Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake

Edward Young (1681–1765)

Extracts from Night Thoughts: Aspiration, from Night IV

O THOU great arbiter of life and death,

Nature’s immortal, unmaterial sun,

Whose all-prolific beam late call’d me forth

From darkness, teeming darkness where I lay,

The worm’s inferior, and in rank beneath

The dust I tread on, high to bear my brow,

To drink the spirit of the golden day,

And triumph in existence; and could know

No motive, but my bliss; and hast ordain’d

A rise in blessing, with the patriarch’s joy,

Thy call I follow to the land unknown.

I trust in thee and know in whom I trust;

Or life, or death, is equal; neither weighs:

All weight in this—O let me live to thee!