And planets to their spheres! th' unequal task

Of human kind till then. Oft had they roll'd
O'er erring man the year, and oft disgrac'd

The pride of schools, before their course was known
Full in its causes and effects, to him,

All-piercing fage! who fat not down and dream'd
Romantic schemes, defended by the din
Of fpecious words, and tyranny of names;
But, bidding his amazing mind attend,
And with heroic patience years on years
Deep-fearching, faw at laft the Syftem dawn,
And fhine, of all his race, on him alone.

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What were his raptures then! how pure! how strong!

And what the triumphs of old Greece and Rome,
By his diminish'd, but the pride of boys
In fome small fray victorious! when instead
Of fhatter'd parcels of this earth usurp’d
By violence unmanly, and fore deeds
Of cruelty and blood, Nature herself
Stood all fubdu'd by him, and open laid
Her every latent glory to his view.
All intellectual eye, our folar round
First gazing thro', he by the blended power
Of gravitation and projection faw

The whole in filent harmony revólve.: 11ton
From unaffisted vifion hid, the moons

To chear remoter planets numerous form'd,!

By him in all their mingled tracts were seen.

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He alfo fix'd our wandering queen of night:
Whether she wanes into a fcanty orb,

Or, waxing broad, with her pale shadowy light,
In a foft deluge overflows the fky,

Her every motion, clear difcerning, He

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Adjufted to the mutual. Main, and taught

Why

Why now the mighty mass of water fwells
Refiftless, heaving on the broken rocks,
And the full river turning; till again

The tide revertive, unattracted, leaves
A yellow waste of idle fands behind.

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Then breaking hence, he took his ardent flight Thro' the blue infinite; and every star,

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Which the clear concave of a winter's night
Pours on the eye, or astronomic tube,
Far-firetching, fnatches from the dark abyfs,
Or fuch as farther in fucceffive skies
To fancy shine alone, at his approach
Blaz'd into funs, the living centre each
Of an harmonious fyftem: all combin'd,
And rul'd unerring by that single power,"
Which draws the stone projected to the ground.
O unprofufe magnificence divine!

O wisdom truly perfect! thus to call
From a few causes such a scheme of things,
Effects fo various, beautiful, and great,
An univerfe compleat! and, O belov'd

Of Heaven! whofe well-purg'd penetrative eye,
The mystic veil tranfpiercing, inly fcann'd
The rifing, moving, wide-establish'd frame.
He, firft of men, with awful wing purfa'd
The Comet thro' the long elliptic curve,
As cound innumerous worlds he wound his way ;
Till, to the forehead of our evening sky
Return'd, the blazing wonder glares anew,
And o'er the trembling nations shakes difmay.

The heavens are all his own; from the wild rule

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To their first great fimplicity restor❜d.

Of whirling vortices and circling Spheres,

The Schools astonish'd stood; but found it vain

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To combat fill with demonftration clear,
And, unawaken'd, dream beneath the blaze
Of truth. At once their pleafing vifions fled,
With the gay fhadows of the morning mix'd,
When NEWTON rofe, our philofophic fun.

Th' aerial flow of Sound was known to him,
From whence it firft in wavy circles breaks,
Till the touch'd organ takes the message in.
Nor could the darting Beam, of speed immense,
Escape his fwift pursuit, and measuring eye.
Even Light itself, which every thing difplays,
Shone undiscover'd, till his brighter mind
Untwisted all the fhining robe of day;

And, from the whitening undistinguish'd blaze,
Collecting every ray into his kind,

To the charm'd eye educ'd the gorgeous train
Of parent-colours. First, the flaming Red
Sprung vivid forth; the tawny Orange next;
And next delicious Yellow; by whofe fide
Fell the kind beams of all-refreshing Green.
Then the pure Blue, that fwells autumnal fkies,
Acthereal play'd; and then, of fadder hue,
Emerg'd the deepen'd Indico, as when

The heavy skirted evening droops with frost.
While the last gleamings of refracted light
Dy'd in the fainting Violet away.

Thefe, when the clouds diftil the rofy shower,
Shine out distinct adown the wat❜ry bow;
While o'er our heads the dewy vifion bends
Delightful, melting on the fields beneath.
Myriads of mingling dyes from these refuit,
And myriads still remain- -Infinite fource
Of beauty, ever flushing, ever-new!

Did ever Poet image aught fo fair,

Dreaming

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Dreaming in whispering groves, by the hoarfe brook!
Or prophet, to whose rapture heaven defcends!
Even now the setting fun and fhifting clouds,
Seen, Greenwich, from thy lovely heights, declare.
How juft, how beauteous the refractive law.
The noiseless tide of time, all bearing down

To vaft eternity's unbounded fea

Where the green islands of the happy shine,
He stemm'd alone; and to the fource (involv'd
Deep in primaeval gloom) ascending, rais'd
His lights at equal distances, to guide
Hiftorian, wilder'd on his darkfome way.

But who can number up his labours? who

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His high difcoveries fing? when but a few
Of the deep-studying race can stretch their minds
To what he knew: in fancy's lighter thought,
How fhall the Mufe then grasp the mighty theme?
What wonder thence that his devotion fwell'd
Responsive to his knowledge! for could he,

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Whofe piercing mental eye diffusive saw
The finish'd university of things,.
In all its order, magnitude, and parts,
Forbear inceffant to adore that Power
Who fills, fuftains, and actuates the whole?

Say, ye who beft can tell, ye happy few,
Who faw him in the fofteft lights of life,
All un-with-held, indulging to his friends
The vast unborrow'd treasures of his mind,

Oh fpeak the wondrous man! how mild, how calm,

How greatly humble, how divinely good;

How firm establish'd on eternal truth;
Fervent in doing well, with every nerve
Still preffing on, forgetfal of the past,
And panting for perfection: far above

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Thofe

And you, ye hopeless gloomy-minded tribe,
You who, unconscious of those nobler flights
That reach impatient at immortal life,
Against the prime endearing privilege
Of Being dare contend, fay, can a foul
Of fuch extenfive, deep, tremendous powers,
Enlarging ftill, be but a finer breath

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Of fpirits dancing thro' their tubes a while,

And then for ever loft in vacant air?

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But hark! methinks I hear a warning voice,

Solemn as when fome awful change is come,

Sound thro' the world--"'Tis done!--The measure's fall; "And I refign my charge."Ye mouldering stones, That build the towering pyramid, the proud

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Triumphal arch, the monument effac'd
By ruthless ruin, and whate'er fupports

The worship'd name of hoar antiquity,

Down to the duft! what grandeur can ye boast,
While NEWTON lifts his column to the skies,
Beyond the waste of time. Let no weak drop
Be fhed for him. The virgin in her bloom
Cut off, the joyous youth, and darling child,
Thefe are the tombs that claim the tender tear
And elegiac fong. But NEWTON calls

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For other notes of gratulation high,

That now he wanders thro' thofe endless worlds

He here fo well defcried, and wondering talks,

And hymns their Author with his glad compeers.
O Britain's boast! whether with angels thou 185
Sitteft in dread difcourfe, or fellow-bleft,
Who joy to see the honour of their kind;

Or