Who taught her against winds and rain to strive,
To bring her burden to the certain hive,
And through the liquid fields again to pass
Duteous, and heark'ning to the founding brass ?
And, O thou fluggard, 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 she bite the grain,
Laft hid in earth, and taking root again,
It might elude the forefight of her care?
Diftinct 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 fhow their paffions by their acts, like thee:
Darting their flings, they previously declare
Defign'd revenge, and fierce intent of war:
Laying their eggs, they evidently prove
The genial pow't, 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 fuftain,
Though the whole fabric fmaller than a grain.
What more can our penurious reafon grant
To the large whale, or caftled elephant,
To thofe enormous terrors of the Nile,
The crefted Snake, and long-tail'd crocodile,
Than that all differ but in fhape and name,
Each deftin'd to a lefs or larger frame?
potent nature loves a various act,
Prone to enlarge, or ftudious to contract:
Now forms her work too fmall, now too immense,
And scorns the measures of our feeble fenfe.
The object spread too far, or rais'd too high,
Denies its real image to the eye:
Too little, it eludes the dazzled fight;
Becomes mix'd blackness, or unparted light.
Water and air the varied form confound;
The ftraight looks crooked, and the fquare grows round.
Thus while with fruitless hope, and wearied pain,
We feek great nature's pow'r, but feek in vain ;
Safe fits the goddess in her dark retreat;
Around her, myriads of Ideas wait.
And endless fhapes, which the myfterious queen
Can take or quit, can alter ot 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 flrong camel, and the gen'rous horse,
Restrain'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,
VOL. II.
Again the lonely fox roams far abroad, On fecret rapine bent, and midnight fraud; Now haunts the cliff, now traverfes the lawn; And flies the hated neighbourhood of man : While the kind spaniel, and the faithful hound, Likeft that fox in fhape and fpecies found, Refuses through the 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 master's feet.
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 frict their. principles, and ours agree. Evil, like us, they fhun, and covet good; Abhor the poison, 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 ufe the means proportion'd to the end. Then vainly the philofopher avers,
That reafon guides our deed, and inftin&t theirs.
How can we juftly diff'rent causes frame,
When the effects entirely are the fame ?
Inftinct and reafon 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 boafter's word
Proclaims himself the universal lord;
Does he not tremble, left the lion's paw
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 hyaena, or the foaming bear?
The combatant too late the field declines;
When now the sword is girded to his loins.
When the fwift veffel flies before the wind;
Too late the failor views the land behind,
And 'tis too late now back again to bring
Enquiry, rais'd and tow'ring on the wing:
Forward Theftrives, averfe to be with-held
From nobler objects, and a larger field.
Confider with me this ethereal space, Yielding to earth and see the middle place. Anxious I ask ye, 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 beast, or colony of man : If any nations pafs their deftin'd days Beneath the neighb'ring 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 thefe fome fecret good difpenfe?
Thofe who amidst the horrid regions live,
May they not gales unknown to us receive;
See daily fhow'rs rejoice the thirsty earth,
And bless the flow'ry buds fucceeding birth?
May they not pity us, condemn'd to bear
The various heav'n of an obliquer sphere;
While by fix'd laws, and with a juft return.
They feel twelve hours that fhade, for twelve that burn,
And praife the neighb'ring fun, whofe conftant flame
Enlightens them with feafons ftill the fame?
And may not thofe, whofe diftant lot is caft
North beyond Tartary's extended waste;
Where through the plains of one continual day,
Six fhining months purfue their even way;
And fix fucceeding urge their dufky flight,
Obfcur'd with vapours and o'erwhelm'd with night:
May not, I afk, the natives of these climes
(As annals may inform fucceeding times)
To our quotidian change of heav'n prefer
Their one viciffitude, and equal share
Of day and night, difparted through the year?
May they not fcorn our fun's repeated race,
To narrow bounds prescrib'd, and little space,
Haft'ning from morn, and headlong driv❜n from noon,
Half of our daily toil yet fcarcely done?
May they not juftly to our climes upbraid
Shortness of night, and penury of shade:
That e'er our wearied limbs are justly blest
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 farthet lake;
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