SEE, thro' this air, this ocean, and this earth,
All matter quick, and bursting into birth.
Above, how high progreffive life may go!
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vaft chain of being! which from God began,
Nature etherial, human, angel, mán ;
Beaft, bird, fish, infect, what no eye can see,
No glass can reach; from infinite to thee,
From thee to nothing. On fuperior pow'rs
Were we to prefs, inferior might on ours;
Or in the full creation leave a void,
Were, one step broken, the great scale's destroy'd :
From nature's chain whatever link you ftrike,
Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.
And, if each fyftem in gradation roll,
Alike effential to th' amazing whole,
The least confufion but in one, not all
That fyftem only, but the whole must fall.
Let earth, unbalanc'd from her orbit fly,
Planets and funs run lawless thro' the sky;
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurl'd,
Being on being wreck'd, and world on world;
Heaven's whole foundations to their centre nod,
And nature trembles to the throne of God.
All this dread ORDER break, for whom? for thee?
Vile worm! Oh madness! pride! impiety!
What if the foot, ordain'd the duft to tread,
Or hand, to toil, afpir'd to be the head?
What if the head, the eye, or ear, repin'd
To ferve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Juft as abfurd for any part to claim
To be another, in this gen'ral frame :
Just as abfurd, to mourn the tasks or pains,
The great directing MIND OF ALL ordains.
All are but parts of one ftupendous whole,
Whofe body nature is, and God the foul:
That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the fame,
Great in the earth, as in th' etherial frame;
Warms in the fun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and bloffoms in the trees;
Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unfpent ;
Breathes in our foul, informs our mortal part,
As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;
As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns,
As the rapt feraph that adores and burns
To him no high no low, ao great no fmall
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.
Cease then, nor ORDER imperfection name :
Our proper blifs depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heaven bestows on thee.
Submit. In this, or any other sphere,
Secure to be as bleft as thou canft bear
Safe in the hand of one difpofing Pow'r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.
All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not fee;
All difcord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, univerfal good:
And, fpite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite,
One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.
CONFIDENCE IN DIVINE PROTECTION.
How are thy fervants bleft, O Lord!
How fure is their defence!
Eternal Wisdom is their guide,
Their help Omnipotence.
In foreign realms, and lands remote,
Supported by thy care,
Through burning climes I pafs'd unhurt,
And breath'd in tainted air.
Thy mercy fweeten❜d ev'ry foil,
Made ev'ry region please ;
The hoary Alpine hills it warm'd,
And fmooth'd the Tyrrhene feas.
Think, O my foul, devoutly think,.
How, with affrighted eyes,
Thou faw'ft the wide extended deep
In all its horrors rife !
Confufion dwelt in ev'ry face,
And fear in ev'ry heart,
When waves on waves, and gulfs in gulfs,
O'ercame the pilot's art.
Yet then, from all my griefs, O Lord,
Thy mercy fet me free;
While in the confidence of pray'r
My foul took hold on thee.
For tho' in dreadful whirls we hung
High on the broken wave,
I knew thou wert not flow to hear,
Nor impotent to fave.
The ftorm was laid, the winds retir'd,
Obedient to thy will;
The fea, that roar'd at thy command,
At thy command was still.
In midft of dangers, fears, and deaths,
Thy goodness I'll adore ;
And praise thee for thy mercies past,
And humbly hope for more.
My life, if thou preferv'st my life,
Thy facrifice fhall be ;
And death, if death must be my doom,
Shall join my foul to thee.
SECTION XXII.
HYMN ON A REVIEW OF THE SEASONS.
THESE, as they change, Almighty Father, thefe,
Are but the varied God. The rolling year
Is full of thee. Forth in the pleafing Spring
Thy beauty walks, Thy tenderness and love.
Wide flush the fields; the foftening air is balm,
Echo the mountains round; the forest smiles;
And every fenfe, and every heart is joy.
Then comes Thy glory in the fummer months,
With light and heat refulgent. Then Thy fun
Shoots full perfection thro' the fwelling year;
And oft Thy voice in dreadful thunder fpeaks;
And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve,
By brooks and groves, in hollow whifp'ring gales,
Thy bounty fhines in autumn unconfin'd,
And spreads a common feast for all that lives.
In winter awful Thou! with clouds and ftorms
Around Thee thrown, tempeft o'er tempeft roll'd,
Majestic darkness! On the whirlwinds wind,
Riding fublime, Thou bidst the world adore ;
And humbleft nature with Thy northern blast.
Mysterious round! what fkill, what force divine,
Deep felt, in thefe appear! a fimple train,
Yet fo delightful mix'd, with fuch kind art,
Such beauty and beneficence combin'd;
Shade, unperceiv'd, fo foft'ning into fhade,
And all fo forming an harmonious whole,
That, as they ftill fucceed, they ravish still.
But wand'ring oft, with brute unconfcious gaze,
Man marks not Thee, marks not the mighty hand,
That, ever bufy, wheels the filent spheres;
Works in the fecret deep; fhoots, fteaming, thence
The fair profufion that o'erfpreads the spring;
Flings from the fun direct the flaming day;
Feeds ev'ry creature; hurls the tempeft forth;
And, as on earth this greatful change revolves,
With tranfport touches all the springs of life.
Nature, attend! join ev'ry living foul,
Beneath the spacious temple of the sky,
In adoration join! and, ardent, raise
One general fong!
Ye, chief, for whom the whole creation fmiles,
At once the head, the heart, and tongue of all,
Crown the great hymn!
For me, when I forget the darling theme,
Whether the bloffom blows; the fummer ray
Ruffets the plain; infpiring autumn gleams;
Or winter rifes in the black'ning east;
Be my tongue mute, may fancy paint no more,
And dead to joy, forget my heart to beat!
Should fate command me to the fartheft verge
Of the
green earth, to distant barb'rous climes,
Rivers unknown to fong: where first the fun
Gilds Indian mountains, or his fetting beam
Flames on th' Atlantic ifles; 'tis nought to me;
Since God is ever present, ever felt,
In the void waste as in the city full;
And where HE vital breathes there must be joy.
When e'en at last the solemn hour shall come,
And wing my myftic flight to future worlds,
I cheerful will obey; there, with new pow'rs,
Will rifing wonders fing: I cannot go
Where UNIVERSAL LOVE not fmiles around,
Sustaining all yon orbs, and all their funs;
From feeming evil ftill educing good,
And better thence again, and better ftill,
In infinite progreffion. But I lofe
Myfelf in HIM, in light ineffable!
Come then, expreffive filence, mufe his praise.
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