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Each becomes other. Water ftopp'd gives birth

To grafs and plants, and thickens in the earth:
Diffus'd, it rifes in a higher fphere;

Dilates its 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 its particles; is fire no more;

But lies refplendent duft, and shining ore:
Or, running through the mighty mother's veins,
Changes its fhape; puts off its old remains;
With watry 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,
Obfcurely fepulcher'd. By eating rain,
And furious wind, down to the diftant plain
The hill, that hides his head above the skies,
Shall fall: the plain by flow degrees fhall rife
Higher than erft had ftood the fummit hill:
For time muft nature's great behests fulfil.

Thus, by a length of years, and change of fate, All things are light and heavy fmall or great: Thus Jordan's waves fhall future clouds appear; And Egypt's Pyramids refine to air. Thus later age fhall afk for Pison's flood: And travellers enquire, where Babel stood. Now where we fee thefe changes often fall, Sedate we pass them by as natural:

Where

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 boundaries 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 buds,
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 opening heaven
The food of angels should to man be given ;

Is this more

ftrange, than that with common bread Our fainting bodies every day are fed?

Than that each grain and fed confum'd in earth, Raifes its ftore, and multiplies its 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 wonderous and abftrufe, From nature's conftant or eccentric laws, The thoughtful foul this general influence draws, That an effect must prefuppofe a caufe. And while fhe does her upward flight fuftain, Touching each link of the continued chain, At length fhe is oblig'd and forc'd to fee A first, a fource, a life, a deity; What has for ever been, and must for ever be.

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This

This great exiftence thus by reafon found,
Bleft by all power, with all perfection crown'd;
How can we bind or limit his decree,

By what our ear has heard, or eyes may see ?
Say then is all in heaps of water loft,
Beyond the islands, and the mid-land coast?
Or has that God who gave the world its birth,
Sever'd those waters by some other earth,
Countries by future plow-fhares to be torn,
And cities rais'd by nations yet unborn!
Ere the progreffive course of restless age
Performs three thousand times its annual stage,
May not our power and learning be supprest,
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 power and plenty; her imperial throne,
For justice and for mercy fought and known;
Virtues fublime, great attributes of Heaven,
From thence to this diftinguish'd nation given:
Yet farther weft the western ifle extends
Her happier fame; her armed fleet fhe fends
To climates folded yet from human eye;
And lands, which we imagine wave and sky.
From pole to pole fhe hears her acts refound,
And rules an empire by no ocean bound;
Knows her fhips anchor'd, and her fails unfurl'd,
In other Indies, and a fecond world.

Long

Long fhall Britannia (that must be her name)
Be first in conquest, 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 fhall long remain,
Of human things leaft changeable, least vain.
Yet all muft with the general doom comply;
And this great glorious power, tho' laft, must 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 fpread,

Now freak'd and glowing with the morning red:
Anon at noon in flaming yellow bright,

And chufing fable for the peaceful night.

Afk reafon now, whence light and shade were given, And whence this great variety of Heaven:

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 obfeur'd by rain.
The noon-tide yellow we in vain require :
'Tis black in ftorm, or red in light'ning fire.
Pitchy and dark the night sometimes appears,
Friend to our woe, and parent of our fears:
Our joy and wonder fometimes the excites,
With stars unnumber'd, and eternal lights.
Send forth, yo wife, fend forth your labouring thought:
Let it return with empty notions fraught,
C

Vol. II.

Of

Of airy columns every moment broke,
Of circling whirlpools, and of spheres of smoke:
Yet this folution but once more affords

New change of terms; and scaffolding of words:
In other garb my question I receive.
And take the doubt the very fame I

Lo! as a giant ftrong the lufty fụn

gave.

Multiply'd rounds in one great round does run;
Twofold 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 flages of her monthly race,
Various her beams, and changeable her face.
Each planet fhining in its proper sphere,
Does with juft fpeed his radiant voyage fteer:
Each fees his lamp with different luftre crown'd:
Each knows his course with different periods bound;
And in his paffage through the liquid fpace,
Nor haftens, nor retards his neighbour's race.
Now fhines these planets with fubftantial rays?
Does innate luftre gild their measur'd days?
Or do they (as your schemes, I think, have fhewn)
Dart furtive beams, and glory not their own,
All fervants, to that fource of light the fun?
Again I fee ten thousand thousand stars,
Nor caft in lines,. in circles, nor in fquares:

Poor

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