"Stupendous truths! here human wisdom fails, / Lost in a labyrinth of endless thought"
— Gilbert, Thomas (bap. 1713, d. 1766)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Charles Bathurst
Date
1747
Metaphor
"Stupendous truths! here human wisdom fails, / Lost in a labyrinth of endless thought"
Metaphor in Context
Something there is within this strange machine,
Which elevates my mind, and makes me dive
Too deep in fate. How came I to exist?
Whence am I? Tell me, ye immortal pow'rs;
Why from the peaceful bosom of the earth
Rais'd into being in a world of ills,
To run the chance of an immortal state
In dark perdition, or the realms of bliss?
Except the great benevolence of God
Foresaw, that this exertion of his pow'r
Would terminate in good to all mankind.
How is that noble spirit of the soul
Infus'd into the body? whence proceeds
This satal curiosity in man?
And could this beauteous fabric of the world
From nothing be produced? or whence derives
That bright Existence, that eternal Pow'r,
Sole governor of all, his glorious being?
Stupendous truths! here human wisdom fails,
Lost in a labyrinth of endless thought.
Sure we existed in some other state
Before this world was form'd, and for our sins
Constrain'd to bear so great an ill as life.--
Which elevates my mind, and makes me dive
Too deep in fate. How came I to exist?
Whence am I? Tell me, ye immortal pow'rs;
Why from the peaceful bosom of the earth
Rais'd into being in a world of ills,
To run the chance of an immortal state
In dark perdition, or the realms of bliss?
Except the great benevolence of God
Foresaw, that this exertion of his pow'r
Would terminate in good to all mankind.
How is that noble spirit of the soul
Infus'd into the body? whence proceeds
This satal curiosity in man?
And could this beauteous fabric of the world
From nothing be produced? or whence derives
That bright Existence, that eternal Pow'r,
Sole governor of all, his glorious being?
Stupendous truths! here human wisdom fails,
Lost in a labyrinth of endless thought.
Sure we existed in some other state
Before this world was form'd, and for our sins
Constrain'd to bear so great an ill as life.--
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Poems on Several Occasions. By Thomas Gilbert, Esq; Late Fellow of Peter-House, in Cambridge (London: Printed for Charles Bathurst, 1747). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
11/21/2006
