Yet with confefs'd magnificence deride
Our vile attire, and impotence of pride.
The Cowflip fimiles, in brighter yellow drefs'd
Than that which veils the nubile Virgin's breaft:
A fairer red stands blushing in the Rose
Than that which on the Bridegroom's veftment flows.
Take but the humbleft Lily of the field;
And, if our pride will to our reason yield,
It muft by fure comparison be fhewn,
That on the regal feat great David's fon,
Array'd in all his robes and types of power,
Shines with lefs glory than that fimple flower.
Of Fishes next, my friends, I would enquire,
How the mute race engender, or refpire:
From the fmall fry that glide on Jordan's stream
Unmark'd, a multitude without a name,
To that Leviathan, who o'er the feas
Immenfe rolls onward his impetuous ways,
And mocks the wind, and in the tempest plays.
How they in warlike bands march greatly forth
From freezing waters and the colder north,
To fouthern climes directing their career,
Their ftation changing with th' inverted year.
How all with careful knowledge are endued,
To chufe their proper bed, and wave, and food:
To guard their spawn, and educate their brood
Of Birds, how each according to her kind
Proper materials for her neft can find;
And build a frame, which deepeft thought in man
Would or amend or imitate in vain.
How in fmall flights they know to try their young,
And teach the callow child her parent's fong.
Why these frequent the plain, and those the wood;
Why every land has her specific brood:
Where the tall Crane, or winding Swallow, goes,
Fearful of gathering winds and falling fnows;
If into rocks, or hollow trees, they creep,
In temporary death confin'd to fleep;
Or, confcious of the coming evil, fly
To milder regions, and a fouthern sky.
Of Beafts and creeping Infects fhall we trace The wondrous nature, and the various race;
Or wild or tame, or friend to man or foe,
Of us what they, or what of them, we know?
Tell me, ye ftudious, who pretend to fee
Far into Nature's bofom, whence the Bee
Was first inform'd her venturous flight to steer
Through tractless paths, and an abyss of air.
Whence the avoids the flimy marfsh, and knows
The fertile hills where sweeter herbage grows,
And honey-making flowers their opening buds disclose:
How from the thicken'd mist, and setting fun,
Finds the the labour of her day is done:
Who taught her against winds and rains to strive,
To bring her burden to the certain hive;
And through the liquid fields again to pass
Duteous, and hearkening to the founding brafs.
And, O thou Sluggard, tell me why the Ant, 'Midft fummer's plenty, thinks of winter's want:
By conftant journies careful to prepare
Her ftores; and, bringing home the corny ear,
By what instruction does she bite the grain,
Left, hid in earth, and taking root again,
It might elude the forefight of her care.
Distinct in either infect's deed appear
The marks of thought, contrivance, hope, and fear.
Fix thy corporeal and internal eye
On the young Gnat, or new-engender'd Fly;
On the vile Worm that yesterday began
To crawl; thy fellow-creatures, abject Man!
Like thee, they breathe, they move, they tafte, they fee,
They fhew their paffions by their acts, like thee: 165
Darting their ftings, they previoufly declare
Defign'd revenge, and fierce intent of war:
Laying their eggs, they evidently prove
The genial power and full effect of love.
Each then has organs to digeft his food,
One to beget, and one receive the brood;
Has limbs and finews, blood, and heart, and brain,
Life and her proper functions to fufstain,
Though the whole fabrick smaller than a grain.
What more can our penurious reason grant
To the large Whale, or caftled Elephant ;
To thofe enormous terrors of the Nile,
The crefted Snake, 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 sense.
The object spread 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 straight looks crooked, and the square grows round.
Thus while, with fruitless hope and weary pain,
We feek great Nature's power, but seek in vain ;
Safe fits the Goddefs in her dark retreat;
Around her myriads of ideas wait,
And endless shapes, which the mysterious queen
Can take or quit, can alter or retain,
As from our loft purfuit fhe wills, to hide.
Her close decrees, and chaften human pride.
Untam'd and fierce the Tiger ftill 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 flesh, and thirfts his blood :
While the strong Camel, and the generous Horse,
Restrain'd and aw'd by Man's inferior force,
Do to the rider's will their rage fubmit,
And answer to the spur, 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 fhape and species found,
Refufes through these cliffs and lawns to roam;
Purfues the noted path, and covets home;
Does with kind joy domeftic faces meet;
Takes what the glutted child denies to eat;
And, dying, licks his long-lov'd mafter's feet. 220
By what immediate cause they are inclin'd,
In many acts, 'tis hard, I own, to find.
I fee in others, or I think I fee,
That ftri&t their principles and ours agree.
Evil like us they fhun, and covet good :
Abhor the poifon, 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 use the means proportion'd to the end.
Then vainly the Philofopher avers,
That reafon guides our deed, and instinct theirs.
How can we justly different caufes frame,
When the effects intirely are the fame ?
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 Beast refuses to obey.
For tell me, when the empty boaster's word
Proclaims himself the univerfal lord,
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