For its support, has no provision made,
No pillar rear'd, and no foundation laid:
When, by occult and unknown gravity,
'Tis to its station brought, it there must lie
In undisturb'd repose; in vain we ask him, why?
Say, if the world uncaus'd did ne'er begin,
If Nature what it is has always been;
Why do no arms the poet's song employ
Before the Theban war, or siege of Troy?
And why no elder histories relate

The rise of empires, and the turns of state?
If generations infinite are gone,
Tell, why so late were arts and letters known?
Their rise and progress is of recent date,
And still we mourn their young imperfect state.
If unconfin'd duration we regard,
And time be with eternity compar'd,
But yesterday the sages of the East
First some crude knowledge of the stars exprest.
In sacred emblems Egypt's sons conceal'd
Their mystic learning, rather than reveal'd.
Greece after this, for subtle wit renown'd,
The sciences and arts improv'd or found;
First, causes search'd, and Nature's secret ways;
First taught the bards to sing immortal lays;
The charips of music and of painting rais'd,
And was for building first, and first for sculpture,
prais'd.

Man in mechanic arts did late excel,
That succour life, and noxious power repel;
Which yield supplies for necessary use,
Or which to pleasure or to pomp conduce.
How late was found the loadstone's magic force,
That seeks the north, and guides the sailor's course!
How newly did the printer's curious skill
Th' enlighten'd world with letter'd volumes fill !
But late the kindled powder did explode
The massy ball, and the brass tube unload;
The tube, to whose loud thunder Albion owes
The laurel honours that adorn her brows;
Which awful, during eight renown'd campaigns,
From Belgia's hills, and Gallia's frontier plains,
Did through th' admiring realms around proclaim
Marlborough's swift conquest, and great Anna's
name!

By this the leader of the British powers Shook Menin, Lilla, and high Ganda's towers; Next his wide engines levell'd Tournay's pride, Whose lofty walls advancing foes defy'd :

Though nitrous tempests, and clandestine death,
Fill'd the deep caves and numerous vaults beneath,
Which, form'd with art, and wrought with endless
toil,

Ran through the faithless excavated soil.
See, the intrepid Briton delves his way,
And to the caverns lets in war and day;
Quells subterranean foes, and rises crown'd
With spoils, from martial labour under ground.
Mons, to reward Blarignia's glorious field,
To Marlborough's terrours did submissive yield.
The hero next assail'd proud Doway's head;
And, spite of confluent inundations spread
Around, in spite of works for sure defence
Rais'd with consummate art, and cost immense,
With unexampled valour did succeed:
(Villars, thy host beheld the hardy deed!)
Aria, Venantia, Bethune, and Bouchain,
Of his long triumphs close th' illustrious train
While thus his thunder did his wrath declare,
And artful lightnings flash'd along the air,

VOL. X.

Somona's castles, with th' impetuous roar, -Astonish'd tremble, but their warriors more: Lutetia's lofty towers, with terrour struck, Tell, Gallic chiefs, for you have often heard Caught the contagion, and at distance shook. His dreadful cannon, and bis fire rever'd, Tell, how you rag'd, when your pale cohorts rum From Marlborough's sword, the battle scarce begun, Tell, Scaldis! Legia, tell! how to their head Your frighted waves in refluent terrours fled. While Marlborough's cannon thus prevails by land, Britain's sea-chiefs, by Anna's high command, Resistless o'er the Tuscan billows ride,

And strike rebellowing caves on either side;
Their sulphur tempests ring from shore to shore,
Now make the Ligur start, and now the Moor.
Hark! how the sound disturbs imperious Rome,
Shakes her proud hills, and rolls from dome to
dome!

Her mitred princes hear the echoing noise,
And, Albion, dread thy wrath, and awful voice.
Aided by thee, the Austrian eagles rise
Sublime, and triumph in Iberian skies.
What panic fear, what anguish, what distress,
What consternation, Gallia's sons express,
While, trembling on the coast, they from afar
View the wing'd terrours, and the floating war!

CREATION.

BOOK VI.

THE ARGUMENT.

THE fabulous account of the first rise of mankind, given by the ancient poets. The opinions of many of the Greek philosophers concerning that point not less ridiculous. The assertion of Epicurus and his followers, that our first parents were the spontaneous production of the Earth, most absurd and incredible. The true origin

of man inquired into. He is proved to be at first created by an intelligent, arbitrary Cause; from the characters and impressions of contrivance, art, and wisdom, which appear in his formation. The wonderful progress of it. The figure, situation, and connection of the bones. The system of the veins, and that of the arteries. The manner of the circulation of the blood described. Nutrition, how performed. The system of the nerves. Of the animal spirits, how made, and how employed in muscular motion and sensation. A wise, intelligent Cause inferred from these appearances.

Bb

And, foes to natural science and divine,
In beauteous phrase made impious notions shine,
In strains sublime their different fictions sung,
Whence the first parents of our species sprung.
Prometheus (so some elder poets say)
Temper'd and forin'd a paste of purer clay,
To which, well mingled with the river's stream,
His artful hand gave human shape and frame;
Then, with warm life his figures to inspire,
The bold projector stole celestial fire.

While others tell us, how the human brood
Ow'd their production to the fruitful wood;
How from the laurel and the ash they sprung,
And infants on the oak, like acorns, hung:
The crude conceptions prest the bending trees,
Till cherish'd by the sun-beams, by degrees,
Ripe children dropp'd on all the soil around,
Peopled the woods, and overspread the ground.
Great Jupiter, (so some were pleas'd to sing)
Of fabled gods the father and the king,
The moving prayer of Æacus did grant,
And into men and women turn'd the ant.

Some tell, Deucalion and his Pyrrha threw Obdurate stones, which o'er their shoulders flew, Then, shifting shape, receiv'd a vital flame, And men and women (wondrous change!) be

came.

And thus the hard and stubborn race of man
From animated rock and flint began.

Now to the learned schools of Greece repair,
Who Chance the author of the world declare:
Then judge if wise philosophers excel
Those idle tales, which wanton poets tell.

They say,
"at first to living things the Earth,
At her formation, gave spontaneous birth;
When youthful heat was through the glebe diffus'd,
Mankind, as well as insects, she produc'd ;
That genial wombs by parent Chance were form'd,
Adapted to the soil, which, after warm'd
And cherish'd by the Sun's enlivening beam,
With human offsprings did in embryo teem ;
These, nourish'd there, a while imprison'd lay,
Then broke their yielding bands, and forc'd their
way;

The field a crop of reasoning creatures crown'd,
And crying infants grovell'd on the ground;
A milky store was by the mother Earth
Pour'd from her bosom, to sustain the birth;
In strength and bulk increas'd, the earth-born race
Could move, and walk, and ready change their
O'er every hill and verdant pasture stray, [place,
Skip o'er the lawns, and by the rivers play,
Could eat the tender plant, and by degrees
Browse on the shrub, and crop the budding trees;
The fragrant fruit from bending branches shake,
And with the crystal stream their thirst at plea-
sure slake "

The Earth, by these applauded schools, 'tis said,
This single crop of men and women bred;
Who, grown adult, (so Chance, it seems, en-
join'd)

Did male and female propagate their kind.
This wise account Lucretian sages give,
Whence our first parents their descent derive.
Severely on this subject to dispute,
And tales so wild, so senseless, to confute,
Were with inglorious labour to disgrace
The schools, and Reason's dignity debase.
But since, with this of man's original,
The parts remaining of their scheme must fall,

mand,

young,

While her prolific energy was strong,
A race of men she in her bosom bred,
And all her fields with infant people spread :
But that first birth her strength did so exhaust,
The genial mother so much vigour lost,
That, wasted now by age, in vain we hope
She should again bring forth a human crop."

Mean time, she's not with labour so much worn,
But she can still the hills with woods adorn.
See, from her fertile bosom, how she pours
Verdant conceptions, and, refresh'd with showers,
Covers the field with corn, and paints the mead
with flowers!

See, her tall sons, the cedar, oak, and pine,
The fragrant myrtle, and the juicy vine,
Their parent's undecaying strength declare,
Which with fresh labour, and unwearied care,
Supplies new plants, her losses to repair.
Then, since the Earth retains her fruitful power
To procreate plants, the forest to restore;
Say, why to nobler animals alone
Should she be feeble, and unfruitful grown?
After one birth she ceas'd not to be young,
The globe was succulent, the mould was strong,
Could she at once fade in her perfect bloom,
Waste all her spirits, and her wealth consume?

Grant that her vigour might in part decrease,
From like productions must she ever cease?
To form a race she might have still inclin❜d,
Though of a monstrous, or a dwarfish kind.
Why did she never, by one crude essay,
Imperfect lines and rudiments display?
In some succeeding ages had been found
A leg or arm unfinish'd in the ground;
And sometimes in the fields might ploughing
swains

Turn up soft bones, and break unfashion'd veins.
But grant the Earth was lavish of her power,
And spent at once her whole prolific store;
Would not so long a rest new vigour give,
And all her first fertility revive?
Learn, Epicurus, of th' experienc'd swain,
When frequent wounds have worn th' impo-
poverish'd plain :

Let him a while the furrow not molest,

But leave the glebe to heavenly dews and rest;
If then he till and sow the harrow'd field,
Will not the soil a plenteous harvest yield?
The Sun, by you, Lucretius, is assign'd
The other parent of all human kind.
But does he ever languish or decay?
Docs he not equal influence display,

And pierce the plains with the same active ray?
If then the glebe, warm'd with the solar flame,
Men once produc'd, it still should do the same.
You say, 66
the Sun's prolific beams can form
Th' industrious ant, the gaudy fly, and worm;
Can make each plant, and tree, the gardener's

care,

Beside their leaves, their proper insects bear:
Then might the Heavens, in some peculiar state,
Or lucky aspect, beasts and men create."
But late inquirers by their glasses find
That every insect, of each different kind,
In its own egg, cheer'd by the solar rays,
Organs involv'd and latent life displays:
This truth, discover'd by sagacious art,
Does all Lucretian arrogance subvert.
Proud wits, your frenzy own, and, overcome
By Reason's force, be now for ever dumb.
If, learned Epicurus, we allow
Our race to Earth primeval being owe,
How did she male and female sexes frame?
Say, if from Fortune this distinction came?
Or did the conscious parent then foresee
By one conception she should barren be,
And therefore, wisely provident, design'd
Prolific pairs to propagate the kind;
That, thus preserv'd, the godlike race of man
Might not expire ere yet it scarce began?

Since, by these various arguments, 'tis clear
The teeming mould did not our parents bear;
By more severe inquiries let us trace
The origin and source of human race.

I think, I move, I therefore know I am;
While I have been, I still have been the same,
Since, from an infant, I a man became.
But though I am, few circling years are gone,
Since 1 in Nature's roll was quite unknown.
Then, since 'tis plain I have not always been,
I ask, from whence my being could begin?
I did not to myself existence give,
Nor from myself the secret power receive,
By which I reason, and by which I live.
I did not build this frame, nor do I know

The hidden springs from whence my motions flow.

If I had form'd myself, I had design'd A stronger body, and a wiser mind, From sorrow free, nor liable to pain; My passions should obey, and reason reign. Nor could my being from my parents flow, Who neither did the parts or structure know, Did not my mind or body understand, My sex determine, nor my shape command: Had they design'd and rais'd the curious frame, Inspir'd my branching veins with vital flaine, Fashion'd the heart, and hollow channels made, Through which the circling streams of life are play'd;

Had they the organs of my senses wrought, And form'd the wondrous principle of thought; Their artful work they must have better known, Explain'd its springs, and its contrivance shown.

[too,

If they could make, they might preserve mé Prevent my fears, or dissipate my woe. When long in sickness languishing I lay, They, with compassion touch'd, did mourn and

pray,

To soothe my pain, and mitigate my grief,
They said kind things, yet brought me no relief.
But whatsoever cause my being gave,
The Power that made me can its creature save.
If to myself I did not being give,
Nor from immediate parents did receive;
It could not from my predecessors flow,
They, than my parents, could not more bestow.
Should we the long depending scale ascend
Of sons and fathers, will it never end?

If 'twill, then must we through the order run
To some one man, whose being ne'er begun :
If that one man was sempiternal, why
Did he, since independent, ever die?
If from himself his own existence came,
The cause, that could destroy his being, name.
To seek my maker, thus in vain I trace
The whole successive chain of human race.
Bewilder'd I my author cannot find,

Till some First Cause, some Self-existent Mind,
Who form'd, and rules all Nature, is assign'd.

When first the womb did the crude embryo hold,

What shap'd the parts? what did the limbs unfold?
O'er the whole work in secret did preside,

Give quickening vigour, and each motion guide?
What kindled in the dark the vital flame,
And, ere the heart was form'd, push'd on the
reddening stream?

Then for the heart the aptest fibres strung?
And in the breast th' impulsive engine hung?
Say, what the various bones so wisely wrought?
How was their frame to such perfection brought?
What did their figures for their uses fit,
Their number fix, and joints adapted knit ;
And made them all in that just order stand,
Which motion, strength, and ornament, demand?
What for the sinews spun so strong a thread,
The curious loom to weave the muscles spread;
Did the nice strings of tended membranes drill,
And perforate the nerve with so much skill,
Then with the active stream the dark recesses fill?
The purple mazes of the veins display'd,
And all th' arterial pipes in order laid,
What gave the bounding current to the blood,
And to and fro convey'd the restless flood?

The living fabric now in pieces take,

Of every part due observation make;

All which such art discover, so conduce
To beauty, vigour, and each destin'd use ;
The atheist, if to search for truth inclin'd,
May in himself his full conviction find,
And from his body teach his erring mind.

When the crude embryo careful Nature breeds,
See how she works, and how her work proceeds;
While through the mass her energy she darts,
To free and swell the complicated parts,
Which only does unravel and untwist
Th' invelop'd limbs, that previous there exist.
And as each vital speck, in which remains
Th' entire, but rumpled animal, contains
Organs perplext, and clues of twining veins ;
So every fœtus bears a secret hoard,
With sleeping, unexpanded issue stor'd ;
Which numerous, but unquicken'd progeny,
Clasp'd and inwrapt within each other lie;
Engendering heats these one by one unbind,
Stretch their small tubes, and hamper'd nerves
unwind:

And thus, when time shall drain each magazine,
Crowded with men unborn, unripe, unseen,
Nor yet of parts unfolded; no increase
Can follow, all prolific power must cease.

Th' elastic spirits, which remain at rest
In the strait lodgings of the brain comprest,
While by the ambient womb's enlivening heat,
Cheer'd and awaken'd, first themselves dilate;
Then quicken'd and expanded every way,
The genial labourers all their force display:
They now begin to work the wondrons frame,
To shape the parts, and raise the vital flame;
For when th' extended fibres of the brain
Their active guests no longer can restrain,
They backward spring, which due effort compels
The labouring spirits fo forsake their cells;
The spirits thus exploded from their seat,
Swift from the head to the next parts retreat,
Force their admission, and their passage beat:
Their tours around th' unopen'd mass they take,
And by a thousand ways their inroads make,
Till there resisted they their race inflect,
And backward to their source their way direct.
Thus, with a steady and alternate toil,
They issue from, and to the head recoil;
By which their plastic function they discharge,
Extend their channels, and their tracks enlarge;
For, by the swift excursions which they make,
Still sallying from the brain, and leaping back,
They pierce the nervous fibre, bore the vein,
And stretch th' arterial channels, which contain
The various streams of life, that to and fro,
Through dark meanders, undirected flow;
Th' inspected egg this gradual change betrays,
To which the brooding hen expanding heat con-
veys.

The beating heart, demanded first for use,
Is the first muscle Nature does produce;
By this impulsive engine's constant aid,
The tepid floods are every way convey'd;
And did not Nature's care at first provide
The active heart, to push the circling tide,
All progress to her work would be denied."

The salient point, so first is call'd the heart,
Shap'd and suspended with amazing art,
By turns dilated, and by turns compress'd,
Expels and entertains the purple guest;
It sends from out its left contracted side
Into th' arterial tube its vital pride;

The heart, as said, from its contractive cave
On the left side, ejects the bounding wave;
Exploded thus, as splitting channels lead,
Upward it springs, or downward is convey'd ;
The crimson jets, with force elastic thrown,
Ascend, and climb the mind's imperial throne,
Arterial streams through the soft brain diffuse,
And water all its fields with vital dews:
From this o'erflowing tide the curious brain
Does through its pores the purer spirits strain;
Which to its inmost seats their passage make,
Whence their dark rise th' extended sinews take;
With all their mouths the nerves these spirits
drink,

Which through the cells of the fine strainer sink;
These all the channell'd fibres every way
For motion and sensation still convey.
The greatest portion of th' arterial blood,
By the close structure of the parts withstood,
Whose narrow meshes stop the grosser flood,
By apt canals and furrows in the brain,
Which here discharge the office of a vein,
Invert their current, and the heart regain

The shooting streams, which through another
The beating engine downward did explode, [road
To all th' inferior parts descend, and lave
The members with their circulating wave:
To make th' arterial treasure move as slow,
As Nature's ends demand, the channels grow
Still more contracted, as they farther go:
Besides, the glands, which o'er the body spread
Fine complicated clues of nervous thread,
Involv'd and twisted with th' arterial duct,
The rapid motion of the blood obstruct;
These labyrinths the circling current stay
For noble ends, which after we display.

Soon as the blood has pass'd the winding ways, And various turnings of the wondrous maze, From the entangled knot of vessels freed, It runs its vital race with greater speed; And from the parts and members most remote, By these canals the streams are backward brought, Which are of thinner coats and fewer fibres

wrought;

Till all the confluent rills their current join,
And in the ample porta vein combine.

This larger channel by a thousand roads
Enters the liver, and its store unloads;

Which from that store by proper inlets strains