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Nature's mechanics, they unwearied strive,
And fill with curious labyrinths the hive.
See, what bright strokes of architecture shine
Through the whole frame, what beauty, what design!
Each odoriferous cell, and waxen tower,

The yellow pillage of the rified flower,
Has twice three sides, the only figure fit
To which the labourers may their stores commit,
Without the loss of matter, or of room,

In all the wondrous structure of the comb.
Next view, spectator, with admiring eyes,
In what just order all the' apartments rise:
So regular their equal sides cohere,
The' adapted angles so each other bear,
That, by mechanic rules refin'd and bold,
They are at once upheld, at once uphold.
Does not this skill ev'n vie with reason's reach?
Can Euclid more, can more Palladio, teach?
Each verdant hill the' industrious chemists climb,
Extract the riches of the blooming thyme,
And, provident of winter long before, [store;
They stock their caves, and hoard their flowery
In peace they rule their state with prudent care,
Wisely defend, or wage offensive war.

Maro, these wonders offer'd to his thought,
Felt his known ardour, and the rapture caught:
Then rais'd his voice, and, in immortal lays,
Did high as heaven the insect-nation raise.*
If, Epicurus, this whole artful frame
Does not a wise Creator's hand proclaim,
To view the intellectual world advance;
Is this the creature too of fate or chance?

* See the Georgics, book iv.

Turn on itself thy godlike reason's ray,

Thy mind contemplate, and its powers survey.
What high perfections grace the human mind,
In flesh imprison'd, and to earth confin'd!
What vigour has she! what a piercing sight!
Strong as the winds, and sprightly as the light!
She moves unwearied as the active fire,

And, like the flame, her flights to heaven aspire:
By day, her thoughts in never ceasing streams
Flow clear; by night, they strive in troubled dreams.
She draws ten thousand landscapes in the brain,
Dresses of airy forms an endless train,
Which all her intellectual scenes prepare,
Enter by turns the stage, and disappear.
To the remoter regions of the sky

Her swift-wing'd thought can in a moment fly;
Climb to the heights of Heaven to be employ'd
In viewing thence the' interminable void;
Can look beyond the stream of time, to see
The stagnant ocean of eternity.

Thoughts in an instant through the zodiac run,
A year's long journey for the labouring sun;
Then down they shoot, as swift as darting light,
Nor can opposing clouds retard their flight;
Through subterrranean vaults with ease they sweep,
And search the hidden wonders of the deep.
When man with reason dignified is born,

No images his naked mind adorn;

No sciences or arts enrich his brain,
Nor fancy yet displays her pictur'd train :
He no innate ideas can discern,

Of knowledge destitute, though apt to learn.
Our intellectual, like the body's eye,
Whilst in the womb, no object can descry;

Yet is dispos'd to entertain the light,

And judge of things when offer'd to the sight.
When objects through the senses passage gain,
And fill with various imagery the brain,

The' ideas, which the mind does thence perceive,
To think, and know, the first occasion give.
Did she not use the senses' ministry,

Nor ever taste, or smell, or hear, or see,
Could she possess'd of power perceptive be?
Wretches, who sightless into being came,
Of light or colour no idea frame.

Then grant a man his being did commence,
Denied by Nature each external sense,
These ports unopen'd, diffident we guess,
The' unconscious soul no image could possess ;
Though what in such a state the restless train
Of spirits would produce, we ask in vain.
The mind proceeds, and to reflection goes,
Perceives she does perceive, and knows she knows,
Reviews her acts, and does from thence conclude
She is with reason and with choice endued.
From individuals of distinguish'd kind,
By her abstracting faculty, the mind
Precisely general natures can conceive,
And birth to notions universal give;

The various modes of things distinctly shows
A pure respect, a nice relation knows,

[flows;

And sees whence each respect and each relation. By her abstracting power in pieces takes

The mix'd and compound whole, which Nature makes;

On objects of the senses she refines,

Beings by Nature separated joins,

And severs qualities which that combines.

The mind, from things repugnant, some respects
In which their natures are alike selects,
And can some difference and unlikeness see
In things which seem entirely to agree:
She does distinguish here, and there unite;
The mark of judgment that, and this of wit.
As she can reckon, separate, and compare,
Conceive what order, rude, proportion, are,
So from one thought she still can more infer;
Maxim from maxim can by force express,
And make discover'd truths associate truths confess :
On plain foundations, which our reason lays,
She can stupendous frames of science raise;
Notion on notion built will towering rise,
Till the' intellectual fabrics reach the skies;
The mathematic axioms, which appear
By scientific demonstration clear,

The master-builders on two pillars rear:
From two plain problems by laborious thought
Is all the wondrous superstructure wrought.
The soul, as mention'd, can herself inspect,
By acts reflex can view her acts direct;
A task too hard for sense; for though the eye
Its own reflected image can descry,

Yet it ne'er saw the sight by which it sees,
Vision can show no colour'd images.

The mind's tribunal can reports reject

Made by the senses, and their faults correct;
The magnitude of distant stars it knows,
Which erring sense, as twinkling tapers, shows :
Crooked the shape our cheated eye believes,
Which through a double medium it receives;
Superior mind does a right judgment make,
Declares its straight, and mends the eye's mistake.

Where dwells this sovereign arbitrary soul,
Which does the human animal control,
Inform each part, and agitate the whole ?
O'er ministerial senses does preside,
To all their various provinces divide,
Each member move, and every motion guide?
Which, by her secret uncontested nod,
Her messengers, the spirits send abroad
Through every nervous pass, and every vital road,
To fetch from every distant part a train
Of outward objects, to enrich the brain?
Where sits this bright intelligence enthron'd,
With numberless ideas pour'd around?
Where sciences and arts in order wait,
And truths divine compose her godlike state?
Can the dissecting steel the brain display,
And the august apartment open lay,

Where this great queen still chooses to reside
In intellectual pomp, and bright ideal pride?
Or can the eye, assisted by the glass,
Discern the strait, but hospitable place,
In which ten thousand images remain,
Without confusion, and their rank maintain?
How does this wondrous principle of thought
Perceive the object by the senses brought?
What philosophic builder will essay
By rules mechanic to unfold the way
How a machine must be dispos'd to think,
Ideas how to frame, and how to link?

Tell us, Lucretius, Epicurus, tell,
And you in wit unrival'd shall excel;

How through the outward sense the object flies,
How in the soul her images arise;

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