Whence then the old belief, that all began

In Eden's fhade and one created man ?

Or grant this progeny was wafted o'er

By coasting boats from next adjacent fhore;

Would thofe, from whom we will fuppofe they spring,
Slaughter to harmless lands and poison bring?
Would they on board, or bears or lynxes take,
Feed the fhe-adder and the brooding fnake?
Or could they think the new-difcover'd ifle
Pleas'd to receive a pregnant crocodile?
• And fince the favage lineage we must trace
From Noah fav'd, and his distinguish'd race;
How fhould their fathers happen to forget
The arts which Noah taught, the rules he fet,
To fow the glebe, to plant the gen'rous vine,
And load with grateful flames the holy fhrine?
While the great fire's unhappy fons are found,

Unprefs'd their vintage, and untill'd their ground;

Straggling o'er dale and hill in queft of food,

And rude of arts, of virtue, and of God.

• How shall we next o'er earth and feas pursue
The vary'd forms of ev'ry thing we view;
That all is chang'd, tho' all is still the same,
Fluid the parts, yet durable the frame?

Of those materials which have been confefs'd
The pristine springs and parents of the rest,
Each becomes other. Water stopp'd gives birth
To grafs and plants, and thickens into earth;
Diffus'd, it rifes in a higher fphere,

Dilates it's drops, and foftens into air:
Thofe finer parts of air again afpire,

⚫ Move into warmth, and brighten into fire.

That fire once more, by thicker air o'ercome,
And downward forc'd, in earth's capacious womb

Alters it's particles; is fire no more,

But lies refplendent duft and fhining ore;

• Or,

Or, running thro' the mighty mother's veins,

Changes it's fhape, puts off it's old remains;

• With watʼry parts it's leffen'd force divides, Flows into waves, and rises into tides.

Difparted ftreams fhall from their channels fly,
And, deep furcharg'd, by fandy mountains lie
Obfcurely fepulcher'd. By eating rain
And furious wind, down to the diftant plain,
The hill that hides his head above the fkies,

Shall fall: the plain, by flow degrees, fhall rife

Higher than erft had stood the fummit hill;

• For Time muft Nature's great behest fulfil.

Thus, by a length of years and change of fate,
All things are light or heavy, fmall or great;
Thus Jordan's waves fhall future clouds appear,
• And Egypts pyramids refine to air;

Thus later age fhall ask for Pison's flood,
And travellers inquire where Babel stood.

Now where we see these changes often fall,
Sedate we pafs them by as natural;
• Where to our eye more rarely they appear,
• The pompous name of prodigy they bear:
Let active thought these close meanders trace,
Let human wit their dubious bound'ries place.
Are all things miracle, or nothing fuch?
And prove we not too little or too much?

For that a branch cut off, a wither'd rod,
• Should at a word pronounc'd revive and bud;
Is this more ftrange than that the mountain's brow,
Stripp'd by December's froft and white with fnow,
Should push in fpring ten thousand thousand buds,
And boast returning leaves and blooming woods?
That each fucceffive night from op'ning heav'n
The food of angels fhould to man be giv'n;
Is this more strange than that with common bread
Our fainting bodies ev'ry day are fed?

• Than

Than that each grain and feed, confum'd in earth,
Raifes it's ftore, and multiplies it's birth?

And from the handful which the tiller fows,

• The labour'd fields rejoice, and future harvest flows?
• Then from whate'er we can to fenfe produce,
• Common and plain, or wondrous and abstruse;
• From Nature's conftant or excentrick laws

The thoughtful foul this gen'ral influence draws,

• That an Effect must pre-suppose a Cause :

And while she does her upward flight fuftain,
Touching each link of the continu'd chain,
At length fhe is oblig'd and forc'd to see
A First, a Source, a Life, a Deity;
What has for ever been, and muft for ever be.

This Great Existence, thus by Reafon found,

• Blefs'd by all pow'r, with all perfection crown'd, How can we bind or limit his decree

By what our ear has heard or eye may see?

Say, then, is all in heaps of water loft,

< Beyond the islands and the mid-land coaft?

• Or has that God, who gave our world it's birth, Sever'd those waters by fome other earth? Countries by future plough-fhares to be torn,

• And cities rais'd by nations yet unborn ?
Ere the progreffive courfe of reflefs age

• Performs three thousand times it's annual ftage,
May not our pow'r and learning be fupprefs'd,
• And arts and empire learn to travel west?

Where, by the ftrength of this idea charm'd,
Lighten'd with glory, and with rapture warm'd,
• Afcends my foul? what fees fhe white and great
Amidft fubjected feas? An ifle, the feat
Of pow'r and plenty; her imperial throne
For juftice and for mercy fought and known:
• Virtues fublime, great attributes of Heav'n,
From thence to this diftinguish'd nation giv'n.

}

}

. Yet,

"Yet farther weft the western ifle extends Her happy fame; her armed fleets the fends

To climates folded yet from human eye,

And lands which we imagine wave and sky:
From pole to pole she hears her acts resound,
And rules an empire by no ocean bound;
Knows her fhips anchor'd, and her fails unfurl'd,
In other Indies and a second world.

Long fhall Britannia (that must be her name)

Be first in conqueft, and prefide in fame;

Long fhall her favour'd monarchy engage
The teeth of Envy, and the force of Age:
Rever'd and happy, fhe shall long remain,
Of human things, least changeable, leaft vain;
Yet all muft with the gen'ral doom comply,
And this great glorious pow'r, tho' laft, muft die!
Now let us leave this earth, and lift our eye
To the large convex of yon' azure sky:

• Behold it like an ample curtain spread,

Now ftreak'd and glowing with the morning red;

Anon at noon in flaming yellow bright,

And chufing fable for the peaceful night.

Ask Reason, now, whence light and shade were giv❜n,

And whence this great variety of heav'n?

Reafon our guide, what can fhe more reply,

Than that the fun illuminates the sky?
Than that night rifes from his absent ray,
And his returning luftre kindles day?

But we expect the morning red in vain ; ''Tis hid in vapours, or obfcur'd by rain: The noon-tide yellow we in vain require;

''Tis black in ftorm, or red in lightning fire.

Pitchy and dark the night fometimes appears, 'Friend to our woe, and parent of our fears;

"Our joy and wonder fometimes fhe excites,

Send forth, ye wife, fend forth your lab'ring thought;
Let it return, with empty notions fraught,

Of airy columns ev'ry moment broke,

Of circling whirlpools, and of spheres of fmoke:
Yet this folution but once more affords

New change of terms, and scaffolding of words;
In other garb my queftion I receive,

• And take the doubt the very fame I gave.

Lo! as a giant ftrong, the lufty fun.

Multiply'd rounds in one great round does run;
Two-fold his courfe, yet conftant his career,

Changing the day, and finishing the year.
Again, when his defcending orb retires,

And earth perceives the abfence of his fires,
The moon affords us her alternate ray,
And with kind beams diftributes fainter day,
Yet keeps the ftages of her monthly race;
• Various her beams, and changeable her face:
Each planet, fhining in his proper sphere,
Does with juft fpeed his radiant voyage fteer;
Each fees his lamp with diff'rent luftre crown'd;
• Each knows his courfe with diff'rent periods bound;
And in his paffage thro' the liquid fpace,

• Nor haftens nor retards his neighbour's race.
Now, fhine thefe planets with fubftantial rays?
Does innate luftre gild their meafur'd days?
Or do they (as your schemes, I think, have fhown)
Dart furtive beams and glory not their own;

All fervants to that fource of light, the fun?

Again! I fee ten thousand thousand stars,

Ner caft in lines, in circles, nor in fquares, (Poor rules, with which our bounded mind is fill'd When we would plant, or cultivate, or build !) • But fhining with such vast, such various light, As fpeaks the Hand that form'd them infinite.