Demands a conscious, wise, reflecting cause,
Which freely moves, and acts by reason's laws;
That can deliberate, means elect, and find
Their due connection with the end design'd.
And since the world's wide frame does not include
A cause with such capacities endued ;
Some other cause o'er Nature must preside,
Which gave her birth, and does her motions guide.
And here behold the cause, which God we name,
The source of beings, and the mind supreme;
Whose perfect wisdom, and whose prudent care,
With one confederate voice unnumber'd worlds
declare.

See, how the Earth has gain'd that very place,
Which, of all others in the boundless space,
Is most convenient, and will best conduce
To the wise ends requir'd for Nature's use.
You, who the Mind and Cause Supreme deny,
Nor on his aid to form the world rely,
Must grant, had perfect wisdom been employ'd
To find, through all the interminable void,
A seat most proper, and which best became
The earth and sea, it must have been the same.
Now who can this surprising fact conceive,
Who this event fortuitous believe,

That the brute Earth, unguided, should embrace
The only useful, only proper place,
Of all the millions in the empty space?

Could stupid atoms, with impetuous speed,
By different roads and adverse ways proceed;
From regions opposite begin their flight,
That here they might rencounter, here unite?
What charms could these terrestrial vagrants see
In this one point of all immensity,

That all th' enamour'd troops should thither flow?
Did they its useful situation know?

And when the squadrons, with a swift career,
Had reach'd that point why did they settle there,
When nothing check'd their flight but gulphs of air;
Since Epicurus and his scholars say,
That unobstructed matter flies away,
Ranges the void, and knows not where to stay?
If you, sagacious sons of Art, pretend
That by their native force they did descend,
And ceas'd to move, when they had gain'd their
end;

That native force till you enlighten'd know,
Can its mysterious spring disclose, and show
How 'tis exerted, how it does impel,
Your uninstructive words no doubts dispel.
We ask you, whence does motive vigour flow?
You say, the nature of the thing is so.
But how does this relieve th' inquirer's pain?
Or how the dark impulsive power explain?

The atomists, who skill mechanic teach,
Who boast their clearer sight, and deeper reach,
Assert their atoms took that happy seat,
Determin'd thither by their inbred weight;
That downward thro' the spacious void they strove
To that one point, from all the parts above.
Grant this position true, though up and down
Are to a space not limited unknown;

But since they say our Earth, from morn to morn,
On its own axis is oblig'd to turn;
That swift rotation must disperse in air
All things, which on the rapid orb appear:
And if no power that motion should control,
It must disjoint and dissipate the whole.
'Tis by experience uncontested found,
Bodies orbicular, when whirling round,

Still shake off all things on their surface plac'd,
Aud to a distance from the centre cast.

If pondrous atoms are so much in love
With this one point, that all will thither move,
Give them the situation they desire;
But let us then, ye sages, next inquire,
What cause of their cohesion can you find?
What props support, what chains the fabric bind?
Why do not beasts that move, or stones that lie
Loose on the field, through distant regions fly!
Or why do fragments, from a mountain rent,
Tend to the Earth with such a swift descent?

Those who ascribe this one determin'd course
Of pondrous things to gravitating force,
Refer us to a quality occult,

To senseless words, for which, while they insult,
With just contempt, the famous Stagyrite,
Their schools should bless the world with cleares
light.

Some, the round Earth's cohesion to secure,
For that hard task employ magnetic power.
Remark," say they, "the globe; with wonder

own

Its nature, like the fam'd attractive stone.
This has its axis," so th' observer tells,
"Meridians, poles, equator, parallels.
To the terrestrial poles, by constant fate,
Th' obsequious poles themselves accommodate,
And, when of this position dispossest,
They move, and strive, nor ever will they rest,
Till their lov'd situation they regain,
Where pleas'd they settle, and unmov'd remain.
And should you, so experience does decide,
Into small parts the wondrous stone divide,
Ten thousand of minutest size express
The same propension, which the large possess.
Hence all the globe," 'tis said, " we may conclude,
With this prevailing energy endued:
That this attractive, this surprising stone,
Has no peculiar virtue of its own;
Nothing but what is common to the whole,
To sides, to axis, and to either pole.

"The mighty magnet from the centre darts This strong, though subtle force, through all the parts;

Its active rays, ejaculated thence,
Irradiate all the wide circumference.
While every part is in proportion blest,
And of its due attractive power possest;
While adverse ways the adverse atoms draw,
With the same strength, by Nature's constant law
Balanc'd and fixt; they can no longer move;
Through gulphs immense no more unguided rove.
If cords are pull'd two adverse ways, we find
The more we draw them, they the faster bind.
So when with equal vigour Nature strains
This way and that these fine mechanic chains,
They fix the Earth, they part to part unite,
Preserve their structure, and prevent their flight.
Pressure, they say, and weight, we must disown,
As things occult, by no ideas known,
And on the Earth's magnetic power depend
To fix its seat, its union to defend."

Let us this fam'd hypothesis survey,
And with attentive thought remark the way,
How Earth's attractive parts their force display.
"The mass," 'tis said, "from its wide bosom pours
Torrents of atoms, and eternal showers
Of fine magnetic darts, of matter made
So subtle, marble they with case pervade :

refin'd, and (next to incorporeal) thin,

Not by Ausonian glasses to be seen.

These emanations take their constant flight

Swift from the Earth, as from the Sun the light;

To a determin'd distance they ascend,

This bold contriver thus his thoughts conveys:

Incessant streams of thin magnetic rays Gush from their fountains with impetuous force, In either pole, then take an adverse course: Those from the southern pole the northern seek;

That cords and chains, beyond conception small,
Should gird and bind so fast this mighty ball!
That active rays should spring from every part,
And, though so subtle, should such force exert!
That the light legions should be sent abroad,
Range all the air, and traverse every road!
To stated limits should excursions make,
Then backward of themselves their journey take;
Should in their way to solid bodies cling,
And home to Earth the captive matter bring;
Where all things on its surface spread are bound,
By their coercive vigour, to the ground!
Can this be done without a Guide Divine?
Should we to this hypothesis incline,
Say, does not here conspicuous wisdom shine?
Who can enough magnetic force admire?
Does it not counsel and design require
To give the Earth this wondrous energy,
In such a measure, such a just degree,
That it should still perform its destin'd task,
As Nature's ends and various uses ask?

For, should our globe have had a greater share
Of this strong force, by which the parts çohere,
Things had been bound by such a powerful chain,
That all would fix'd and motionless remain ;
All men, like statues, on the Earth would stand,
Nor would they move the foot, or stretch the hand;
Birds would not range the skies, nor beasts the
woods,

Nor could the fish divide the stiffen'd floods.
Again, had this strange energy been less,
Defect had been as fatal as excess.

For want of cement strong enough to bind
The structure fast, huge ribs of rock, disjoin'd
Without an earthquake, from their base would start,
And hills, unhing'd from their deep roots, depart.
And, while our orb perform'd its daily race,
All beings, found upon its ample face,
Would, by that motion dissipated, fly
Whirl'd from the globe, and scatter through the
sky:

They must, obedient to mechanic laws,
Assemble where the stronger magnet draws;
Whether the Sun that stronger magnet proves,
Or else some planet's orb that nearer moves.
Who can unfold the cause that does recal
Magnetic rays, and make them backward fall?
If these effluvia, which do upward tend,
Because less heavy than the air, ascend;
Why do they ever from their height retreat,
And why return to seek their central seat?
From the same cause, ye sons of Art, declare,
Can they by turns descend, and rise in air?
Prodigious 'tis, that one attractive ray
Should this way bend, the next an adverse way;
For, should th' unseen magnetic jets descend
All the same way, they could not gain their end;
They could not draw and bind the fabric fast,
Unless alike they every part embrac’d.

How does Cartesius all his sinews strain,
How much he labours, and how much in vain,
The Earth's attractive vigour to explain!

In either pole these rays emitted meet
Small pores provided, for their figures fit;
Still to and fro they circulating pass,
Hold all the frame, and firmly bind the mass."
Thus he the parts of Earth from flight restrains,
And girds it fast by fine imagin'd chains.

But oh! how dark is human reason found!
How vain the man with wit and learning crown'd!
How feeble all his strength, when he essays
To trace dark Nature, and detect her ways!
Unless he calls its Author to his aid,
Who every secret spring of motion la'd,
Who over all his wondrous works presides,
And to their useful ends their causes guides!
These paths in vain are by inquirers trod;
There's no philosophy without a God.

Admir'd Cartesins, let the curious know, If your magnetic atoms always flow From pole to pole, what form'd their double source, What spurr'd, what gave them their inflected

course?

Tell, what could drill and perforate the poles,
And to th' attractive rays adapt their holes?
A race so long what prompts them to pursue?
Have the blind troops th' important end in view?
How are they sure they in the poles shall meet
Pores of a figure to their figure fit?
Are they with such sagacity endued
To know, if this their journey be pursued,
They shall the Earth's constructure closely bind,
And to the centre keep the parts confin'd?

Let us review this whole magnetic scheme,
Till wiser heads a wiser model frame.
For its formation let fit atoms start,
To one determin'd point, from every part.
Encountering there from regions opposite,
They clash, and interrupt each other's flight;
And, rendezvousing with an adverse course,
Produce an equal poise, by equal force:
For while the parts by laws magnetic act,
And are at once attracted, and attract;
While match'd in strength, they keep the doubtful
field,

And neither overcome, and neither yield,
To happy purpose they their vigour spend;
For these contentions in the balance end,
Which must in liquid air the globe suspend.

Besides materials, which are brute and blind,
Did not this work require a knowing mind,
Who for the task should fit detachments choose
From all the atoms, which their host diffuse
Through the wide regions of the boundless space,
And for their rendezvous appoint the place?
Who should command, by his almighty nod,
These chosen troops, unconscious of the road,
And unacquainted with th' appointed end,
Their marches to begin, and thither tend;
Direct them all to take the nearest way,
Whence none of all th' unnumber'd millions stray;
Make them advance with such an equal pace,
From all the adverse regions of the space,
That they at once should reach the destin'd price
Should muster there, and round the centre swar
And draw together in a globous form?