1 Loud at her foot the British lion roars, Frighting the nations; haughty Spain full foon To affert their country's rights, avenge her fons, HYMN TO SCIENCE. "O Vitæ Philofophia Dux! O Virtutis indagatrix, expultrixque Vitiorum. → Tu Urbes peperisti; "tu inventrix Legum, tu magistra Morum & "Difciplinæ fuifti: Ad te confugimus, a te Opera "petimus." Cic. Tufc. Quæft. SCIEN I. CIENCE! thou fair effufive ray Defcend with all thy treasures fraught, II. But II. But firft with thy refiftless light, The fcholiaft's learning, fophift's cant, The monk's philosophy. III. O! let thy powerful charms impart Which no weak paffions e'er mislead, IV. Give me to learn each fecret caufe; These to great Nature's fccees apply, V. Next, to thy nobler search resign'd,, The bufy, reftlefs, human mind VI. Say from what fimple fprings began Which feek Eternity to trace, Dive through the infinity of fpace, VII. Her fecret ftores let Memory tell, In all her colours dreft; While, prompt her fallies to control, To Truth's fevereft teft. VIII. Then launch through Being's wide extent; And cautious fteps, be trod; And from the dead, corporeal mass, IX. There, Science! veil thy daring eye; In that divine abyss; To Faith content thy beams to lend, Her hopes to affure, her fteps befriend, And light her way to bliss. X. Then X. Then downwards take thy flight again, And focial nature's ties :. The plan, the genius of each state, Its interest and its powers relate, Its fortunes and its rife. XI. Through private life pursue thy courfe, XII. That last, beft effort of thy fkill, XIII. Raise me above the vulgar's breath, And all in life that's mean. Still true to reafon be my plan, Through every various scene. A a 4 XIV. Hail! XIV. Hail! queen of manners, light of truth; In business, thou! exact, polite; Thou giv'ft Retirement its delight, XV. Of wealth, power, freedam, thou! the caufe; Of arts inventrefs, thou! Without thee, what were human-kind? How vaft their wants, their thoughts how blind! Their joys how mean! how few! XVI. Sun of the foul! thy beams unveil ! While, undeluded, happier I ODE |