Has limbs and finews, blood, and heart, and brain,
Life and her proper functions to fustain,
Tho' the whole fabric fmaller than a grain.
What more can our penurious reafon grant
To the large whale or castled elephant ?
To thofe enormous terrors of the Nile,
The crefted fnake and long-tail'd crocodile,
Than that all differ but in fhape and name,
Each deftin'd to a lefs or larger frame?
For potent Nature loves a various act, Prone to enlarge, or ftudious to contract;
Now forms her work too fmall, now too immense,
And fcorns the measures of our feeble fenfe.
The object, fpread too far, or rais'd too high,
Denies its real image to the eye;
Too little, it eludes the dazzled fight,
Becomes mixt 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 weary pain 191
We feek great nature's pow'r, but feek in vain,
Safe fits the goddefs in her dark retreat,
Around her myriads of ideas wait,
And endless fhapes, which the mysterious queen
Can take or quit, can alter or retain,
As from our loft purfuit fhe wills to hide
Her clofe decrees, and chaften human pride.
Untam'd and fierce the tiger till 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 Lefh and thirfts his blood:
While the ftrong camel and the gen'rous horse,
Reftrain'd and aw'd by man's interior force,
Do to the riders 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. Again the lonely fox roams far abroad,
On fecret rapine bent and midnight fraud;
Now haunts the cliff, now traverses the lawn,
And flies the hated neighbourhood of man;
While the kind spaniel and the faithful hound,
Likeft that fox in shape and species found,
Refufes thro' thefe cliffs and lawns to roam,
Purfues the noted path, and covets home,
Does with kind joy domestic faces meet,
Takes what the glutted child denies to eat,
And dying, licks his long-lov'd master's feet.
By what immediate caufe they are inclin'd,
In many acts, 'tis hard I own to find.
I fee in others, or I think I fee,
That strict 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 instinct theirs.
How can we justly diff'rent caufes frame,
When the effects entirely are the same ?
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 sway
If the brute beaft refufes to obey.
For, tell me, when the empty boafter's word
Proclaims himself the univerfal 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 hyæna or the foaming bear?
The combatant too late the field declines
When now the fword 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
Inquiry, rais'd and tow'ring on the wing;
Forward fhe ftrives, averfe to be withheld
From nobler objects and a larger field.
Confider with me this etherial fpace,
Yielding to earth and sea the middle place:
Anxious I ask ye how the penfile ball
Should never ftrive to rife nor never 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 or beaft, or colonies of man ;
nation pafs their deftin'd days Beneath the neighb'ring fun's director rays; 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 dispense?
Those who amidst the torrid regions live
May they not gales unknown to us receive?
See daily fhow'rs rejoice the thirsty earth,
And blefs the flow'ry buds fucceeding birth?
May they not pity us condemn'd to bear
The various heav'n of an obliquer fphere,
While, by fix'd laws, and with a just return,
They feel twelve hours that shade for twelve that burn,
And praife the neighb'ring fun, whofe conftant flame
Enlightens them with feafons ftill the fame ?
And may not those whofe diftant lot is caft
North, beyond Tartary's extended waste,
Where thro' the plains of one continual day
Six fhining months purfue their even way,
And fix fucceeding urge their dusky flight,
Obfcur'd with vapours, and o'erwhelm'd in night.
May not, I ask, the natives of these climes
(As annals may inform fucceeding times)
To our quotidian change of heaven prefer
Their own viciffitude and equal share
Of day and night difparted thro' 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 scarcely done ?
May they not juftiy to our climes upbraid
Shortness of night and penury of fhade,
That ere our weary'd limbs are justly blest
With wholesome sleep and necessary rest,
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 farthest lake,
Manage the fishing, and pursue the course
With more extended nerves and more continu'd force And when declining day forsakes their sky,
When gath'ring clouds fpeak gloomy winter nigh,
With plenty for the coming feafon blefs'd,
Six folid months (an age) they live, releas'd
From all the labour, procefs, clamour, woe,
Which our fad fcenes of daily action know;
They light the fhining lamp, prepare the feast,
And with full mirth receive the welcome gueft,
Or tell their tender loves (the only care
Which now they fuffer) to the lift'ning fair,
And rais'd in pleasure, or repos'd in ease,
(Grateful alternates of fubftantial peace)
They blefs the long nocturnal influence thed
On the crown'd goblet and the genial bed.
In foreign ifles which our discov❜rers find,
Far from this length of continent disjoin'd,
The rugged bear's or spotted lynx's brood
Frighten the vallies and infeft the wood,
The hungry crocodile and hiffing snake
Lurk in the troubled stream and fenny brake;
And man, untaught, and rav'nous as the beast, 325
Does valley, wood, and brake, and stream, infest;
Deriv'd thefe men and animals their birth
From trunk of oak or pregnant womb of earth?
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 coafting boats from next adjacent shore,
Would thofe, from whom we will fuppofe they spring,
Slaughter to harmless lands and poifon bring?
Would they on board or bears or lynxes take,
Feed the fhe-adder and the brooding fnake?
Or could they think the new-discover'd ifle
Pleas'd to receive a pregnant crocodile?
And fince the favage lineage we must trace
From Noah fav'd and his diftinguish'd race,
How should 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 shrine?
While the great fire's unhappy fon's are found,
Unprefs'd their vintage, and untill'd their ground,
Straggling o'er dale and hill in quest of food,
And rude of arts, of virtue, and of God.
How fhall we next o'er earth and feas purfue
The vary'd forms of ev'ry thing we view;
That all is chang'd, tho' all is still the fame,
Fluid the parts, yet durable the frame?
Of thofe materials which have been confeft
The priftine fprings and parents of the rest,
Each becomes other. Water stopp'd gives birth 355 To grafs and plants, and thickens into earth; Diffus'd it rifes in a higher sphere,
Dilates its drops, and foftens into air:
Those 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 its particles, is fire no more,
But lies refplendent duft and shining ore;
Or, running thro' the mighty mother's veins,
Changes its fhape, puts off its old remains ;
With wat❜ry parts its 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
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