Of herbs and flow'rs; or what the beams of morn
Draw forth, diftilling from the clifted rind
In balmy tears. But fome, to higher hopes
Were deftin'd; fome within a finer mould
She wrought, and temper'd with a purer flame.
To these the Sire Omnipotent unfolds

The world's harmonious volume, there to read
The tranfcript of himself. On every part
They trace the bright impreffions of his hand:
In earth, or air, the meadow's purple ftores,
The moon's mild radiance, or the virgin's form
Blooming with rofy smiles, they fee pourtray'd
That uncreated beauty, which delights
The Mind fupreme. They alfo feel her charms,
Enamour'd; they partake th' eternal joy.

CHA P. XXX.

GREATNESS.

AY, why was man fo eminently rais'd

SAY,

Amid the vaft creation; why ordain'd

Thro' life and death to dart his piercing eye,
With thoughts beyond the limit of his frame;
But that th' Omnipotent might fend him forth
In fight of mortal and immortal pow'rs,
As on a boundless theatre, to run

The great career of justice; to exalt
His gen'rous aim to all diviner deeds;
To chafe each partial purpose from his breaft
And thro' the mifts of paffion and of sense,
And thro' the toffing tide of chance and pain,

AKENSIDE

To

To hold his courfe unfault'ring, while the voice
Of truth and virtue, up the fteep afcent

Of nature, calls him to his high reward,

Th' applauding fmile of Heav'n: Elfe wherefore burns
In mortal bofoms this unquenched hope,

That breathes from day to day fublimer things,
And mocks poffeffion? Wherefore darts the mind,
With fuch refiftlefs ardour to embrace
Majestic forms; impatient to be free,
Spurning the grofs controul of wilful might;
Proud of the ftrong contention of her toils ;
Proud to be daring? Who but rather turns
To Heav'n's broad fire his unconstrained view,
Than to the glimmering of a waxen flame?
Who that, from Alpine heights, his lab'ring eye
Shoots round the wild horizon, to furvey

Nilus or Ganges rolling his bright wave

Thro' mountains, plains, thro' empires black with shade,

And continents of fand! will turn his gaze

To mark the windings of a scanty rill

That murmurs at his feet? The high-born foul
Difdains to rest her heav'n-aspiring wing
Beneath its native quarry. Tir'd of earth
And this diurnal scene, fhe springs aloft
Thro' fields of air; pursues the flying ftorm;
Rides on the volley'd lightning thro' the heav'ns;
Or yok'd with whirlwinds and the northern blaft,
Sweeps the long tract of day. Then high fhe foars
The blue profound, and hovering round the fun
Beholds him pouring the redundant ftream
Of light; beholds his unrelenting sway
Bend the reluctant planets to abfolve

The fated rounds of time. Thence far effus'd
She darts her fwiftness up the long career
Of devious comets; thro' its burning figns
Exulting meafures the perennial wheel

Of nature, and looks back on all the ftars,
Whose blended light, as with a milky zone,
Invefts the orient. Now amaz'd the views
Th' empyreal wafte, where happy fpirits hold,
Beyond this concave heav'n, their calm abode;
And fields of radiance, whofe unfading light
Has travell'd the profound fix thousand years,
Nor yet arrives in fight of mortal things.
Ev'n on the barriers of the world until'd
She meditates th' eternal depth below;
Till, half recoiling, down the headlong fteep
She plunges; foon o'erwhelm'd and swallow'd up
In that immenfe of being. There her hopes
Reft at the fated goal. For from the biṛth
Cf mortal man, the fovereign Maker faid,
That not in humble nor in brief delight,
Not in the fading echoes of renown,

Pow'r's purple robes, nor pleasure's flow'ry lap,
The foul should find enjoyment: but from thefe
Turning difdainful to an equal good,

Thro' all th' afcent of things enlarge her view,
Till every bound at length fhould difappear,
And infinite perfection clofe the fcene.

AKENSIDE.

CHA P.

ALL now to mind what high capacious pow'rs
Lie folded up in man; how far beyond

The praise of mortals, may th' eternal growth

Of nature to perfection half divine,
Expand the blooming foul. What pity then
Should floth's unkindly fogs depress to earth
Her tender bloffom; choak the ftreams of life,
And blast her fpring! Far otherwise defign'd
Almighty wifdom; nature's happy cares
Th' obedient heart far otherwise incline.
Witness the sprightly joy when ought unknown.
Strikes the quick fenfe, and wakes each active pow'r
To brifker measures: witnefs the neglect

Of all familiar prospects, tho' beheld

With transport once; the fond attentive gaze
Of young aftonishment; the fober zeal

Of age, commenting on prodigious things.
For fuch the bounteous providence of heav'n,
In every breast implanting this, defire

Of objects new and ftrange, to urge us on
With unremitted labour to pursue

Thofe facred ftores that wait the ripening foul,
In truth's exhaustless bofom. What need words
To paint its pow'r? For this, the daring youth
Breaks from his weeping mother's anxious arms,
In foreign climes to rove; the pensive sage,
Heedlefs of fleep, or midnight's harmful damp,
Hangs o'er the fickly taper; and untir'd
Y 3

The

The virgin follows, with inchanted step,
The mazes of fome wife and wond'rous tale,
From morn to eve; unmindful of her form,
Unmindful of the happy dress that stole
The wishes of the youth, when every maid
With envy pin'd. Hence finally by night
The village-matron, round the blazing hearth,
Sufpends the infant-audience with her tales,
Breathing aftonishment! of witching rhimes,
And evil fpirits; of the death-bed call
Of him who robb'd the widow, and devour'd
The orphan's portion; of unquiet fouls
Ris'n from the grave to eafe the heavy guilt
Of deeds in life conceal'd; of fhapes that walk
At dead of night, and clank their chains, and wave
The torch of hell around the murd'rer's bed.

At every folemn pause the croud recoil

Gazing each other speechlefs, and congeal'd
With fhiv'ring fighs: till eager for th' event,
Around the beldame all erect they hang,

3

Each trembling heart with grateful terrors quell'd.

AKENSIDE

BOOK