No! He, who gave the faculties, design’d 760 Another use for the immortal mind: There is a state in which it will appear With all the good and ill contracted here; With gain and loss, improvement and defect; } And then, my soul! what hast thou to expect } For talents laid aside, life’s waste, and time’s neglect? } “Still as I went came other change--the frame And features wasted, and yet slowly came The end; and so inaudible the breath, And still the breathing, we exclaim’d--‘’tis death!’ 770 But death it was not: when, indeed, she died, I sat and his last gentle stroke espied: When--as it came--or did my fancy trace That lively, lovely flushing o’er the face, Bringing back all that my young heart impress’d? It came--and went!--She sigh’d, and was at rest! “Adieu, I said, fair Frailty! dearly cost The love I bore thee--time and treasure lost; And I have suffer’d many years in vain; Now let me something in my sorrows gain: 780 Heaven would not all this wo for man intend If man’s existence with his we should end; Heaven would not pain, and grief, and anguish give, If man was not by discipline to live; And for that brighter, better world prepare, } That souls with souls, when purified, shall share, } Those stains all done away that must not enter there. } “Home I return’d, with spirits in that state Of vacant wo I strive not to relate; Nor how, deprived of all her hope and strength, 790 My soul turn’d feebly to the world at length. I travell’d then till health again resumed Its former seat--I must not say re-bloom’d; And then I fill’d, not loth, that favourite place That has enrich’d some seniors of our race; Patient and dull I grew; my uncle’s praise Was largely dealt me on my better days; A love of money--other love at rest-- Came creeping on, and settled in my breast; The force of habit held me to the oar, 800 Till I could relish what I scorn’d before: I now could talk and scheme with _men of sense_, Who deal for millions, and who sigh for pence; And grew so like them, that I heard with joy Old Blueskin said I was a pretty boy; For I possess’d the caution, with the zeal, That all true lovers of their interest feel. Exalted praise! and to the creature due Who loves that interest solely to pursue. “But I was sick, and sickness brought disgust; 810 My peace I could not to my profits trust: Again some views of brighter kind appear’d, My heart was humbled, and my mind was clear’d; I felt those helps that souls diseased restore, And that cold frenzy, avarice, raged no more. From dreams of boundless wealth I then arose; } This place, the scene of infant bliss, I chose; }