wise;

γέγονεν.

Εν αυτῷ ζωὴ ὴν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἤν το φως των ἀνθρώπων.
Καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτία φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκολία αυτὸ & κατέλαβεν.

BOOK I.

The author introduces his work with a general survey of the whole, in nature of the plan or argument; and then commences a-new with a demonstration, a priori, of the being and attributes of God. Thence proceeds to creation, in which he endeavours at an opinion of the manner, as near as possible he may; as also of the nature and difference of the substances of spirit and matter; the economy of the universe; the astronomic system, physics, anatomy, and most branches of natural philosophy; in which the technical terms are as few, and the whole explained and made as easy and obvious as possible. The connection, dependence, use, and beauty, of the whole. Man considered; the nature of his being; the manner of his attaining knowledge; the analysis of the mind, faculties, affections, and passions; how they consist in each individual, and in the species. The nature of freedom; that it is not in the will; what it is, and wherein it consists, demonstrated. Of vice, misery, virtue, and happiness; their nature and final tendency. The whole being wrought into one natural and connected scheme, the author rises whence he began, and ends with a poetical rhapsody in the contemplation of the beauty of the whole.

VOL. XVIL

Of Heaven you rose the first empyreal morn, As erst descend

| Το mortals thy immortal charms display, And in our lake thy heavenly form survey!

11

Or rather thou, whom ancient prophet styles Venus Urania! born the babe of smiles, When from the deep thy bright emergence sprung, And Nature on thy form divinely hung; Whose steps, by Loves and Graces kiss'd, advance, And laughing Hours lead on the sprightly dance; While Time, within eternal durance bound, Harmonious moves on golden hinges round-Such, goddess! as when Silence wondering gaz'd, And even thyself beheld thyself amaz'd; Such haply by that Côon artist known, Seated apparent queen on Fancy's throne;

Ver. 1. Tritonia.] Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, is fabled to have sprung from the head of Jupiter; and, coming down on Earth, to have viewed her own perfections in the lake Triton in Africa, from whence she was called Tritonia. She is here addressed as the idea of the self-existent author of all things, as first containing in itself the beauty of all created things; and, after, surveying that beauty by reflection from the things so created.

Ver. 9. Venus Urania.] This Venus, whom the ancients styled Urania, or heavenly, is addressed as representing nature, or the creation, rising out of chaos in the perfection of beauty.

Ver. 18. Coon artist.] Apelles, born in the island Cos or Côos.

z

From thence thy shape his happy canvass bless'd, And colours dipt in Heaven thy heavenly form confess'd21

Such, goddess! through this virgin foliage shine; Let kindling beauties glow through every line, And every eye confess the work divine.

O say, while yet, nor time, nor place was found, And space immense in its own depth was drown'd; If nothing was, or something yet was not, Or though to be, e'erwhile was unbegot; If caus'd, then how?-if causeless, why effect? (No hand to form, nor model to direct) Why ever made?—so soon?—or why so late? What chance, what will, what freedom, or what fate?

30

Matter, and spirit, fire, air, ocean, earth;
All Nature born, nor conscious of its birth!
Alike unconscious did the womb disclose,
And nothing wonder'd whence this something rose-
Then, by what power?-or what such power could
move?

38

Wisdom, or chance?-necessity, or love?
O, from what root could such high plenty grow?
From what deep fount such boundless oceans flow?
What fund could such unwearied wealth afford?
Subjects unnumber'd! where, O where's your lord?
Whence are your attributes of time and place
Won from eternity and boundless space?
Motion from rest? just order from misrule?
A world from nought?-all empty, now all full!
From silence harmony? from darkness light?
And beamy day from everlasting night?
Light, matter, motion, music, order, laws!
And silent dark nonentity the cause?

50

But chance, you'll say-I ask you, chance of what,
If nothing was?'t is answer'd, chance of nought.
Alike from matter mov'd, could Beauty rise,
The florid planets, and gay ambient skies;
Or painted skies, and rolling orbs, dispense
Perception, life, thought, reason, judgment, sense.
Mysterious Thought! swift angel of the mind!
By space unbounded, though to space confin'd,
How dost thou glow with just disdain, how scorn,
That thought could ever think thee earthly born?
Thou who canst distance motion in thy flight, 61
Wing with aspiring plume the wondrous height,
Swifter than light outspeed the flame of day,
Pierce through the dark profound, and shame the
darting ray;

70

Throughout the universal system range, New form old systems, and new systems change; Through nature traffic on, from pole to pole, And stamp new worlds on thy dilated soul; (By time unlimited, unbound by space) Sure demonstration of thy heavenly race, Deriv'd from that, which is deriv'd from none, Which ever is--but of Himself alone! [in vain, O could'st thou search-nor may'st thou search Haply some glimpse, some dawning to obtain, Some taste divine of thy eternal spring, • Above those Heliconian bards to singHow He who inaccessible remains,

Yet omnipresent through all nature reigns;

Ver. 48....... from everlasting night.] Such supposed as originally so, and being eternal. Ver. 53. from matter mov'd.] One of the atheistical unaccountable evasions, is to account for the order of nature by matter and motion.

Whose age blooms ever in eternal youth,

80

His substance, beauty, and essential truth,
Essential truth! and beauty's charm! in course,
Of boundless love the ever boundless source!
Of boundless love, which would not, could not miss,
To be the boundless source of boundless bliss!-
Beatitude, rejecting all access!

Repletion, never to be more, nor less!
Why this ineffable, this inexpress'd,

This fulness in himself, past utterance bless'd,
Spontaneous pour'd these wondrous worlds around,
And fill'd with blessings this immense profound?
Swift roll'd the spheres to their appointed place,
Jocund through Heaven to run the various race;
Orb within orb in living circlets turn, .
93
And central suns through every system burn;
Revolving planets on their gods attend,
And tow'rds each sun with awful reverence bend;
Still tow'rds the lov'd enliv'ning beam they wheel,
And pant, and tremble, like the amorous steel.
They spring, they revel in the blaze of day, [ray;
Bathe in the golden stream, and drink the orient
Their blithe satellites with lively glance, 101
Celestial equipage, around them dance;
All, distance due, and beauteous order keep,
And spinning soft, upon their centres sleep:
The eternal clue the mazy labyrinth guides,
While each in his appointed movement glides;
Transverse, elliptic, oblique, round they run;
Like atoms wanton in the morning Sun; ·
The seeming vagrants joy to cheat the view,
These turn, these change, these fly, and these pur-
Th' implicit discipline to order tends, [sue;
And still in regular confusion ends—
Each to his native vortex is assign'd,
And magic circles every system bind;
A deeper charm each individual holds,
And firm within its atmosphere enfolds;
The secret spell, through every part, and whole,
Distinct, entire, invades it like a soul;
Its atoms at the amorous touch cohere,
And knit, in universal wedlock share.

109

120

130

All-teeming wedlock! on the genial hour, Space furnish'd out one boundless nuptial bow'r; Ten thousand thousand worlds, profusely gay, The pomp of bridal ornament displayHow modified, here needless to be told; Whether terrene, or of ethereous mould; Gross, porous, firm, opaque, condense, or rare; Or argent, with celestial tempering clear; Pellucid, to imbibe the streaming light; Or dun, but with reflected radiance bright; Or dazzling shrine, or of corporeal leaven, Terrestrial, that unfold an earthly Heaven Unspeakable! their landscape hill, and dale, The lowly sweetness of the flowery vale, The mount elate that rises in delight, The flying lawns that wanton from the sight, The florid theatres, romantic scenes, The steepy mountains, and luxuriant plains, 138 Delicious regions! plants, woods, waters, glades, Grots, arbours, flowrets, downs, and rural shades, The brooks that sportive wind the echoing hills, The pearly founts, smooth lakes, and murmuring Myriads of Edens! blissful, blissful seats! [rillsArcadian groves, sweet Tempe's blest retreats,

Ver. 115. A deeper charm.] Attraction or gravitation.

Delightful Ennas, and Hesperian isles,

150

And round, and round throughout, Elysium smiles-
Consummate joy, peace, pleasure without end,
Through mansions numberless their guests attend,
Nor long inanimate-As when some cloud
Throws on the beamy noon her sable shroud,
Wide o'er the green a dusk and stillness creep,
And glittering swarms beneath the verdure sleep;
Quick, and at once, the drowsy shade gives way;
At once breaks forth the bright enlivening ray;
At once, the gay, the quickening insects rise,
And gilded squadrons strike, our wond'ring eyes;
Music flies wanton from ten thousand wings,
And life and joy through every region rings-
Or when glad news some sudden transport start,
The flood swells instant in the labouring heart;
The limbs its lively energy attest,

161

And catch contagion from th' exulting breast;
Tumultuous, through our little world it flies,
Smiles in the dimpling cheek, and lightens from
the eyes-

Or so-or yet beyond compare-as wide
As spaces endless from some point divide,
Sudden the universal world conceives;

170

As sudden, Nature with her burden heaves;
Quick pulses through each throbbing art'ry beat,
And all the matron glows with genial heat;
At once reveals her offspring to the sight.;
Up spring the numbers numberless, to light!
The one, the various, blessed, glorious birth,
Of every world, Heaven, ocean, air, and earth-
Diverse, throughout their infinite abodes;
Their essence, nature, virtues, forms, and modes
Ineffable! that mock where fancy soars,
Or what the deep of deepest thought explores,
By visionary semblance, quaint device,

By gloss, trope, type abstruse, or emblem niceIdeal, how untoward to convey,

181

'Or reach conception by the dark assay. All perfect, yet alike not perfect found,

190

With differing virtues, differing glories crown'd;
The prime pre-eminent, and heavenly born,
Whom splendours next to deity adorn,
Lightnings divine, endued with native right
Of regal sceptre and transcending might,
Such, whom eternal Prescience might invest
Far blazing, with monarchal titles grac'd;
Of bright, the brightest; pure, the most refin'd
All intellect, quintessence of the mind;
Cherubic harmonies, seraphic flames,
Empyreal natures with empyreal names,
Natives of Heaven!-Nor want the lucid spheres,
Of bless'd inheritance the blissful heirs ;
Angelic shapes that wing th' ethereal space,
And scarce inferior to the heavenly race;

An incompounded radiant form they claim,

200

Nor spirit all-nor yet corporeal frame;
Than one, more dense-than t'other, more refin'd;
If spirit, organiz'd-if matter, mind:
Their essence one, imperishable, bright,
Vital throughout, all heart, ear, sense, and sight.
Through various worlds still varying species
range,

While order knits, and beautifies by change;
While from th' Unchangeable, the One, the Wise
Still changing endless emanations rise,
Of substance duplicate, or triple, mix'd,
Single, ambiguous, or free, or fix'd;

210

From those array'd in Heaven's resplendent robes, To the brute essence on terrestrial globes;

219

Nor such inelegant, nor less demand
The curious texture of th' Almighty hand:
Thrice happy all, and lords of wide domains,
Celestial vales and elemental plains!
One is the flood which universal flows;
And hence the reptile, hence the seraph glows:
Still equal, though inequal, that and this;
Since fulness bounds, and all are fill'd with bliss.
Now had the Eternal Architect supreme,
In amplitude stretch'd out this wondrous frame,
Equip'd magnificent the house of God, [abode!
Through height, and depth, his boundless, blest
One house, one world, one universe divine,
Where countless orbs through countless systems
shine;

Systems, which, view'd throughout the circuit wide,
Or lost, or scarce the pointed sight abide,
(Through space immense with diminution seen)
Yet boundless to those worlds that roll within; 230
Each world as boundless to its native race,
That range and wanton through its ample space,
Frequent, through fields, through clouds of fra-
grance stray,

Or skim the wat'ry or ethereal way:

For now, with vivid action, nature swarms,
And life's dear stream the purpling conduit warms;
The continent, blithe air, and floating seas,
The smiling lakes, swift floods, and winding bays,
The nooks, the crannies, nurse a numerous brood,
And aptly yield their alimental food,
Adjusted to the trunk's unwieldy size,
As nice proboscis of luxurious flies,

240

Or azure tribes that o'er the damson bloom,
And paint the regions of the ripening plum.
From every root, the lavish plenty grows;
In every stream, perpetual pleasure flows;
Each ravish'd sense with endless bounty feast,
The soul, and ear, and eye, and smell, and touch,
and taste.
[queath;

250

Their sweets, the blossoms plants and flowers be-
Elixirs from the steaming vapours breathe;
In balm imbosom'd every region lies,
Of ambient ether and infolding skies;

As the great Mover wrap'd each wheeling sphere
In the soft down of elemental air
Transparent, to imbibe the golden beam,
And wide around spun out th' ethereal stream,
Where worlds in endless revolutions move,
And swim on the abyss of endless Love.

Urania! Nature! from thy heights descend,
And low to Earth thy bright irradiance bend; 260
Dispell the clouds that round our fancy stray,
The mist that damps our intellectual ray;
And show what power all height of power transcends,
And in one act performs ten thousand ends.
Say, why this globe has its appointed place,
And why not vagrant through the boundless space?
Why here preferr'd, sagacious to refuse
What thwarts propriety, convenience, use?
Why not more neighbour to the burning ray,
Or more remote from the declining day?
Or here, not sedentary fix'd and still,
Admonish'd by no voice, obsequious to no will?
Or moving, why in circling eddies round,
And not progressive through th' immense profound?

270

Ver. 265. Say, why this globe.] The advantage of the Earth's situation-

Ver. 271. Or here.] of its motions-