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The Soul is forc'd, while pent in dark some Clay,
To grope in Shades, and guess the doubtful way.
Great is the Toil, but glorious is the Prize;:
Who would not always labour to be Wife?
Thus Heav'n decrees, and we must search to find,
Or wink for ever, be for ever blind.

NOR may we hence indulge a wild Conceit,
And vainly hope to climb the utmoft Height;
To view the inmoft Effences of things,

And Nature's hidden Laws, and fecret Springs :
She coyly hides, and fhifts her various Shapes,
Slips from th' Embrace, and ev'ry Eye escapes.
Knowledge has Bounds, that stint th' unwilling Soul
For finite Reason cannot grasp the whole.
We fee enough t'employ the lab'ring Mind,
Nor may we fearch what Heaven forbids to find.
Mark how the Orbs their finish'd Course renew,.
Still move alike, and constant Rules pursue..

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LOOK up, and then conceive, how vaft, how brigh That inexhausted Source of joyous Light!

Think, if the sluggish Earth be downward preft

By its own Weight, and courts unactive Rest,

Th' unweary'd God to daily Toil fucceeds,

And drives th' Ætherial Stage, and guides the flying Steeds;.

While we, dull and unmoy'd, fee all befide,

Dance the swift Round, and circle thro the Void..

But if the Sun, fix'd in his Central Throne,

Attracts the Planets, and commands alone,

He tunes the Spheres, and they harmonious found,

Earth too becomes a Star, and keeps the constant Round. But whate'er Syftem Fancy may approve,

Whether we like to reft, or chufe to move,

Th' Effect's the fame, and one Almighty Cause
The Motion first began, and fix'd th' unerring Laws.

THE Atomist may groundlefs Schemes pursue,
T'explain the old World, or create a new ;
Well-pleas'd he may indulge his wandring Thoughts,
And endless Voids conceive, and flying Motes.
But let these roul long in the boundless Space,
Then meet, and form an indigefted Mafs;
If Motion thus with thoughtlefs Chance combine,
And huddled Bodies clofe without Design,
A rude and fhapeless Chaos will arife;

No fmiling Meads below, above no vaulted Skies:
Till fome bleft Pow'r at length reduce the whole,
Divide the Parts, and give an active Soul.
Ah! might Reflection to the Mind disclose
What different Particles this All compofe ;
Might we but trace the Springs as yet unfeen,
And fecret Movements of the vaft Machine,
The feveral Figures and the Motions know,
To which the Species their Distinction owe :
Tho various Forms adorn the beauteous Frame,
Matter (unlike it self) is all the fame.
From the fame blended Elements proceed
The scented Flower, and peftilential Weed;
They form the yielding Grafs, and flinty Stone,
And waving Crops, by fportive Zephyrs blown.

Hence

Hence in cool Shade the humble Myrtle grows,
And high the Oak extends his leafy Boughs.
The living World has the fame common Birth,
Here flower Infects cling to Parent Earth;
Now bleating Flocks we hear, and lowing Herds,
And the more grateful Harmony of Birds;
While sportive Fish thro watry Mazes roam,
And with a filent Joy poffefs their native home.

CAUSES remote from our Obfervance fly,
We have a nobler Object always nigh;
Man, lordly Creature! in whom Beauties meet,
Unnumber'd, and the lovely Frame compleat.
Mark the nice Structure, and the wondrous Art,
How just the Whole, how curious ev'ry Part.
By the Child's Features we the Parent guefs,
And Looks divine an heav'nly Sire confefs.
Man amiably majestick walks erect,

And from th' inferiour World commands Respect;
Reason curbs Force, and gives to Fury Laws,
And fierceft Creatures to Subjection awes:
They confcious yield, and own the righteous Sway,
And their juft Sovereign paffively obey.
Man is the Universe, in little shown,

The scatter'd Beauties here are join'd in one;
In him the several Motions are explain'd,
And the great World is in the: less contain'd.
For as th' Almighty's Throne is fix'd on high,
(Far from thefe lower Spheres, and arched Sky)
Where Seraphs and Cherubic Orders stand,
Attend the Nod, and wait the bleft Command;

Then

Then with Angelick Motion swift obey,

And inftantly themselves to farthest Worlds convey
Thus feated in the Brain, the reasoning Soul
Exalted fits, and there directs the whole.
At the leaft Hint the conscious Spirits start,
Loaden with Images from ev'ry part ;
In branched Tubes the fubtile Atoms roam,
And from each Senfe bring fresh Advices home;
The immaterial Mind attends above,

While they inform how outward Objects move.
The God of Light fends down his ftreaming Rays
On the warm'd Earth, and chears with fmiling Days.
And thus the central Heart the Source contains
Of vital Heat, and in its Cavern ftrains

The bubbling Streams, that ftretch the fwelling Veins.
Still it conveys the swift returning Blood,
And restless thus maintains the circling Flood.".
The Sun (when Summer-Heats the Spring fucceed)
Changes the tarnish'd Verdure of the Mead :
The dry'd up Rills no longer murmuring creep
O'er the fmooth Pebbles, and invite to fleep;
But buzzing Infects make an uncouth Noise,
And fulph'rous Vapours thunder in the Skies.
So when the Heart tumultuous Paffions move,
If melting in the fofter Flames of Love,
With quicker Strokes the hafty Pulfes beat,.
And glowing Cheeks confefs the inward Heat:
Or if fierce Rage provoke, and vengeful Ire,.
The Eyes then fparkle with unusual Fire:
Ah! foon the Flames their rapid Fury spread,
And colour all with a malignant Red

Curfes

Curfes and Oaths th' unthinking Wretch repeats,
And the Tongue faulters in half-utter'd Threats.
How like the Earth mix'd with the watry Mass,
Where troubled Seas the flimy Land embrace,
Are Man's lefs noble Parts, th' inferiour Drain,
Where forc'd the cruder Sediments remain?
Here ftagnate Filth, and acid worthless Lees,
And noisome Heaps from various Foods encrease.
Hence windy Fumes, and fudden Vapours fpread,
That fwell the Breaft, and rack the aching Head,
Till forc'd by ftronger Nature to retreat,

They melting fall, and all diffolve in Sweat:
Difpers'd in watry Drops they pain no more,
But work infenfibly thro ev'ry Pore.

And as the Sun by his own Heat exhales
Clouds from the Sea, and Fogs from marshy Vales
Which (tho bafe born) ambitious higher move,
Prevent the Light, and hide the Worlds above:
So from corporeal Dregs the Mifts condense,
And intercept the Meffengers of Senfe.

Hence the clogg'd Spirits their Confinement mourn,
And Reason waits in vain the fwift Return.
The clouded Images their March delay,
Till the rouz'd Soul, by a fuperiour Ray,
Breaks thro the Shade, and urges on the Day.

BUT if external Features may furprize,
And a juft Texture charm th' unweary'd Eyes;
What are the Godlike Beauties we admire,
When confcious Souls within themselves retire ?

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