That whilst our Bodies ficken, and decay,
Their's are for ever healthy, young, and gay?
Why, whilft We struggle in this Vale beneath,
With Want and Sorrow, with Disease and Death,
Do They more bless'd perpetual Life employ
On Songs of Pleasure, and in Scenes of Joy?
Now when my Mind has all this World furvey'd,
And found, that Nothing by it felf was made;
When Thought has rais'd it felf by juft Degrees,
From Vallies crown'd with Flow'rs,and Hills with Trees;
From fmoaking Min'rals, and from rifing Streams;
From fatt'ning NIEUS, or victorious THAMES;
From all the Living, that four-footed move
Along the Shoar, the Meadow, or the Grove;
From all that can with Finns, or Feathers fly
Thro' the Aerial, or the Wat'ry Sky;
From the poor Reptile with a reas'ning Soul,
That miferable Master of the Whole;
From this great Object of the Body's Eye,
This fair Half-round, this ample azure Sky,
Terribly large, and wonderfully bright
With Stars unnumber'd, and unmeasur'd Light;
From Effences unfeen, Celestial Names,
Ordine quifque fuo, propter Solia ardua, fido
Grande fatellitio ftipant latus OMNIPOTENTIS;
Perque omnem rerum feriem, longamque catenam,
Ducitur ad magnum Autorem, qui femina vitæ ·
Infudit Toti, legefque & foedera fanxit:
Qui (Vox quippe operi par eft, factoque Voluntas)
E nihilo juffit pulcrum confurgere Mundum;
Sæculaque evolvens tanquam fpatia arêta diei,
Inftituit Lucem radics expandere amicos,
Et Solem Lunamque fuos agnofcere curfus.
Ille utero à cæco emifit revolubile Tempus,
Præfcriptoque dedit veftigia flectere gyro:
Ipfe fuæ geftans tanquam per concava dextræ,
Ingentis Domini juffa obfervare paratum,
Mundi grande Penu, quà fe menfefque diefque
Effufæque horæ, & breviores temporis omnes
Particulæ agglomerant, & deinde haud amplius extant.
Ipfe idem & primus rerum & poftremus, adinftar
Artificis figuli, veluti matrice profundam
Hanc fphæram effinxit, juffitque effulgere, qualem
Attonitis oculis & læta mente videmus.
At nutu mutare valet vel perdere Totum;
Et facrum illud opus, ftellatum, illuftre Volumen
Membranæ in morem crepitantibus urere flammis:
Enlight'ning Spirits, and minifterial 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,
[Laws;
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 bad the Light her genial Beams difplay;
And fet the Moon, and taught the Sun his Way:
Who waking Time, his Creature, from the Source
Primæval, order'd his predeftin'd Course:
Himself, as in the Hollow of his Hand,
Holding, obedient to His high Command,
The deep Abyss, the long continu'd Store,
Where Months, and Days, and Hours, and Minutes
Their floating Parts, and thenceforth are no more.
This ALPHA and OMEGA, First and Laft,
Who like the Potter in a Mould has caft
The World's great Frame, commanding it to be
Such as the Eyes of Senfe and Reason fee;
Yet if He wills, may change or spoil the whole:
May take yon' beauteous, myftic, starry Roll,
And burn it, like an useless parchment Scroll:
Terramque extemplò, divulfam à fedibus imis,
Fluctibus ut fervent tumidis liquefacta metalla,
Ignibus undantem diffundere
Solus ab æterno, prima ante exordia rerum,
OMNIPOTENS, Æther, Tellus, Mare, Sydera fiant,
Dixit; Erant. Atque his quondam contraria fata
Cum ftatuet, jubeat, ceffabunt effe: verendum
Hoc juvat Argumentum audaci dicere lingua,
Hoc ingens facrumque æterna in fæcula Nomen;
Hunc juvat enarrare DEUM.
Mirati mea verba, Senes filuere; ftupentes
Mutua in alternos flexerunt lumina vultus, .
Refpondere nihil, nihil aufi efferre; pudorem
Turba filens celare cupit, proditque filendo.
Dum quidam, gravitas cui veftiit ora ferena,
Cui major Vulgo fulgebat gratia, cæpit;
Ulteriùs non poffe animi contendere vires,
Discere quàm noftræ felicia dogmata vocis;
Effe mei, dictare; fuique, attendere dictis;
Me cunctis fimul Imperio Ingenioque priorem;
Gentesque attonitas uno fremere ore, difertum
Cedere laude mihi JESSIDEM, cedere Mos EM.
Genua alter flexit, facturus verba; futura
May from it's Basis in one Moment pour
This melted Earth
Like liquid Metal, and like burning Oar:
Who fole in Pow'r, at the Beginning faid;
Let Sea, and Air, and Earth, and Heav'n be made: And it was fo. And when He fhall ordain
In other Sort, has but to fpeak again,
And They shall be no more: Of this great Theme,
This Glorious, Hallow'd, Everlasting Name,
This GOD, I would difcourfe
The learned Elders fat appall'd, amaz'd;
And each with mutual Look on other gaz'd.
Nor Speech They meditate, nor Answer frame:
Too plain, alas! their Silence fpake their Shame:
'Till One, in whom an outward Mien appear'd,
And Turn superior 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 Their's was to Obey :
For I in Knowledge more, than Pow'r did fway;
And the astonish'd World in Me beheld
MOSES eclips'd, and JESSE's Son excell'd.
Humble a Second bow'd, and took the Word;
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