Each cave and vale fhou'd with the news rebound!
And vocal feas repeat and roll the news around!
Ah! foolish thought! this complicated throng
Of works and laws divine,

Where fuch immenfe perfections shine,
More loudly tells the news without a tongue!
When this wide plain was first portray'd,

The fyftem's fixt foundations laid,

The rich materials brought, and in just balance weigh'd,
Well might pleas'd feraphs fhout, and all the throng
Of morning ftars strike up a celebrating fong;
'O! O the treasures of eternal might!

The magazines of felf-exiftent love and light,
Tho' in our realms ftill fresh applauses grow,
'Where immaterial wonders always flow;
Turn we afide, and stoop to fee

• New matter's maze, and multiform variety!
Matter, whofe dusky matter can furprize
• Our shining, intellective faculties;

That puzzles them with undiffolved knot,
''Tis ftill divisible, and yet 'tis not!
• Bless us! how matter and its motion can
In all the pomp of intricacy reign!
Huge maffes, niceft fubtleties,

Weights, numbers, figures and degrees • Of union, textures, times and tone, • And measures that tranfcend our own; • Discordant motions, swift and slow 'Yet uniform and conftant too,

Direct, eliptic, circular,

Vibrations too that interfere,

• Thousands of references far and near,
'How swiftly by the dextrous skill
Of potent counsel and omnifcient will,
Are calculated all and intermingled here?
How well are breath divine, and duft compriz'd?

• Two worlds in fix foot length epitomiz'd,
And contradictions harmoniz'd?

But what amazements will not meet,

'When heav'n itself does in grand council fit?
'Rise noble world, and find us true,
In all appointed ministry to you!

Bleft

Bleft be the pow'r, displays his glories thus ! " Rife rival-world, and at the end

Of deftin'd rolling ages fend

'A welcome col'ny to our world and us.
Ah! dear, deluded virtuofi, who

Are wiftly groping in our world below,
Now fink, oh fink your ftudious pride,
Spare idle pains, and wifely caft afide
Your learn'd Utopian theories,
Well manag'd blind hypothefes
Of inftitutes divine, ridiculously wide.
What can waste vacuum and atoms do?
Or plenitude and motion too?

But, what empty heads are thofe

That plenitude with motion wou'd compose ?
Or jostling vortices, unless they can
Demonstrate the vertigo of a wanton brain?
Or universal, gravitating pace,

(That comes fo late, and goes fo far
To folve the rules and orders here,)
Tho' blended also with projectile race?
Here
powers and laws are fixt and woven fo
As are unreach'd, undreamt of quite below :
Alas! alas! you'll ne'er furvey

All the contriv'd phenomena,

Nor the furvey'd resolve, till you

Shall take, like me, an unembodied view!
Oh, that I might rich truths and knowledge lend,

As once Ficinus to his ftudious friend!

Here's profpect well worth while, worth pains to die,
And quit the lov'd, the dim researches of mortality.
IX.

Mortality! methinks the name

A kind of paffion ftill creates,

Whilft fenfibly it intimates

The rueful ills and world from whence I came !
Tho' raptur'd with this numerous dance,

With globes and balls methodically whirl'd,
A fecret instinct makes me love to glance
T'wards my endear'd, forfaken world.
Ah me! was yonder despicable clod
The stage of my life's fcenes, and my abode?

Was't

Was't there, that I a thinking effence grew?
There vital clay, and vital ether drew?
Was that the world we did fo late admire,
That did our fenfes charm,

Our fond affections warm,

And fet the filly microcosm all on fire?
Was that our fource of joy! and cou'd we there
Build tow'ring hopes, as caftles in the air?
Cou'd yon black patches feem the fovereign good
For which proud mortals fpill whole ftreams of blood?
Blefs me! how cou'd we idolize its ore?

Its pompous gawds and fooleries adore?

How cou'd we for its dross ev'n ftoop to kiss
Th' infulting devil? How cou'd we (fools) for this
Barter our deathless selves, our innocence and bliss ?
Ah! fall'n confounded globe thou! where
The center's fin, and curse, the atmosphere!
Almighty love's old monument, that hath
Hardly escap'd the dint of flaming wrath!
Once fplendid paradife! once belov❜d abode
Of happy angels and their happy God!
Now ruins of majestic pow'r, that may
Just tell their author and his name betray?
His name in ruin'd fabrics stands complete:
Demolish'd temples speak their founder great,
Now no more luftre lives, or rich attire
Than muft e're long pafs thro' transforming fire.
See how the weary, trav'lling axes groan

Beneath the pond'rous curfe, that's o'er 'em thrown?
Hence rife errata, hence disorder fits

To prove a scandal to unthinking wits;

Hell's fuburbs! where impurities in grain,

And loud impieties triumphant reign,

Where lofty lufts claim fcepters for their own,

And fcarlet villanies afcend the throne ;

Den of enrag'd unrighteous, and their tools!

Cage of conceited and distracted fools!

Where hell's proud prince with pleasure walks each day,
Large empire boasts, and arbitrary (way;

Where headstrong griefs intruding joys controul,
Pierce the foft heart, and wound th' imprifon'd foal;

Where

Where pleasures poifon, and torment the mind,
Arm'd with refiftlefs ftings they leave behind;
Where bright and focial virtues foon are found
Chok'd by the baleful mists that there abound;
Where friendship, the dear antidote of strife,
The fweet beguiler of the ills of life,
Friendship, by name, is courted and carefs'd,
But banish'd far from each pretending breast;
In her due room a neft of vermin lyes,
And selfish, fordid furies tyranize.
Where conjugal accord, the first and best
Of friendships entertain'd by human breast,
The facred tye, wife hea'vn did first ordain
The help and (next itself) the heav'n of man,
Is foon imbitter'd with fevere allays,
Transform'd to bane, and canker of his days,
Where vices and confufions native grow,
Religion's foreign, and is treated fo?

No fooner condefcends th' ethereal dame
To vifit fome dark town with vital flame,
But ftraitway all around contrive

To hoot the heav'nly guest and drive
Her home unto the land, from whence she came.
The pious few us'd, as unworthy they

The world, that's fo unworthy of their stay;
Heav'n's candidates go cloth'd with foul disguise,
And heav'n's reports are damn'd for fenfeless lies.
Tremendous myfteries are (fo hell prevails)
Lampoon'd for jargon and fantastic tales;
Heav'n's heralds, fent to heal and bless the mind,
To fummon man from darkness and from toys,
To ftarry crowns and to feraphic joys,
Are treated as the refuse of mankind;
Where the great Son of the eternal God,
Who fways the worlds with unrefifted nod,
While in our form falvation he atchieves,
Was bafely flain, and hang'd with impious thieves,
(Well might the fun wink and put out his light,
Nor dare to fee fo bold, blafphemous fight!)
From heav'n he came to purchase and espouse,
To light dark fouls unto his father's houfe;

Lo,

Lo, the returns! Lo there the grateful fruit,
His love and laws lie trampl'd under foot!
Th' eternal fp'rit of peace and peaceful might,
That kindly comes in crowned Shiloh's right,
Comes to convey the bleffings he hath bought,
To bring us the redemption he hath wrought,
Is vex'd and griev'd, and spitefully traduc'd,
His love and works affronted and abus'd.
Ah, how the stubborn mifcreants combine
To baffle boundless grace, and blood divine!
Is that the world we cou'd fo ill forgoe?
The element of death, apoftacy and woe!
Bless me! what hellish spell controuls
The native pow'rs of heav'n-born fouls!
What fatal potion charms them to forget
Their make, their father, and their father's feat?
A curfe on all our wit and sense of late

That knows and feeks no better world than that!
Ah me, how much more pure and fine,
How much more noble and divine
Is one poor naked foul, than all
The bulky mass of that capacious ball!
Sweet vifion (fweet, amidst these scenes of woe!)
Thus clearly, thus compendioufly to fhow
The fev'ral ranks of fouls that ply below!
What igneous feeds involv'd in fibrous earth,
Give the vast vegetable kingdom birth;
How they diftinguish food for vital use,
Breathe, and drive round the circulating juice;
How they digeft, perfpire, drink in, and are
By feasonable drinking fresh and fair,
Breed fem❜nal virtue, and from teeming root
Shed infant-bloffoms, and prolific fruit.
What more exalted fp'rits inform and sway
The capillary limbs of small'st automota;
Inftil discretion there, and quite out-do
The feats of matter and its motion too;
What nobler fouls the nobler machines wear,
Masters of fenfe, and skilful instinct there;
For their life's business and intentions fit,
Springs of irrational fagacity and wit;

P

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