They explicate the leaves, and ripen food
For the filk-labourers of the mulberry wood;
And the fweet liquor on the cane bestow,
From which prepar'd the luscious sugars flow;
With generous juice enrich the fpreading vine,
And in the grape digeft the (prightly wine.

240

The fragrant trees, which grow by Indian floods, 245 And in Arabia's aromatic woods,

Owe all their fpices to the fummer's heat,

Their gummy tears, and odoriferous sweat.

Now the bright fun compacts the precious flone,
Imparting radiant luftre, like his own:

He tinctures rubies with their rofy hue,
And on the fapphire spreads a heavenly blue;
For the proud monarch's dazzling crown prepares
Rich orient pearl, and adamantine stars.

250

Next autumn, when the fun's withdrawing ray 255 The night enlarges, and contracts the day, To crown his labour, to the farmer yields The yellow treasures of his fruitful fields; Ripens the harveft for the crooked steel (While bending stalks the rural weapon feel); The fragrant fruit for the nice palate fits, And to the prefs the fwelling grape fubmits.

At length, forfaken by the folar rays,

260

See, drooping Nature fickens and decays;
While Winter all his fnowy ftores displays,

265

In hoary triumph unmolested reigns

O'er barren hills, and bleak untrodden plains;
Hardens the globe, the thady grove deforms,
Fetters the floods, and shakes the air with ftorms.

Now

270

Now active fpirits are restrain'd with cold,

And prifons, cramp'd with ice, the genial captiv es hold. The meads their flowery pride no longer wear,

And trees extend their naked arms in air;

The frozen furrow, and the fallow field,
Nor to the fpade, nor to the harrow, yield.

Yet in their turn the fnows and frosts produce
Various effects, and of important use.
Th' intemperate heats of fummer are control'd
By winter's rigour, and inclement cold,

275

Which checks contagious spawn, and noxious steams,
The fatal offspring of immoderate beams;
Th' exhausted air with vital nitre fills,

Infection ftops, and deaths in embryo kills;

Constrains the glebe, keeps back the hurtful weed,

And fits the furrow for the vernal feed.

The fpirits now, as faid, imprison'd stay,

Which elfe, by warmer fun-beams drawn away,
Would roam in air, and diffipated stray.
Thus are the winter frofts to nature kind,
Frofts, which reduce exceffive heats, and bind
Prolific ferments in refiftlefs chains,
Whence parent earth her fruitfulness maintains.
To compafs all these happy ends, the fun
In winding tracts does through the zodiac run.

You, who so much are vers'd in caufes, tell,
What from the tropicks can the fun repel ?
What vigorous arm, what repercuffive blow,
Bandies the mighty globe still to and fro,
Yet with fuch conduct, fuch unerring art,
He never did the trackless road defert?

285

290

295

300

Why does he never in his fpiral race

The tropicks or the polar circles pafs?

What gulphs, what mounds, what terrours, can control

The rushing orb, and make him backward roll?

Why fhould he halt at either station? why

Not forward run in unobftructive sky?

Can he not pafs an aftronomic line?

305

Or does he dread th' imaginary fign;
That he fhould ne'er advance to either pole,
Nor farther yet in liquid æther roll,
Till he has gain'd fome unfrequented place,
Loft to the world in vaft unmeafur'd space?

If to the old you the new schools prefer,
And to the fan'd Copernicus adhere;

310

you efteem that fuppofition beft,

315

Which moves the earth, and leaves the fun at reft;
With a new veil your ignorance you hide,

Still is the knot as hard to be unty'd;

You change your fcheme, but the old doubts remain,
And fill you leave th' enquiring mind in pain.

This problem, as philofophers, refolve:
What makes the globe from Weft to East revolve?
What is the ftrong impulfive caufe declare,

Which rolls the ponderous orb fo fwift in air?
Το your vain anfwer will you have recourse,
And tell us 'tis ingenite, active force,

Mobility, or native power to move,

320

325

Words which mean nothing, and can nothing prove? That moving power, that force innate explain,

Or your grave anfwers are abfurd and vain :

330

We

We no folution of our question find;
Your words bewilder, not direct the mind.
If you, this rapid motion to procure,
For the hard task employ magnetic power,
Whether that power you at the centre place,
Or in the middle regions of the mass,
Or elfe, as fome philosophers affert,
You give an equal fhare to every part,

335

Have you by this the cause of motion fhown?
After explaining, is it not unknown?

340

Since you pretend, by reason's ftricteft laws,
Of an effect to manifeft the caufe ;

Nature, of wonders fo immenfe a field,

Can none more strange, none more myfterious yield, None that eludes fagacious reafon more

345

Than this obfcure, inexplicable power.

Since you the fpring of motion cannot show,

Be juft, and faultlefs ignorance allow;

Say, 'tis obedience to th' Almighty nod,

That 'tis the will, the power, the hand of God.
Philofophers of fpreading fame are found,
Who by th' attraction of the orbs around
Would move the earth, and make its course obey
The fun's and moon's inevitable sway.

350

Some from the preffure and impelling force

355

Of heavenly bodies would derive its course;

Whilft in the dark and difficult difpute

All are by turns confuted, and confute;

Each can fubvert th' opponent's fèheme, but none
Has ftrength of reafon to fupport his own.

360

The

The mind employ'd in fearch of fecret things,
To find out motion's cause and hidden springs,
Through all th' etherial regions mounts on high,
Views all the spheres, and ranges all the sky;
Searches the orbs, and penetrates the air
With unfuccefsful toil, and fruitless care;

Till, ftopp'd by awful heights, and gulphs immense
Of Wisdom, and of vaft Omnipotence,

She trembling ftands, and does in wonder gaze,
Loft in the wide inextricable maze.

See, how the fun does on the middle shine,
And round the globe defcribe th' æquator line;
By which wife means he can the whole furvey
With a direct, or with a flanting ray,

In the fucceffion of a night and day.
Had the North pole been fixt beneath the fun,
To Southern realms the day had been unknown:
If the South pole had gain'd that nearer feat,
The Northern climes had met as hard a fate.
And fince the space, that lies on either fide
The folar orb, is without limits wide;
Grant that the fun had happen'd to prefer
A feat afcant but one diameter,

375

365

370

380

Loft to the light by that unhappy place

This globe had lain a frozen, lonesome mass.
Behold the light emitted from the fun,

385

What more familiar, and what more unknown!
While by its fpreading radiance it reveals
All nature's face, it ftill itself conceals.
See how each morn it does its beams difplay,
And on its golden wings bring back the day!

399

How