Does he not tremble, left the lion's
Should join his plea against the fancy'd law?
Would not the learned coward leave the chair,
If in the schools or porches should 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 towering on the wing:
Forward fhe ftrives, averfe to be withheld
From nobler objects, and a larger field.
Confider with me this æthereal space,
Yielding to earth and fea the middle place.
Anxious I ask you, how the penfile ball
Should never ftrive to rife, nor 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 of beast, or colony of man;
To each of thefe fome fecret good difpenfe?
Those who amidst the torrid regions live,
May they not gales unknown to us receive?
See daily showers rejoice the thirsty earth,
And blefs the flowery buds' fucceeding birth?
May they not pity us, condemn'd to bear
The various heaven of an obliquer sphere;
While by fix'd laws, and with a just return,
They feel twelve hours that shade, for twelve that burn;
And praise the neighbouring fun, whose constant flame
Enlightens them with feafons ftill the fame ?
And may not thofe, whose distant lot is caft
North beyond Tartary's extended wafte;
Where through the plains of one continual day 280
Six fhining months pursue their even way,
And fix fucceeding urge their dufky 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 through the year?
May they not fcorn our fun's repeated race,
To narrow bounds prefcrib'd, and little space,
Haftening from morn, and headlong driven from noon,
Half of our daily toil yet scarcely done?
May they not justly to our climes upbraid
Shortnefs of night, and penury of shade;
That, ere our wearied limbs are justly bleft
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 continued force ?
And, when declining day forfakes their sky,
When gathering clouds speak gloomy winter nigh;
With plenty for the coming feafon bleft,
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 guest ;
Or tell their tender loves (the only care
Which now they fuffer) to the listening fair;
And, rais'd in pleasure, or repos'd in ease
(Grateful alternate of fubftantial peace),
They blefs the long nocturnal influence fhed
On the crown'd goblet, and the genial bed.
In foreign ifles which our discoverers 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 fnake,
Lurk in the troubled ftream and fenny brake
And man, untaught and ravenous as the beaft,
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? this progeny was wafted o'er
By coafting boats from next adjacent shore ;
Would thofe, from whom we will suppose 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 isle
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 fhould their fathers happen to forget
The arts which Noah taught, the rules he fet,
To fow the glebe, to plant the generous vine,
And load with grateful flames the holy shrine;
While the great fire's unhappy fons are found,
Unprefs'd their vintage, and untill'd their ground,
Straggling o'er dale and hill in queft of food,
And rude of arts, of virtue, and of God?
How fhall we next o'er earth and feas purfue The varied forms of every thing we view; That all is chang'd, though all is still the same, Fluid the parts, yet durable the frame? Of those materials, which have been confess'd The priftine fprings and parents of the reft, Each becomes other. Water flopp'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 fhining ore;
Or, running through the mighty mother's veins, 365
Changes its shape, puts off its old remains;
With watery parts its leffen'd force divides,
Flows into waves, and rifes into tides.
Difparted streams 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 distant plain
The hill, that hides his head above the skies,
Shall fall; the plain by flow degrees shall rise
Higher than erit had stood the summit-hill;
For Time must Nature's great behest fulfil.
Thus, by a length of years and change of fate,
All things are light or heavy, small or great:
Thus Jordan's waves fhall future clouds appear,
And Ægypt's pyramids refine to air:
Thus later age fhall afk for Pifon's flood,
And travellers inquire where Babel stood.
Now where we see these changes often fall,
Sedate we pass them by as natural;
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:
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