Now forms her work too fmall, now too immenfe,
And fcorns the measures of our feeble fenfe.
The object fpread too far, or rais'd too high, Denies its real image to the eye;
Too little, it eludes the dazzled fight, Becomes mixt blackness, or unparted light. Water and air the varied form confound;
The ftraight looks crooked, and the fquare grows round. Thus while, with fruitlefs hope and weary pain, We feek great Nature's power, but feek in vain ; Safe fits the Goddefs in her dark retreat;
Around her myriads of ideas wait,
And endless fhapes, which the mysterious queen Can take or quit, can alter or retain,
As from our loft purfuit fhe wills, to hide Her close decrees, and chaften human pride. Untam'd and fierce the Tiger ftill remains ; He tires his life in biting on his chains : For the kind gifts of water and of food, Ungrateful, and returning ill for good,
He feeks his keeper's flesh, and thirfts his blood: While the strong Camel, and the generous Horfe, Reftrain'd and aw'd by Man's inferior force, Do to the rider's will their rage fubmit, And answer to the fpur, and own the bit;
Stretch their glad mouths to meet the feeder's hand, Pleas'd with his weight, and proud of his command. Again the lonely Fox roams far abroad, On fecret rapine bent, and midnight fraud;
Now haunts the cliff, now traverses the lawn; And flies the hated neighbourhood of Man : While the kind Spaniel, and the faithful Hound, Likeft that Fox in shape and species found, Refufes through thefe cliffs and lawns to roam; Pursues the noted path, and covets home; Does with kind joy domeftic faces meet; Takes what the glutted child denies to eat ; And, dying, licks his long-lov'd mafter's feet. 220 By what immediate cause they are inclin❜d,
In many acts, 'tis hard, I own, to find. I fee in others, or I think I fee, That ftrict their principles and ours agree. Evil like us they fhun, and covet good : Abhor the poifon, and receive the food. Like us they love or hate; like us they know, To joy the friend, or grapple with the foe.
With feeming thought their action they intend,
And use the means proportion'd to the end. Then vainly the Philosopher avers,
That reafon guides our deed, and instinct theirs.
How can we juftly different causes frame,
When the effects intirely are the same ?
Inftinct and Reason how can we divide ?
"Tis the Fool's ignorance, and the Pedant's pride. With the fame folly, fure, Man vaunts his fway, If the brute Beaft refuses to obey.
For tell me, when the empty boaster's word Proclaims himself the universal lord,
Does he not tremble, left the Lion's
Should join his plea against the fancy'd law? Would not the learned coward leave the chair, If in the schools or porches fhould appear The fierce Hyæna, or the foaming Bear?
The combatant too late the field declines, When now the fsword is girded to his loins. When the fwift veffel flies before the wind, Too late the Sailor views the land behind. And 'tis too late now back again to bring Enquiry, rais'd and towering on the wing: Forward the strives, averfe to be withheld From nobler objects, and a larger field.
Confider with me this ætherial space, Yielding to earth and sea the middle place. Anxious I ask you, how the penfile ball
Should never ftrive to rife, nor fear to fall?
When I reflect, how the revolving fun
Does round our globe his crooked journies run;
I doubt of many lands, if they contain
Or herd of beaft, or colony of man;
If any nation pafs their deftin'd days
Beneath the neighbouring fun's directer rays;
If any fuffer, on the Polar coaft,
The rage of Arctos, and eternal froft.
May not the pleasure of Omnipotence
To each of these some fecret good dispense? Those who amidst the torrid regions live, May they not gales unknown to us receive ;
See daily fhowers rejoice the thirsty earth, And blefs the flowery buds' fucceeding birth? May they not pity us, condemn'd to bear The various heaven of an obliquer sphere; While by fix'd laws, and with a just return,
They feel twelve hours that shade, for twelve that burn; And praise the neighbouring fun, whose constant flame Enlightens them with seasons still the fame ? And may not those, whose distant lot is caft North beyond Tartary's extended waste; Where through the plains of one continual day Six fhining months pursue their even way; And fix fucceeding urge their dusky flight, Obscur'd with vapours, and o'erwhelm'd in night: May not, I ask, the natives of these climes (As annals may inform fucceeding times) To our quotidian change of Heaven prefer Their own viciffitude, and equal share Of day and night, difparted through the year? May they not scorn our fun's repeated race, To narrow bounds prescrib'd, and little space, Haftening from morn, and headlong driven from noon, Half of our daily toil yet fcarcely done? May they not justly to our climes upbraid Shortnefs of night, and penary of shade; That, ere our wearied limbs are justly bleft With wholesome fleep, and neceffary reft, Another fun demands return of care, The remnant toil of yesterday to bear;
Whilft, when the folar beams falute their fight, Bold and fecure in half a year of light, Uninterrupted voyages they take
To the remoteft wood, and farthest lake ;
Manage the fishing, and pursue the course
With more extended nerves, and more continued force? And, when declining day forsakes their sky,
When gathering clouds speak gloomy winter nigh; With plenty for the coming season blest,
Six folid months (an age) they live, releas'd From all the labour, procefs, clamour, woe, Which our fad scenes of daily action know : They light the fhining lamp, prepare the feast, And with full mirth receive the welcome guest; Or tell their tender loves (the only care Which now they fuffer) to the liftening fair; And, rais'd in pleasure, or repos'd in ease (Grateful alternate of substantial peace), They blefs the long nocturnal influence shed On the crown'd goblet, and the genial bed.
In foreign ifles which our discoverers find, Far from this length of continent disjoin'd, The rugged Bear's, or fpotted Lynx's brood, Frighten the vallies, and infeft the wood; The hungry Crocodile, and hiffing Snake, Lurk in the troubled ftream and fenny brake; And man, untaught and ravenous as the beaft, Does valley, wood, and brake, and stream, infeft; Deriv'd thefe men and animals their birth From trunk of oak, or pregnant womb of earth?
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