Are all things miracle; or nothing such?
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 bud;

390

Is this more strange, than that the mountain's brow,
Stripp'd by December's froft, and white with fnow,
Should push in fpring ten thousand thousand buds, 395
And boast returning leaves, and blooming woods?
That each fucceffive night from opening Heaven
The food of angels fhould to man be given;
Is this more strange, than that with common bread
Our fainting bodies every day are fed?
Than that each grain and feed, confum'd in earth,
Raises its store, and multiplies its birth,

And from the handful, which the tiller fows,

400

The labour'd fields rejoice, and future harvest flows? Then, from whate'er we can to fenfe produce, 405 Common and plain, or wondrous and abstruse,

From Nature's conftant or eccentric laws,

The thoughtful foul this general influence draws,
That an effect must pre-suppose a cause:
And, while fhe does her upward flight sustain,
Touching each link of the continued chain,

410

At length fhe is oblig'd and forc'd to fee
A First, a Source, a Life, a Deity;

What has for ever been, and must for ever be.
This great Existence thus by Reason found,
Bleft by all power, with all perfection crown'd;
How can we bind or limit his decree,

415

By what our ear has heard, or eye may fee

Say then is all in heaps of water loft,

Beyond the islands, and the mid-land coaft?

Or has that God, who gave our 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 ?

420

425

Where, by the strength of this idea charm'd,

Lighten'd with glory, and with rapture warm'd,

430

Afcends my foul? what fees fhe white and great
Amidst subjected feas? An ifle, the feat

Of power
and plenty; her imperial throne,
For juftice and for mercy fought and known;
Virtues fublime, great attributes of Heaven,
From thence to this distinguish'd nation given.
Yet farther weft the western ille extends
Her happy fame; her armed fleet she sends
To climates folded yet from human eye;
And lands, which we imagine wave and sky.

From pole to pole she hears her acts refound,
And rules an empire by no ocean bound;
Knows her ships anchor'd, and her fails unfurl'd,
In other Indies, and a fecond world.

Long fhall Britannia (that must be her name)
Be first in conqueft, and prefide in fame :
Long shall her favour'd monarchy engage
The teeth of Envy, and the force of Age:

435

440

445

5

Rever'd

Rever'd and happy fhe fhall long remain,

Of human things least changeable, least vain.
Yet all must with the general doom comply;

450

And this great glorious power, though last, 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,

455

Now streak'd and glowing with the morning-red;
Anon at noon in flaming yellow bright,

And chufing fable for the peaceful night..

Ask Reason now, whence light and shade were given,

And whence this great variety of Heaven.

460

Reason, 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:

465

'Tis hid in vapours, or obscur'd by rain.
The noon-tide yellow we in vain require:
"Tis black in storm, or red in lightning fire.
Pitchy and dark the night sometimes appears,
Friend to our woe, and parent of our fears:

470

Our joy and wonder fometimes the excites,

With stars unnumber'd, and eternal lights.

Send forth, ye wife, fend forth your labouring thought: Let it return with empty notions fraught,

Of airy columns every moment broke,

475

Of circling whirlpools, and of fpheres of smoke :
Yet this folution but once more affords

New change of terms, and fcaffolding of words:

In other garb my question I receive ;

And take the doubt the very fame I gave.

480

Lo! as a giant ftrong, the lufty fun

Multiply'd rounds in one great round does run;

Twofold his courfe, yet conftant his career,

485

490

Changing the day, and finishing the year.
Again, when his defcending orb retires,
And earth perceives the absence of his fires;
The moon affords us her alternate ray,
And with kind beams distributes fainter day,
Yet keeps the ftages of her monthly race,
Various her beams, and changeable her face.
Each planet, fhining in his proper fphere,
Does with juft fpeed his radiant voyage steer;
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, fhine thefe 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,

495

500

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 rules, with which our bounded mind is fill'd,

When we would plant, or cultivate, or build);

505

But fhining with fuch vaft, fuch various light,

As speaks the hand, that form'd them, infinite,

How

How mean the order and perfection fought,
In the best product of the human thought,
Compar'd to the great harmony that reigns
In what the fpirit of the world ordains!

Now if the fun to earth tranfmits his ray,
Yet does not fcorch us with too fierce a day;
How fmall a portion of his power is given
To orbs more diftant, and remoter Heaven?
And of thofe ftars, which our imperfect eye
Has doom'd and fix'd to one eternal sky,

510

515

Each, by a native stock of honour great,

May dart ftrong influence, and diffuse kind heat, (Itself a fun) and with tranfmiffive light

520

Enliven worlds deny'd to human fight.

Around the circles of their ambient skies

New moons may grow or wane, may fet or rise.

And other stars may to thofe funs be earths;

Give their own elements their proper births;

525

Divide their climes, or elevate their pole;

See their lands flourish, and their oceans roll:

Yet these great orbs, thus radically bright,

Primitive founts, and origins of light,

May each to other (as their different fphere

530

Makes or their distance or their height appear)
Be feen a nobler or inferior star.

And, in that space which we call air and fky,
Myriads of earths, and moons, and funs, may
Unmeasur'd and unknown by human eye.

In vain we meafure this amazing sphere,
And find and fix its centre here or there ;

I

lie

535

Whilft