Let porphyry pillars in high rows uphold
The azure roof enrich'd with veins of gold;
And the fair creatures of the sculptor's art
Part grace thy palace, and thy garden part;
Here let the fcentful fpoils of opening flowers
Breathe from thy citron walks, and jasmine bowers;
Hefperian bloffoms in thy bofom finell;
Let all Arabia in thy garments dwell.
That coftly banquets and delicious feafts
May crown thy table, to regale thy guests,
Ranfack the hills, and every park and wood,
The lake unpeople, and defpoil the flood;
Procure each feather'd luxury, that beats
Its native air, or from its clime retreats,
And by alternate tranfmigration flies
O'er interpofing feas, and changes fkies;
Let artful cooks to raise their relish strive,
With all the spicy taftes the Indies give.
While wreaths of roses round thy temples twine,
Enjoy the fparkling bleffings of the vine;
Let the warm nectar all thy veins infpire,
Solace thy heart, and raife the vital fire.
Next let the charms of heavenly mufic cheer Thy foul with rapture liftening in thy ear; Let tuneful chiefs exert their skill, to fhow What artful joys from manag'd found can flow; Now hear the melting voice and trembling ftring; 55 Let Pepuch touch the lyre, and Margarita fing. While wanton ferments fwell thy glowing veins, To the warm paffion give the flacken'd reins;
Thy gazing eyes with blooming beauty feaft,
Receive its dart, and hug it in thy breast;
From fair to fair with gay inconftance rove,
Tafte every sweet, and cloy thy foul with love.
But midft thy boundless joys, unbridled youth,
Remember still this fad, but certain truth,
That thou at laft feverely muft account;
To what will thy congefted guilt amount!
Allow a God; he muft our deeds regard;
A righteous Judge muft punish and reward:
Yet that he rears no high tribunal here,
Impartial justice to difpenfe, is clear.
His fword unpunish'd criminals defy,
Nor by his thunder does the tyrant die;
While Heaven's adorers, preft with want and pain,
Their unrewarded innocence maintain.
See his right hand he unextended keeps,
Though long provok'd, th' unactive vengeance fleeps.
Hence we a world succeeding this infer,
Where he his juftice will affert; prepare
To ftand arraign'd before his awful bar.
Where wilt thou hide thy ignominious head?
Shuddering with horror, what haft thou to plead ?
Defpairing wretch! he 'll frown thee from his throne,
And by his wrath will make his being known.
Yet more Religion's empire to support,
To push the foe, and make our laft effort;
Let beings with attention be review'd,
Which, not alone with vital power endued,
Can move themselves, can organiz'd perceive
The various ftrokes, which various objects give.
By laws mechanic can Lucretius tell
How living creatures fee, or hear, or fiell?
How is the image to the fenfe convey'd ?
On the tun'd organ how the impulse made?
How, and by which more noble part, the brain
Perceives th' idea, can their fchools explain?
'Tis clear, in that fuperior feat alone
The judge of objects has her fecret throne ;
Since, a limb fever'd by the wounding steel,
We ftill may pain, as in that member, feel.
Mark how the fpirits watchful in the ear
Seize undulating founds, and catch the vocal air.
Obferve how others, that the tongue poffefs,
Which falts of various shape and Gize imprefs,
From their affected fibres upward dart,
And different taftes by different strokes impart.
Remark, how thofe, which in the noftril dwell,
That artful organ deftin'd for the fmell,
By vapours mov'd, their paffage upward take,
And fcents unpleasant or delightful make.
If in the tongue, the nostril, and the ear,
No skill, no wifdom, no defign, appear;
Lucretians, next, regard the curious eye;
Can you no art, no prudence, there descry?
By your mechanic principles, in vain
The fenfe of fight you labour to explain.
You fay, from all the objects of the eye
Thin colour'd fhapes uninterrupted fly.
As wandering ghofts (fo ancient poets feign)
Skim through the air, and fweep th' infernal plain;
So thefe light figures roam by day and night,
But undiscover'd till betray'd by light.
But can corporeal forms with so much ease
Meet in their flight a thousand images,
And yet no conflict, no collifive force,
Break their thin texture, and disturb their courfe? 125
What fix'd their parts, and made them fo cohere,
That they the picture of the object wear?
What is the shape, that from a body flies?
What moves, what propagates, what multiplies,
And paints one image in a thousand eyes?
When to the eye the crowding figures pass,
How in a point can all possess a place,
And lie diftinguish'd in fuch narrow space?
Since all perception in the brain is made,
(Though where and how was never yet display'd) 135
And fince fo great a distance lies between
The eye-ball, and the feat of sense within ;
While in the eye th' arrested object stays,
Tell, what th' idea to the brain conveys ?
You fay, the fpirits in the optick nerve,
Mov'd by the intercepted image, ferve
To bear th' impreffion to the brain, and give
The stroke, by which the object we perceive.
How does the brain, touch'd with a different stroke, The whale diftinguish from the marble rock? Pronounce this tree a cedar, that an oak? Can spirits weak or stronger blows exprefs, One body greater, and another lefs ?
How do they make us fpace and distance know?
At once diftin&t a thousand objects flow?
Lucretians, now proceed; contemplate all
The nobler actions of the animal,
Which inftinct fome, fome lower reafon, call.
Say, what contexture did by chance arrive,
Which to brute creatures did that instinct give
Whence they at fight difcern and dread their foe,
Their food distinguish, and their physic know?
By which the lion learns to hunt his prey,
And the weak herd to fear and fly away?
The birds contrive inimitable nests?
And dens are haunted by the forest beafts?
Whence fome in fubterranean dwellings hide,
These in the rocks, and those in woods abide?
Whence timorous beafts, through hills and lawns purBy artful shifts the ravening foe elude?
What various wonders may observers fee
In a small infect, the fagacious bee!
Mark, how the little untaught builders fquare
Their rooms, and in the dark their lodgings rear !
Nature's mechanics, they unwearied strive,
And fill with curious labyrinths the hive.
See, what bright ftrokes of architecture shine
Through the whole frame, what beauty, what defign! Each odoriferous cell, and waxen tower,
The yellow pillage of the rifled flower,
Has twice three fides, the only figure fit
To which the labourers may their stores commit
Without the lofs of matter, or of room,
In all the wondrous ftructure of the comb.
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