When thought has rais'd itself by just degrees,
From vallies crown'd with flowers, and hills with trees;
From fmoaking mineral, and from rifing streams;
From fattening Nilus, or victorious Thames;
From all the living, that four-footed move
Along the fhore, the meadow, or the grové;
From all that can with fins or feathers fly
Through the aërial or the watery sky;
From the poor reptile with a reasoning foul,
That miferable mafter of the whole;
From this great object of the body's eye,
This fair half-round, this ample azure fky,
Terribly large, and wonderfully bright
With ftars unnumber'd, and unmeasur'd light;
From effences unfeen, celeftial names,
Enlightening fpirits, and minifterial flames,
Angels, dominions, potentates, and thrones,
All that in each degree the name of creature owns:
Lift we our Reason to that Sovereign Cause,
Who bleft the whole with life, and bounded it with
Who forth from nothing call'd this comely frame,
His will and act, his word and work the fame
To whom a thousand years are but a day;
Who bad the light her genial beams difplay; 650
And fet the moon, and taught the fun its way;
Who, waking Time, his creature from the fource
Primæval, order'd his predeftin'd course;
Himself, as in the hollow of his hand,
Holding, obedient to his high command,
The deep abyfs, the long-continued store,
Where months, and days, and hours, and minutes
Their floating parts, and thenceforth are no more.
This Alpha and Omega, first and last,
Who like the potter in a mould has caft
The world's great frame, commanding it to be
Such as the eyes of Senfe and Reason fee;
Yet, if he wills, may change or spoil the whole;
May take yon' beauteous, mystic, ftarry roll,
And burn it like an useless parchment fcroll; 665
May from its bafis in one moment pour
Like liquid metal, and like burning ore :
Who, fole in power, at the beginning faid,
Let Sea, and Air, and Earth, and Heaven be made; 670
and, when he fhall ordain
In other fort, has but to speak again,
And they fhall be no more: Of this great theme,
This glorious, hallow'd, everlasting name,
This GOD, I would difcourfe.
The learned elders fat appall'd, amaz'd; And each with mutual look on other gaz'd;
Nor fpeech they meditate, nor answer frame
(Too plain, alas! their filence fpake their fhame);
Till one, in whom an outward mien appear'd,
And turn fuperior to the vulgar herd,
Began; that human learning's furtheft reach
Was but to note the doctrine I could teach;
That mine to speak, and theirs was to obey;
For I in knowledge more than power did sway;
And the astonish'd world in me beheld
Mofes eclips'd, and Jeffe's fon excell'd.
Humble a fecond bow'd, and took the word;
Foresaw my name by future age ador'd :
O live, faid he, thou wifeft of the wife;
As none has equal'd, none shall ever rise
Excelling thee.-
Parent of wicked, bane of honeft deeds,
Pernicious Flattery! thy malignant feeds,
In an ill hour, and by a fatal hand,
Sadly diffus'd o'er Virtue's gleby land,
With rifing pride amidst the corn appear,
And choak the hopes and harvest of the year.
And now the whole perplex'd ignoble crowd,
Mute to my questions, in my praises loud,
Echoed the word: whence things arose, or how
They thus exift, the aptest nothing know :
What yet is not, but is ordain'd to be,
All veil of doubt apart, the dullest see!
My prophets and my fophifts finish'd here
The civil efforts of the verbal war:
Not fo my rabbins and logicians yield;
Retiring ftill the combat, from the field
Of open arms unwilling they depart,
And fculk behind the fubterfuge of art.
To speak one thing, mix'd dialects they join;
Divide the fimple, and the plain define ;
Fix fancy'd laws, and form imagin'd rules,
Terms of their art, and jargon of their schools,
Ill-grounded maxims by false glofs enlarg'd,
And captious fcience against reafon charg'd.
Soon their crude notions with each other fought:
The adverse sect deny'd what this had taught ;
And he at length the ampleft triumph gain'd,
Who contradicted what the last maintain'd.
O wretched impotence of human mind!
We erring ftill excufe for error find;
And darkling grope, not knowing we are blind.
Vain man! fince first thy blufhing fire effay'd
His folly with connected leaves to fshade ;
How does the crime of thy refembling race
With like attempt that priftine error trace!
Too plain thy nakedness of foul espy'd,
Why doft thou ftrive the conscious fhame to hide
By mafks of eloquence and veils of pride?
With outward fmiles their flattery I receiv'd;
Own'd my fick mind by their discourse reliev'd;
But, bent and inward to myself again,
Perplex'd, thefe matters I revolv'd in vain.
My fearch still tir'd, my labour ftill renew'd,
At length I ignorance and knowledge view'd,
Impartial; both in equal balance laid;
Light flew the knowing fcale; the doubtful heavy weigh'd.
Forc'd by reflective reafon, I confefs, That human science is uncertain guess.
Alas! we grafp at clouds, and beat the air,
Vexing that spirit we intend to clear.
Can thought-beyond the bounds of matter climb ?
Or who fhall tell me, what is space or time?
In vain we lift up our prefumptuous eyes
To what our Maker to their ken denies :
The fearcher follows faft; the object fafter flies.
The little which imperfectly we find,
Seduces only the bewilder'd mind
To fruitless fearch of fomething yet behind.
Various difcuffions tear our heated brain;
Opinions often turn; ftill doubts remain;
And who indulges thought, increases pain.
How narrow limits were to wisdom given!
Earth the furveys; the thence would meafure Heaven:
Through mists obfcure now wings her tedious way;
Now wanders dazzled with too bright a day;
And from the fummit of a pathlefs coaft
Sees infinite, and in that fight is lost.
Remember, that the curs'd defire to know,
Offspring of Adam! was thy fource of woe.
Why wilt thou then renew the vain pursuit,
And rafhly catch at the forbidden fruit;
With empty labour and eluded ftrife
Seeking, by knowledge, to attain to life;
For ever from that fatal tree debarr'd,
Which flaming fwords and angry cherubs guard?
|