pothefis of Epicurus, in relation to the motion of the fun. Wifdom and defign difcovered in the air; in its useful structure, its elafticity, its various meteors; the wind, the rain, thunder, and lightning. A fhort contemplation of the vegetable kind."
ARUS, by hardy Epicurus taught,
From Greece to Rome his impious fyftem brought; Then war with Heaven he did infulting wage, And breath'd against the Gods immortal rage : See, he exclaims, the fource of all our woe! Our fears and fufferings from Religion flow. We grant, a train of mischiefs oft' proceeds From fuperftitious rites and penal creeds; But view Religion in her native charms, Difperfing bleffings with indulgent arms, From her fair eyes what heavenly rays are spread! What blooming joys smile round her blifsful head! Offspring divine! by thee we blefs the Cause, Who form'd the world, and rules it by his laws; His independent being we adore,
Extoll his goodness, and revere
Our wondering eyes his high perfections view,
The lofty contemplation we pursue,
Till ravish'd we the great idea find,
Shining in bright impreffions on our mind.
Infpir'd by thee, gueft of celeftial race,
With generous love, we human-kind embrace;
We provocations unprovok'd receive,
Patient of wrong, and easy to forgive;
Protect the orphan, plead the widow's caufe,
Nor deviate from the line unerring juftice draws.
Thy luftre, bleft effulgence, can difpell
The clouds of error, and the gloom of hell;
Can to the foul impart etherial light,
Give life divine and intellectual fight:
Before our ravish'd eyes thy beams difplay
The opening fcenes of blifs, and endless day;
By which incited, we with ardour rife,
Scorn this inferior ball, and claim the fkies.
Tyrants to thee a change of nature owe,
Difmifs their tortures, and indulgent grow.
Ambitious conquerors in their mad career,
Check'd by thy voice, lay down the fword and fpear.
The boldeft champions of impiety,"
Scornful of Heaven, fubdued or won by thee,
Before thy hallow'd altars bend the knee;
Loofe wits, made wife, a public good become,
The fons of pride an humble mien affume;
The profligate in morals grow fevere,
Defrauders just, and fycophants fincere.
With amorous language and bewitching fmiles,
Attractive airs, and all the lover's wiles,
The fair Ægyptian Jacob's fon carefs'd,
Hung on his neck, and languish'd on his breaft;
Courted with freedom now the beauteous flave,
Now flattering fued, and threatening now did rave:
But not the various eloquence of love,
Nor power enrag'd, could his fix'd virtue move.
See, aw'd by Heaven, the blooming Hebrew flies
Her artful tongue, and more perfuafive eyes;
And, fpringing from her disappointed arms,
Prefers a dungeon to forbidden charms.
Stedfaft in virtue's and his country's caufe,
Th' illuftrious founder of the Jewish laws,
Who, taught by Heaven, at genuine greatness aim'd, 60
With worthy pride imperial blood disclaim'd;
Th' alluring hopes of Pharoah's throne refign'd,
And the vain pleasures of a court declin’d,
Pleas'd with obfcure recefs, to ease the pains
Of Jacob's race, and break their fervile chains;
Such generous ninds are form'd, where bleft Religion
Ye friends of Epicurus, look around,
All nature view with marks of prudence crown'd.
Mind the wife ends, which proper means promote ;
See how the different parts for different ufe are wrought;
Contemplate all this conduct and design,
Then own, and praife, th' Artificer Divine.
Regard the orbs fublime in æther borne,
Which the blue regions of the fkies adorn ;
Compar'd with whofe extent, this low-hung ball,
Shrunk to a point, is defpicably fmall :
Their number, counting thofe th' unaided eye
Can fee, or by invented tubes defcry,
With those which in the adverse hemisphere,
Or near each pole to lands remote appear,
The wideft ftretch of human thought exceeds,
And in th' attentive mind amazement breeds :
While thefe fo numerous, and fo vaft of size,
In various ways roll through the trackless skies;
Through croffing roads perplext and intricate,
Perform their stages, and their rounds repeat;
None by collifion from their course are driven,
No shocks, no conflicts, break the peace of heaven;
No fhatter'd globes, no glowing fragments fall,
No worlds o'erturn'd crush this terreftrial ball;
In beauteous order all the orbs advance,
And, in their mazy complicated dance,
Not in one part of all the pathlefs sky'
Did any ever halt, or step awry.
When twice ten thousand men depriv'd of fight 95
To fome wide vale direct their footsteps right;
Shall there a various figur'd dance effay,
Move by juft fteps, and meafur'd time obey;
Shall crofs each other with unerring feet,
Never mistake their place, and never meet;
Nor fhall in many years the leaft decline
From the fame ground, and the fame winding line :
Then may in various roads the orbs above,
Without a guide, in perfect concord move;
Then beauty, order, and harmonious laws,.
May not require a wife Directing Caufe.
See, how th' indulgent father of the day
At fuch due diftance does his beams difplay,
That he his heat may give to fea and land,
In juft degrees, as all their wants demand!
But had he, in th' unmeafurable space
Of æther, chofen a reinoter place;
For inftance, pleas'd with that fuperior feat
Where Saturn, or where Jove, their courfe repeat;
How fad, how wild, how exquifite a scene
Of defolation, had this planet been!
A wafteful, cold, untrodden wilderness,
The gloomy haunts of horror and distress:
Inftead of woods, which crown the mountain's head,
And the gay honours of the verdant mead;
Inftead of golden fruits, the garden's pride,
By genial showers and folar heat fupply'd;
Icelandian cold, and Hyperborean snows,
Eternal froft, with ice that never flows,
Unfufferable winter, had defac'd
Earth's blooming charms, and made a barren waste:
No mild indulgent gales would gently bear,
On their foft wings, fweet vapours through the air, 130
The balmy fpoils of plants, and fragrant flowers,
Of aromatic groves, and myrtle bowers,
Whole odoriferous exhalations fan
The flame of life, and recreate beaft and man;
But ftorms, ev'n worse than vex Norwegian waves, 135
That breed in Scythia's hills, or Lapland caves,
Would through this bleak terrestrial desart blow,
Glaze it with ice, or whelm it o'er with fnow.
Or had the fun, by like unhappy fate,
Elected to the earth a nearer feat,
His beams had cleft the hill, the valley dry'd,
Exhal'd the lake, and drain'd the briny tide:
A heat, fuperior far to that which broils
Bornéo, or Sumatra, Indian ifles ;
Than that which ripens Guinea's golden ore,
Or burns the Libyan hind, or tans the Moor;
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