MISCELLANEOUS TIIOUOATs. 440 into a prosaic form. Whether this was negligence or design in the poet, is hard to say, but it is evident that by this unreasonable run of the sense out of one line into another, and by his too frequent avoiding not only colons and periods, but even commas at the end of the line, it becomes hardly possible for the ear to distinguish all the ends and beginnings of his verses ; nor is the reader able to observe such accents and such pauses as may give and maintain sufficient distinction. Now if the beginning and ending of every verse is not distinguished by the hearer, it dif- fers too little from a sort of poetical prose. LXXIII. A dying World, and a duráble Heaven. WOULD one think it possible for the sons and daughters of Adam, who see all things round them upon the face of the earth in perishing and dying circumstances, to speak, and act, and live as though they should never die ? The vegetable world with all its beauties seems to pass under a spreading death every year; the glory of the field, the forest, and the garden perish. Animal nature is born to die and mingle with its original dust; not the strength of beasts, the ox, or the lion, can resist their fate ; nor the fowl of the swiftest wing escape it ; nor can the nations of insects hide from it in their dark boles and caverns, where they seek to prolong their little beings, and keep the vital atoms together through the changing seasons. Our own flesh and blood is much of the same make, it is borrowed from the saine materials as theirs, it has a similar composition, and sin has mingled many more diseases in our frame, than are known to the vegetable or brutal kinds. We see our ancestors go be- fore us to the grave, and yet we live as though we should never follow them. We behold our neighbours carried away from the midst of us daily to their beds of earth, and yet we are as thoughtless of this awful and important hour, as though our own turn would never come. Let us survey mankind a little : Dow are all their tribes employed ? What is the grand business of life ? Are not all their powers of flesh and mind devoted to the purposes of this poor, short, mortal period, as though there were nothing to succeed it ? And yet if we ask those who dwell around us in our nation, Do you not believe a heaven and an eternity of happiness for those who seek it sincerely, and labour for it? they confess this divine truth by the force of reason and conscience, and by the light of scripture ; but they forget it in a few moments, and return to their follies again, and with a greedy and incessant desire they repeat the pursuit of perishing vanities. Q that we could but keep ourselves awake awhile from the intoxicating pleasures and cares of this life, and shake off all these golden dreams that perpetually surround our fancy! we should then surely employ our nobler powers to a diviner pur-
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