, This, I cried, is love indeed!"Tis the giver, not the gift, Whence the joys I feel proceed. But soon humbled, and laid low, Stript of all thou hast conferr'd, Nothing left but sin and woe, I perceived how I had err'd. Oh the vain conceit of man, Dreaming of a good his own, Arrogating all he can, Though the Lord is good alone! P He the graces thou hast wrought "Tis by this reproof severe, And by this reproof alone, His defects at last appear, Man is to himself made known. Learn, all earth! that feeble man, Sprung from this terrestrial clod, Nothing is, and nothing can; Life and power are all in God. LOVE INCREASED BY SUFFERING. "I LOVE the Lord," is still the strain This heart delights to sing; But I reply, your thoughts are vain, Perhaps 'tis no such thing. Before the power of Love Divine Creation fades away; Till only God is seen to shine In gulfs of awful night we find The god of our desires; 'Tis there he stamps the yielding mind, And pierce it sweetly through; With sacred sorrow too. Ah Love! my heart is in the right— To thee, it's ever new delight, Fresh causes of distress occur Nor exile I, nor prison fear; Nor castle walls, nor dungeons deep, There no presumptuous thoughts abound, A Saviour doubles all my joys, His strength in my defence employs, I fear no ill, resent no wrong, When malice whets her slanderous tongue; SCENES FAVOURABLE TO MEDITATION. WILDS horrid and dark with o'ershadowing trees, Though awfully silent, and shaggy, and rude, I am sick of thy splendour, O fountain of day, Ye forests, that yield me my sweetest repose, Here, wandering in scenes that are sacred to night, While a mantle of darkness envelops the sphere, To me the dark hours are all equally dear, Though little is found in this dreary abode My spirit is soothed by the presence of God, Ye desolate scenes, to your solitude led, And scarce know the source of the tears that I shed, There's nothing I seem to have skill to discern; Love reigns in my bosom, I constantly burn, I live, yet I seem to myself to be dead; I am nourish'd without knowing how I am fed, Oh Love! who in darkness art pleased to abide, In the soul that is chosen of thee. Ah send me not back to the race of mankind, For where, in the crowds I have left, shall I find Here let me, though fix'd in a desert, be free; Though lost to the world, if in union with Thee, ADAM: A SACRED DRAMA. TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN OF GIO. BATTISTA ANDREINI, BY COWPER AND HAYLEY. TO THE COURTEOUS READER. cult from the words of Eve in persuading Adam (who had indeed the gift of knowledge infused) to HAVING Satiated and fatigued my eyes, gentle taste the apple ;-but difficult above all, from my reader, by too intent an observation of what is own infirmity, since the composition must remain passing on earth; and raising therefore my thoughts deprived of those poetic ornaments, so dear to the to higher contemplations, to the wonders diffused muses: deprived of the power to draw comparisons by the supreme Being, for the benefit of man, from implements of art introduced in the course through the universe; I felt my heart penetrated of years, since in the time of the first man there by a certain Christian compunction, in reflecting was no such thing: deprived also of naming, (at how his inexpressible goodness, though perpetu- least while Adam speaks, or discourse is held with ally and grievously offended by us, still shows itself him) for example, bows, arrows, hatchets, urns, in the highest degree indulgent towards us in pre- knives, swords, spears, trumpets, drums, trophies, serving those wonders with a continual influence banners, lists, hammers, torches, bellows, funeral to our advantage; and how, on the first provoca- piles, theatres, exchequers, infinite things of a like tion to vengeance, Almighty Power does not enlarge nature, introduced by the necessities of sin; and the ocean to pass its immense boundary, does not yet, as circumstances of affliction and punishment, obscure the light of the sun, does not impress they ought not to pass through the mind or through sterility on the earth, to ingulf us, to blind us, and the lips of Adam, although he had knowledge infinally to destroy us. Softened and absorbed in fused into him, as one who lived most happy in a these divine emotions, I felt myself transported state of innocence: deprived moreover of introand hurried by a delightful violence into a terres-ducing points of history sacred or profane, of retrial paradise, where I seemed to behold the first man Adam, a creature dear to God, the friend of angels, the heir of heaven, familiar with the stars, a compendium of all created things, the ornament of all, the miracle of nature, the lord of the animals, the only inhabitant of the universe, and enjoyer of a scene so wonderfully grand. Whence charmed more than ever, I resolved, with the favour of the blessed God, to usher into the light of the world, what I bore in the darkness of my imagination; both to render it known in some measure, that, I know myself, and the infinite obligations that I have to God; and that others, who do not know, may learn, the true nature of man, and from the low contemplation of earthly things, may raise their minds to things celestial and divine. I remained however a considerable time in doubt if I ought, or if I were able to undertake a composition most difficult to me on many accounts, since in beginning the sacred subject from man's creation to the point where he is driven from the terrestrial paradise, a period of six years, (as St. Augustin relates in his book on the City of God) I did not clearly perceive, how an action so brief, could be formed into five acts, especially allowing to every act the number of at least six or seven scenes, difficult from the dispute that the devil maintained with Eve, first, that he might induce her to eat the apple, since we have only the text that mentions it, in saying "nequaquam moriemini, et eritis sicut Dii scientes bonum et malum,"-diffi lating fictions of fabulous deities, of rehearsing loves, furies, sports of hunting or fishing, triumphs, shipwrecks,conflagrations,enchantments,and things of a like nature, that are in truth the ornament and the soul of poetry: difficult from not knowing in what style Adam ought to speak, since in respect to his knowledge it might be proper to assign to him verses of a high majestic and flowing style; but considering him as a shepherd and inhabitant of the woods, it appears that he should be simple and sweet in his discourse, and I endeavoured on that account to render it such, as much as I could, by variety of versification. And here taking courage in my greatest doubt, I formed, I know not how, a beginning; I advanced, if I may say so, without any determined plan: and arrived at the end before I was aware. Whence I am inclined to believe that the favour of God, regarding rather my good intention than my defects, (for as he often withdraws the heart of man from evil, so he conducts it insensibly to good) gave direction to my hand, and completed my work. Wherefore to that alone I am indebted for the little grace that may perhaps be found in the present labour; knowing, that as Omnipotence is accustomed to produce wonders from the rude and unformed chaos, so, from the still ruder chaos of my mind, it may have called forth this production, if not for any other purpose, yet to be sacred, and to make as it were a mute speak in my person, in despite of poverty of genius, as on the other hand it is ac customed to strike mute the most eloquent tongues when they employ themselves on subjects low and profane. Let it be surveyed, therefore, with an eye of indulgence, and blame not the poverty of style, the want of dignity in the conduct of the circumstances, sterility of conceits, weakness of spirit, insipid jokes, and extravagant episodes, to mention (without speaking of an infinitude of other things) that the world, the flesh, and the devil, present themselves in human shapes to tempt Adam, since there was then in the universe no other man or woman, and the serpent discovered himself to Eve with a human similitude; moreover this is done, that the subject may be comprehended by the understanding through the medium of the senses: since the great temptations that Adam and Eve at once sustained, were indeed in the interior of their own mind, but could not be so comprehended by the spectator; nor is it to be believed that the serpent held a long dispute with Eve, since he tempted her rather by a suggestion to her mind than by the conference, saying these words, 66 nequaqum moriemini, et eritis sicut Dii scientes bonum et malum," and yet it will be necessary, in order to express those internal contentions, to find some expedient to give them an outward representation. But, if it is permitted to the painter, who is a dumb poet, to express by colours God the Father under the person of a man silvered by age, and to describe under the image of a white dove the purity of the Spirit, and to figure the divine messengers or angels, in the shape of winged youths; why is it not permitted to the poet, who is a speaking painter, to represent in his theatrical production another man and another woman besides Adam and Eve, and to represent their internal conflicts through the medium of images and voices entirely human? not to mention that it appears more allowable to introduce in this work the devil under a human shape, than it is to introduce into it the Eternal Father, and even an angel; and if this is permitted, and seen every day exhibited in sacred representations, why should it not be allowed in the present, where, if the greater evil is allowable, surely the lesser should be allowed? Attend therefore, gentle reader, more to the substance than to the accident, considering in the work the great end of introducing into the theatre of the soul the misery and lamentation of Adam, to make your heart a spectator of them, in order to raise it from these dregs of earth, to the magnificence of heaven, through the medium of virtue and the assistance of God; by whom may you be blessed! |