Vain man! who boldly with dim reason's ray
Vies with his God, and rivals his full day!
* But tell me now, fay how this beauteous frame
Of all things, from the womb of nothing came;
When nature's Lord with one Almighty call
From no-where rais'd the world's capacious ball ?
Say if thy hand directs the various rounds
Of the vast earth, and circumfcribes the bounds?
How orbs oppos'd to orbs amid the sky,
In concert move, and dance in harmony?
What wondrous pillars their foundations bear
When hung felf-balanc'd in the fluid air?
Why the vast tides fometimes with wanton play
In fhining mazes gently glide away;
Anon, why fwelling with impetuous ftores
Tumultuous tumbling, thunder to the shores?
By thy command does fair Aurora rife,
And gild with purple beams the blushing skies;
The warbling lark falutes her chearful ray,
And welcomes with his fong the rising day;
The rifing day ambrosial dew distils,

Th' ambrofial dew with balmy odour fills

The flowers, the flowers rejoice, and nature fimiles.

VARIATION.

*But tell me, mortal, when th' Almighty faid, Be made, ye worlds! how worlds at once were made; When hofts of angels wrapt in wonder fung

His praife as order from diforder fprung;

Why

Why night, in fable rob'd, as day-light fades,
O'er half the nations draws her awful fhades ?
Now peaceful nature lies diffus'd in case ;
A folemn ftillnefs reigns o'er land and feas.
* Sleep sheds o'er all his balm to fleep refign'd,
Birds, beafts lie hush'd, and busy human-kind.
No air of breath difturbs the drowzy woods,
No whifpers murmur from the filent floods!
The moon sheds down a filver-streaming light,
And glads the melancholic face of night:
Now clouds swift-skimming veil her sullied ray,
+ Now bright the blazes with a fuller day :
The ftars in order twinkle in the skies,

And fall in filence, and in filence rife:
Till, as a giant strong, a bridegroom gay,
The fun fprings dancing through the gates of day:
He fakes his dewy locks, and hurls his beams
O'er the proud hills, and down the glowing streams:
His fiery courfers bound above the main,

And whirl the car along the ethereal plain:

VARIATIONS.

* No more the monfters of the defert roar,
Doubling the terrors of the midnight hour.
The fowl, the fishes, to repofe refign'd,
All, all lie hush'd, and bufy human-kind.
The fainting murinur dies upon the floods,
And fighing breezes lull the drowzy woods,
Now bright fhe blazes, and fupplies the day.

The

The fiery courfers and the car display
A ftream of glory, and a flood of day.
Did e'er thy eye descend into the deep,
Or haft thou seen where infant tempests sleep?
Was e'er the grave or regions of the night,
Yet trod by thee, or open'd to thy fight?
Has death disclos'd to thee her gloomy ftate,
The ghaftly forms, the various woes that wait
In terrible array before her awful gate?
Know'ft thou where darkness bears eternal fway,
Or, where the fource of everlasting day?
Say, why, the driving hail with rushing found
Pours from on high, and rattles on the ground?
Why hover fnows, down-wavering by degrees,
Shine from the hills, or glitter from the trees?
Say, why, in lucid drops, the balmy rain
With sparkling gems impearls the fpangled plain ?
Or, gathering in the vale, a current flows,
And on each flower a sudden spring bestows?
Say, why with gentle fighs the evening breeze
Salutes the flowers, or murmurs through the trees!
Or why loud winds in ftorms of vengeance fly,
Howl o'er the main, and thunder in the sky?
Say, to what wondrous magazines repair
The viewless beings, when ferene the air?
Till, from their dungeons loos'd, they roar aloud,
Upturn whole oceans, and tofs cloud on cloud,
While waves encountering waves in mountains driven,
Swell to the ftarry vault, and dafh the heaven..

3

Know'

Know'st thou, why comets threaten in the air,
Heralds of woe, destruction, and despair,

The plague, the sword, and all the forms of war?
On ruddy wings why forky lightning flies,
And rolling thunder grumbles in the skies ?
Say, can thy voice, when fultry Sirius reigns,
And funs intensely glowing cleave the plains,
Th' exhausted urns of thirsty springs supply,
And mitigate the fever of the sky?

Or, when the heavens are charg'd with gloomy clouds, And half the skies precipitate in floods,

Chace the dark horror of the ftorm away,

Restrain the deluge, and restore the day?

By thee does fummer deck herself with charms,

Or hoary winter lock his frozen arms;

Say, if thy hand inftruct the rose to glow,
Or to the lily give unfullied fnow?

Teach fruits to knit from bloffoms by degrees,
Swell into orbs, and load the bending trees,
Whofe various kinds a various hue unfold,
With crimson blush, or burnish into gold?
Say, why the fun arrays with fhining dyes
The gaudy bow that gilds the gloomy skies?
He from his urn pours forth his golden ftreams,
And humid clouds imbibe the glittering beams;
Sweetly the varying colours fade or rife,
And the vast arch embraces half the fkies.
Say, didft thou give the mighty feas their bars,
Fill air with fowl, or light up heaven with stars,

Whofe

Whose thousand times ten thousand lamps display
A friendly radiance, mingling ray with ray?
Say, canft thou rule the courfers of the fun,
Or lafh the lazy fign, Boötes, on?

Doft thou inftruct the eagle how to fly,

prey,

To mount the viewlefs winds, and tower the fky?
On founding pinions borne, he foars, and shrouds
His proud aspiring head among the clouds;
Strong-pounc'd, and fierce, he darts upon his
He fails in triumph through the ethereal way,
Bears on the fun, and bafks in open day.
Does the dread King, and terror of the wood,
The lion, from thy hand expect his food?
Stung with keen hunger from his den he comes,
Ranges the plains, and o'er the forest roams;

He fnuffs the track of beafts, he fiercely roars,
Doubling the horrors of the midnight hours ;
With fullen majesty he stalks away,

}

And the rocks tremble while he feeks his prey:
Dreadful he grins, he rends the favage brood
With unfheath'd paws, and churns the fpouting blood.
Doft thou with thunder arm the generous horse,
Add nervous limbs, or fwiftnefs for the course ?
Fleet as the wind, he shoots along the plain,
And knows no check, nor hears the curbing rein;

VARIATION.

* He mocks the beating storms and wintery showers, Making night hideous, as he fternly roars.