THE IGNORANCE OF MAN. James Merrick Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T116245 1122 K093079.001 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.

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THE IGNORANCE OF MAN . BY JAMES MERRICK , M. A. BEHOLD yon new-born infant , griev'd With hunger , thirst , and pain ; That asks to have the wants reliev'd , It knows not to explain . Aloud the speechless suppliant cries , And utters , as it can , The woes that in its bosom rise , And speak its nature Man . That infant , whose advancing hour Life's various sorrows try , ( Sad proof of sin's transmissive power ) That infant , Lord ! am I . A childhood yet my thoughts confess , Tho' long in years mature ; Unknowing whence I feel distress , And where , or what its cure . Author of good ! to thee I turn ; Thy ever wakeful eye Alone can all my wants discern , Thy hand alone supply . O let thy fear within me dwell , Thy love my footsteps guide ; That love shall vainer loves expel , That fear all fears beside . And O ! by error's force subdu'd , Since oft my stubborn will , Preposterous , shuns the latent good , And grasps the specious ill ; Not to my wish , but to my want , Do thou thy gifts apply : Unask'd , what good thou knowest , grant ; What ill , tho' ask'd , deny .