hetic _Monody_, lately published; in which, after he had
deplored, as a man _without hope_, (expressing ourselves in the
Scripture phrase) the loss of an excellent Wife; he thus consoles
himself:

'_Yet, O my soul! thy rising murmurs stay,
Nor dare th' All-wise Disposer to arraign,
Or against his supreme decree
With impious grief complain.
That all thy full-blown joys at once should fade,
Was his most righteous Will: And be that Will obey'd._

'_Would thy fond love his grace to her controul,
And in these low abodes of sin and pain
Her pure, exalted soul,
Unjustly, for thy partial good, detain?
No--rather strive thy groveling mind to raise
Up to that unclouded blaze,
That heav'nly radiance of eternal light,
In which enthroned she now with pity sees
How frail, how insecure, how slight
Is ev'ry mortal bliss._

'But of infinitely greater weight than all that has been above produced
on this subject, are the words of the Psalmist.

"As for me, says he[43], my feet were almost gone, my step had well-nigh
slipt: For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of
the wicked. For their strength is firm: They are not in trouble as other
men; neither are they plagued like other men--Their eyes stand out with
fatness: They have more than their heart could wish--Verily I have
cleansed mine heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence; for all
the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. When I
thought to know this, it was too painful for me. Until I went into the
sanctuary of God; then understood I their end--Thou shalt guide me with
thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.'

'This is the Psalmist's comfort and dependence. And shall man, presuming
to alter the common course of nature, and, so far as he is able, to
elude the tenure by which frail mortality indispensibly holds, imagine,
that he can make a better dispensation; and by calling it _Poetical
Justice_, indirectly reflect on the _Divine_?

The more pains have been taken to obviate the objections arising from
the notion of _Poetical Justice_, as the doctrine built upon it had
obtained general credit among us; and as it must be confessed to have
the appearance of _humanity_ and _good-nature_ for its supports. And yet
the writer of the History of Clarissa is humbly of opinion, that he
might have been excused referring to them for the vindicat