"What mean I by thy fall?"--Thou'lt shortly see, While Pleasure's nature is at large display'd; 661 Already sung her origin, and ends. Those glorious ends, by kind, or by degree, When Pleasure violates, 'tis then a vice, A vengeance too; it hastens into pain. From due refreshment, life, health, reason, joy; From wild excess, pain, grief, distraction, death; Heaven's justice this proclaims, and that her love. What greater evil can I wish my foe, Than his full draught of pleasure, from a cask 670 Unbroach'd by just authority, ungauged By temperance, by reason unrefined? A thousand demons lurk within the lee. Heaven, others, and ourselves! uninjured these, Drink deep; the deeper, then, the more divine; Angels are angels, from indulgence there; 'Tis unrepenting pleasure makes a god. Dost think thyself a god from other joys? A victim rather! shortly sure to bleed. The wrong must mourn: can Heaven's appointments fail? Can man outwit Omnipotence? strike out 681 A self-wrought happiness unmeant by Him Who made us, and the world we would enjoy? Who forms an instrument, ordains from whence Its dissonance, or harmony, shall rise. Heaven bid the soul this mortal frame inspire! Bid virtue's ray divine inspire the soul With unprecarious flows of vital joy; And, without breathing, man as well might hope For life, as, without piety, for peace. 690 "Is virtue, then, and piety the same?"-- No; piety is more; 'tis virtue's source; Mother of every worth, as that of joy. Men of the world this doctrine ill digest; They smile at piety; yet boast aloud 695 Good will to men; nor know they strive to part What Nature joins; and thus confute themselves. With piety begins all good on earth; 'Tis the first-born of rationality. Conscience, her first law broken, wounded lies; Enfeebled, lifeless, impotent to good; A feign'd affection bounds her utmost power. 702 Some we can't love, but for th' Almighty's sake; A foe to God was ne'er true friend to man; Some sinister intent taints all he does; And, in his kindest actions, he's unkind. On piety, humanity is built; And, on humanity, much happiness; And yet still more on piety itself. A soul in commerce with her God, is heaven; 710 Feels not the tumults and the shocks of life; The whirls of passions, and the strokes of heart. A Deity believed, is joy begun; A Deity adored, is joy advanced; A Deity beloved, is joy matured. Each branch of piety delight inspires; Faith builds a bridge from this world to the next, O'er death's dark gulf, and all its horror hides; Praise, the sweet exhalation of our joy, That joy exalts, and makes it sweeter still; 720 Prayer ardent opens heaven, lets down a stream