Note 69 — APPENDIX, NO. 2.
Reading edition
There are some persons who do not seem to entertain this anxious hope. Mr. Gray the poet seems an instance, from the following passage in his ode Barbaras Ædes aditure mecum (Letters V. 2 p. 44) though I do not recollect that the sentiment has been noticed before.
Oh ego felix, vice si (nec unquam Surgerem rursus) simili cadentem Parca me lenis sineret quieto Fallere Letho. Multa flagranti radiisque cincto Integris, ah quam nihil inviderem, Cum Dei ardentes medius quadrigas Sentit Olympus!
I wonder whether Gray ever perused the following lines written by his friend and Biographer the Revd: Mr. Mason.
‘Is this the Bigot’s rant? Away ye vain!’ Your hopes your fears, in doubt, in dulness steep! Go sooth your souls in sickness, grief, or pain, With the sad solace of, eternal sleep. Yet know ye Sceptics, know, the Almighty mind Who breath’d on man a portion of his fire, Bad his free soul by earth nor time confin’d To heav’n, to immortality aspire. Nor shall the pile of hope his mercy rear’d, By vain philosophy be e’er destroy’d; Eternity! by all or wish’d or fear’d, Shall be by all, or suffer’d or enjoy’d.
Mason.
It is still more singular that Dr. Beattie with all his professions of christianity, should not have been aware of the atheistical complexion of the following passage in his “Hermit.”
Nor yet for the ravage of winter I mourn, Kind nature the embryo blossom shall save; But when shall spring visit the mouldering urn! Oh, when shall it dawn on the night of the grave!