The Poetical Works of Henry Brooke ... In Four Volumes Octavo. Revised and corrected by the Original Manuscript With a Portrait of the Author, and His Life By Miss Brooke. The Third Edition |
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 | The Poetical Works of Henry Brooke |  |
3
BOOK I.
Tritonia!
goddess of the new born skies,
Birth-day of heaven, wise daughter of the All Wise;
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!
Birth-day of heaven, wise daughter of the All Wise;
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 Thou, whom ancient prophet stiles
Venus Urania! born the babe of smiles,
When from the deep thy bright emergence sprung,
And Nature on thy form divinely hung;
Whose steps, by Loves and Graces kiss'd, advance,
And laughing Hours lead on the sprightly dance;
While Time, within eternal durance bound,
Harmonious moves on golden hinges round—
Such, Goddess! as when Silence wondering gazed,
And even thyself beheld thyself amazed;
Such haply by that Côon artist known,
Seated apparent queen on Fancy's throne;
From thence thy shape his happy canvas blest,
And colours dipt in heaven thy heavenly form confest—
Such, Goddess! thro' this virgin foliage shine;
Let kindling beauties glow thro' every line,
And every eye confess the work divine.
Venus Urania! born the babe of smiles,
4
And Nature on thy form divinely hung;
Whose steps, by Loves and Graces kiss'd, advance,
And laughing Hours lead on the sprightly dance;
While Time, within eternal durance bound,
Harmonious moves on golden hinges round—
Such, Goddess! as when Silence wondering gazed,
And even thyself beheld thyself amazed;
Such haply by that Côon artist known,
Seated apparent queen on Fancy's throne;
From thence thy shape his happy canvas blest,
And colours dipt in heaven thy heavenly form confest—
Such, Goddess! thro' this virgin foliage shine;
Let kindling beauties glow thro' every line,
And every eye confess the work divine.
O say, while yet, nor time, nor place was found,
And space immense in its own depth was drown'd;
If Nothing was, or Something yet was not,
Or tho' to be, e'erwhile was unbegot;
If caused, then how?—if causeless, why effect?
(No hand to form, nor model to direct)
Why ever made?—so soon?—or why so late?
What chance, what will, what freedom, or what fate?—
Matter, and spirit, fire, air, ocean, earth;
All Nature born, nor conscious of its birth!—
Alike unconscious did the womb disclose,
And Nothing wonder'd whence this Something rose—
Then, by what power?—or what such power could move?
Wisdom, or chance?—necessity, or love?
O, from what root could such high plenty grow?
From what deep fount such boundless oceans flow?
What fund could such unwearied wealth afford?
Subjects unnumber'd! where, O where's your Lord?
Whence are your attributes of time and place
Won from eternity and boundless space?
Motion from rest? just order from misrule?
A world from nought?—all empty, now all full!
From silence harmony? from darkness light?
And beamy day from everlasting night?
Light, matter, motion, music, order, laws!
And silent dark nonentity the cause?
But chance, you'll say—I ask you, chance of what,
If nothing was?—'tis answer'd, chance of nought.
Alike from matter moved , could Beauty rise,
The florid planets, and gay ambient skies;
Or painted skies, and rolling orbs, dispense
Perception, life, thought, reason, judgment, sense.
Mysterious Thought! swift Angel of the mind!
By space unbounded, tho' to space confined,
How dost thou glow with just disdain, how scorn,
That thought could ever think thee earthly born?
Thou who canst distance motion in thy flight,
Wing with aspiring plume the wondrous height,
Swifter than light outspeed the flame of day,
Pierce thro' the dark profound, and shame the darting ray;
Throughout the universal system range,
New form old systems, and new systems change;
Thro' nature traffick on, from pole to pole,
And stamp new worlds on thy dilated soul;
(By time unlimited, unbound by space)
Sure demonstration of thy heavenly race,
Derived from that, which is derived from none,
Which ever is—but of Himself alone!
And space immense in its own depth was drown'd;
If Nothing was, or Something yet was not,
Or tho' to be, e'erwhile was unbegot;
If caused, then how?—if causeless, why effect?
(No hand to form, nor model to direct)
5
What chance, what will, what freedom, or what fate?—
Matter, and spirit, fire, air, ocean, earth;
All Nature born, nor conscious of its birth!—
Alike unconscious did the womb disclose,
And Nothing wonder'd whence this Something rose—
Then, by what power?—or what such power could move?
Wisdom, or chance?—necessity, or love?
O, from what root could such high plenty grow?
From what deep fount such boundless oceans flow?
What fund could such unwearied wealth afford?
Subjects unnumber'd! where, O where's your Lord?
Whence are your attributes of time and place
Won from eternity and boundless space?
Motion from rest? just order from misrule?
A world from nought?—all empty, now all full!
From silence harmony? from darkness light?
And beamy day from everlasting night?
Light, matter, motion, music, order, laws!
And silent dark nonentity the cause?
6
If nothing was?—'tis answer'd, chance of nought.
Alike from matter moved , could Beauty rise,
The florid planets, and gay ambient skies;
Or painted skies, and rolling orbs, dispense
Perception, life, thought, reason, judgment, sense.
Mysterious Thought! swift Angel of the mind!
By space unbounded, tho' to space confined,
How dost thou glow with just disdain, how scorn,
That thought could ever think thee earthly born?
Thou who canst distance motion in thy flight,
Wing with aspiring plume the wondrous height,
Swifter than light outspeed the flame of day,
Pierce thro' the dark profound, and shame the darting ray;
Throughout the universal system range,
New form old systems, and new systems change;
Thro' nature traffick on, from pole to pole,
And stamp new worlds on thy dilated soul;
(By time unlimited, unbound by space)
Sure demonstration of thy heavenly race,
Derived from that, which is derived from none,
Which ever is—but of Himself alone!
7
O could'st thou search—nor may'st thou search in vain,
Haply some glimpse, some dawning to obtain,
Some taste divine of thy eternal spring,
Above those Heliconian bards to sing—
How He who inaccessible remains,
Yet omnipresent thro' all nature reigns;
Whose age blooms ever in eternal youth,
His substance, Beauty, and essential Truth,
Essential Truth! and Beauty's charm! in course,
Of boundless Love the ever boundless source!
Of boundless Love, which would not, could not miss,
To be the boundless source of boundless bliss!—
Beatitude, rejecting all access!
Repletion, never to be more, nor less!
Why this Ineffable, this Inexprest,
This Fulness in Himself, past utterance blest,
Spontaneous pour'd these wondrous worlds around,
And fill'd with blessings this immense profound?
Haply some glimpse, some dawning to obtain,
Some taste divine of thy eternal spring,
Above those Heliconian bards to sing—
How He who inaccessible remains,
Yet omnipresent thro' all nature reigns;
Whose age blooms ever in eternal youth,
His substance, Beauty, and essential Truth,
Essential Truth! and Beauty's charm! in course,
Of boundless Love the ever boundless source!
Of boundless Love, which would not, could not miss,
To be the boundless source of boundless bliss!—
Beatitude, rejecting all access!
Repletion, never to be more, nor less!
Why this Ineffable, this Inexprest,
This Fulness in Himself, past utterance blest,
Spontaneous pour'd these wondrous worlds around,
And fill'd with blessings this immense profound?
Swift rolled the spheres to their appointed place,
Jocund thro' heaven to run the various race;
Orb within orb in living circlets turn,
And central suns thro' every system burn;
Revolving planets on their gods attend,
And tow'rds each sun with awful reverence bend;
Still tow'rds the loved enlivening beam they wheel,
And pant, and tremble, like the amorous steel.
They spring, they revel in the blaze of day,
Bathe in the golden stream, and drink the orient ray;
Their blithe satellites with lively glance,
Celestial equipage, around them dance;
All, distance due, and beauteous order keep,
And spinning soft, upon their centers sleep:
The eternal clue the mazy labyrinth guides,
While each in his appointed movement glides;
Transverse, ecliptick, oblique, round they run;
Like atoms wanton in the morning sun;
The seeming vagrants joy to cheat the view,
These turn, these change, these fly, and these pursue;
The implicit discipline to order tends,
And still in regular confusion ends—
Each to his native vortex is assign'd,
And magick circles every system bind;
A deeper charm each individual holds,
And firm within its atmosphere enfolds;
The secret spell, thro' every part, and whole,
Distinct, intire, invades it like a soul;
Its atoms at the amorous touch cohere,
And knit, in universal wedlock share.
Jocund thro' heaven to run the various race;
Orb within orb in living circlets turn,
And central suns thro' every system burn;
Revolving planets on their gods attend,
And tow'rds each sun with awful reverence bend;
8
And pant, and tremble, like the amorous steel.
They spring, they revel in the blaze of day,
Bathe in the golden stream, and drink the orient ray;
Their blithe satellites with lively glance,
Celestial equipage, around them dance;
All, distance due, and beauteous order keep,
And spinning soft, upon their centers sleep:
The eternal clue the mazy labyrinth guides,
While each in his appointed movement glides;
Transverse, ecliptick, oblique, round they run;
Like atoms wanton in the morning sun;
The seeming vagrants joy to cheat the view,
These turn, these change, these fly, and these pursue;
The implicit discipline to order tends,
And still in regular confusion ends—
Each to his native vortex is assign'd,
And magick circles every system bind;
A deeper charm each individual holds,
And firm within its atmosphere enfolds;
The secret spell, thro' every part, and whole,
Distinct, intire, invades it like a soul;
9
And knit, in universal wedlock share.
All teeming wedlock! on the genial hour,
Space furnish'd out one boundless nuptial bow'r;
Ten thousand thousand worlds, profusely gay,
The pomp of bridal ornament display—
How modified, here needless to be told;
Whether terrene, or of ethereous mold;
Gross, porous, firm, opaque, condense, or rare;
Or argent, with celestial tempering clear;
Pellucid, to imbibe the streaming light;
Or dun, but with reflected radiance bright;
Or dazzling shrine, or of corporeal leaven,
Terrestrial, that unfold an earthly heaven
Unspeakable! their landskip hill, and dale,
The lowly sweetness of the flowery vale,
The mount elate that rises in delight,
The flying lawns that wanton from the sight,
The florid theatres, romantick scenes,
The steepy mountains, and luxuriant plains,
Delicious regions! plants, woods, waters, glades,
Grotts, arbours, flowrets, downs, and rural shades,
The brooks that sportive wind the echoing hills,
The pearly founts, smooth lakes, and murmuring rills—
Myriads of Edens! blissful, blissful seats!
Arcadian groves, sweet Tempe's blest retreats,
Delightful Ennas, and Hesperian isles,
And round, and round throughout, Elysium smiles—
Consummate joy, peace, pleasure without end,
Thro' mansions numberless their guests attend,
Nor long inanimate—As when some cloud
Throws on the beamy noon her sable shroud,
Wide o'er the green a dusk and stillness creep,
And glittering swarms beneath the verdure sleep;
Quick, and at once, the drowsy shade gives way;
At once breaks forth the bright enlivening ray;
At once, the gay, the quickening insects rise,
And gilded squadrons strike our wondring eyes;
Musick flies wanton from ten thousand wings,
And life and joy thro' every region rings—
Or when glad news some sudden transport start,
The flood swells instant in the labouring heart;
The limbs its lively energy attest,
And catch contagion from the exulting breast;
Tumultuous, thro' our little world it flies,
Smiles in the dimpling cheek, and lightens from the eyes—
Or so—or yet beyond compare—as wide
As spaces endless from some point divide,
Sudden the universal world conceives;
As sudden, nature with her burden heaves;
Quick pulses thro' each throbbing artery beat,
And all the matron glows with genial heat;
At once reveals her offspring to the sight;
Up spring the numbers numberless, to light!
The one, the various, blessed, glorious birth,
Of every world, heaven, ocean, air, and earth—
Diverse, throughout their infinite abodes;
Their essence, nature, virtues, forms, and modes
Ineffable! that mock where fancy soars,
Or what the deep of deepest thought explores,
By visionary semblance, quaint device,
By gloss, trope, type abstruse, or emblem nice—
Ideal, how untoward to convey,
Or reach conception by the dark assay.
All perfect, yet alike not perfect found,
With differing virtues, differing glories crown'd;
The prime pre-eminent, and heavenly born,
Whom splendors next to Deity adorn,
Lightnings divine, indued with native right
Of regal scepter and transcending might,
Such, whom eternal Prescience might invest
Far blazing, with monarchal titles graced;
Of bright, the brightest; pure, the most refined;
All intellect, quintessence of the mind;
Cherubic harmonies, Seraphic flames,
Empyreal natures with empyreal names,
Natives of heaven!—Nor want the lucid spheres,
Of blest inheritance the blissful heirs;
Angelick shapes that wing the etherial space,
And scarce inferior to the heavenly race;
An incompounded radiant form they claim,
Nor spirit all—nor yet corporeal frame;
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.
Space furnish'd out one boundless nuptial bow'r;
Ten thousand thousand worlds, profusely gay,
The pomp of bridal ornament display—
How modified, here needless to be told;
Whether terrene, or of ethereous mold;
Gross, porous, firm, opaque, condense, or rare;
Or argent, with celestial tempering clear;
Pellucid, to imbibe the streaming light;
Or dun, but with reflected radiance bright;
Or dazzling shrine, or of corporeal leaven,
Terrestrial, that unfold an earthly heaven
Unspeakable! their landskip hill, and dale,
The lowly sweetness of the flowery vale,
The mount elate that rises in delight,
The flying lawns that wanton from the sight,
The florid theatres, romantick scenes,
The steepy mountains, and luxuriant plains,
Delicious regions! plants, woods, waters, glades,
Grotts, arbours, flowrets, downs, and rural shades,
The brooks that sportive wind the echoing hills,
The pearly founts, smooth lakes, and murmuring rills—
Myriads of Edens! blissful, blissful seats!
10
Delightful Ennas, and Hesperian isles,
And round, and round throughout, Elysium smiles—
Consummate joy, peace, pleasure without end,
Thro' mansions numberless their guests attend,
Nor long inanimate—As when some cloud
Throws on the beamy noon her sable shroud,
Wide o'er the green a dusk and stillness creep,
And glittering swarms beneath the verdure sleep;
Quick, and at once, the drowsy shade gives way;
At once breaks forth the bright enlivening ray;
At once, the gay, the quickening insects rise,
And gilded squadrons strike our wondring eyes;
Musick flies wanton from ten thousand wings,
And life and joy thro' every region rings—
Or when glad news some sudden transport start,
The flood swells instant in the labouring heart;
The limbs its lively energy attest,
And catch contagion from the exulting breast;
Tumultuous, thro' our little world it flies,
Smiles in the dimpling cheek, and lightens from the eyes—
Or so—or yet beyond compare—as wide
As spaces endless from some point divide,
Sudden the universal world conceives;
11
Quick pulses thro' each throbbing artery beat,
And all the matron glows with genial heat;
At once reveals her offspring to the sight;
Up spring the numbers numberless, to light!
The one, the various, blessed, glorious birth,
Of every world, heaven, ocean, air, and earth—
Diverse, throughout their infinite abodes;
Their essence, nature, virtues, forms, and modes
Ineffable! that mock where fancy soars,
Or what the deep of deepest thought explores,
By visionary semblance, quaint device,
By gloss, trope, type abstruse, or emblem nice—
Ideal, how untoward to convey,
Or reach conception by the dark assay.
All perfect, yet alike not perfect found,
With differing virtues, differing glories crown'd;
The prime pre-eminent, and heavenly born,
Whom splendors next to Deity adorn,
Lightnings divine, indued with native right
Of regal scepter and transcending might,
Such, whom eternal Prescience might invest
Far blazing, with monarchal titles graced;
Of bright, the brightest; pure, the most refined;
All intellect, quintessence of the mind;
12
Empyreal natures with empyreal names,
Natives of heaven!—Nor want the lucid spheres,
Of blest inheritance the blissful heirs;
Angelick shapes that wing the etherial space,
And scarce inferior to the heavenly race;
An incompounded radiant form they claim,
Nor spirit all—nor yet corporeal frame;
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 Unchangeable, the One, the Wise,
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,
To the brute essence on terrestrial globes;
Nor such inelegant, nor less demand
The curious texture of the Almighty Hand:
Thrice happy all, and lords of wide domains,
Celestial vales, and elemental plains!
One is the Flood which universal flows;
And hence the reptile, hence the Seraph glows:
Still equal, tho' inequal, that and this;
Since fulness bounds, and all are fill'd with bliss.
While order knits, and beautifies by change;
While from the Unchangeable, the One, the Wise,
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,
To the brute essence on terrestrial globes;
Nor such inelegant, nor less demand
The curious texture of the Almighty Hand:
Thrice happy all, and lords of wide domains,
Celestial vales, and elemental plains!
13
And hence the reptile, hence the Seraph glows:
Still equal, tho' inequal, that and this;
Since fulness bounds, and all are fill'd with bliss.
Now, had the Eternal Architect supreme,
In amplitude stretch'd out this wondrous frame,
Equipt magnificent the house of God,
Thro' height, and depth, his boundless, blest abode!
One house, one world, one universe divine,
Where countless orbs thro' countless systems shine;
Systems, which, viewed throughout the circuit wide,
Or lost, or scarce the pointed sight abide,
(Thro' space immense with diminution seen)
Yet boundless to those worlds that roll within;
Each world as boundless to its native race,
That range and wanton thro' its ample space,
Frequent, thro' fields, thro' clouds of fragrance stray,
Or skim the watery or etherial way:
For now, with vivid action, nature swarms,
And life's dear stream the purpling conduit warms;
The continent, blithe air, and floating seas,
The smiling lakes, swift floods, and winding bays,
The nooks, the crannies, nurse a numerous brood,
And aptly yield their alimental food,
Adjusted to the trunk's unwieldy size,
As nice proboscis of luxurious flies,
Or azure tribes that o'er the damson bloom,
And paint the regions of the ripening plum.
In amplitude stretch'd out this wondrous frame,
Equipt magnificent the house of God,
Thro' height, and depth, his boundless, blest abode!
One house, one world, one universe divine,
Where countless orbs thro' countless systems shine;
Systems, which, viewed throughout the circuit wide,
Or lost, or scarce the pointed sight abide,
(Thro' space immense with diminution seen)
Yet boundless to those worlds that roll within;
Each world as boundless to its native race,
That range and wanton thro' its ample space,
Frequent, thro' fields, thro' clouds of fragrance stray,
Or skim the watery or etherial way:
For now, with vivid action, nature swarms,
And life's dear stream the purpling conduit warms;
The continent, blithe air, and floating seas,
The smiling lakes, swift floods, and winding bays,
14
And aptly yield their alimental food,
Adjusted to the trunk's unwieldy size,
As nice proboscis of luxurious flies,
Or azure tribes that o'er the damson bloom,
And paint the regions of the ripening plum.
From every root, the lavish plenty grows;
In every stream, perpetual pleasure flows;
Each ravish'd sense with endless bounty feast,
The Soul, and ear, and eye, and smell, and touch, and taste.
Their sweets, the blossoms plants and flowers bequeath;
Elixirs from the steaming vapours breath;
In balm imbosom'd every region lies,
Of ambient æther, and infolding skies;
As the great Mover wrapt each wheeling sphere
In the soft down of elemental air
Transparent, to imbibe the golden beam,
And wide around spun out th' etherial stream,
Where worlds in endless revolutions move,
And swim on the abyss of endless Love.
In every stream, perpetual pleasure flows;
Each ravish'd sense with endless bounty feast,
The Soul, and ear, and eye, and smell, and touch, and taste.
Their sweets, the blossoms plants and flowers bequeath;
Elixirs from the steaming vapours breath;
In balm imbosom'd every region lies,
Of ambient æther, and infolding skies;
As the great Mover wrapt each wheeling sphere
In the soft down of elemental air
Transparent, to imbibe the golden beam,
And wide around spun out th' etherial stream,
Where worlds in endless revolutions move,
And swim on the abyss of endless Love.
Urania! Nature! from thy heights descend;
And low to earth thy bright irradiance bend;
Dispel the clouds that round our fancy stray,
The mist that damps our intellectual ray;
And shew what power all height of power transcends,
And in one act performs ten thousand ends.
And low to earth thy bright irradiance bend;
Dispel the clouds that round our fancy stray,
The mist that damps our intellectual ray;
15
And in one act performs ten thousand ends.
Say, why this globe
has its appointed place,
And why not vagrant thro' the boundless space?
Why here preferr'd, sagacious to refuse
What thwarts propriety, convenience, use?
Why not more neighbour to the burning ray,
Or more remote from the declining day?
Or here , not sedentary fixt and still,
Admonish'd by no voice, obsequious to no will?
Or moving, why in circling eddies round,
And not progressive thro' the immense profound?
Or endless while the dizzy drunkard reels,
And round the sun its annual motion wheels,
Whence that innate and delegated power,
Central to spin the swift diurnal tour?
Not self revolv'd, throughout its airy race,
It might expose one constant sultry face,
Damn its antipodes with endless night,
And curse with fire the restless sons of light;
These ne'er to slumber on the dewy lawn,
Nor those to rise and bless the golden dawn.
Or tho' rotation duplicate endears
Sweet change of days, and nights, and rolling years;
What new vicissitudes of motion bring
The seasons, circling, to the vernal spring?
Whether thro' heaven the winding compass steers,
Or pendulous by mutual balance veers,
What Secret Hand the trepidation weighs,
Or thro' the zodiac guides the spiral pace?
What magick wand the floating orb confines
With polar circles, and the tropic lines?
Or does some Voice the potent charm command?
Too potent for unwieldy worlds to stand!—
“Here, nor elsewhere, thou earth, thy station keep;
“Here, roll thy progress thro' the boundless deep!
“My Word's the bias, and my Will's the way,
“That wheels thy circlet round the lord of day;
“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.”
And why not vagrant thro' the boundless space?
Why here preferr'd, sagacious to refuse
What thwarts propriety, convenience, use?
Why not more neighbour to the burning ray,
Or more remote from the declining day?
Or here , not sedentary fixt and still,
Admonish'd by no voice, obsequious to no will?
Or moving, why in circling eddies round,
And not progressive thro' the immense profound?
Or endless while the dizzy drunkard reels,
And round the sun its annual motion wheels,
Whence that innate and delegated power,
Central to spin the swift diurnal tour?
Not self revolv'd, throughout its airy race,
It might expose one constant sultry face,
Damn its antipodes with endless night,
And curse with fire the restless sons of light;
16
Nor those to rise and bless the golden dawn.
Or tho' rotation duplicate endears
Sweet change of days, and nights, and rolling years;
What new vicissitudes of motion bring
The seasons, circling, to the vernal spring?
Whether thro' heaven the winding compass steers,
Or pendulous by mutual balance veers,
What Secret Hand the trepidation weighs,
Or thro' the zodiac guides the spiral pace?
What magick wand the floating orb confines
With polar circles, and the tropic lines?
Or does some Voice the potent charm command?
Too potent for unwieldy worlds to stand!—
“Here, nor elsewhere, thou earth, thy station keep;
“Here, roll thy progress thro' the boundless deep!
“My Word's the bias, and my Will's the way,
“That wheels thy circlet round the lord of day;
“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.”
17
Omniscience 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!
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,
“And banish Omnipresence with a nod;
“In shrewd contempt, at final causes sneer;
“In wilful deafness shut the tortuous ear,
“Nor think it suited to the sounds ye hear;
“Who, in your wisdoms, negatively spy,
“How vain's the texture of the useless eye;
“While fondly thus prime reasoners you'd commence,
“By literally exploding common sense,
“And plead for one concession (only due)
“That nature must have err'd—in forming you—
“Approach, ye Sages, to your parent earth,
“Much wiser than the clods on whom she lavish'd birth!”
“And banish Omnipresence with a nod;
“In shrewd contempt, at final causes sneer;
“In wilful deafness shut the tortuous ear,
“Nor think it suited to the sounds ye hear;
“Who, in your wisdoms, negatively spy,
“How vain's the texture of the useless eye;
“While fondly thus prime reasoners you'd commence,
“By literally exploding common sense,
“And plead for one concession (only due)
“That nature must have err'd—in forming you—
“Approach, ye Sages, to your parent earth,
“Much wiser than the clods on whom she lavish'd birth!”
18
With deepest art
, her skilful plan she lays;
With equal scale, the least advantage weighs;
How apt, for time, place, circumstance, and use,
She culls all means, that to all ends conduce!
Nice to a point, each benefit selects;
As prudent, every mischief she rejects;
In due proportions, time, and motion, metes,
Advances to a hair, and to a hair retreats:
Constant to Good, for that alone she veers,
And with the varying beam her offspring chears;
Cools all beneath her equinoctial line,
And gives the day throughout the world to shine;
The nitre from the frozen pole unseals,
And to the tropic speeds the pregnant gales;
Here, leaves the exhausted fallow to recruit;
Here, plumps and burnishes the ripening fruit;
Superfluous hence withdraws the sultry beam,
Here drinks anew the vivifying flame;
Returns, still faithful to the labouring steer—
Wide waves the harvest of the golden year;
Trades universal on from pole to pole,
Inspires, revives, and cultivates the whole;
Frugal, where lack, supplies with what redounds,
And here bestows what noxious there abounds;
This with the gift, and that with giving, blest,
Alike, throughout, of every wish possest.
Wrapt in her airy car , the matron glides,
And o'er the firmament ascending rides;
The subtile mass its copious mantle spreads,
Its mantle wove of elemental threads;
The elastick flue of fluctuating air,
Transfused invisible, enfolds the sphere;
With poinance delicate pervades the whole,
Its ear , eye, breath, and animating soul;
Active, serene , comprest, rare, cool'd, or warm'd,
For life, health, comfort, pleasure, business, form'd;
Useful around, throughout, above, beneath!
By this, the quadrupeds,
the reptiles breath;
This gives the bloom of vegetative life;
Corrects the seeds of elemental strife;
Broods o'er the eggs , in airy caverns laid,
Warm'd in the down of their etherial bed;
Gives motion to the swimmers of the flood;
Gives musick to the warblers of the wood;
Rebounds in echo from the doubling vale,
And wafts to heaven the undulating gale:
Here hush'd , translucid smiles the gentle calm;
And here impearld , sheds meek the showery balm;
Salubrious here
, a lively rapture claims,
And winnows pure the pestilential steams;
Here buoys the bird high on the chrystal wave,
Whose level plumes the azure concave shave;
Here sits voluptuous in the swelling sail,
The vessel dancing to the sprightly gale!
Its varied power to various uses tends,
And qualities occult atchieve contrarious ends;
With generative warmth fomenting breed,
Or alimental with nutrition feed;
In opposition reconciled to good,
Alike the menstruum, as sustaining food:
Or here restorative, destructive here;
Here nature's cradle, here her funeral bier;
With keen dispatch on all corruption preys,
And grateful, from our aching sense conveys;
Returns the bane into its native earth,
And there revives it to a second birth,
Renew'd and brighten'd like the minted ore,
To shoot again to life, more gorgeous than before!
With equal scale, the least advantage weighs;
How apt, for time, place, circumstance, and use,
She culls all means, that to all ends conduce!
Nice to a point, each benefit selects;
As prudent, every mischief she rejects;
In due proportions, time, and motion, metes,
Advances to a hair, and to a hair retreats:
Constant to Good, for that alone she veers,
And with the varying beam her offspring chears;
Cools all beneath her equinoctial line,
And gives the day throughout the world to shine;
The nitre from the frozen pole unseals,
And to the tropic speeds the pregnant gales;
Here, leaves the exhausted fallow to recruit;
Here, plumps and burnishes the ripening fruit;
Superfluous hence withdraws the sultry beam,
Here drinks anew the vivifying flame;
Returns, still faithful to the labouring steer—
Wide waves the harvest of the golden year;
19
Inspires, revives, and cultivates the whole;
Frugal, where lack, supplies with what redounds,
And here bestows what noxious there abounds;
This with the gift, and that with giving, blest,
Alike, throughout, of every wish possest.
Wrapt in her airy car , the matron glides,
And o'er the firmament ascending rides;
The subtile mass its copious mantle spreads,
Its mantle wove of elemental threads;
The elastick flue of fluctuating air,
Transfused invisible, enfolds the sphere;
With poinance delicate pervades the whole,
Its ear , eye, breath, and animating soul;
Active, serene , comprest, rare, cool'd, or warm'd,
For life, health, comfort, pleasure, business, form'd;
Useful around, throughout, above, beneath!
20
This gives the bloom of vegetative life;
Corrects the seeds of elemental strife;
Broods o'er the eggs , in airy caverns laid,
Warm'd in the down of their etherial bed;
Gives motion to the swimmers of the flood;
Gives musick to the warblers of the wood;
Rebounds in echo from the doubling vale,
And wafts to heaven the undulating gale:
Here hush'd , translucid smiles the gentle calm;
And here impearld , sheds meek the showery balm;
21
And winnows pure the pestilential steams;
Here buoys the bird high on the chrystal wave,
Whose level plumes the azure concave shave;
Here sits voluptuous in the swelling sail,
The vessel dancing to the sprightly gale!
Its varied power to various uses tends,
And qualities occult atchieve contrarious ends;
With generative warmth fomenting breed,
Or alimental with nutrition feed;
In opposition reconciled to good,
Alike the menstruum, as sustaining food:
Or here restorative, destructive here;
Here nature's cradle, here her funeral bier;
22
And grateful, from our aching sense conveys;
Returns the bane into its native earth,
And there revives it to a second birth,
Renew'd and brighten'd like the minted ore,
To shoot again to life, more gorgeous than before!
Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, is fabled to have sprung from the head of Jupiter; and, coming down on earth, to have viewed her own perfections in the lake Triton in Africa, from whence she was called Tritonia. She is here addressed as the IDEA of the Self-Existent Author of all things, as first containing in itself the beauty of all created things; and after, surveying that beauty by reflection from the things so created.
This Venus, whom the ancients stiled Urania, or heavenly, is addressed as representing nature, or the creation, rising out of chaos in the perfection of beauty.
One of the atheistical unaccountable evasions, is to account for the order of nature by matter and motion.
diurnal, giving to its inhabitants the grateful vicissitude of day and night, adjusted to the times of labour and rest—
the manner of its annual motion, calculated for the useful and delightful variety of the seasons; the mutual allay of immoderate heat, and cold; as also for the successive growth and recruit of vegetative nature.
How, even to the extent of infinite wisdom, as nothing less could be the author, (vide supra, l. 305.) all is formed and contrived, and in that contrivance adapted, and in that adaption directed, and in that direction extended distinctly, and in that distinction entirely, for the life, light, and comfort of the whole, and through that whole of every part of this our globe! of infinitely possible inconveniencies, no one avoidable inconvenience being admitted; as of infinite advantages attainable, there is not one, consistent with the nature of this earth, left out.
its modification, admitting various, contrary, and even seemingly inconsistent qualities, suited as well to the single and separate interests of every individual, as to the entire and uniform weal of the whole—
raising harmony from disorder, and friendship from enmity, by fermenting and reconciling heat and cold, the fiery and watery particles, for the better conception and genial production of the beauties of nature—
modulating and composing as it were one universal organ for sound, and musick, so as the atmosphere becomes an entire harmony—
and the health of winds, or ventilations, that purge the noxious vapours, and preserve nature fresh and vigorous—
The various influence 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. p. 25.
| The Poetical Works of Henry Brooke | |