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 |  |
BOOK V.
And trace even Life to its Eternal Spring—
The Eternal Spring! whence streaming bounty flows;
The Eternal Light! whence every radiance glows;
The Eternal Height of indetermin'd space!
The Eternal Depth of Condescending Grace!
Supreme! and Midst! and Principle! and End!
The Eternal Father! and the Eternal Friend!
The Eternal Bliss! whence every creature's blest—
While man, even man, the lavish goodness shares,
The wretch offends, and yet His Goodness spares;
Still to the wayward wight indulgent turns,
And kindly courts him to the peace he spurns;
Emits the beam of intellectual light—
Bright is the beam, and wilful is the night—
While Nature amply spreads the illustrious scene,
And renders all pretext of error vain:
Unfolded wide her obvious pages lie,
To win attention from the wandering eye;
Full to convince us, to instruct us sage,
Strict to reform, and beauteous to engage.
The mute harangue our every sense invades;
The apparent precepts of the Eternal Will,
His every work, and every object fill;
Round with our eyes His revelation wheels,
Our every touch his demonstration feels.
Thee, the sole Source, whence sense, and science flow!
Then must all faculty, all knowledge fail,
And more than monster o'er the man prevail.
Amid omniscient art, to search for chance,
Blind to the charms of Nature's beauteous frame;
Nor made our organ vocal, to blaspheme:
Not thus He will'd the creatures of his nod,
And made the mortal, to unmake his GOD;
Breathed on the globe, and brooded o'er the wave,
And bid the wide obsequious world conceive:
Spoke into being , myriads, myriads rise,
And with young transport gaze the novel skies;
Glance from the surge , beneath the surface scud,
Or cleave enormous the reluctant flood;
Or rowl vermicular their wanton maze,
And the bright path with wild meanders glaze;
Frisk in the vale , or o'er the mountains bound,
Or in huge gambols shake the trembling ground;
The plume creates, and then directs the gale:
While active gaiety, and aspect bright,
In each expressive, sums up all delight.
Or volubility of numerous song,
Can Nature's infinite productions range,
Or with her ever varying species change?
Not the famed bard, in whose surviving page,
Troy still shall stand, and fierce Pelides rage;
Not this the Mantuan's rival muse could hope;
Nor thou, sole object of my envy,—Pope!
Safe in the medium of their native deep;
Haply, when future beauteous scenes invite,
Haply our line may draw those scenes to light.
With just propriety of beauties deck'd;
Consummate each , adapted to its state,
And highly in the lowest sphere complete.
Well worth the song, since worth The Almighty's care;
Since even the smallest from the Great One springs,
Great and conspicuous in minutest things!
With vital streams thro' every organ warm'd!
External round the spiral muscle winds,
And folding close the interior texture binds;
Secure of limbs or needless wing he steers,
And all one locomotive act appears:
His rings with one elastic membrane bound,
The prior circlet moves the obsequious round;
The next, and next, its due obedience owes,
And with successive undulation flows.
Their stores of lubricating guile secrete;
Still opportune, with prompt emission flow,
And slipping frustrate the deluded foe;
When the stiff clod their little augers bore,
And all the worm insinuates thro' the pore.
Tenacious Snails their silent progress trace;
Thro' foreign fields secure from exile roam,
And sojourn safe beneath their native home.
Their domes self-wreathed , each architect attend,
With mansions lodge them, and with mail defend:
And mocks secluded from incumbent storms;
Till gates, unbarring with the vernal ray,
Give all the secret hermitage to day;
Then peeps the sage from his unfolding doors,
And cautious heaven's ambiguous brow explores:
Towards the four winds four telescopes he bends,
And on his own astrology depends;
Assured he glides beneath the smiling calm,
Bathes in the dew, and sips the morning balm;
The peach this pampering epicure devours,
And climbing on the topmost fruitage towers.
Least accurate of all the wondrous train,
Or multipede, earth's leafy verdure creep;
Or on the pool's new mantling surface play,
And range a drop, as whales may range the sea:
Or ply the rivulet with supple oars,
And oft, amphibious, course the neighbouring shores;
Or sheltering, quit the dank inclement sky,
And condescend to lodge where princes lie;
There tread the ceiling, an inverted floor,
And from its precipice depend secure:
Or who nor creep , nor fly, nor walk, nor swim,
But claim new motion with peculiar limb,
Successive spring with quick elastic bound,
And thus transported pass the refluent ground.
And buoy'd upon their own inventions rise;
And mounting o'er the distant zenith ride.
Natives of earth, and habitants of air;
Like warriors stride, oppress'd with shining mail,
But furl'd, beneath, their silken pennons veil:
Deceived our fellow reptile we admire,
His bright endorsement, and compact attire,
When lo! the latent springs of motion play,
And rising lids disclose the rich inlay;
The tissued wing its folded membrane frees,
And with blithe quavers fans the gathering breeze;
Elate towards heaven the beauteous wonder flies,
And leaves the mortal wrapp'd in deep surprize.
Elect, to win the seven times widow'd Fair,
The angelic form, concealed in human guise,
Deceived the search of his associate's eyes;
Till swift each charm bursts forth like issuing flame,
And circling rays confess his heavenly frame;
And waving radiance o'er his plumage burns:
In awful transports rapt, the youth admires,
While light from earth the dazzling shape aspires.
And even the still familiar wonders please,
These but the sketch , the garb, the veil of things,
Whence all our depth of shallow science springs;
Think, should this curtain of Omniscience rise,
Think of the sight! and think of the surprize!
Whelm'd on our soul, and lightning on our view!—
How would the vain disputing wretches shrink,
And shivering, wish they could no longer think;
Reject each model, each reforming scheme,
No longer dictate to the Grand Supreme,
But waking, wonder whence they dared to dream!
Replete with sacred and mysterious birth,
And Reason's task is, only to Adore.
Ten thousand thousand gaily gilded forms,
Bask in the beam, and beautify the day;
Who'd think these airy wantons so adorn,
Were late his vile antipathy and scorn,
Prone to the dust, or reptile thro' the mire,
And ever thence unlikely to aspire?
Or who with transient view , beholding, loaths
Those crawling sects, whom vilest semblance cloaths;
Who, with corruption, hold their kindred state,
As by contempt, or negligence of fate;
Could think, that such, revers'd by wondrous doom,
Sublimer powers and brighter forms assume;
From death, their future happier life derive,
And tho' apparently entomb'd, revive;
And wing the regions of unwonted skies;
So late depress'd, contemptible on earth,
Now elevate to heaven by second birth?
Led by the marvellous, absurd delight;
No golden ass , no tale Arabians feign;
Nor flitting forms of Naso's magic strain,
Deucalion's progeny of native stone,
Or armies from Cadmean harvests grown;
With many a wanton and fantastic dream,
The lawrel , mulberry , and bashful stream ;
Tithonus chang'd and garrulous with age.
Not such mutations deck the chaster song,
Adorn'd with Nature, and with Truth made strong;
No debt to fable, or to fancy due,
And only wondrous facts reveal'd to view.
Tho' numberless each tribe and species fair,
Who wing the noon, and brighten in the blaze,
Innumerous as the sands which bend the seas;
These have their organs , arts, and arms, and tools,
And functions exercised by various rules;
The saw, axe, auger, trowel, piercer, drill;
The neat alembick, and nectareous still:
But war, the force and fury of the foe,
The spear, the fauchion, and the martial mail,
And artful stratagem where strength may fail.
Each tribe peculiar occupations claim,
Peculiar beauties deck each varying frame;
Attire and food peculiar are assigned,
And means to propagate their varying kind.
Or fraught with scientific craft innate,
With conscious skill their oval embryon shed,
Where native first their infancy was fed:
Or on some vegetating foliage glued;
Or o'er the flood they spread their future brood;
A slender cord the floating jelly binds,
Eludes the wave, and mocks the warring winds;
And pearls in living ranges greet our eyes.
In firmest oak they scoop a spacious tomb,
And lay their embryo in the spurious womb:
Some flowers, some fruit, some gems, or blossoms chuse,
And confident their darling hopes infuse;
While some their eggs in ranker carnage lay,
And to their young adapt the future prey.
Each tepid air its motive influence breaths,
Mysterious springs the wavering life supply,
And quickning births unconscious motion try;
Mature their slender fences they disown,
And break at once into a world unknown.
Whate'er peculiar indigence can crave:
Profuse at hand the plenteous table's spread,
And various appetites are aptly fed.
Nor less each organ suits each place of birth,
Finn'd in the flood, or reptile o'er the earth;
Each organ, apt to each precarious state,
As for eternity designed complete.
Take all as due, still thoughtless that they owe.
And whisper wonders not to be exprest;
Each owns his error in his later cares,
And for the new unthought of world prepares:
New views, new tastes, new judgments are acquired,
And all now loath delights so late admired.
In confidence the solemn shroud they weave,
Or build the tomb, or dig the deadly grave;
Intrepid there resign their parting breath,
And give their former shape the spoils of death;
Thro' metamorphoses, new forms assume:
On death their true exalted life depends,
Commencing there, where seemingly it ends.
Each from the long, the mortal sleep revives;
The tombs pour forth their renovated dead,
And, like a dream, all former scenes are fled.
But O! what terms expressive may relate
The change, the splendor of their new form'd state?
Their texture nor composed of filmy skin,
Of cumbrous flesh without, or bone within,
But something than corporeal more refined,
And agile as their blithe informing mind.
In every eye ten thousand brilliants blaze,
And living pearls the vast horizon gaze;
And heaven's own wardrobe has array'd their frame;
Each spangled back bright sprinkling specks adorn,
Each plume imbibes the rosy tinctured morn;
Spread on each wing the florid seasons glow,
Shaded and verg'd with the celestial bow,
Where colours blend an ever varying dye,
And wanton in their gay exchanges vie.
The pride of fools, and pity of the wise;
Not all the shew and mockery of state,
The little, low, fine follies of the great;
Not all the wealth which eastern pageants wore,
What still our idolizing worlds adore;
Can boast the least inimitable grace,
Which decks profusive this illustrious race.
Or plunge the nether ocean's dread profound;
There mete Leviathan's enormous length,
Adorn'd with terrors, and unmatch'd in strength,
And tempests issue while his nostril breathes.
His shade extensive cools the distant lands;
Encamp'd, an army on his shoulder lies,
And o'er his back proud citadels arise.
Which all perceive, and envy deems complete.
“O Nature!” cries the wretch of human birth,
“O why a step-dame to this lord of earth?
“To brutes indulgent bends thy partial care,
“While just complainings fill our natal air.
“Helpless, uncloathed, the pride of nature lies,
“And Heaven relentless hears his viceroy's cries.
“O wherefore not with native bounties bless'd,
“Nor thus in humble poor dependance dress'd?
“The downy feather, and the wintry fleece;
“The crocodile's invulnerable scale,
“Or the firm tortoise's impervious mail;
“The strength of elephants, the rein deer's speed,
“Fleet and elastic as the bounding steed;
“The peacock's state of gorgeous plumage add,
“Gay as the dove in golden verdure clad;
“Give me the scent of each sagacious hound,
“The lynx's eye, and linnet's warbling sound;
“The soaring wing and steerage of the crane,
“And spare the toil and dangers of the main:
“O why of these thy bounteous goods bereft,
“And only to interior Reason left?
“There, there alone, I bless thy kind decree;
“Nor cause of grief, or emulation see.”
And man is, only in his wants, content;
Indocile where he needs instruction most,
His only error is his only boast.
Too wise to take Omniscience for your guide,
Those rules from insects, birds, and brutes discern,
Which from the Maker you disdain to learn!—
The filial sanctitude, and nuptial tie,
Patience in want, and faith to persevere,
The endearing sentiment, and tender care,
Courage o'er private interest to prevail,
And die all Decii for the public weal.
And skill'd in arts and sciences profound,
Their textured webs with matchless craft surprize,
Their buildings in amazing structures rise:
To them each clime, and longitude is known,
Each finds a chart and compass of his own;
They judge the influence of every star,
And calculate the seasons from afar;
Thro' devious air pursue the certain way,
Nor ever from the Conscious Dictate stray.
But more especially visible in the animate creation, so infinitely diversified in the several species and kinds of—
Whose characteristic of infinite power and wisdom is equally conspicuous in all, since even the lowest can be derived from no less than the Highest; and, in that respect, the lowest, though apparently despicable, is most highly valuable, since the same Extensive Benignity condescends even to the—
With every other mean and method accommodated to its sphere of action; and conducing to the safety and perfection of its state.
The same infinite Wisdom operating ever equally, though variously, is no less admirable in the different apparatus for the snail's motion, as differently adapted to its different state and occasions—
by a broad and strong skin on either side the belly, and the emission of a glutinous slime; by the assistance of which they adhere to any surface more firmly than they could do with claws or talons.
The advantage of their shells, which they form by a froth or petrifying juice, which they secreted from their body; and at any time repair a fracture or breach in their building, which serves them both for house and armour.
And which they close up during the winter, to shut out the inclemency of the weather, and also to prevent any consumption of the fluids; by which means they want no nourishment at a time that they cannot be readily provided.
I have inserted this opinion of snails having eyes at the ends of their horns, rather in submission to authority, than that I am really persuaded it is so. However, they may, in a great measure, be said to see with their touch, which in this part is extremely sensible, and equally serves their purpose—
and since the common earth-worm and snail (which seem the most despicable of all reptiles) are so curiously adorned, and provided in all respects, how amazing must the same conduct, care, and artifice be, through the several scenes of minute animalcules! who leave no place empty of suitable inhabitants, and are doubtless of greater consequence in nature, than our partial and narrow way of thinking may imagine.
Spiders, &c. whose flights are owing to a thread of inconceivable fineness and levity, which they dart, on occasion, from their bodies, and which being buoyed up by the least breeze, bears off the animalcule to which it is annexed.
Of this kind are beetles and lady-cows; and nothing can be more entertaining than to see them, by a surprizing machinery of little springs and hinges, erect the smooth covering of their backs, and unfolding their wings that were most neatly disposed within their cases, prepare for flight—
But what is there in nature that is not equally surprizing? We are ashamed not to account for objects that are daily obvious to our senses; and yet every work of the Deity—
in many respects, is to us as really incomprehensible as the Divine Operator; for who can give rule or measure to the works of an Infinite Artist? And if we only superficially behold, and reason from the qualities of things—
were this veil at once laid aside, how insupportably conspicuous would the fullness of Infinite Wisdom and Essential Beauty appear; pouring on our weak and unequal senses! We should then be convinced of the equal folly and impiety of presumption on one side; or scepticism on the other: of pretending to know all things; or (because we know not all things) of inferring that nothing is to be known.
Our reason indeed is not infallible; but neither is it useless: reason, throughout its sphere of knowledge, perceives a wisdom and art that is obvious, and inimitable; and hence cannot avoid to infer, that the same wisdom and art is universal; and that there must be One Sole Omnipresent and Adorable Artist. But when reason attempts a higher pitch, and forms to itself independent schemes of the courses of nature, or fitnesses of things; nothing can be more vain than such a dictating arrogance.
That there is, and ever will be, a fitness and propriety in things, is evident even to reason; because reason perceives sufficient Wisdom and Goodness, to demonstrate that Wisdom and Goodness now are, and ever will be, the sole directing principles. But to say to what infinitely wise and good purposes such direction tends; to say how far, and in what particulars, the nature of such tendency may alter the appearance of fitness in things; so as to determine what now is, or hereafter may be fit, possible, or impossible; is generally as absurd as to attempt to grasp the universe in our hand, or circumscribe immensity with a carpenter's compass.
Hence this one great truth is evident, that though our reason apprehends a propriety and fitness in the relations of many things and actions both natural and moral, yet as we cannot comprehend the whole of Infinite Wisdom—
there is doubtless a further design, and more latent fitness and beauty in things and their relations, than we can apprehend or are aware of: and as this fitness may be relative in respect of duration, and in respect of the difference between the present and future state of things; many things may now appear unfit and improper in our way of thinking, which in reality are most perfective of future infinitely wise and directing purposes, to which our notions are by no means adequate.
What has been here offered in the way of hypothesis, is evidently rational; but when more nearly attended to, will admit of the highest demonstration: for either there is a present absolute fitness in things; or a fitness in futuro, that is, in prospect or tendency, and only relative here to what must be absolute hereafter. But if there were an absolute fitness in the present state of things, there could then be no change in any thing; since what is best can never change to better: but things do change, and must therefore have a present relative fitness, tending to, and productive of some future, absolute, and unchangeable fitness or perfection; to which this present relative fitness is by a moral, wise, and orderly necessity, precedent.
The sum of all (which has so long and copiously employed the pens of the learned) is this,—First, That there is a present fitness or beauty sufficiently obvious in things, to demonstrate an Over ruling Wisdom.—Secondly, That this Over-ruling Wisdom, or God, now does, and ever will conduct all things for the best.—But, thirdly, Since things change, they cannot be now in their state of perfection.—Therefore, fourthly, There must be some other or future state, to which all things tend and are directed, for the final and unchangeable perfection of all things.
If any thing in the preceding lines seems too much tinctured with mystery; I must beg leave to ask the enemies of mystery, were it not for repeated experience, whether every thing in nature would not appear a mystery? or, whether, when they contemplate a gnat or butterfly, &c. they can perceive, by the bare light of nature or reason, the relation its present state and form bears to the several changes, states, and forms, through which it has passed, all in appearance as distinct as difference could make them?—
or, whether, by contemplating an animalcule's egg, they can foresee that this will produce a maggot or caterpillar, &c. that the maggot or caterpillar will build its own sepulchre; (and having continued therein for a certain term, in an apparent state of mortality, and laid aside its former limbs and organized members) will at length break through the gates of death, and put on a state and form of higher beauty and perfection, than could enter into any heart to conceive, or could have employed the dreams of the deepest philosopher?—
How would the refined reasoners of the present age argue against the absurdity and impossibility of such unaccountable contradictions, were not the facts too obvious to sense and perpetual experience to be disputed? facts altogether as wonderful, though not so fabulous, as the—
However merry or hyperbolical these assertions may appear, in respect of creatures, whom our ignorance, or want of inspection, have rendered despicable to us; there is nothing more certain, than that they have more trades and utensils than are here specified. The inimitable fineness, and mathematical proportion of their works, is a double demonstration of their skill, and the accuracy of their instruments; to which the most exquisite manufacture of man may bear just such relation, as a cumbrous windmill to the neatest tool or machine in a watchmaker's shop—
No less admirable is their reason, precaution, instinct, or what you please to call their care and skill, in the disposition of their eggs or embryo; not scattered at random, but situated agreeable to the nature of every species, in such places, and among such supplies of nutriment, as will alone contribute to the perfection, and be acceptable to the several appetites of their young ones—
if on the leaves of vegetables, then situated and glued in such a manner, as not to be subject to the influence of winds or rain—
For the mathematical order in which gnats dispose their eggs or sperm on the water, vide Derham's Phys. Theology, fig. IX. and X.—
And so, in like manner, the various receptacles which are suitable to the sperm of each species, are almost infinite; and yet the art and prophetic precaution, which, by a several and distinct method, is peculiar to each, carries the air of as much wisdom and importance, as if the harmony and connection of nature had depended on the regular and uniform propagation of every several sect or species—
The generality of these wonderful animals having thus performed all the requisites, take no further care for their young; but (like the ostrich, who covers her eggs with the sands) they are sensible their duty is over, and leave the rest to the clemency of the seasons, and the sufficiency of nature, who, in these instances, renders all further caution needless—
But among all the instances of a universal and benign Providence, nothing can be more signal or expressive of the extensive Goodness than the occasional and temporary parts and organs of many animals in their changeable state, still accommodated, suited, and adapted with the most circumstantial and minute exactness to the immediate manner and convenience of their existence; and yet as immediately shifted and thrown aside upon the animal's commencing a new state and scene of action, and a sett of limbs and garniture furnished de novo, as it were a new suit of clothes fitted and contrived agreeable to every season. This observation may have escaped many, who thought it beneath them to inquire into the oeconomy of these minute animals; but it is obvious to all persons in the tadpole estate of frogs, who, in their minority, are provided with a fin-like tail, which seems to constitute the chief part of their bulk, but drops off as the growing limbs extend, and gives notice that its continuance is superfluous and unnecessary.
Though the state and conduct of these animals, as here described, may be looked on as allegorical, and representative of the present state of man and his future hopes; yet the case with them is already real, and their change and resurrection most evident to sense. The moment they are hatched—
within a certain period of time, they conceive a disrelish to all past enjoyment, and by a profound reverie, seem, as it were, studious of some great event. During this interval, new judgments are acquired, and resolutions taken; they foresee and rejoice at their approaching mortality—
they frame and prepare the mansions of death with the same chearful alacrity and elegance, as a bridal chamber, or wedding garment
here the texture of their former organs suffers an actual dissolution; and whatever the principle of regeneration be, a new, and, in appearance, a quite different creature, is conceived from the remains of the old one—
their sepulchres give way; they spring forth, and wing the air in inexpressible beauty and magnificence.
Insecta non videntur nervos habere, nec ossa, nec spinas, nec cartilaginem, nec pinguia, nec carnes, nec crustam quidem fragilem, ut quædam marina, nec quæ jure dicatur cutis: sed mediæ cujusdam inter omnia hæc naturæ corpus. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xi. cap. 4.
These creatures, though, in appearance, they have but two eyes, are really multocular. Every lens (of which there are an innumerable number) is a distinct eye, which has a branch of the optic nerve ministring to it; by which provision no object escapes them; they at once view almost all round them; and as their eyes are immovable, this multiplicity amply supplies the absence of the motory nerves.
Cujus causa videtur cuncta alia genuisse Natura, magna & sæva mercede contra tanta sua munera; ut non sit satis æstimare, parens melior homini, an tristior noverca fuerit—
Ante omnia unum animantium cunctorum, alienis velat opibus: cæteris variè tegumenta tribuit; testas, cortices, coria, spinas, villos, setas, pilos, plumam, pennas, squamas, vellera. Truncos etiam arboresque cortice, interdum gemino, a frigoribus & calore tutata est. Hominem tantum nudum, & in nuda humo, natali die abjicit ad vagitus statim & ploratum, nullumque tot animalium aliud ad lacrymas, & has protinus vitæ principio. Plin. Nat. Hist. L. VII. Prœm.
| The Poetical Works of Henry Brooke | |