"GOD! how that word hath thunder-clapt my soul
Into a ravishment; I must condole
My forward weakness. Ah! where shall I find
Sufficient metaphors t' express my mind?
Thou heart-amazing word, how hast thou fill'd
My soul with Hallelujahs, and distill'd
Wonders into me!"
This poem is in two parts, and extends to p. 82.
2. "A Dialogue between the Soul and Satan," p. 83 to 124, including a
short supplementary poem entitled "The Soul's Thankfulness and Request
to God."
3. "Divine Ejaculations." One hundred and forty-nine in all. Each
consists of six lines. I extract the tenth as a specimen:
"Great God! Thy garden is defaced:
The weeds do thrive, the flowers decay:
O call to mind thy promise past,
Restore thou them, cut these away.
Till then, let not the weeds have power
To starve or taint the poorest flower."
The copy now before me has no title-page or prefatory matter of any
kind, and it wants the second sheet, p. 17 to 32. Yet I do not think it
imperfect, for though the paging goes from p. 16 to p. 33, yet the
catch-word on the 16th page is answered by the first word on p. 33, and
the sense is consecutive.
It seems to me, therefore, that the author changed in some degree his
plan, as the work was proceeding at the press, and that the little
volume having thus the appearance of negligence and incompleteness, no
title or preface was ever printed, and the book never issued for sale.
On this, or any other point, but especially on the question who was the
writer of so much verse, I wish to receive information from some of the
readers of your very entertaining and often instructive miscellany.