My body cloath'd with every outward grace,
Strength in my limbs, and beauty in my face,
My fhining thought with fruitful notions crown'd,
Quick my invention, and my judgement found:
Arife (I commun'd with myfelf) arisé; ·
Think, to be happy; to be great, be wife :-
Content of fpirit must from science flow;
For 'tis a godlike attribute, to know.
I faid; and fent my edict through the land:
Around my throne the letter'd rabbins stand,
Hiftoric leaves revolve, long volumes spread,'
The old difcourfing as the younger read.
Attent I heard, propos'd my doubts, and said
The Vegetable World, each plant and tree,
Its feed, its name, its nature, its degree;
I am allow'd, as Fame reports, to know,
From the fair Cedar on the craggy brow
Of Lebanon nodding fupremely tall,
To creeping Mofs and Hyffop on the wall:
Yet, juft and conscious to myself, I find
A thousand doubts oppose the searching mind..
I know not why the Beach delights the glade
With boughs extended, and a rounder shade;
Whilft towering Firs in conic forms arise,
And with a pointed spear divide the skies ::
Nor why again the changing Oak should shed
The yearly honour of his stately. head;
Whilft the diftinguish'd Yew is ever seen,
Unchang'd his branch, and permanent his.green.
Wanting the fun, why does the Caltha fade?
Why does the Cypress flourish in the shade?
The Fig and Date, why love they to remain.
In middle ftation, and an even plain;
While in the lower marfh the Gourd is found;
And while the hill with Olive-fhade is crown'd?
Why does one climate and one foil endue
The blushing Poppy with a crimson hue ;
Yet leave the Lily pale, and tinge the Violet blue?
Why does the fond Carnation love to shoot
A various colour from one parent root;
While the fantaftic Tulip ftrives to break
In two-fold beauty, and a parted streak ?
The twining Jafmine and the blufhing Rofe
With lavish grace their morning fcents disclose :
The smelling Tuberofe and Junquil declare
The stronger impulfe of an evening air.
Whence has the tree (refolve me) or the flower
A various inftinct, or a different power?
Why should one earth, one clime, one ftream, one breath, Raife this to strength, and ficken that to death? 85
Whence does it happen, that the plant, which well We name the Senfitive, fhould move and feel? Whence know her leaves to anfwer her command, And with quick horror fly the neighbouring hand? Along the funny bank, or watery mead, Ten thousand stalks the various bloffoms fpread: Peaceful and lowly in their native foil,
They neither know to fpin, nor care to toil;
Yet with confefs'd magnificence deride
Our vile attire, and impotence of pride.
The Cowflip fmiles, in brighter yellow drefs'd
Than that which veils the nubile Virgin's breast:
A fairer red ftands blushing in the Rofe
Than that which on the Bridegroom's vestment flows.
Take but the humbleft Lily of the field;
And, if our pride will to our reafon yield,
It must by fure comparison be fhewn,
That on the regal feat great David's fon,
Array'd in all his robes and types of power,
Shines with lefs glory than that fimple flower.
Of Fishes next, my friends, I would enquire,
How the mute race engender, or respire:
From the fmall fry that glide on Jordan's stream
Unmark'd, a multitude without a name,
To that Leviathan, who o'er the feas
Immenfe rolls onward his impetuous ways,
And mocks the wind, and in the tempeft plays.
How they in warlike bands march greatly forth
From freezing waters and the colder north,
To fouthern climes directing their career,
Their ftation changing with th' inverted year.
How all with careful knowledge are endued,
To chufe their proper bed,. and wave, and food:
To guard their spawn, and educate their brood
Of Birds, how each according to her kind
Proper materials for her neft can find;
And build a frame, which deepest thought in man
Would or amend or imitate in vain.
How in small flights they know to try
And teach the callow child her parent's fong.
Why these frequent the plain, and thofe the wood;
Why every land has her fpecific brood:
Where the tall Crane, or winding Swallow, goes,
Fearful of gathering winds and falling fnows;
If into rocks, or hollow trees, they creep,
In temporary death confin'd to fleep;
Or, conscious of the coming evil, fly
To milder regions, and a southern sky.
Of Beafts and creeping Infects shall we trace The wondrous nature, and the various race;
Or wild or tame, or friend to man or foe,
Of us what they, or what of them, we know?
Tell me, ye ftudious, who pretend to see
Far into Nature's bofom, whence the Bee
Was firft inform'd her venturous flight to steer
Through tractless paths, and an abyss of air.
Whence the avoids the flimy marsh, and knows
The fertile hills where fweeter herbage grows,
And honey-making flowers their opening buds difclofe
How from the thicken'd mist, and setting fun,
Finds the the labour of her day is done :
Who taught her against winds and rains to strive,
To bring her burden to the certain hive ;
And through the liquid fields again to pass
Duteous, and hearkening to the founding brafs.
And, O thou Sluggard, tell me why the Ant, 'Midft fummer's plenty, thinks of winter's want :
By conftant journies careful to prepare
Her ftores; and, bringing home the corny ear
By what inftruction does the bite the grain,
Left, hid in earth, and taking root again,
It might elude the forefight of her care.
Diftin&t in either infect's deed appear
The marks of thought, contrivance, hope, and fear.
Fix thy corporeal and internal eye
On the young Gnat, or new-engender'd Fly;
On the vile Worm that yesterday began
To crawl; thy fellow-creatures, abject Man!
Like thee, they breathe, they move, they tafte, they fee,
They fhew their paffions by their acts, like thee: 165
Darting their ftings, they previously declare
Defign'd revenge, and fierce intent of war:
Laying their eggs, they evidently prove
The genial power and full effect of love.
Each then has organs to digeft his food,
One to beget, and one receive the brood;
Has limbs and finews, blood, and heart, and brain,
Life and her proper functions to sustain,
Though the whole fabrick smaller than a grain.
What more can our penurious reason grant
To the large Whale, or caftled Elephant;
To thofe enormous terrors of the Nile,
The crested Snake, and long-tail'd Crocodile ;
Than that all differ but in shape and name,
Each deftin'd to a less or larger frame?
For potent Nature loves a various act,
Prone to enlarge, or ftudious to contract ;
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