Broods o'er the eggs, in airy caverns laid, 380 Alike the menstruum, as sustaining food: UNIVERSAL BEAUTY. This, and the two ensuing books, contain and finish THUS does the maz'd inexplicable round, Ver. 364. Broods o'er the eggs.] affording a commodious receptacles or nursery for the eggs of numberless animalcules—— Ver. 566. Gives motion.] conveying the watery inhabitants in their element by the assistance of the swimming bladder— Ver. 367. Gives music.] modulating and composing as it were one universal organ for sound and music, so as the atmosphere becomes an entire harmony Ver. 370. Here hush'd.] affording the pleasure and sweetness of serenity- Ver. 371. And here impearl'd.] the nourishment of dews Ver. 372. Salubrious here.] and the health of winds, or ventilations, that purge the noxious vapours and preserve nature fresh and vigorous Ver. 374. Here buoys the bird.] wafting the winged tribes in their airy voyages—— Ver. 376. Here sits voluptuous.] and, by a speedy navigation, spreading commerce and society throughout the globe. Ver. 378. Its varied power.] The various influence Or rais'd sublime in prospect, while he turns, Where to begin, proceed, or how conclude, 10 20 [fell: How from the Sun's bright car the headlong driver For while the circumambient air we sing, 30 40 of the air on all bodies, animate or inanimate: first, in the generation of particular beings; then, in their nutrition; thirdly, affording a healing balsam to the hurts or wounds of all creatures, when recoverable; but if past remedy, fourthly, hastening their dissolution, to rid the world of the nuisance, by restoring the matter to its original principle of nativity; fifthly, to send again the new-modelled being blooming afresh in animal life, or vegetation. For the use of the atmosphere as a medium and mirror, vide book ii. line 33, &c. Ver. 23. Ver. 27. Dedalian plumage fail.] Icarus. ..........youth we read.] Bellerophon. ...driver fell.] Phaeton. Ver. 33. For while the circumambient air.] The advantage of the atmosphere's elastic texture; by which it yields to, and closes imperceptibly upon, all moving bodies- Ver. 36. How objects.] the surprising transparency, continuity, and coherence of its parts, forming an uninterrupted medium for the conveyance of all objects to the eye Ver. 37. For Nature.] by which it is, as it were, an universal looking-glass, wherein all Nature beholds, admires, and enjoys her own complete perfections Ver. 41. How, as a talisman.] Its curious disposition for the conveyance of light; which would be of no use in vacuo, as it is only perceptible itself, by rendering other objects visible. Reflects, inflects, refracts the orient ray; Thus, borne on airy wings, the radiance flies, Of numbers summ'd or multiply'd by thought! Whom first, and last, and ever bless'd, we sing- 50 60 70 Ver. 43. Reflects, inflects.] Its still more wonderful quality, in not only reflecting, but refracting, and inflecting the morning and evening beam; in appearance, lifting the Sun about four degrees above his station, and refracting the light to us when the Sun is about eighteen degrees below the horizon; by which means our day is prolonged about two hours, and the tedious night in the frigid zones shortened annually about thirty-two days Ver. 49. With sweet preumbling.] by refraction of the rays creating the dawn and gradual twilight; without which we should be suddenly immersed in an intolerable flood of day, and without a moment's warning shut up in immediate darkness. Ver. 51. Thus, born on airy wings.] The use of light must be apparent to as many as have eyes to enjoy its benefit; but much more to those who, the further they pry into Nature, by the assistance of this element, will still more and more discover an inexhaustible fund for delight and admiration—— Ver. 55. For wide as universal Nature.] What can be more amazing than the expansion and extension of light, which, though a body, propagated from body, and ponderous in its nature, is so thin and subtile, as to reach and dilate through an inconceivable compass of space, before the whole content would amount to one drachm of weight Ver. 61. Where matter borders.] The swiftness and length of its progress is no less admirable, extending possibly ad infinitum, and moving in one second of time near two hundred thousand of our miles; without which miraculous velocity, its useful and glorious effect and influence could never be preserved- Ver. 65. But whence the light's.] and as this perpetuated motion and vigour has not the least relation to any property inherent in matter, it can only be accounted for as flowing from the original Fountain of light and truth- Ver. 69. Who only could.] who alone could speed Kindle the mass to incorporeal speed; 80 Wide to the beam his ample sea he spreads, To fire the crystal of the cooling fount. and support this his winged messenger, on his universal errand to Nature- Ver. 73. With heat.] giving power to him only of unsealing her treasures, and unfolding her beauties; whereby the world's glorious and harmonious system becomes obvious, and the whole evidently as elegant as it is useful. Ver. 79. The warring elements.] Is it not wonderful, that even Almighty power, out of one principle of matter, should constitute four; and by an endless compounding, modifying, and changing those four, should produce that infinite variety which is visible in the universe? Ver. 83. ........ eldest born.] Light. Beside the two elements of air and light, already treated of, what a spacious field do the waters, and first the ocean, yield for contemplation and praise! Ver. 87. Wide to the beam.] In the expansion of its superficies, without which it would never afford a sufficient quantity of vapours, to supply the thirsty land Ver. 88. And deep beneath.] the methods by which its waters are preserved pure from corruption, by the mixture of salts, whose weight is calculated to prevent their exhaling- Ver. 95. Th' Almighty Fiat.] the number, size, and qualities of its inhabitants, all adapted to its gross and tempestuous medium Ver. 103. These have their palaces.] being provided, without their own labour, with all the delights and conveniences of life Ver. 105. Wide is the copious hand.] as well as nourishment for the support of it Nor less the grateful light salutes their eye, Its murm'ring flux with pale dominion guides, 120 Its bosom pants beneath the vigorous heat, 140 110 To bladders the circumfluous moisture swell; (A stiffening clay cements the spacious vale) And thence perpetual pour the winding stream; 130 | When from on high the rapid tempest 's hurl'd, Enlivening as a sneeze to man's inferior world: The frigid chymist culls the mineral store, The glossy spherules of metallic ore; Ver. 107. Nor less.] their ocean being a medium Sublimes with nitre the sulphureous foam, and atmosphere to them, as our atmosphere is to And hoards contagion in Heaven's ample dome, us; and equally suited to their natures, for respi- Where Nature's magazine fermenting lies, ration, as the conveyance of light from the hea-Till the bright ray athwart the welkin flies; venly luminaries Ver. 113. Its murm'ring flux.] How admirably is the Moon's influence on tides (which preserves the great body of waters froin stagnation) regulated, to the very point that can alone conduce to order and advantage: were she nearer, or larger; further off, or less; or were there more moons, so as on any hand the influence should be in the least altered; the whole Earth would be rendered uninhabitable, by being poisoned with stagnated vapours, or perpetually overflowed with deluges Ver. 123. Whence through the globe.] as there is no point from whence the riches of Nature do not flow in upon us; so there are two (though seemingly most opposite) methods of supplying us with sweet and refreshing waters; one perennial, and from beneath, being thence attracted through our globe, as any liquid when touched by a piece of sugar; which cannot be ascribed to the pressure of our atmosphere, as it is readier performed in vacuo; the salts being separated by filtration through the strata, and the rising waters being opposed by a clayey substance that generally lies near the surface of the lower lands, they proceed to the mountains, from whence, by the advantage of a descent, they spread wealth and pleasure round all the Earth- Ver. 133. While ocean thus.] The other method being by exhalation, the manner as above described; for heat being the most subtile, light, and agile of all bodies (if it may be called more than a quality of body) by its subtilty penetrates, and by its levity rarifies the humid parts of matter; and then, by its agility, breaking loose, carries off the parts so rarified; which being by that means rendered lighter than the air, mount till they rest or 150 160 High rage the small incendiary inspires, float in that part of the atmosphere that bears a specific or proportionable gravity; and hence arises Ver. 144. And form umbrellas.] the use, beauty, and variety of our meteors; for as the chief operator in raising the vapours is heat, so on the other hand | as Ver. 157. Their shivering essence.] first rain, by expulsion of the rarifying heat; upon which the little bladders or vesicles, knocking against each other, conglobe in the contact, and growing heavier than the atmosphere, fall down in larger or smaller drops, according as the constituent parts of the cloud were more or less contiguous Ver. 161. When from on high.] frequently causing storms of wind, by condensing, and thereby destroying the equilibrium of the atmosphere; the parts so condensed, pressing upon the parts more rare, and dilated, by warmth; which pressure produces the wind, which is no other than a current of air- Ver. 163. The frigid chymist.] thunder and lightning. With various skill the chilling artist works, The soil still rising from the deep retires, And mediate to the neighb'ring Heaven aspires. Hence, where the spring its surging effluence boils, 180 The stream ne'er refluent on the fount recoils, But trips progressive, with descending pace, And tunes, through many a league, its warbling 210 And o'er the vapour throws a whitening shroud; 200 Still central from the wide circumfluous waves, (Whose briny dash each bounded region laves) Ver. 181. With sudden nitre.] Snow. Ver. 188. And chills the tempest.] Hail. Ver. 191. Or constant.] Or where the cold is a constant inhabitant in the upper regions, which, by reason of their distance from the Earth, are but little affected by the reflection of the sun-beams, which reflection chiefly promotes the intenseness of heat; there the rising vapours are repelled, because, meeting with the cold, they, in a great measure, lose that active principle of heat, which was the chief motive of their ascension; and floating as the gale veers, are obstructed in their march by the mountains, or higher lands; and more vapours still gathering as they are obstructed, their parts, or little spherules, become more neighbourly, or contiguous, than when they had a freedom of ranging wide from each other; and so jostling, run into, or incorporate one with the other; and descending by the laws of gravity—— Ver. 198. And soaking.] soak into the hills, that are generally of a gravelly, mineral, or lax substance, through which the moisture distills; till finding, or making a vent to issue at, by the advantage of a descent, they pour their fertile and delicious streams over all the Earth- maze; Here blended swells with interfering rills; Thus beauty flows in one perpetual ring, 230 250 Ver. 242. And into ocean pours.] and disemboguing their floods into the sea, there finish Ver. 243. Thus beauty flows.] only still to repeat and continue the eternal circle and order in all things Ver. 203. Still central from the wide.] and this advantage of a descent is the more wonderful and happy, inasmuch as without it we should have no rivers, and consequently be poisoned and overflowed with the standing and stagnating waters: for who, but the Almighty Director, could lead the currents from their first source, by a gradual winding, and Ver. 255. Since he.] that order, which the Sunice declivity, frequently through a miraculous preme Self-Existence, to manifest his own power length of about three thousand English miles? and goodness, has caused to flow through an inwhile flowing perpetually through various climates, finite variety of creatures; and yet has founded and nations of different manners and languages, that infinite variety on the union of a few princithey bear and spread around society, trade, com- ples; which few principles are further and ultimerce, riches, plenty, refreshment, luxuriant mately resolvable, and united in him, the only health, blooming verdure, and endless delight--Original, and Self Eternal Principle. That Deity throughout the world may shine, 260 Nature, bright effluence of the One Supreme! There most direct where seeming most inflex'd, 270 Can atoms be omniscient, to discern What mode mysterious paints the purpling rose, necessity is the supposed operator here, if it be asked, is this necessity distinct from the things it necessitates? the answer is, yes, by all means; since, to assert otherwise, is allowing it to be the thing operated, and not the operator; and so the original superior cause be as far to seek as ever. If then it be asked, is this necessity conscious, intelligent, free, or designing? that doubtless is denied, else we have there the very God we desire. But then, if it should be unluckily started, that if Ver. 271. Say, does each mote.] The reason why this necessity is neither designing, conscious, nor I represent, as above, the various opinions of athe-intelligent, it is altogether as blind as matter; and ists, in one ridiculous light (when they may be if not free, is as much in need of, and equally supposed to differ much in their notions, and the subjected to a higher cause as matter can possibly learned treatises they have written for our instruc- be; being consequently a necessity necessitated, tion to carry a great appearance of ingenious and and not acting, but acted upon; if this, I say, metaphysical argumentation) is, that the truth, should be objected, there must either be recourse and matter of fact, upon inquiry and reflection, to the old wise solution, that so it happens, or a will be found exactly and literally as I have re- higher necessity or unintelligent cause be alleged, presented it; and that all their ambages and cir- and so another to support the second, and another cumlocutions centre and turn upon one point, the third, ad infinitum; like the elephant bearing which is this, that whoever attempts to rob the the Earth, the crab the elephant, and so on; which world of a Superintendant Providence, or Design- procedure, ad infinitum, to assign a cause, shows ing Wisdom, does thereby necessarily ascribe all that, ad infinitum, they will be as far as ever from that is of connection, order, or beauty in the world, assigning a true cause, and so, ad infinitum, no to blind and insensible matter; and is, therefore, cause at all will be assigned. guilty of the ridiculous absurdities and contradictions above set forth. For, as the wit or invention of men has never yet laid down any atheistical hypothesis, however subtile or various, but what is evidently resolvable into, first, a fortuitous concourse of atoms; secondly, an eternal operating necessity; or, thirdly, an endless round or succession of causes and effects; if those gentlemen, who would thus point out our God, mean, as they often pretend, that he is any thing more than bare matter, we shall soon find their intention, by separating the terms they have annexed as operators for the assistance of stupid matter: and on our part it will be but common gratitude to inquire to which of these three pretended causes we are obliged for the particular benefits we receive, or (as members of the great whole) for the formation and order of the universe, or nature itself. The third and last shift, is an endless succession of causes and effects, where all the subtilty consists in the word endless; for whatever is incapable of being a cause in any time, ever was, and ever will, through eternity, continue equally incapable. And here, if the question be asked, whether any of these effects be original, independent, or superintendent? the answer is negative, if it were only to avoid a direct absurdity and contradiction: if then it be asked, what these effects are? the answer is, that the effects are no other than matter variously modified and actuated; for that is the utmost degree of perfection they will allow them, for fear of bordering too near upon spirit. Again, if it be asked on the other hand, whether, among the causes, there is any one original or independent? the answer doubtless is, no; for to allow there were, would be contrary to the hypothesis laid down. But then observe the necessary consequence of all this; for first, if none of these effects are original, independent, or superintendent; and they all consist of matter variously modified and actuated, they are no other than matter still, whatever action or mo First then, as chance is the operator assigned in a fortuitous concourse of atoms, we would know what this chance, this wise and ingenious artist, is-is it a substance? No, that is not pretended. Matter? nor that.—Quality of matter? nor that neither. What, neither subject nor attribute?-dification be produced. And secondly, if on the No.-It is then, what is not; or is not any thing that is: it is, in truth, what, by way of apology, we assign as a cause of any effect produced, when our ignorance, or idleness, will not permit us to inquire or find any other; a meaning without an idea; or even less-a word without a meaning. And thus, when chance is introduced for the solution, chance unluckily happens to leave all the operating burden upon that poor matter it was called to assist. As, in the second place, I also fear there will be immediate occasion for calling upon chance to help out their necessity, and that it will prove equally treacherous as before. For as other hand, among the endless causes, there is not any one cause original or independent, there is not any one cause but what is effected; and every one being effected, the whole, which consists of them, is effected, and therefore is all effect; and all the effects being matter actuated and modified, the whole is consequently no other than matter actuated and modified; and so finally recurs, and in every light, view, shift, and evasion, resolves in this, that matter alone operates upon itself; and, though destitute of design, wisdom, foresight, order, or direction, yet wisely foresees, designs, directs, and orders all things. |