us eternal pain or happiness
will certainly be his lot, should not earnestly and impartially inquire
after the surest means of escaping the one, and securing the other. And
of such an earnest and impartial inquiry I well know the consequence.

Here, therefore, in proof of this most fundamental truth, some plain
arguments are offered; arguments derived from principles which infidels
admit in common with believers; arguments which appear to me altogether
irresistible; and such as, I am satisfied, will have great weight with
all who give themselves the small trouble of looking seriously into their
own bosoms, and of observing, with any tolerable degree of attention,
what daily passes round about them in the world. If some arguments shall
here occur, which others have declined, they are submitted, with all
deference, to better judgments in this, of all points the most important.
For, as to the being of a God, that is no longer disputed; but it is
undisputed for this reason only, viz., because, where the least pretence
to reason is admitted, it must for ever be indisputable. And of
consequence no man can be betrayed into a dispute of that nature by
vanity; which has a principal share in animating our modern combatants
against other articles of our belief.

NIGHT SIXTH.

THE INFIDEL RECLAIMED.
PART I.

She[28] (for I know not yet her name in heaven),
Not early, like Narcissa, left the scene;
Nor sudden, like Philander. What avail?
This seeming mitigation but inflames;
This fancied medicine heightens the disease.
The longer known, the closer still she grew;
And gradual parting is a gradual death.
'Tis the grim tyrant's engine, which extorts,
By tardy pressure's still-increasing weight,
From hardest hearts, confession of distress. 10
Oh, the long, dark approach through years of pain,
Death's gallery! (might I dare to call it so)
With dismal doubt, and sable terror, hung;
Sick hope's pale lamp its only glimmering ray:
There, fate my melancholy walk ordain'd,
Forbid self-love itself to flatter, there.
How oft I gazed, prophetically sad!
How oft I saw her dead, while yet in smiles! 18
In smiles she sunk her grief to lessen mine.
She spoke me comfort, and increased my pain.
Like powerful armies trenching at a town,
By slow, and silent, bu