View how in course the constant seasons rise,
Deform the earth, or beautify the skies:
First fpring advancing, with her flowery train,
Next fummer's hand that spreads the fylvan scene,
Then autumn with her yellow harvests crown'd,
And trembling winter clofe the annual round.
The vegetable tribes obfervant trace,
From the tall cedar to the creeping grass:
The chain of animated beings fcale,
From the fmall reptile to th' enormous whale ;
From the ftrong eagle stooping from the skies,
To the low infect that escapes thy eyes:
And fee, if fee thou can'ft, in every frame,
Eternal wisdom fhine confefs'd the fame :
As proper organs to the least affign'd,
As proper means to propagate their kind;
As juft the structure, and as wife the plan,
As in this lord of all-debating man!
Hence, reasoning creature, thy distinction find,
Nor longer to the ways of heaven be blind.
Wisdom in outward beauty strikes the mind,
But outward beauty points a charm behind.
What gives the earth, the ambient air or feas,
The plain, the river, or the wood to please?
Oh fay, in whom does beauty's felf refide,
The beautifier, or the beautified?
There dwells the Godhead in the bright difguife,
Beyond the ken of all created eyes:
His works our love, and our attention steal,
His works (furprizing thought!) the maker veil;
Too weak our fight to pierce the radiant cloud,
Where wisdom fhines, in all her charms avow'd!
O gracious God! omnipotent and wife,
Unerring Lord, and ruler of the skies;
All condescending, to my feeble heart
One beam of thy celestial light impart ;
1 feek not fordid wealth, or glittering power,
O grant me wisdom- - and I ask no more.
As from fome level country's fhelter'd ground, With towns replete, with green inclosures bound, Where the eye kept within the verdant maze, But gets a tranfient vista as it strays: The pilgrim to fome rifing fummit tends, Whence opens all the scene as he afcends: So providence the friendly point fupplies, Where all the charms of Deity furprize; Here goodness, power, and wifdom, all unite, And dazzling glories whelm the ravish'd fight. Almighty caufe! 'tis thy preferving care, That keeps thy works for ever fresh and fair: The fun, from thy fuperior radiance bright, Eternal fheds, his delegated light,
Lends to his fifter orb inferior day,
And paints the filver moon's alternate ray;
Thy hand the wafte of eating time renews,
Thou shed'ft the tepid morning's balmy dews;
When raging winds the blacken'd deep deform,
Thy spirit rides commiffion'd in the storm;
Bids at thy will the flackening tempeft cease,
While the calm'd ocean smooths its ruffled face;
When lightnings thro' the air tremendous fly,
Or the blue plague is loofen'd to deftroy,
Thy hand directs, or turns aside the stroke,
Thy word the fatal edict can revoke ;
When fubterraneous fires the furface heave,
And towns are buried in one common grave;
Thou fuffer'ft not the mischief to prevail,
Thy fovereign touch the recent wound can heal.
To Zembla's rocks thou fend'ft the cheerful gleam,
O'er Lybia's fands thou pour'ft the cooling ftream;
Thy watchful providence o'er all intends,
Thy works obey their great Creator's ends.
And all the ills we feel or blifs we share,
Are tokens of a heavenly Father's care.
When man too long the paths of vice pursued,
Thy hand prepar'd the univerfal flood;
Gracious, to Noah gave the timely fign,
To fave a remnant from the wrath divine:
One shining wafte the globe terreftrial-lay,
And the ark heav'd along the troubled fea;
Thou bad'ft the deep his antient bed explore,
The clouds their watery deluge pour'd no more:
The skies were clear'd, -the mountain-tops were
The dove pacific brought the olive green.
On Ararat the happy patriarch toft,
Found the recover'd world his hopes had loft;
There his fond eyes review'd the pleafing fcene,
The earth all verdant, and the air ferene:
Its precious freight the guardian ark display'd,
While Noah grateful adoration paid:
Beholding in the many-tinctur'd bow,
The promise of a safer world below.
When wild ambition rear'd its impious head,
And rifing Babel heaven with pride furvey'd ;
Thy word the mighty labour could confound,
And leave the mass to moulder with the ground.
From the mad toil, while focial order fprung
A peopled world-distinct by many a tongue.
From thee all human actions take their springs,
The rife of empires, and the fall of kings:
See the vast theatre of time difplay'd,
While o'er the scene fucceeding heroes tread:
With pomp the fhining images fucceed,
What leaders triumph; and what monarchs bleed;
Perform the parts thy providence affign'd,
Their pride, their paffions, to thy ends inclin'd:
A while they glitter in the face of day,
Then at thy nod the phantoms país away;
No traces left of all the busy scene,
But that remembrance fays,-The things have been! While learning thro' the gloom benighted ftrays, And the dim objects vanish as we gaze!
"But (queftions doubt) whence fickly nature feels "The ague-fits her face fo oft reveals? [breaft? "Whence earthquakes heave the earth's aftonish'd "Whence tempefts rage? or yellow plagues infeft? "Whence draws rank Afric her empoison'd stores ? "Or liquid fires explofive Ætna pours ?" Go, fceptic mole! demand th' eternal caufe, The fecret of his all-preferving laws?
The depths of wisdom infinite explore,
And ask thy Maker?-why thou knowft no more?
Thy error's ftill in mortal things as great,
As vain to cavil at the ways of fate.
To ask why profperous vice so oft fucceeds,
Why fuffers innocence, or virtue bleeds!
Why monfters, nature must with blushes own,
By crimes grow powerful, and difgrace a throne!
Why faints and fages, mark'd in every age,
Perish, the victims of tyrannic rage!
Why Socrates for truth and freedom fell,
While Nero reign'd, the delegate of hell!
In vain by reason is the maze purfu'd,
Of ill triumphant, and afflicted good.
Fix'd to the hold, fo might the failor aim
To judge the pilot, and the fteerage blame;
VOL. II,
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