330 Yet vain the textur'd eye, and object fair, True to the colour, distance, shape, and size, Its nightly twinkle, and its streaming day; We mount the steep, high borne upon delight, 320 Ver. 296. And obvions gratulate.] by whose second mediation the perceiving soul rejoicesVer. 297. bloom of Nature's smiling scene.] beholding the elegance and beauty of natureVer. 299. The flocks that nibble.] but chiefly those animated beings who through life are susceptible of happiness. Ver. 301. The sight.] as every generous person increases his happiness by rejoicing in the happiness of others Ver. 305. Nor less yon heights.] and as by means of this miraculous organ of sight, the beauties of Earth are conspicuous, so in the first page of Heaven expanded before us, to raise our hope to an assurance of further bliss. Ver. 313. So awful did.] The wonderful texture of the eye Ver. 315. The visionary net.] its retina (continued from the optic nerve) which is the proper organ of vision Ver. 315. ...... tunics weave ] its coats- Placid! and Mild! All Gracious! All Benign! UNIVERSAL BEAUTY. BOOK V. 350 THUS Nature's frame, and Nature's God we sing, The Eternal Light! whence ev'ry radiance glows; Ver. 318. radiant bow.] and iris, or circle Strict to reform, and beauteous to engage. surrounding the pupil, within which Ver. 319. Full in a point.] the images of things are distinctly painted. Ver. 521. Yet useless was.] The infinitely wise adjustment of nature demonstrated; inasmuch as the eye had been useless without the object, both eye and object useless without light, the eye, the object, and the light, still useless without the medium of air for conveyance, and altogether as useless without 20 Ver. 331. Till from the Eternal.] the mind, which only can perceive. Ver. 341. The reptile.] This paragraph was added as a hint of the following part, which chiefly treats of the arts and instincts of the inferior animal system: which subject, as it is less abstruse, so, it is probable, it will be more agreeable than any hitherto treated of. 40 Then must all faculty, all knowledge fail, sail The plume creates, and then directs the gale: 50 But whose unmeasur'd prose, memorial long! Then let the shoals of latent nations sleep, 60 Ver. 27. Round with our eyes.] The Deity necessarily inferred from the contemplation of every object springs, Great and conspicuous in minutest things! The reptile first, how exquisitely form'd, With vital streams through ev'ry organ warm'd! External round the spiral muscle winds, And folding close th' interior texture binds; Secure of limbs or needless wing he steers, And all one locomotive act appears: His rings with one elastic membrane bound, The prior circlet moves th' obsequious round; The next, and next, its due obedience owes, And with successive undulation flows. The mediate glands, with unctuous juice replete, Their stores of lubricating guile secrete; Still opportune, with prompt emission flow, And slipping frustrate the deluded foe; When the stiff clod their little augers bore, And all the worm insinuates through the pore. 9 80 90 Slow moving next, with grave majestic pace, But chief, when each his wint'ry portal forms, Ver. 73. The reptile first.] earth-worm, and has had a peculiar regard towards it Ver. 74. With vital streams.] in the organization of its frame Ver. 75. External round.] its wonderful apparatus for motion, by a most especial and accurate provision Ver. 83. The mediate glands.] With every other mean and method accommodated to its sphere of action; and conducting to the safety and perfection of its state. Ver. 89. Slow moving next.] The same infinite Wisdom operating ever equally, though variously, is no less admirable in the different apparatus for the snail's motion, as differently adapted to its different state and occasions- Ver. 90. Tenacious snails.] by a broad and strong Ver. 41. Spoke into being,] But more especially visible in the animate creation, so infinitely diversi-skin on either side the belly, and the emission of a fied in the several species and kinds of- Ver. 67. Consummate each.] whose characteristic of infinite power and wisdom is equally conspicuous in all, since even the lowest can be derived from no less than the Highest; and, in that respect, the lowest, though apparently despicable, is most highly valuable, since the same Extensive Benignity condescends even to the glutinous slime; by the assistance of which they adhere to any surface more firmly than they could do with claws or talons. Ver. 95. Their domes self-wreathed.] The advantage of their shells, which they form by a froth or petrifying juice, which they secreted from their body; and at any time repair a fracture or breach in their building, which serves them both for house and armour. Ver. 95. But chief.] And which they close up during the winter, to shut out the inclemency of the weather, and also to prevent any consumption of the fluids; by which means they want no nourishment at a time that they cannot be readily provided. Towards the four winds four telescopes he bends, 110 Such have we cull'd from nature's reptile scene, 120 Natives of Earth, and habitants of air; His bright endorsement, and compact attire, 140 Elate tow'rds Heav'n the beaut'ous wonder flies, Ver. 149. O think ] But what is there in nature that is not equally surprising? We are ashamed not to account for objects that are daily obvious to our senses; and yet every work of the Deity- Ver. 151. These but the sketch.] in many respects, is to us as really incomprehensible as the Divine Operator; for who can give rule or measure to the works of an Infinite Artist? and if we only superficially behold, and reason from the qualities of things Ver. 153. Think, should this curtain.] were this veil at once laid aside, how insupportably conspicuous would the fullness of Infinite Wisdom and Essential Beauty appear; pouring on our weak and unequal senses! We should then be convinced of the equal folly and impiety of presumption on one Ver. 101. Towards the four winds.] I have insert-side; or scepticism on the other: of pretending to ed this opinion of snails having eyes at the ends of their horns, rather in submission to authority, than that I am really persuaded it is so. However, they may, in a great measure, be said to see with their touch, which in this part is extremely sensible, and equally serves their purpose--. Ver. 107. Such have we cull'd.] and since the common earth-worm and snail (which seem the most despicable of all reptiles) are so curiously adorned, and provided in all respects, how amazing must the same conduct, care, and artifice be, through the several scenes of minute animalcules! who leave no place empty of suitable inhabitants, and are doubtless of greater consequence in nature, than our partial and narrow way of thinking may imagine. Ver. 119. Or who nor creep.] Such as grasshoppers, crickets, and frogs. Ver. 123. Or who all native.] Spiders, &c. whose flights are owing to a thread of inconceivable fineness and levity, which they dart, on occasion, from their bodies, and which being buoyed up by the least breeze, bears off the animalcule to which it is annexed. Ver. 127. Or who a twofold.] Of this kind are beetles and lady-cows; and nothing can be more entertaining than to see them, by a surprising machinery of little springs and hinges, erect the smooth covering of their backs, and unfolding their wings that were most neatly disposed within their cases, prepare for flight know all things; or (because we know not all things) of inferring that nothing is to be known. Our reason indeed is not infallible; but neither is it useless: reason, throughout its sphere of knowledge, perceives a wisdom and art that is obvious and inimitable; and hence cannot avoid to infer, that the same wisdom and art is universal; and that there must be One Sole Omnipresent and Adorable Artist. But when reason attempts a higher pitch, and forms to itself independent schemes of the courses of nature, or fitnesses of things; nothing can be more vain than such a dictating arrogance. But That there is, and ever will be, a fitness and propriety in things, is evident even to reason; because reason perceives sufficient wisdom and goodness, to demonstrate that wisdom and goodness now are, and ever will be, the sole directing principles. to say to what infinitely wise and good purposes such direction tends; to say how far, and in what particulars, the nature of such tendency may alter the appearance of fitness in things; so as to determine what now is, or hereafter may be fit, possible, or impossible; is generally as absurd as to attempt to grasp the universe in our hand, or circumscribe immensity with a carpenter's compass. Hence this one great truth is evident, that though our reason apprehends a propriety and fitness in the relations of many things and actions both natural and moral, yet as we cannot comprehend the whole of Infinite Wisdom Ver. 162. All is phenomenon.] there is doubtless a further design, and more latent fitness and beauty in things and their relations, than we can apprehend or are aware of: and as this fitness may be relative in respect of duration, and in respect of the difference between the present and future state of things; many things may now appear unfit and improper in our way of thinking, which in reality are most perfective of future infinitely wise and directing purposes, to which our notions are by no means adequate. What has been here offered in the way of hypothesis, is evidently rational; but when more nearly attended to, will admit of the highest demonstration: for either there is a present absolute fitness in things; or a fitness in futuro, that is, in prospect or tendency, and only relative here to what must be absolute hereafter. But if there were an absolute fitness in the present state of things, there could then be no change in any thing; since what is best can never change to better: but things do change, and must therefore have a present relative fitness, tending to, and productive of some future, absolute, and unchangeable fitness or perfection; to which this present relative fitness is by a moral, wise, and orderly necessity, precedent. The sum of all (which has so long and copiously employed the pens of the learned) is this,-First, that there is a present fitness or beauty sufficiently obvious in things, to demonstrate an Over-ruling Wisdom.-Secondly, that this Over-ruling Wisdom, or God, now does, and ever will conduct all things for the best.-But, thirdly, since things change, they cannot be now in their state of fection. Therefore, fourthly, there must be some other or future state, to which,all things tend and are directed, for the final and unchangeable perfection of all things. per Ver. 166. Who that beholds.] If any thing in the preceding lines seems too much tinctured with mystery; I must beg leave to ask the enemies of mystery, were it not for repeated experience, whether every thing in nature would not appear a mystery? or, whether, when they contemplate a gnat or butterfly, &c. they can perceive, by the bare light of nature or reason, the relation its present state and form bears to the several changes, states, and forms, through which it has passed, all in appearance as distinct as difference could make them? 180 Sublimer powers and brighter forms assume; Though numberless these insect tribes of air, Though numberless each tribe and species fair, Who wing the noon, and brighten in the blaze, Innumerous as the sands which bend the seas; 190 199 Ver. 174. Or who with transient view.] or, whether, by contemplating an animalcule's egg, they can foresee that this will produce a maggot or caterpillar, &c. that the maggot or caterpillar will build its own sepulchre; (and having continued therein for a certain term, in an apparent state of mortality, and laid aside its former limbs and organized members) will at length break through the gates of death, and put on a state and form of higher beauty and perfection, than could enter into any heart to conceive, or could have employed the dreams of the deepest philosopher? Ver. 186. No fictions here.] How would the refined reasoners of the present age argue against the absurdity and impossibility of such unaccountable contradictions, were not the facts too obvious to sense and perpetual experience to be disputed? facts altogether as wonderful, though not so fabulous, as the Ver. 188. No golden ass.] marvellous metamorphoses in romance; or Ver. 189. Nor flitting forms.] those of Ovid, in his tales of 11 These have their organs, arts, and arms, and tools, 210 Their peaceful hours the loom and distaff know; 220 Or o'er the flood they spread their future brood; And confident their darling hopes infuse; 230 Meantime the Sun his fost'ring warmth be- Each tepid air its motive influence breathes, All by their dam's prophetic care receive Nor less each organ suits each place of birth, Thus nurs'd, these inconsiderate wretches grow, Ver. 232. Meantime the Sun.] The generality of these wonderful animals having thus performed all the requisites, take no further care for their young; but (like the ostrich, who covers her eggs with the sands) they are sensible their duty is over, and leave the rest to the clemency of the seasons, and the sufficiency of nature, who, in these instances, renders all further caution needless Ver. 240. Profuse at hand.] and alone furnishes and provides for all, with a more than parental care and tenderness Ver. 242. Nor less each organ.] But among all the instances of a universal and benign Providence, nothing can be more signal or expressive of the extensive Goodness than the occasional and temporary parts and organs of many animals in their change Ver. 204. These have their organs.] However merry or hyperbolical these assertions may appear, in respect of creatures, whom our ignorance, or want of inspection, have rendered despicable to us; there is nothing more certain, than that they have more trades and utensils than are here specified. The inimitable fineness, and mathematical propor-able state, still accommodated, suited, and adapttion of their works, is a double demonstration of their skill, and the accuracy of their instruments; to which the most exquisite manufacture of man may bear just such relation, as a cumbrous windmill to the neatest tool or machine in a watchmaker's shop- Ver. 216. Each as reflecting ] No less admirable is their reason, precaution, instinct, or what you please to call their care and skill, in the disposition of their eggs or embryo; not scattered at random, but situated agreeable to the nature of every species, in such places, and among such supplies of nutriment, as will alone contribute to the perfection, and be acceptable to the several appetites of their young ones Ver. 220. Or on some vegetating foliage.] if on the leaves of vegetables, then situated and glued in such a manner, as not to be subject to the influence of winds or rain- Ver. 222. A slender cord.] For the mathematical order in which gnats dispose their eggs or sperm on the water, vide Derham's Phys. Theology, fig. IX. and X. Ver. 226. In firmest oak.] And so, in like manner, the various receptacles which are suitable to the sperm of each species, are almost infinite; and yet the art and prophetic precaution, which, by a several and distinct method, is peculiar to each, carries the air of as much wisdom and importance, as if the harmony and connection of nature had depended on the regular and uniform propagation of every several sect or species- ed with the most circumstantial and minute exactness to the immediate manner and convenience of their existence; and yet as immediately shifted and thrown aside upon the animal's commencing a new state and scene of action, and a set of limbs and garniture furnished de novo, as it were a new suit of clothes fitted and contrived agreeable to every season. This observation may have escaped many, who thought it beneath them to inquire into the economy of these minute animals; but it is obvious to all persons in the tadpole estate of frogs, who, in their minority, are provided with a fin-like tail, which seems to constitute the chief part of their bulk, but drops off as the growing limbs extend, and gives notice that its continuance is superfluous and unnecessary. Though the state and conduct of these animals, as here described, may be looked on as allegorical, and representative of the present state of man and his future hopes; yet the case with them is already real, and their change and resurrection most evident to sense. The moment they are hatched- Ver. 246. Thus nurs'd.] they set about pampering their little carcases, without any other apparent thought or concern Ver. 248. When lo!] within a certain period of time, they conceive a disrelish to all past enjoyment, and by a profound revery seem, as it were, studious of some great event. During this interval, new judgments are acquired, and résolutions taken; they foresee and rejoice at their approaching mortality- |