Written 1688, as an Exercife at St. John's College, Cambridge. MAN1 foolish man! I. Scarce know'ft thou how thyfelf began; Scarce haft thou thought enough to prove thou art; Vain are thy thoughts, while thou thyself art duft. II. Let wit her fails, her oars let wifdom lend; Ye: ceafe to hope thy fhort-liv'd bark shall ride, Still 'tis farther from its end; And, in the bofom of that boundless fea, With daring pride and infolent delight, Your doubts refolv'd you boaft, your labours crown'd; And, EYPHKA! your God, forfooth, is found. Incomprehenfible and infinite. But is he therefore found? Vain fearcher! no: Let your imperfect definition show, That nothing you, the weak definer, know. IV. Say, why should the collected main Itfelf within itfelf contain? Why to its caverns fhould it fometimes creep, And, with delighted filence fleep -On the lov'd bofom of its parent deep? In comely difcipline, and fair array, Till, winds and tides exert their high command"! Why do the rifing furges fpread Their opening ranks o'er earth's fubmiffive head, Marching through different paths to different lands? V. Why does the conftant fun With measur'd steps his radiant journies run? To leave earth's other part, and rife in ours? Love the juft limits of its proper fphere? With prudent harmony combine VI. Man does with dangerous curiofity Thefe unfathom'd wonders try: With fancied rules and arbitrary laws Matter and motion he restrains; And ftudied lines and fictious circles draws : Lord of his new hypothefis he reigns. He reigns: how long? till fome ufurper rife That all his predeceffor's rules Were empty cant, all jargon of the fchools; That he on t'other's ruin rears his throne; And shows his friend's mistake, and thence confirms his own. VII. On earth, in air, amidft the feas and skies,' (That feeble engine of his reasoning war, Which guides his doubts, and combats his defpair), Laws to his Maker the learn'd wretch can give : Can bound that nature, and prescribe that will, Whofe pregnant word did either ocean fill: Can tell us whence all beings are, and how they move and live. Through either ocean, foolish man! That pregnant word fent forth again, Might to a world extend each atom there; For every drop call forth a fea, a heaven for every star. VIII. Let cunning earth her fruitful wonders hide; And only lift thy ftaggering reafon up To trembling Calvary's aftonifh'd top; Then mock thy knowledge, and confound thy pride, Then Then down with all thy boafted volumes, down; Make thy ftubborn knowledge bow; To look to Heaven, be blind to all below. IX. Then Faith, for Reafon's glimmering light, fhall give. Her immortal perspective; And Grace's prefence Nature's loss retrieve : Then thy enliven'd foul fhall fee, That all the volumes of Philofophy, With all their comments, never could invent, So politic an inftrument, To reach the Heaven of Heavens, the High Abode,. Where Mofes places his mysterious God, As was the ladder which old Jacob rear'd, When light divine had human darkness clear'd; And his enlarg'd ideas found the road, Which Faith had dictated, and Angels trod. Confiderations on Part of the 88th PSALM.. I. HEAVY, O Lord, on me thy judgements lie, Accurft I am, while God rejects my cry. O'erwhelm'd in darkness and despair I groan; And every place is hell; for God is gone. |