[Page 142]

THE IGNORANCE OF MAN.

BY JAMES MERRICK, M. A.
1 BEHOLD yon new-born infant, griev'd
2 With hunger, thirst, and pain;
3 That asks to have the wants reliev'd,
4 It knows not to explain.
5 Aloud the speechless suppliant cries,
6 And utters, as it can,
7 The woes that in its bosom rise,
8 And speak its nature Man.
[Page 143]
9 That infant, whose advancing hour
10 Life's various sorrows try,
11 (Sad proof of sin's transmissive power)
12 That infant, Lord! am I.
13 A childhood yet my thoughts confess,
14 Tho' long in years mature;
15 Unknowing whence I feel distress,
16 And where, or what its cure.
17 Author of good! to thee I turn;
18 Thy ever wakeful eye
19 Alone can all my wants discern,
20 Thy hand alone supply.
21 O let thy fear within me dwell,
22 Thy love my footsteps guide;
23 That love shall vainer loves expel,
24 That fear all fears beside.
25 And O! by error's force subdu'd,
26 Since oft my stubborn will,
27 Preposterous, shuns the latent good,
28 And grasps the specious ill;
29 Not to my wish, but to my want,
30 Do thou thy gifts apply:
31 Unask'd, what good thou knowest, grant;
32 What ill, tho' ask'd, deny.

Text

  • TEI/XML (XML - 79K / ZIP - 8.5K) / ECPA schema (RNC - 357K / ZIP - 73K)
  • Plain text [excluding paratexts] (TXT - 1.0K / ZIP - 808 )

Facsimile (Source Edition)

(Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [(OC) 280 o.788].)

Images

PDF

All Images (PDF - 1.3M)

About this text

Title (in Source Edition): THE IGNORANCE OF MAN.
Author: James Merrick
Themes: God; religion
Genres: philosophic poetry
References: DMI 32284

Text view / Document view

Source edition

Pearch, G. A collection of poems in four volumes. By several hands. Vol. I. [The second edition]. London: printed for G. Pearch, 1770, pp. 142-143. 4v. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T116245; DMI 1122; OTA K093079.001) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [(OC) 280 o.788].)

Editorial principles

The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.