That whilft our bodies ficken, and decay, Their's are for ever healthy, young, and gay? Why, whilst we ftruggle in this vale beneath, With want and forrow, with difeafe and death, Do they more blefs'd perpetual life employ On fongs of pleafure, and in fcenes of joy? Now when my mind has all this world furvey'd, And found, that nothing by itself was made; When thought has rais'd itself by juft degrees, From vallies crown'd with flow'rs, and hills with trees, From fmoaking min'rals, and from rifing ftreams; From fatt'ning Nilus, or victorious Thames; From all the living, that four footed move Along the shore, the meadow, or the grove; From all that can with fins, or feathers fly Through the aerial, or the watry fky; From the poor reptile with a reas'ning 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 stars unnumber'd, and unmeafur'd light; From effences unfeen, celeftial names, Enlight'ning fpirits, and ministerial flames, Angels, dominions, potentates, and thrones, All that in each degree the name of creature owns: Lift we our reason to that Sov'reign 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 bade the light her genial beams display; And fet the moon, and taught the fun his way : Who waking time, his creature, from the fource Primaeval, order'd his predeftin'd courfe: Himself, as in the hollow of his hand, Holding, obedient to his high command, The deep abyfs, the long continu'd ftore,. Where months, and days, and hours, and minutes pour
Their floating parts, and thenceforth are no more. This Alpha and Omega, firft and last,,
Who like the potter in a mold has caft
The world's great frame, commanding it to be. Such as the of fenfe and reafon fee;
Yet if he wills, may change or fpoil the whole : May take yon' beauteous, myftic, ftarry roll, And burn it, like an useless parchment fcroll: May from its bafis in one moment pour This melted earth-
Like liquid metal, and like burning ore:
Who fole in pow'r at the beginning faid;
Let fea, and air, and earth, and heav'n be made: And it was fo-And when he shall ordain
In other fort, has but to speak again,
And they shall be no more: of this great theme, This glorious, hallow'd, everlasting name, This God, I would difcourfe-
The learn'd elders fat appal'd, amaz'd; And each with mutual look on other gaz'd. Nor fpeech they meditate, nor anfwer 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 doctrines I could teach; That mine to speak, and theirs was to obey: For I in knowledge more, than pow'r did sway And the aftonish'd world in me beheld Mofes eclips'd, and Jeffe's fon excell'd Humble a fecond bow'd, and took the word; Forefaw my name by future age ador'd. Olive, faid he, thou wifeft of the wife! As none has equall'd, none shall ever rise: Excelling thee-
Parent of wicked, bane of honest deeds, Pernicious flatt'ry 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, Echo'd the word: whence things arofe, or how They thus exift, the apteft nothing know; What yet is not, but is ordain'd to be, All veil of doubt apart, the dulleft fee: My prophets, and my fophifts finifh'd here Their civil efforts of the verbal war : Not fo my Rabbins, and logicians yield; Retiring ftill they combat: from the field Of open arms unwilling they depart And fculk behind the fubterfuge of art.
To fpeak 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 falfe glofs enlarg'd, And captious fcience against reafon charg❜d. Soon their crude notions with each other fought:: The adverfe fect deny'd, what this had taught; And he at length the ampleft triumph gain'd, Who contradicted what the laft 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 firft the blufhing fire effay'd- His folly with connected leaves to fhade; How does the crime of thy refembling race With like attempt that priftine error trace? Too plain thy nakedness of foul efpy'd, Why doft thou ftrive the confcious fhame to hide By masks of eloquence, and veils of pride?
With outward fmiles their flatt'ry I receiv'd; Own'd my fick mind by their difcourfe reliev'd; But bent and inward to myfelf againPerplex'd, thefe matters I revolv'd; in vain. My fearch ftill tir'd, my labour still renew'd, At length I ignorance and knowledge view'd, Impartial; both in equal ballance laid; [weigh'd. Light flew the knowing feale: the doubtful heavy
Forc'd by reflective reafon, I confess,
That human fcience 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 shall tell me what is space or time? In vain we lift up our presumptuous 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 wifdom giv❜n ?
Earth the furveys; the thence would meafure heav'n s Thro' mifts obfcure, now wings her tedious way;. Now wanders dazl'd with too bright a day; And from the fummit of a pathless coaft Sees infinite, and in that fight is loft.
Remember, that the curs'd defire to know, Offspring of Adam, was thy fource of woe. Why wilt thou then renew thy vile purfuit, And rafhly catch at the forbidden fruit? With empty labour and eluded strife Seeking, by knowledge, to attain to life; For ever from that fatal tree debarr'd, Which flaming. fwords and angry Cherubs guard.
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