reature to creature, and of all creatures to man. The adations of sense, instinct, thought, reflection, reason; at reason alone countervails all the other faculties, 207 -232. How much farther this order and subordination f living creatures may extend above and below us; were ny part of which broken, not that part only, but the hole connected creation, must be destroyed. The exavagance, madness, and pride, of such a desire, 23358. The consequence of all, the absolute submission ue to providence, both as to our present and future tate, 281. AWAKE, my ST. JOHN! leave all meaner things A mighty maze ! but not without a plan : A wild, where weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot; Together let us beat this ample field, I. Say first, of God above, or man below, 5 10 15 From which to reason, or to which refer? 20 T'hro' worlds unnumber'd though the God be known, Tis ours to trace him only in our own. He, who through vast immensity can pierce, May tell why heaven has made us as we are. Look'd through? Or can a part contain the whole ? And drawn supports, upheld by God, or thee? 25 30 IL Presumptuous man! the reason wouldst thou find, Why form'd so weak, so little, and so blind? First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess, Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less? Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade? Or ask of yonder argent fields above, Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove. Of systems possible, if 'tis confest, Then, in the scale of reasoning life 'tis plain, In human works, though labored on with pain, 40 45 50 In God's one single can its end produce, When the proud steed shall know why man restrains Then say not man 's imperfect, heav'n in fault : not 70 If to be perfect in a certain sphere, What matter, soon or late, or here or there? 75 As who began a thousand years ago. III. Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of fate, All but the page prescribed, their present state; From brutes what men, from men what spirits know : Or who could suffer being here below? 80 The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, Had he thy reason, would he skip and play? Pleas'd to the last, he crops the flowery food, 85 Beautiful that.. Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd, And now a bubble burst, and now a world. Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar; 90 95 Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; His soul, proud science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk or milky way; 100 Yet simple nature to his hope has given Behind the cloud-topp'd hill, an humbler. heaven, Some safer world, in depth of woods embrac'd, 105 Some happier island in the watery waste, Where slaves once more their native land behold, No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold. TO BE, contents his natural desire,→→ He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire; 110 But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company. IV. Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense Weigh thy opinion against providence : Call imperfection, what thou fanciest such, 115 Say, here he gives too little, there too much : If man alone engross not heaven's high care, 120 Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes, 125 Aspiring to be angels, men rebel : And who but wishes to invert the laws Of order, sins against the eternal cause. V. Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine? Earth for whose use ? Pride answers, 'tis for mine: For me kind nature wakes her genial power; 130 135 The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew; My footstool earth, my canopy the skies.' 140 But errs not nature from this gracious end, From burning suns when livid deaths descend, ་ 'No,' 'tis replied the first almighty cause Acts not by partial, but by general laws; 145 The exceptions few; some change since all began: Then nature deviates; and can man do less? 150 |