All men, like statues, on the earth would stand,
Nor would they move the foot, or stretch the hand;
Birds would not range the skies, nor beasts the
woods,

Nor could the fish divide the stiffen'd floods.
Again, had this strange energy been less,
Defect had been as fatal as excess.

For want of cement strong enough to bind
The structure fast, huge ribs of rock, disjoin'd
Without an earthquake, from their base would start,
And hills unhing'd from their deep roots depart.
And, while our orb perform'd its daily race,
All beings, found upon his ample face,
Would, by that motion dissipated, fly

Whirl'd from the globe, and scatter through the sky;
They must, obedient to mechanic laws,
Assemble where the stronger magnet draws;
Whether the sun that stronger magnet proves,
Or else some planet's orb that nearer moves,
Who can unfold the cause that does recal
Magnetic rays, and make them backward fall?
If these effluvia, which do upward tend,
Because less heavy than the air, ascend;
Why do they ever from their height retreat,
And why return to seek their central seat?
From the same cause, ye sons of art, declare
Can they by turns descend, and rise in air?
Prodigious 'tis, that one attractive ray

Should this way bend, the next an adverse way;
For, should the' unseen magnetic jets descend
All the same way, they could not gain their end;
They could not draw and bind the fabric fast,
Unless alike they every part embrac❜d.

How does Cartesius all his sinews strain,
How much he labours, and how much in vain,
The earth's attractive vigour to explain!
This bold contriver thus his thoughts conveys:
Incessant streams of thin magnetic rays

Gush from their fountains with impetuous force,
In either pole, then take an adverse course :
Those from the southern pole the northern see
The southern those that from the northern bre
In either pole these rays emitted meet
Small pores provided, for their figures fit;
Still to and fro they circulating pass,

Hold all the frame, and firmly bind the mass.
Thus he the parts of earth from flight restrain
And girds it fast by fine imagin'd chains.

But oh! how dark is human reason found! How vain the man with wit and learning crow How feeble all his strength when he essays To trace dark Nature, and detect her ways; Unless he calls its Author to his aid, Who every secret spring of motion laid, Who over all his wondrous works presides, And to their useful ends their causes guides. These paths in vain are by inquirers trod; There's no philosophy without a GOD!

Admir'd Cartesius, let the curious know,
If your magnetic atoms always flow

From pole to pole, what form'd their double
What spur'd, what gave them their inflicted
Tell, what could drill and perforate the po
And to the' attractive rays adapt their hole
A race so long what prompts them to purs
Have the blind troops the' important end

How are they sure they in the poles shall meet
Pores of a figure to their figure fit!
Are they with such sagacity endued

To know, if this their journey be pursued,
They shall the earth's constructure closely bind,
And to the centre keep the parts confin'd?

Let us review this whole magnetic scheme,
Till wiser heads a wiser model frame.
For its formation let fit atoms start,
To one determin'd point, from every part.
Encountering there from regions opposite,
They clash, and interrupt each other's flight;
And, rendezvousing with an adverse course,
Produce an equal poise, by equal force:
For while the parts by laws magnetic act,
And are at once attracted, and attract: [field,
While match'd in strength they keep the doubtful
And neither overcome, and neither yield,
To happy purpose they their vigour spend;
For these contentions in the balance end,
Which must in liquid air the globe suspend.
Besides materials which are brute and blind,
Did not this work require a knowing mind,
Who for the task should fit detachments choose
From all the atoms, which their host diffuse
Through the wide regions of the boundless space,
And for their rendezvous appoint the place?
Who should command, by his almighty nod,
These chosen troops, unconscious of the road,
And unacquainted with the' appointed end,
Their marches to begin, and thither tend;
Direct them all to take the nearest way,
Whence none of all the' unnumber'd millions stray;

Make them advance with such an equal pace,
From all the adverse regions of the space,
That they at once should reach the destin❜d place;
Should muster there, and round the centre swarm,
And draw together in a globous form?

Grant, that by mutual opposition made,

}

Of adverse parts, their mutual flight is staid;
That thus the whole is in a balance laid;
Does it not all mechanic heads confound,
That troops of atoms, from all parts around,
Of equal number, and of equal force,
Should to this single point direct their course;
That so the counter-pressure every way,
Of equal vigour, might their motions stay,
And, by a steady poise, the whole in quiet lay?
Besides, the structure of the earth regard:
For firmness how is all its frame prepar❜d!
With what amazing skill is the vast building
rear'd!

Metals and veins of solid stone are found

The chief materials which the globe compound.
See, how the hills, which high in air ascend,
From pole to pole their lofty lines extend.
These strong, unshaken mounds, resist the shocks
Of tides and seas tempestuous, while the rocks,
That secret in a long-continued vein

Pass through the earth, the ponderous pile sustain:
These mighty girders, which the fabric bind,
These ribs robust and vast, in order join'd;
These subterranean walls, disposed with art,
Such strength and such stability impart,

That storms above, and earthquakes under ground,
Break not the pillars, nor the work confound.

Give to the earth a form orbicular,

Let it be pois'd, and hung in ambient air;
Give it the situation to the sun

Such as is only fit; when this is done,
Suppose it still remain'd a lazy heap;

From what we grant, you no advantage reap.
You either must the earth from rest disturb,
Or roll around the heavens the solar orb.
Else what a dreadful face will nature wear!
How horrid will these lonesome seats appear!
This ne'er would see one kind refreshing ray;
That would be ruin'd, but a different way,
Condemn'd to light, and curs'd with endless day:
A cold Icelandian desert one would grow;
One, like Sicilian furnaces, would glow.
That nature may this fatal error shun,

Move, which will please you best, the earth or sun.
But, say, from what great builder's magazines
You'll engines fetch, what strong, what vast machines
Will you employ to give this motion birth,
And whirl so swiftly round the sun or earth?
Yet, learned heads, by what mechanic laws
Will you of either orb this motion cause!
Why do they move? why in a circle? why
With such a measure of velocity?

Say, why the earth-if not the earth, the sun
Does through his winding road the zodiac run?
Why do revolving orbs their tracks sublime
So constant keep, that since the birth of time
They never varied their accustom'd place,
Nor lost a minute in so long a race?
But hold! perhaps I rudely press too far;
You are not vers'd in reasoning so severe.