Eye thy great Pole-star; make the land of life. Two kinds of life has double-natured man, And two of death; the last far more severe. Life animal is nurtured by the sun; Thrives on his bounties, triumphs in his beams. Life rational subsists on higher food, Triumphant in His beams, who made the day. When we leave that sun, and are left by this (The fate of all who die in stubborn guilt), 1280 'Tis utter darkness; strictly double death. We sink by no judicial stroke of Heaven, But nature's course; as sure as plummets fall. Since God, or man, must alter, ere they meet (Since light and darkness blend not in one sphere), 'Tis manifest, Lorenzo! who must change. If, then, that double death should prove thy lot, Blame not the bowels of the Deity; Man shall be blest, as far as man permits. Not man alone, all rationals, Heaven arms 1290 With an illustrious, but tremendous, power To counteract its own most gracious ends; And this, of strict necessity, not choice; That power denied, men, angels, were no more But passive engines, void of praise, or blame. A nature rational implies the power Of being blest, or wretched, as we please; Else idle Reason would have nought to do; And he that would be barr'd capacity Of pain, courts incapacity of bliss. 1300 Heaven wills our happiness, allows our doom; Invites us ardently, but not compels. Heaven but persuades, almighty man decrees; Man is the maker of immortal fates. Man falls by man, if finally he falls; And fall he must, who learns from Death alone, The dreadful secret,--that he lives for ever. Why this to thee?--thee yet, perhaps, in doubt Of second life? But wherefore doubtful still? Eternal life is nature's ardent wish: 1310 What ardently we wish, we soon believe: Thy tardy faith declares that wish destroy'd: What has destroy'd it?--Shall I tell thee what? When fear'd the future, 'tis no longer wish'd; 1314 And, when unwish'd, we strive to disbelieve. "Thus infidelity our guilt betrays." Nor that the sole detection! blush, Lorenzo! Blush for hypocrisy, if not for guilt. The future fear'd?--an infidel, and fear? Fear what? a dream? a fable?--How thy dread, Unwilling evidence, and therefore strong, Affords my cause an undesign'd support! 1322 How disbelief affirms, what it denies! "It, unawares, asserts immortal life."-- Surprising! infidelity turns out A creed, and a confession of our sins: Apostates, thus, are orthodox divines. Lorenzo! with Lorenzo clash no more; Nor longer a transparent visor wear. Think'st thou, Religion only has her mask? 1330 Our infidels are Satan's hypocrites, Pretend the worst, and, at the bottom, fail. When visited by thought (thought will intrude),