English

And endless worlds in seeming atoms hold.
Plant within plant, and seed enfolding seed,
For ever — to end never — still proceed;
In forms complete, essentially retain
The future semen, alimental grain;
And these again, the tree, the trunk, the root,
The plant, the leaf, the blossom, and the fruit;
Again the fruit and flower the seed enclose,
Again the seed perpetuated grows,
And Beauty to perennial ages flows.
Such the S UPREME his wondrous Sata made,
E'er yet their foliage cloath'd the novel glade;

BOOK III.

Thus Beauty mimicked in our humbler strains,
Illustrious, thro' the world's great poem reigns!
The O NE grows sundry by creative power;
T HE E TERNAL'S found in each revolving hour;
The I MMENSE appears in every point of space;
The U NCHANGEABLE in nature's varying face;
The I NVISIBLE conspicuous to our mind;
And D EITY in every atom shrined:
From whence exults the animated clod,
And smiling features speak the P ARENT G OD ;

Can each be omnipresent, to perceive
What endless links the blended fabrick weave,
On every various consequence reflect,
Prepare each cause to yield the just effect,
Sum up the whole, and thence the whole connect?
O dotage! dreamers! who could once suppose
The passive mass its Maker should inclose,
And the formed clay its forming L ORD compose.
" Ye Atheists! if ye will be Atheists still,
" And will, no cause but this, because ye will;
" If stubborn, in your little reason's spight,

Whence issuing torrents burst the mountain's side,
And hence impetuous pour their headlong tide.
Still central from the wide circumfluous waves,
(Whose briny dash each bounded region laves)
The soil, still rising, from the deep retires,
And mediate, to the neighbouring heaven aspires.
Hence, where the spring its surging effluence boils,
The stream ne'er refluent on the fount recoils,
But trips progressive, with descending pace,
And tunes, thro' many a league, its warbling maze;
Here blended, swells with interfering rills;

Adjusted, steady to their varying size,
By geometric rule, and calculation nice:
These have their palaces, and coral groves,
Their latent grotts, and pearly bright alcoves;
Wide is the copious hand of Bounty spread,
And myriads at the plenteous feast are fed.
Nor less, the grateful light salutes their eye,
And solar glories gild the nether sky;
Their ocean blushes with the lord of day,
And nightly glitters at the twinkling ray,
The moon, attended by her starry train,
Reflects reflection to the floating plain,

BOOK II.

Thus does the mazed inexplicable round,
The aspiring bard, and all his flights confound;
Ambitious thro' his airy tour to sing,
High born above the soar of Pegasean wing;
Or raised sublime in prospect, while he turns,
Views nature round, and still with rapture burns:
Now in this light the charmer he surveys,
This light he hopes her every charm displays;
But here unthought of charms discovered lie,
And flash new wonders on the admiring eye;

" That round thy axis spins thy cumbrous frame;
" That cheers thee with the still returning beam;
" That whirls thy wondrous motions, one in three,
" Where time, and place, still varying, still agree. "

O MNISCIENCE here no lower mean admits;
One slip had maim'd ten thousand thousand hits,
Where to one point unnumber'd causes tend,
Concurring to effect one destined end,
Which once attain'd pours forth ten thousand more;
A blessed sea, that never knows a shore!

" Ye Learn'd! who wisely can deny your God ,

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.

Thro' various worlds still varying species range,
While order knits, and beautifies by change;
While from the U NCHANGEABLE , the One , the W ISE ,
Still changing endless emanations rise,
Of substance duplicate, or triple, mix'd,
Single, ambiguous, or free, or fix'd;
From those array'd in heaven's resplendent robes,

BOOK I.

Tritonia ! goddess of the new born skies,
Birth-day of heaven, wise daughter of the A LL W ISE ;
When from Jove's head in perfect sapience born,
Of heaven you rose the first empyreal morn,
As erst descend — — —
To mortals thy immortal charms display,
And in our Lake thy heavenly form survey!

Or rather T HOU , whom ancient prophet stiles
V ENUS U RANIA ! born the babe of smiles,
When from the deep thy bright emergence sprung,

CANTO III.

Though some of old, and some of modern date,
Penurious, their victorious heroes fed
With barren praise alone; yet thou, my Muse!
Benevolent with more indulgent eyes
Behold the' immortal Hobbinol; reward
With due regalement his triumphant toils.
Let Quixote's hardy courage, and renown,
With Sancho's prudent care be meetly join'd.
O thou of bards supreme, Maeonides!
What well-fed heroes grace thy hallow'd page!
Laden with glorious spoils, and gay with blood