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And, foes to natural science and divine,
In beauteous phrase made impious notions shine,
In strains sublime their different fictions sing,
Whence the first parents of our species sprung.
Prometheus (so some elder poets say)
Temper'd and form'd a paste of purer clay,
To which, well mingled with the river's stream,
His artful hand gave human shape and frame;
Then, with warm life his figures to inspire,
The bold projector stole celestial fire.

While others tell us, how the human brood
Ow'd their production to the fruitful wood;
How from the laurel and the ash they sprung,
And infants on the oak, like acorns, hung:
The crude conceptions prest the bending trees,
Till cherish'd by the sun-beams, by degrees,
Ripe children dropp'd on all the soil around,
Peopled the woods, and overspread the ground.
Great Jupiter, (so some were pleas'd to sing)
Of fabled gods the father and the king,
The moving prayer of Æacus did grant,
And into men and women turn'd the ant.

Some tell, Deucalion and his Pyrrha threw
Obdurate stones, which o'er their shoulders flew,
Then, shifting shape, receiv'd a vital flame,
And men and women (wondrous change!) be-

came.

And thus the hard and stubborn race of man
From animated rock and flint began.

Now to the learned schools of Greece repair,
Who Chance the author of the world declare:
Then judge if wise philosophers excel
Those idle tales, which wanton poets tell.

They say,

"at first to living things the Earth,
At her formation, gave spontaneous birth;
When youthful heat was through the glebe diffus'd,
Mankind, as well as insects, she produc'd ;
That genial wombs by parent Chance were form'd,
Adapted to the soil, which, after warm'd
And cherish'd by the Sun's enlivening beam,
With human offsprings did in embryo teem;
These, nourish'd there, a while imprison'd lay,
Then broke their yielding bands, and forc'd their
way;

The field a crop of reasoning creatures crown'd,
And crying infants grovell'd on the ground;
A milky store was by the mother Earth
Pour'd from her bosom, to sustain the birth;
In strength and bulk increas'd, the earth-born race
Could move, and walk, and ready change their
O'er every hill and verdant pasture stray, [place,
Skip o'er the lawns, and by the rivers play,
Could eat the tender plant, and by degrees
Browse on the shrub, and crop the budding trees;
The fragrant fruit from bending branches shake,
And with the crystal stream their thirst at plea-
sure slake"

The Earth, by these applauded schools, 'tis said,
This single crop of men and women bred;
Who, grown adult, (so Chance, it seems, en-
join'd)

Did male and female propagate their kind.
This wise account Lucretian sages give,
Whence our first parents their descent derive.
Severely on this subject to dispute,
And tales so wild, so senseless, to confute,
Were with inglorious labour to disgrace
The schools, and Reason's dignity debase.
But since, with this of man's original,
The parts remaining of their scheme must fall,

(Yet farther to pursue the present theme)
Behold how vain philosophers may dream!

Grant, Epicurus, that by casual birth
Men sprung spontaneous from the fruitful Earth,
When on the glebe the naked infants lay,
How were the helpless creatures fed? You say,
"The teeming soil did from its breasts exude
A soft and milky liquor for their food."

I will not ask, what this apt humour made,
Nor by what wondrous channels 'twas convey'd;
For, if we such inquiries make, we know
Your short reply-" It happen'd to be so ;"
Without assigning once a proper cause,
Or solving questions by mechanic laws,
To every doubt your answer is the same-

It so fell out, and so by chance it came."
How shall the new-born race their food com-

mand,

Who cannot change their place, or move a hand?
Grant that the glebe beneath will never drink,
Nor through its pores let the soft humour sink;
Will not the Sun, with his exhaling ray,
Defraud the babe, and draw his food away?

Since, for so long a space, the human birth
Must lie expos'd and naked on the Earth;
Say, could the tender creature, in despite
Of heat by day, and chilling dews by night,
In spite of thunder, winds, and hail, and rain,
And all inclement air, its life maintain?

In vain, you say, "in Earth's primeval state,
Soft was the air, and mild the cold and heat;"
For did not then the night succeed the day?
The Sun, as now, roll through his annual way?
Th' effects then on the air must be the same,
The frosts of winter, and the summer's flame.

In the first age," you say, "the pregnant ground
With human kind in embryo did abound,
And pour'd her offspring on the soil around."
But tell us, Epicurus, why the field
Did never since one human harvest yield?
And why we never see one ripening birth
Heave in the glebe, and struggle thro' the earth?
You say,
"that when the Earth was fresh and

young,

While her prolific energy was strong,
A race of men she in her bosom bred,
And all her fields with infant people spread:
But that first birth her strength did so exhaust,
The genial mother so much vigour lost,
That, wasted now by age, in vain we hope
She should again bring forth a human crop.”

Mean time, she's not with labour so much worn,
But she can still the hills with woods adorn.
See, from her fertile bosom, how she pours
Verdant conceptions, and, refresh'd with showers,
Covers the field with corn, and paints the mead

with flowers!

See, her tall sons, the cedar, oak, and pine,
The fragrant myrtle, and the juicy vine,
Their parent's undecaying strength declare,
Which with fresh labour, and unwearied care,
Supplies new plants, her losses to repair.
Then, since the Earth retains her fruitful power
To procreate plants, the forest to restore;
Say, why to nobler animals alone
Should she be feeble, and unfruitful grown?
After one birth she ceas'd not to be young,
The globe was succulent, the mould was strong.
Could she at once fade in her perfect bloom,
Waste all her spirits, and her wealth consume?

Grant that her vigour might in part decrease,
From like productions must she ever cease?
To form a race she might have still inclin'd,
Though of a monstrous, or a dwarfish kind.
Why did she never, by one crude essay,
Imperfect lines and rudiments display?
In some succeeding ages had been found
A leg or arm unfinish'd in the ground;
And sometimes in the fields might ploughing
swains

Turn up soft bones, and break unfashion'd veins.
But grant the Earth was lavish of her power,
And spent at once her whole prolific store;
Would not so long a rest new vigour give,
And all her first fertility revive?
Learn, Epicurus, of th' experienc'd swain,
When frequent wounds have worn th' impo-
poverish'd plain :

Let him a while the furrow not molest,

But leave the glebe to heavenly dews and rest;
If then he till and sow the harrow'd field,
Will not the soil a plenteous harvest yield?
The Sun, by you, Lucretius, is assign'd
The other parent of all human kind.
But does he ever languish or decay?
Docs he not equal influence display,

And pierce the plains with the same active ray?
If then the glebe, warm'd with the solar flame,
Men once produc'd, it still should do the same.

You say, "the Sun's prolific beams can form Th' industrious ant, the gaudy fly, and worm; Can make each plant, and tree, the gardener's

care,

Beside their leaves, their proper insects bear:
Then might the Heavens, in some peculiar state,
Or lucky aspect, beasts and men create."
But late inquirers by their glasses find
That every insect, of each different kind,
In its own egg, cheer'd by the solar rays,
Organs involv'd and latent life displays:
This truth, discover'd by sagacious art,
Does all Lucretian arrogance subvert.
Proud wits, your frenzy own, aud, overcome
By Reason's force, be now for ever dumb.
If, learned Epicurus, we allow
Our race to Earth primeval being owe,
How did she male and female sexes frame?
Say, if from Fortune this distinction came?
Or did the conscious parent then foresee
By one conception she should barren be,
And therefore, wisely provident, design'd
Prolific pairs to propagate the kind;
That, thus preserv'd, the godlike race of man
Might not expire ere yet it scarce began?

Since, by these various arguments, 'tis clear
The teeming mould did not our parents bear;
By more severe inquiries let us trace.
The origin and source of human race.

I think, I move, I therefore know I am; While I have been, I still have been the same, Since, from an infant, I a man became. But though I am, few circling years are gone, Since in Nature's roll was quite unknown. Then, since 'tis plain I have not always been, I ask, from whence my being could begin? I did not to myself existence give, Nor from myself the secret power receive, By which I reason, and by which I live. I did not build this frame, nor do I know The hidden springs from whence my motions flow.

If I had form'd myself, I had design'd A stronger body, and a wiser mind, From sorrow free, nor liable to pain; My passions should obey, and reason reign. Nor could my being from my parents flow, Who neither did the parts or structure know, Did not my mind or body understand, My sex determine, nor my shape command: Had they design'd and rais'd the curious frame, Inspir'd my branching veins with vital flame, Fashion'd the heart, and hollow channels made, Through which the circling streams of life are play'd;

Had they the organs of my senses wrought, And form'd the wondrous principle of thought; Their artful work they must have better known, Explain'd its springs, and its contrivance shown.

If they could make, they might preserve me Prevent my fears, or dissipate my woe. [too, When long in sickness languishing I lay, They, with compassion touch'd, did mourn and

pray,

To soothe my pain, and mitigate my grief,
They said kind things, yet brought me no relief.
But whatsoever cause my being gave,

The Power that made me can its creature save.
If to myself I did not being give,

Nor from immediate parents did receive;
It could not from my predecessors flow,
They, than my parents, could not more bestow.
Should we the long depending scale ascend
Of sons and fathers, will it never end?
If 'twill, then must we through the order run
To some one man, whose being ne'er begun :
If that one man was sempiternal, why
Did he, since independent, ever die?
If from himself his own existence came,
The cause, that could destroy his being, name
To seek my maker, thus in vain I trace
The whole successive chain of human race.
Bewilder'd I my author cannot find,

Till some First Cause, some Self-existent Mind,
Who form'd, and rules all Nature, is assign'd.
When first the womb did the crude embryo
hold,

What shap'd the parts? what did the limbs unfold?
O'er the whole work in secret did preside,
Give quickening vigour, and each motion guide?
What kindled in the dark the vital flame,
And, ere the heart was form'd, push'd on the
reddening stream?

Then for the heart the aptest fibres strung?
And in the breast th' impulsive engine hung?
Say, what the various bones so wisely wrought?
How was their frame to such perfection brought?
What did their figures for their uses fit,
Their number fix, and joints adapted knit ;
And made them all in that just order stand,
Which motion, strength, and ornament, demand?
What for the sinews spun so strong a thread,
The curious loom to weave the muscles spread;
Did the nice strings of tended membranes drill,
And perforate the nerve with so much skill,
Then with the active stream the dark recesses fill?
The purple mazes of the veins display'd,
And all th' arterial pipes in order laid,

What gave the bounding current to the blood,
And to and fro convey'd the restless flood?

The living fabric now in pieces take,

Of every part due observation make;

All which such art discover, so conduce
To beauty, vigour, and each destin'd use ;
The atheist, if to search for truth inclin'd,
May in himself his full conviction find,
And from his body teach his erring mind.

When the crude embryo careful Nature breeds,
See how she works, and how her work proceeds;
While through the mass her energy she darts,
To free and swell the complicated parts,
Which only does unravel and untwist

Th' invelop'd limbs, that previous there exist.
And as each vital speck, in which remains
Th' entire, but rumpled animal, contains
Organs perplext, and clues of twining veins;
So every fœtus bears a secret hoard,
With sleeping, unexpanded issue stor❜d ;
Which numerous, but unquicken'd progeny,
Clasp'd and inwrapt within each other lie;
Engendering heats these one by one unbind,
Stretch their small tubes, and hamper'd nerves
unwind :

And thus, when time shall drain each magazine,
Crowded with men unborn, unripe, unseen,
Nor yet of parts unfolded; no increase
Can follow, all prolific power must cease.

Th' elastic spirits, which remain at rest
In the strait lodgings of the brain comprest,
While by the anbient womb's enlivening heat,
Cheer'd and awaken'd, first themselves dilate;
Then quicken'd and expanded every way,
The genial labourers all their force display:
They now begin to work the wondrons frame,
To shape the parts, and raise the vital flame;
For when th' extended fibres of the brain
Their active guests no longer can restrain,
They backward spring, which due effort compels
The labouring spirits to forsake their cells;
The spirits thus exploded from their seat,
Swift from the head to the next parts retreat,
Force their admission, and their passage beat:
Their tours around th' unopen'd mass they take,
And by a thousand ways their inroads make,
Till there resisted they their race inflect,
And backward to their source their way direct.
Thus, with a steady and alternate toil,
They issue from, and to the head recoil;

By which their plastic function they discharge,
Extend their channels, and their tracks enlarge;
For, by the swift excursions which they make,
Still sallying from the brain, and leaping back,
They pierce the nervous fibre, bore the vein,
And stretch th' arterial channels, which contain
The various streams of life, that to and fro,
Through dark meanders, undirected flow;
Th' inspected egg this gradual change betrays,
To which the brooding hen expanding heat con-

veys.

The beating heart, demanded first for use, Is the first muscle Nature does produce; By this impulsive engine's constant aid, The tepid floods are every way convey'd ; And did not Nature's care at first provide The active heart, to push the circling tide, All progress to her work would be denied.

The salient point, so first is call'd the heart, Shap'd and suspended with amazing art, By turns dilated, and by turns compress'd, Expels and entertains the purple guest; It sends from out its left contracted side Into th' arterial tube its vital pride;

Which tube, prolong'd but little from its source,
Parts its wide trunk, and takes a double course.
One channel to the head its way directs,
One to th' inferior limbs its path inflects;
Both smaller by degrees, and smaller grow,
And on the parts, through which they branching
A thousand secret subtle pipes bestow; [go,
From which, by numerous convolutions wound,
Wrapt with th' attending nerve, and twisted
round,

The complicated knots and kernels rise,
Of various figures, and of various size.
Th' arterial ducts, when thus involv'd, produce
Unnumber'd glands, and of important use;
But after, as they farther progress make,
The appellation of a vein they take ;

For though th' arterial pipes themselves extend
In smallest branches, yet they never end;
The same continued circling channels run
Back to the heart, where first their course be

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The heart, as said, from its contractive cave
On the left side, ejects the bounding wave;
Exploded thus, as splitting channels lead,
Upward it springs, or downward is convey'd ;
The crimson jets, with force elastic thrown,
Ascend, and climb the mind's imperial throne,
Arterial streams through the soft brain diffuse,
And water all its fields with vital dews:
From this o'erflowing tide the curious brain
Does through its pores the purer spirits strain ;
Which to its inmost seats their passage make,
Whence their dark rise th' extended sinews take;
With all their mouths the nerves these spirits
drink,

Which through the cells of the fine strainer sink;
These all the channell'd fibres every way
For motion and sensation still convey.
The greatest portion of th' arterial blood,
By the close structure of the parts withstood,
Whose narrow meshes stop the grosser flood,
By apt canals and furrows in the brain,
Which here discharge the office of a vein,
Invert their current, and the heart regain.

The shooting streams, which through another
The beating engine downward did explode, [road
To all th' inferior parts descend, and lave
The members with their circulating wave:
To make th' arterial treasure move as slow,
As Nature's ends demand, the channels grow
Still more contracted, as they farther go:
Besides, the glands, which o'er the body spread
Fine complicated clues of nervous thread,
Involv'd and twisted with th' arterial duct,
The rapid motion of the blood obstruct;
These labyrinths the circling current stay
For noble ends, which after we display.

Soon as the blood has pass'd the winding ways, And various turnings of the wondrous maze, From the entangled knot of vessels freed, It runs its vital race with greater speed; And from the parts and members most remote, By these canals the streams are backward brought, Which are of thinner coats and fewer fibres

wrought;

Till all the confluent rills their current join,
And in the ample porta vein combine.

This larger channel by a thousand roads
Enters the liver, and its store unloads;

Which from that store by proper inlets strains

The yellow dregs, and sends them by the veins
To the large cistern, which the gall contains;
Then to the vein, we cava name, the blood
Calls in the scatter'd streams, and re-collects the
flood.

As when the Thames advances through the plain,
With his fresh waters to dilute the main;
He turns and winds amidst the flowery meads,
And now contracts, and now his waters spreads;
Here in a course direct he forward tends,
There to his head his waves retorted bends:
See, now the sportive flood in two divides
His silver train, now with uniting tides
He wanton clasps the intercepted soil,
And forms with erring streams the reedy isle;
At length, collecting all his watery band
The ocean to augment, he leaves the land.
So the red currents, in their secret maze,
In various rounds through dark meanders pass,
Till all, assembled in the cava vein,

Bring to the heart's right side their crimson train,
Which, now comprest with force elastic, drives
The flood, that through the secret passes strives;
The road that to the lungs this store transmits,
Into unnumber'd narrow channels splits ;-
The venal blood crowds through the winding ways,
And through the tubes the broken tide conveys;
Those numerous streams, their rosy beauty gone,
Poor by expense, and faint with labour grown,
Are in the lungs enrich'd, which re-inspire
The languid liquors, and restore their fire.

The large arterial ducts that thither lead,
By which the blood is from the heart convey'd,
Through either lobe ten thousand branches spread.
Here its bright stream the bounding current parts,
And through the various passes swiftly darts,
Each subtle pipe, each winding channel, fills
With sprightly liquors, and with purple rills;
The pipe, distinguish'd by its gristly rings,
To cherish life aërial pasture brings,
Which the soft breathing lungs, with gentle force,
Constant embrace by turns, by turns divorce;
The springy air this nitrous food impels
Through all the spungy parts and bladder'd cells,
And with dilating breath the vital bellows swells;
Th' admitted nitre agitates the flood,
Revives its fire, and re-ferments the blood.
Behold, the streams now change their languid
blue,

Regain their glory, and their flame renew;
With scarlet honours re-adorn'd, the tide
Leaps on, and, bright with more than Tyrian pride,
Advances to the heart, and fills the cave
On the left side, which the first motion gave;
Now through the same involv'd arterial ways,
Again th' exploded jets th' impulsive engine plays.
No sons of wisdom could this current trace,
Or of th' Ionic, or Italic race:
From thee, Democritus, it lay conceal'd,
Though yielding Nature much to thee reveal'd;
Though with the curious knife thou didst invade
Her dark recesses, and hast oft display'd
The crimson mazes, and the hollow road,
Which to the heart conveys the refluent blood,
It was to thee, great Stagyrite, unknown,
And thy preceptor of divine renown.
Learning did ne'er this secret truth impart
To the Greek masters of the healing art.
'Twas by the Coan's piercing eye unview'd,
And did attentive Galen's search elude,

Thou, wondrous Harvey! whose immortal fame, By thee instructed, grateful schools proclaim; Thou, Albion's pride, didst first the winding way, And circling life's dark labyrinth display; Attentive from the heart thou didst pursue The starting flood, and keep it still in view; Till thou with rapture saw'st the channels bring The purple currents back, and form the vital ring.

See, how the human animal is fed,
How nourishment is wrought, and how convey'd:
The mouth, with proper faculties endued,
First entertains, and then divides, the food;
Two adverse rows of teeth the meat prepare,
On which the glands fermenting juice confer;
Nature has various tender muscles plac'd,
By which the artful gullet is embrac'd;
Some the long funnel's curious mouth extend,
Through which ingested meats with ease descend;
Other confederate pairs for Nature's use
Contract the fibres, and the twitch produce,
Which gently pushes on the grateful food
To the wide stomach, by its hollow road;
That this long road inay unobstructed go,
As it descends, it bores the midriff through;
The large receiver for concoction made
Behold amidst the warmest bowels laid;
The spleen to this, and to the adverse side
The glowing liver's comfort is apply'd;
Beneath, the pancreas has its proper seat,
To cheer its neighbour, and augment its heat;
More to assist it for its destin'd use,
This ample bag is stor'd with active juice,
Which can with case subdue, with ease unbind,
Admitted meats of every different kind;
This powerful ferment, mingling with the parts,
The leaven'd mass to milky chyle converts;
The stomach's fibres this concocted food,
By their contraction's gentle force, exclude,
Which by the mouth on the right side descends
Through the wide pass, which from that mouth
depends;

In its progression soon the labour'd chyle
Receives the confluent rills of bitter bile,
Which by the liver sever'd from the blood, '
And striving through the gall-pipe, here unload
Their yellow streams, more to refine the flood;
The complicated glands, in various ranks
Dispos'd along the neighbouring channel's banks,
By constant weeping mix their watery store
With the chyle's current, and dilute it more;
Th' intestine roads, inflected and inclin'd,
In various convolutions turn and wind,
That these meanders may the progress stay,
And the descending chyle, by this delay,
May through the milky vessels find its way,
Whose little mouths in the large channel's side
Suck in the flood, and drink the cheering tide.
These numerous veins (such is the curious frame!)
Receive the pure insinuating stream;
But no corrupt or dreggy parts admit,
To form the blood, or feed the limbs unfit;
Th' intestine spiral fibres these protrude,
And from the winding tubes at length exclude.
Observe, these small canals conspire to make
With all their treasure one capacious lake,
Whose common receptacle entertains
Th' united streams of all the lacteal veins.
Hither the rills of water are convey'd,
In curious aquæducts, by Nature laid,

To carry all the limpid humour strain'd,
And from the blood divided by the gland;
Which, mingling currents with the milky juice
Makes it more apt to flow, more fit for use;
These liquors, which the wide receiver fill,
Prepar'd with labour, and refin'd with skill,
Another course to distant parts begin,

[blood

Through roads that stretch along the back within;
This useful channel, lately known, ascends,
And in the vein near the left shoulder ends,
Which there unloads its wealth, that with the
Now flows in one incorporated flood;
Soon by the vein 'tis to the heart convey'd,
And is by that elastic engine play'd
Into the lungs, whence, as describ'd before,
It onward springs, and makes the wondrous tour.
Now all the banks the branching river laves
With dancing streams, and animated waves;
New florid honours and gay youth bestows,
Diffusing vital vigour, where it flows;
Supplies fresh spirits to the living frame,
And kindles in the eyes a brighter flame;
Muscles impair'd receive new fibrous thread,
And every bone is with rich marrow fed ;
Nature revives, cheer'd with the wealthy tide,
And life regal'd displays its purple pride.

But how the wondrous distribution's made,
How to each part its proper food convey'd;
How fibrous strings for nourishment are wrought,
By what conveyance to the muscles brought;
How rang'd for motion, how for beauty mix'd:
With vital cement how th' extremes are fix'd;
How they agree in various ways to join
In a transverse, a straight, and crooked line;
Here lost in wonder we adoring stand,
With rapture own the wise Director's hand,
Who Nature made, and does her works command,
Let us howe'er the theme as far pursue,
As learn'd observers know, or think they do.

Mixt with the blood in the same circling tide,
The rills nutritious through the vessels glide:
Those pipes, still lessening as they further pass,
Retard the progress of the flowing mass.
The glands, that Nature o'er the body spreads,
All artful knots of various hollow threads,
Which lymphæducts, an artery, nerve, and vein,
Involv'd and close together wound, contain,
Make yet the motion of the streams more slow,
Which through those mazes intricate must flow:
And hence it comes the interrupted blood
Distends its channels with its swelling flood;
Those channels, turgid with th' obstructive tide,
Stretch their small holes, and make their meshes
wide,

By skilful Nature pierc'd on every side.
Meantime, the labour'd chyle pervades the pores
In all th' arterial perforated shores;
The liquid food, which through those passes strives,
To every part just reparation gives;
Through holes of various figures various juice
Insinuates, to serve for Nature's use.
See, softer fibres to the flesh are sent,
While the thin meinbrane finer strings augment:,
The tough and strong are on the sinews laid,
And to the bones the harder are convey'd;
But what the mass nutritious does divide,
To different parts the different portions guide,
What makes them aptly to the limbs adhere,
In youth augment them, and in age repair,
The deepest search could never yet declare,

Nor less contrivance, nor less curious art,
Surprise and please in every other part.
See, how the nerves, with equal wisdom made,
Arising from the tender brain, pervade,
And secret pass in pairs the channell❜d bone,
And thence advance through paths and roads un-
known;

Form'd of the finest complicated thread,
These numerous cords are through the body spread;
A thousand branches from each trunk they send,
Some to the limbs, some to the bowels tend;
Some in straight lines, some in transverse, are
found,

One forms a crooked figure, one a round;
The entrails these embrace in spiral strings,
Those clasp th' arterial tubes in tender rings;
The tendons some compacted close produce,
And some thin fibres for the skin diffuse.

These subtle channels (such is every nerve!) ·
For vital functions, sense, and motion, serve;
Included spirits through their secret road
Pass to and fro, as through the veins the blood;
Some to the heart advancing take their way,
Which move and make the beating muscle play;
Part to the spleen, part to the liver, flows,
These to the lungs, and to the stomach those;
They help to labour and concoct the food,
Refine the chyle, and animate the blood;
Exalt the ferments, and the strainers aid,
That, by a constant separation made,
They may a due economy maintain,
Exclude the noxious parts, the good retain.

Yet we these wondrous functions ne'er perceive, Functions, by which we move, by which we live; Unconscious we these motions never heed, Whether they err, or by just laws proceed.

But other spirits, govern'd by the will, Shoot through their tracks, and distant muscles fill:

This sovereign, by his arbitrary nod,
Restrains, or sends his ministers abroad;
Swift and obedient to his high command,
They stir a finger, or they lift a hand;
They tune our voices, or they move our eyes;
By these we walk, or from the ground arise;
By these we turn, by these the body bend ;
Contract a limb at pleasure, or extend.
And though these spirits, which obsequious go,
Know not the paths through which they ready

flow,

Nor can our mind instruct them in their way,
Of all their roads as ignorant as they;
Yet, seldom erring, they attain their end,
And reach that single part, which we intend;
Unguided they a just distinction make,
This muscle swell, and leave the other slack;
And when their force this limb or that inflects,
Our will the measure of that force directs;
The spirits which distend them, as we please,
Exert their power, or from their duty cease.

These out-guards of the mind are sent abroad,
And still patrolling beat the neighbouring road;
Or to the parts remote obedient ity,
Keep posts advanc'd, and on the frontier lie.
The watchful centinels at every gate,
At every passage, to the senses wait;
Still travel to and fro the nervous way,
And their impressions to the brain convey,
Where their report the vital envoys make
And with new orders are remanded back;

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