ARGUMENT. Mirror of Truth.-The vain pursuits of man.-Conditions on which true happiness was offered.-Happiness the universal aim.—Philosophy unable to guide men to it.-The Tree of Holiness-Uprooted by the Fall.-The Son of God descended to earth to replant it. The reason why so few reached it, and so many despised it.-Estimate of happiness in the different stages of life.-Fear alike in hope and in possession.-Many roads taken and plans tried to attain happiness.-Gold.-The miser.-Pleasure-Her enchantments-Her apparent loveliness and inward corruption― Allurements of the harlot :-Fate of the votaries of Pleasure.Earthly fame-pursued as a source of happiness, in different ways by different characters-by the man of science—the poet-the divine-the hind-the fop-the beauty-the usurper-the warrior -the swearer and blasphemer.-Other trifling human pursuits described :-The falconer-the hunter-the antiquarian-the naturalist-and the astrologer.-The sceptic or unbeliever.-Reproof and instructions of Wisdom.-Lessons taught by the natural world-by the faithful ministers of Christ-by the Bible-by sacred bards-by the judgments of God.-Men, notwithstanding, rush on to ruin.-The original Curse.-Wisdom, as defined by God and by the world-by the Bible, and by the multitude-by the learned.-Remorse :-Its agonies described.-Disappointment :-Sketch of one of its victims-and his happy deliverance. -A Death-bed and its lessons.-Earth possessed genuine native joys. THE COURSE OF TIME. BOOK III. BEHOLD'ST thou yonder, on the crystal sea, Before it, Virtue stands, and smiling sees, The Bible held this mirror's place on earth. But, few would read, or, reading, saw themselves. The chase was after shadows, phantoms strange, That in the twilight walked of Time, and mocked The eager hunt, escaping evermore: Yet with so many promises and looks Of gentle sort, that he whose arms returned Empty a thousand times, still stretched them out, And grasping, brought them back again unfilled. In rapid outline thou hast heard of man, "Love God, love truth, love virtue, and be happy:" These were the words first uttered in the ear Of every being rational made, and made For thought, or word, or deed accountable. Most men the first forgot, the second none. Whatever path they took, by hill or vale, By night or day, the universal wish, The aim, and sole intent, was happiness. But, erring from the heaven-appointed path, Strange tracks indeed they took through barren wastes, And up the sandy mountain climbing toiled, As if he saw some verdant spot, where grew The heavenly flower, where sprung the well of life, Though Wisdom's eye no vestige could discern, Wisdom was right, for still the terms remained Unchanged, unchangeable, the terms on which True peace was given to man, unchanged as God, Who, in his own essential nature, binds Eternally to virtue happiness, Nor lets them part through all his universe. Philosophy, as thou shalt hear, when she Shall have her praise, her praise and censure too, Did much, refining and exalting man; But could not nurse a single plant that bore True happiness. From age to age she toiled, And starry heavens; and then retired far back And there sat pale, and thoughtfully, and weighed, Relations, and pursuits, in reason's scale; And searched and weighed, and weighed and searched again; And many a fair and goodly volume wrote, Uncountable receipts, pretending each, If carefully attended to, to cure Mankind of folly, to root out the briers, And thorns, and weeds, that choked the growth of joy; And shewing, too, in plain and decent phrase, |