Not thus our infidels th' Eternal draw,-- A God all o'er, consummate, absolute, Full-orbed, in his whole round of rays complete. They set at odds Heaven's jarring attributes, And, with one excellence, another wound; Maim Heaven's perfection, break its equal beams, Bid mercy triumph over--God himself, Undeified by their opprobrious praise; A God all mercy, is a God unjust. EDWARD YOUNG (MAN'S NATURE PROVES HIS IMMORTALITY) In man, the more we dive, the more we see Heaven's signet stamping an immortal make. Dive to the bottom of the soul, the base Sustaining all, what find we? Knowledge, love. As light and heat essential to the sun, These to the soul. And why, if souls expire? How little lovely here! How little known! Small knowledge we dig up with endless toil; And love unfeigned may purchase perfect hate. Why starved on earth our angel appetites, While brutal are indulged their fulsome fill? Were then capacities divine conferred As a mock diadem, in savage sport, Rank insult of our pompous poverty, Which reaps but pain from seeming claims so fair? In future age lies no redress? And shuts Eternity the door on our complaint? If so, for what strange ends were mortals made! The worst to wallow, and the best to weep; The man who merits most, must most complain: Can we conceive a disregard in Heaven What the worst perpetrate or best endure? This cannot be. To love, and know, in man Is boundless appetite, and boundless power: And these demonstrate boundless objects, too. Objects, powers, appetites, Heaven suits in all; Nor, nature through, e'er violates this sweet Eternal concord, on her tuneful string. Is man the sole exception from her laws? Eternity struck off from human hope, (I speak with truth, but veneration too) Man is a monster, the reproach of Heaven, A stain, a dark impenetrable cloud On Nature's beauteous aspect; and deforms (Amazing blot!) deforms her with her lord If such is man's allotment, what is Heaven? Or own the soul immortal, or blaspheme. Or own the soul immortal, or invert All order. Go, mock-majesty! go, man! And bow to thy superiors of the stall;