 | The Works and Rest of the Creation |  |
THE Works of Creation.
AN Essay on the Universe.
IN FOUR BOOKS.
Sit via, non metuit virtus invicta laborem.
Palingen.
Above the Flight of Pegasean Wing.
Milton.
AN ESSAY ON THE UNIVERSE.
BOOK I.
The Argument.
The Subject proposed at large. Address to the Dutchess of Somerset. An Invitation to the Lovers of Philosophical Science, especially those of the Fair Sex. The Terraqueous Globe, surveyed, with the Distributions and Uses of the Elements: Two of which, only the Earth and Waters, are treated of in this First Book; that concludes, with an Episodical Description of the general Deluge, and a View of the different Hypotheses concerning it.
To easy Notes I chaunt the Rural Themes,
These pleas'd me once, when, artless in the Shade,
I Nature, first, in simplest Charms survey'd.
To gaze o'er all her Prospects now I soar;
The Streams, and Shades, confine my Haunts no more.
Steep are the Paths I climb, and long my Way.
Light, with thy Rays, my favour'd Feet to press
Thy awful Fane, they inmost deep Recess.
To midnight Walks, to visionary Cells,
To Groves, where Hermit Inspiration dwells,
Wou'd range thy devious Lengths from Pole to Pole;
To Stars, and Suns of boundless Space wou'd rise:
To Worlds, yet, unsurvey'd by mortal Eyes.
Whose pleas'd Regards my sole Ambition fires;
Who, rais'd to cherish ev'ry generous Art,
Dost, like a Sun, on All, thy Beams impart:
By Nature fram'd benevolently kind;
Whom Birth not more ennobles than thy Mind:
Will Somerset, auspicious Influence deign!
While for her Audience, I repeat my Strain?
That to her Patronage, long since, addrest
Boasts no small Fame, in her Acceptance blest.
Perhaps, that, now relabour'd, may appear
Chang'd more to please her tun'd, judicious Ear.
So got Prometheus, the celestial Ray,
To warm, with Life, his Workmanship of Clay.
Not lik'd the less when Verse attempts its Themes,
Free from the Spleen that dulls th' Adept severe;
In Tempers faultless, as in Judgment clear:
But chief, ye Fair, whose tempted Hand invites
The Rose of Science, while it's Thorn afrights;
To read deep Systems, that in Prose ye shun.
For love of Candour, as for Genius prais'd,
Smile on a Muse by generous Motives rais'd,
Cheer her bold Flights th' etherial Tracts along;
For You I meditate the arduous Song.
This beauteous World, the Seat of Human Kind.
Orbicular he turn'd the ductile Mold,
And thro' vast Space the pondrous Wonder roll'd;
Convenient Form, that round his central Sun
The Wand'rer might his annual Circuit run;
And on their Thrones reseat, in gentle Sway,
The Pow'rs that rule, by turns, the Night and Day;
That healthful Tides might unresisted flow,
And Seasons change, and genial Breezes blow.
New, various Modes on Matter he impress'd,
And taught th' Atomic Motion where to rest;
Spread the sirm Earth's indissoluble Base,
And pour'd the liquid Sea's surrounding Space,
Then sinely stretch'd aloft the fleecy Air,
And bad to upmost Realms the Fire repair,
What various Blessings they for Man produce!
How wond'rous is the Elemental Use!
And be the Theme propitious to my Verse!
To thy own Graces similize my Song,
Smooth as thy Plains, and as thy Mountains strong:
Thy Mountains, whose robust, cementing Bands,
With stable Sinews, brace the spacious Lands,
Secure the Vales beneath from Oceans force,
And check of nipping Winds the noxious Course;
On shelter'd Plains reflect the Solar Ray,
Whence ripen'd Glebes the Peasant's Toil repay.
Their Heights (each form'd some different Tribe to cheer)
The largest Vegetable Produce rear:
Whose rugged Brakes, impassable and rude,
Protect the Savage, solitary Brood.
The Tyger here, and Vulture's rabid Kind,
Their covert Lares, and shady Eyries find;
Whom Nature banish'd from the social Plains,
Nor cou'd subsist, with theirs, the milder Trains.
Far down their hideous Steeps the frighted Eye
Paths, never trod by human Feet, can spy,
Prospects of vast Antiquity it views:
The Thoughts deep-wildering in a strange Amuse.
Where ruin'd Piles of age-fell'd Trees lie hurl'd,
That seem the first Productions of the World:
Rise the young Groves; a verdant numerous Race.
And from the bare, bleak Precipice, whose Height
Frowns shudd'ring Horror on the aching Sight,
One swoln, continuous Sheet the Torrents throw;
For ever thund'ring on the Beach below.
One Chain they stand, the World's steep, dreadful Wall
Their apt Positions, rang'd from East to West,
The Vapoury Forces in their March arrest;
That, North and South, detaching off their Pow'rs,
Wou'd Mid-Land Climes deprive of succouring Show'rs:
The humid Prisoners, on their Tops confin'd,
Mute, down their Sides, a furtive Passage wind,
Then in a gushing Spring their Freedom gain,
Or 'scape, a River, murmuring thro' the Plain:
While Part, that stop'd, and cool'd, to Clouds unite,
Thence, in dark Columns take their cumbrous Flight,
Least torrid Climes with barren Droughts shou'd pine,
Lest a dry Waste, beneath the burning Line.
Their tall Ascents the ambient Landskips show,
And useful Minerals find their Beds below.
They Bulwarks stand, the safe defensive Mounds
Of neighb'ring States, and mark their separate Bounds;
In easy Progress, to their Sire, the Deep.
Whose Mount the pleas'd American beholds:
It's lofty Clifts, a cristal Form display,
Like one vast Diamond glittering to the Day.
Beneath its huge Extent, a hideous Cave
Drinks in, a plunging Currents gloomy Wave.
O'er which the Natives, on a caney Raft,
In dread Adventure dared their Crew to waft;
Whose Length of subterranean Stream to trace
Spent the bold Band a whole diurnal Space.
Peru's vast Andes, how immense they rise!
And Alpine Summits pierce th' inferiour Skies.
Damoan's Pike the Persian gives by Night,
From its sulphureous Soil, a sparkling Light;
From whose clear Heights prodigious, he, by Day,
The vastly-distant Caspian can survey.
Who knows not, Tenerife, thy boasted Name?
Far as the Sun o'erlooks is spread thy Fame.
Renown'd in Homer's and in Maro's Song,
Ida's and Atlas' Heights shall flourish long;
Proud in her Groves, the Queen of Asian Lands.
Haunt of thy Hours, and Emblem of thy Strain,
Nurse of the verdant Wreath that crowns thy Lay,
The Lover's Myrtle, and the Poet's Bay:
Whose mild Retreats his rural Pipe persuades,
Hid in thy cooling Bowers, and twilight Shades.
Thy level Face, with vary'd Flowers o'erspread,
Affords the winding Stream an oozy Bed;
Luxurious Pastures yields the grazing Kind,
And plenteous Ceres to the toiling Hind.
O! who shall bear me from the Noon-Day-Beam
To Tempe's flow'ry Walks, and laurell'd Stream?
To where Alcinous fragrant Gardens yields,
Hesperia Groves, or Enna bloomy Fields?
That spread the fruitful Mother's latent Face;
Of different Instincts, Textures, Class, and Size,
From the enormous Elephant supreme,
To the base Mite's scarce visible Extreme?
And lower down, what Tribes unnotic'd throng,
That Wonder raise, while they elude my Song!
In one small humid Speck, the curious Eye
Can Millions of their little Forms descry.
What Kingdoms of th' innumerous Insect-Kind,
On one small Leaf commodious Dwelling find!
Perhaps, on this mean Spot, the little Pow'rs
View Rivers, Hills, and Fields ; a World like ours.
The Ribs, and harder Parts, present their Eyes
A Ridge of Mountains, that stupendous rise;
Like those tall Summits the Peruvian boasts,
Or those that part Iberia's spreading Coasts.
Long winding Streams appear their liquid Veins,
And their smooth Coats a Width of boundless Plains.
O Nature, thy minutest Works amaze,
Pose the close Search, and lose our Thoughts in Praise!
Rich Funds of inexhaustible Delight!
I gaze bewilder'd at the bright Display.
What White can match the Lilly's virgin Snows?
What Red the Crimson of the blushing Rose?
What regal Purple with the Scabius vie?
Or Scarlet match the Poppy's flaming Dye?
What Yellow, lovely as the Golden Morn,
The Lupine, and the Heliotrope adorn!
How mixt a Hue the streaky Tulip stains!
How curious the Carnation's marbled Veins!
Ethereal Blue the silky Violets wear,
And all unite their Sweets in mingling Air.
For Use medicinal, and Food design'd,
Effectual to retard th' impetuous Blood,
When fev'rish Heats disturb the vital Flood;
To free from wan Disease the beauteous Face,
And flush the Features with a lively Grace;
The Dropsy's swoln Distortion to subdue,
Or change th' enfeebling Jaundice' loathsome Hue.
They to new Strength the languid Pow'rs reclaim,
When pale Consumptions waste the pining Frame,
Or paralytic Rheums the Nerves untie,
And healing Balm to wounded Limbs apply.
With native Sweetness some delight the Sense,
And Pleasure to the Sight and Taste dispense.
Thy Steps approach the Mint's delicious Bed,
How strong its grateful Scent embalms the Place!
Or can the flow'ry Thyme thy Bosom grace,
Dear to the labouring Bee, and not afford
Rich Fragrance from its aromatic Hoard?
The od'rous Briar thy Senses will beguile,
Or the press'd Bank of hardy Camomile.
When vigorous Health thy Appetite renews,
Here may thy Hand a cooling Sallad chuse,
Or Herbs by culinary Art prepare,
For thy plain Board, Pythagorean Fare.
Of spreading Trees that rise with loftier State,
Whose leafy Arms support the feath'ry Throng,
Protect their Dwelling, and secure their Young;
Or for the Herds convenient Shelter form
From the Night-Dews, or Day's pernicious Storm;
Or serve for Man, a cool defensive Veil
In sultry Hours, and fan th' enlivening Gale.
How tall the Fir! and yet his Root is found
Spread o'er the Surface of the shallow Ground,
To the hard Rock he grows cemented fast,
And proudly braves the furious Northern Blast.
Where the big Ganges rolls his princely Flood,
The Fig-Tree's tow'ring Shade o'erlooks the Wood,
Nor can his fleetest Shaft to pierce it rise.
Here, Nightly flowers, in fragrant Blossoms gay,
The Nure's fair Tree, that Mourner of the Day:
At Sight of whom she sheds her Eve-deck'd Charms,
Sinks her sick Head, and folds her sadning Arms.
The green Eusada springs, on Afric's Soil,
A Wood in Breadth, without the Planter's Toil:
The far-stretch'd Shoots, that thick its Trunk surround,
Bend their Tops, arching, to the Parent-Ground,
Whence a new Race, turn'd curving by their Weight,
A fresh, and these a following, Crop create:
In native Arbours, fenc'd to Sun or Rain,
Embowring kindly all that sultry Plain.
The Lamb-resembling Plant, with Fleeces full,
Affords a mimic, vegetable Wool;
Warm as that Animals, when us'd undrest,
To line from Cold the frozen Russian's Vest.
Warm India's Aloe yeilds the swarthy Brood
Milk, Wine, and Oil, their Cloathing, House, and Food.
In his swoln Leaf, a gelid Lymph contains.
And Fountain-Trees their plenteous Streams supply,
Where scorching Climes the vital Springs deny;
Whose gladding Shades the droughty Pilgrim finds,
And quaffs Refreshment thro' their juicy Rhinds.
In Troops the thirst-afflicted Insects rove,
Sip the cool Draughts, and cheer their pining Drove.
And ev'ry Soil their several Species wears:
The Alder in the marshy Ground delights,
And the dry Vale the Myrtle's Shade invites;
And Sallows tremble o'er the gliding Brook;
The Ebony in sultry India grows,
And hardy Yew thrives best in Scythia's Snows.
How well they seem for various Uses made,
The Pine for Straightness, and the Beech for Shade!
For stately Building we the Cedar prize,
And the firm Oak the naval Bark supplies.
Ceylonia's spicy Groves their rich Perfume
Afford, and Myrrha weeps her od'rous Gum.
The pleasing Theme, too copious, I decline,
To tell the Product of the useful Vine:
Or how, where warmer Climes the Soil improve,
Blooms, with perpetual Sweet, the Orange Grove.
Here ripening Citrons their Perfection find,
And the Pomegranate's rich, transparent Kind.
Shou'd I the Orchard's plenteous Growth commend,
Where the ripe Boughs with clust'ring Fruitage bend,
My Verse might sing the British Apple's Praise;
Fam'd in the modern Georgic's happier Lays.
Or, should I, in inferior Strains, assume
The shapely Pear to praise, or glossy Plum,
The Peach with native Down enwoven o'er,
The Mulb'ry purpled with a Lover's Gore:
Kind to our Wants with an indulgent Care.
For mutual Ornament and Service made;
To purify the Earth's corrupted Stores,
And drench with kindly Showers her droughty Pores;
Hence all the verdant, vegetable Kind,
And Birds, and Beasts, and Men Refreshment find.
From the clear Fountain, and expansive Lake!
Can I forget the smooth relucent Stream,
So oft my Solace, and so late my Theme?
You cristal Natives of the flow'ry Mead
Invite my Walk, and tempt my sportive Reed;
Unnumber'd Nations in your Branches play,
And fruitful Lands receive you in your Way;
You to the Father-Ocean bear his Rains,
And from superfluous Moisture free the Plains.
Canada flows, unfathomably deep:
Among the Race of Floods none fairer shines,
Whose Banks her Nymphs adorn with clust'ring Vines.
Vast Amazone a Waste of Waters seems,
And Oronoque, with his disparted Streams:
To hunt the Castor o'er the wintry Snows.
Largest of Floods the Ganges, where he glides,
Bengala's Land in girdled Isles divides;
Hung with rich Fruits their Bosoms sweet appear,
And blooms, in Flow'rs, the ever-verdur'd Year.
The broad Euphrates Asia's Sons may boast,
Wide-watering, many a League, his peopled Coast,
Where once-fam'd Babylon, its choak'd-up Pass
Drowns, in a dreadful, desolate Morass.
See fierce Araxes, washing Persia's Soil,
In rapid Pace along his Channels boil:
Indignant, on the Pontal Curb he frowns,
And in his Gulphs the ruin'd Fabric drowns.
Thro' Afric's Desart-Woods, and firey Sands,
The wave-full Niger pours his streaming Bands.
There furious Volta, white with foamy Stain,
His Torrents empties on the bellowing Main.
And, from the Seat of Abyssinian Kings,
Huge Nile his fertilizing Currents brings.
Of its recluse, impenetrable Head?
His strange o'erflowing Stream, that spread around
With a kind Deluge drowns the teeming Ground;
With deaf'ning Clamours, swells th' inferiour Deep?
Of fam'd Eridanus, whose watry Bands
Divide, with length'ning Streams, Saturnian Lands?
A spacious Course; whence antient Bards devise
He pours his ample Urn thro' half the Skies.
Meonian Verse shall Phrygian Xanthus praise,
And Tyber flow renown'd in Virgil's Lays;
Slain Acis' Change, and Achelous' Wrong,
With artful Fable dress the pleasing Song.
Nor unremember'd, in the Classic Strain,
Shall sad Alpheus' amorous Flood remain
Unnumber'd Streams, that now ignobly glide,
Swift Ladon, and Enipeus' sacred Tide,
With smooth Eurotas murmur in the Lay,
And Peneus; verdur'd with eternal Bay.
Me, Jordan, shall thy hallow'd Name delight,
And to rais'd Themes my musing Thoughts invite.
What Wonders of thy sacred Stream are told,
With Truth inspir'd, renown'd in Songs of old!
How Israel's Sons thy dry Foundations trod,
And how the Prophet's Mantle cleav'd thy Flood!
King of the watry Family, whose Wave
Baptismal Rites to Man's Redeemer gave,
And Heav'n approv'd the Deed with Words of Love.
Happy the Hermit on thy Banks reclin'd,
Who feasts with Dreams inspir'd his raptur'd Mind.
Forbear we Ister's spreading Flood to name,
The Northern Volga, or the British Thame
For happy Shores, and gentle Streams renown'd,
With princely Domes, and regal Navies crown'd.
In their wide Tracts to cool the Summer-Breeze!
The Ships unwieldy Burthen to sustain,
And yeild an easy Passage thro' the Main;
With all her rich Embargo swift she rides,
Help'd by the Force of Winds, and hast'ning Tides.
Thus vastly-distant Lands acquainted grow,
And, mutually, commercial Aids bestow.
Shall I their strange, exhaustless Treasure sing,
How with rais'd Dews they feed the bubbling Spring,
Supply the spongy Clouds with Showery Stores,
And back receive the Tribute of the Shores?
Vast Riches, that the Wealth of Earth outvie,
In its hid, solitary Bottom lie.
Or tell how the rebellious Deep of old
O'er the broad Lands a direful Deluge roll'd,
Whose swelling Tides, by angry Heaven employ'd,
The World, with all its guilty Race, destroy'd?
Such Woe befel, from what stupendous Cause?
But a smooth Surface cloath'd our Planet round,
Till torn by Earthquakes its convexive Shell,
Sapp'd by th' imbosom'd Waters, inward fell;
When strait th' unbroken Fountains pour'd their Stores,
With wide Confusion, and o'ertop'd the Shores:
Hence Seas, and Mountains their Formation owe,
Relicts of Ruin, and deforming Woe.
Others suppose surcharging Rains might fall,
With double Weight, on half the drowning Ball;
Whence the o'erbalanc'd Pole preponder'd low,
And let surrounding Seas their Bounds o'erflow,
Which the whole Earth's disorder'd Frame engross'd.
Its Center chang'd, and Equilibrium lost.
A Sage , deep learn'd in Secrets of the Wise,
Reports, a Comet rul'd th' indignant Skies,
Might furnish Vapour for th' incessant Rain.
Yeild we to them who different Schemes propose:
How from his Channels antient Ocean rose,
And sunk on Earth his new, perpetual Bed;
Whence his forsaken Bottom firmer grew,
Drain'd by degrees, the present Scene we view.
From hence they solve why oft we buried find
The Bones of Fish, and their testaceous Kind,
Sunk in the settling Ooze, when hurrying Floods
Rush'd to new Seats, and chang'd their first Abodes.
The delug'd World, all Ocean robb'd of Shore;
When the known Sire, whom Heav'n's Concern to save,
In the clos'd Ark indulgent Shelter gave,
Loos'd first a Raven on enquiring Wing,
That ne'er return'd her Embassy to bring.
'Tis thought the Bird unclean her Hunger fed,
And Feet upstaid on the thick-floating Dead.
Then by the Dove he fresh Discovery sought,
Who a soil'd Branch of dripping Olive brought,
Pacific Signal, that distinctly show'd
Earth's new Recovery from th' abated Flood.
And drear, dead Silence of th' unpeopled World:
A Scene so sad, Almighty Pity swore
The wasteful Waters should prevail no more,
When high in Air he plac'd the peaceful Sign,
And bad his sacramental Rainbow shine.
The Northern Ocean, and its gloomy Shore:
Where Winters their eternal Stations keep:
A dismal Region, and a stormy Deep.
Yet, ev'n on those uncultivated Meads,
The hardy Stag her numerous Bevy breeds.
In Air the Fowls, the Fish in Ocean sport,
And vast Leviathan maintains his Court.
Here dire Maelstroom with horrid Vortex raves,
By Sailors deem'd the Navel of the Waves,
Suppos'd thro' perforated Earth to flow,
Or from some strange Hiatus mov'd below.
Not more destructive to the Seaman's Freight
Fam'd Scylla, or Ceraunia's antient Strait,
Nor Malea's dreary Cape, a fatal Land,
Nor where the Syrtes spread their swallowing Sand.
Hapless the Bark that, down the Torrent hurl'd,
Surveys the Bottom of th' amazing World.
And hapless they whom icy Bonds controul,
Imprison'd far beneath the freezing Pole,
Constrain'd to suffer Winter's Rage severe,
And languish out the half-benighted Year.
Far otherwise the South's pacific Main,
Where never Storm disturbs the glassy Plain,
But only breathing Gales are heard to sigh,
And brooding Halcyons o'er the Surface fly.
And universal Ocean joins his Tide.
What Muse the strange Inhabitants shall tell,
That in the watry World secluded dwell?
What undiscover'd Climes, and hidden Coasts,
Conceal their new, unnam'd, unnumber'd Hosts?
Or who recount the various Plants that grow
In liquid Fields, and coral Groves below?
Be this the Palm of thy accomplish'd Age;
This last, this promis'd Enterprize pursue,
Deny'd to Athens, and reserv'd for You .
While I new Worlds, and various, led to roam,
Launch'd on wide Seas, far-distant from my Home,
This Harbour for my little Pinnace seek;
A short, sweet Respite in the shelt'ring Creek.
Till on my Voyage, with a full-sprung Gale,
Refitted, and refresh'd, I trust my Sail.
These Things are impossible, were the Earth plane, angular, or any way contrary to the present Figure.
Dr. Hook discovered with the Microscope eight Millions, two hundred and eighty Thousand Animalcula in one single Drop of Water, and he suspects Millions of Millions might be contain'd in it. A Method of making these Computations is published by Mr. Lewenhoeck, Phil. Trans No. 131. P. 844.
Some of these Trees cover a Thousand Paces in Circuit, and are able to lodge under the Branches Three Thousand Men.
The Aloe Muricata, and Cinnamon-Tree of Ceylon furnish the Indians with Food, Cloth, Oyl, Milk, Wine, Honey, and Materials for Building and Shipping, particulariz'd by Mr. Ray. Wisdom of God. As also by our pious Herbert:
Is Cloathing, Meat, and Trencher, Drink and Can,
Boat, Cable, Sail, and Needle: all in one.
The Priapus Vegetabilis holds Bags of Water at the Ends of his Leaves, somewhat like the wild Pine of Jamaica, accurately describ'd by Sir. Hans Sloane, Lowth. Abrid. Phil. Trans. Vol. II. P. 669.
Des Cartes's Theory improv'd upon by Dr. Burnet, Woodward, and others; whose antiscriptural Account of the Origin of Mountains, reflects very unhappily on the eminent Theorists.
Mr. De la Cross in his Memoirs for the Ingenious. Mr. Ray countenances this Opinion, in part. Miscel. Discourses, P. 66.
Mr. Whiston in his New Theory of the Earth, assigns a Comet as a Cause of the Deluge, which, at that Time, in its Perihelion pass'd very near the Earth's Orbit. The same which since was observed in the Year 1680. This illustrates Kircher's Work De Arca Noæ, that asserts the Rain in the Deluge to be miraculous.
This is thought the most ingenious System: and best agrees to the Scriptures of any. The Author is Mr. Abr. de la Pryme. See Lowth. Abridg. Phil. Trans. Vol. II. P. 430. It supposes the Antediluvian World had an external Sea with Land, Mountains, &c. about the Bigness these are of at present: That the subterraneous Caverns and Pillars being broken by Earthquakes, most Part, if not the whole, was swallowed up by the Seas we now have; and the present Earth rose out of the Bottom of the Antediluvian Sea, in its Room, as Islands are now sunk, and others thrust out in their Stead. Hence it is no longer a Wonder that Shells, Shell-Fish, Bones of Fish, Fruits, &c. are found in Beds and Quarries in vastly inland Mountains; for here they bred in the Antediluvian Sea, were elevated with them in the Deluge; fell into, and were buried in Chasms, that would necessarily happen in the thrusting up of the Earth; and are found in the Soil that was flung with Confusion and Violence from one Place to another, by the working of the Waters, and the Ferment and Hurry things were then put into.
The learned World have unhappily lost this great Ornament of it, and probably that Treatise of the Waters, promis'd by him, since the Lines above were first written.
BOOK II. Of the Elements of Air and Fire.
The Argument.
The Subject continued; where the Elements of Air and Fire come last under Review: which together with those of Earth and Water (that compose the former Book) represent the whole Phenomena of Nature observable of our Planet. By the way, more Episodical Descriptions are inserted: Of the memorable Storm, 1703; and of the Destruction of the Cities of the Plain by Fire, recorded Gen. xviii. &c. Lastly, Man, as the chief Inhabitant of this World, is considered in reference to his Capacities and Pleasures, which he is exhorted to the regular, moderate Use of, agreeable to his superiur Faculties, and the Intention of his beneficent Creator.
See, the wish'd Winds my swelling Canvas court!
And, as they bear my gliding Bark along,
From these, I catch a Subject for my Song.
Earth's Tracts already, and the wat'ry Plains
My Muse has measur'd, in her transient Strains!
Shown, in wise Nature's Plan, how each conduce
To serve its Ends, of Pleasure and of Use.
Next, vital Air! thy Theme demands the Lays;
A Gift as bounteous, and as due thy Praise.
Capacious Element! that round our Ball,
In thy large Trust, upholds the Life of All.
Our Earth, without whose animating Breath
Would frown in Horror of eternal Death,
Could due Supports of Respiration find.
Nor the small Insects mean, unnotic'd Train,
Nor numerous Natives of the wat'ry Reign.
How apt is thy disseminating Care,
The ripen'd Seeds on plumy Wings to bear,
And, with a lib'ral Distribution, pour
On ev'ry teeming Glebe the genial Show'r!
Else, too confin'd, the separate Tribes wou'd lie
Fix'd to one Soil, nor gen'ral Use supply.
Thy friendly Pow'rs the burthen'd Clouds upstay,
And bear them round in their prolific Way;
Unfold the Blossom on the vernal Plain,
And waft its Odours to th' enamour'd Brain.
Thy Medium lends the Sight extensive Bound,
And taught th' attentive Ear the Sense of Sound;
Gives the tun'd Breath its Melody of Song,
And thy wide Fields sustain the Feathery Throng.
The mounting Lark, the Warblers of the Grove,
Safe thro' thy Heights with pleasing Passage rove.
And in free Plains with circling Motion sport.
Here, far upborn with unobstructed Aim,
The generous Faulcon tracks the flying Game;
While the light Swallow, thro' the yielding Way,
On agile Chase pursues her Insect-Prey.
From the wild Andes with gigantic Wings,
On the prone Herd the mighty Condor springs;
And, sometimes, is rapacious seen to wrest
The hapless Infant from it's Mother's Breast.
In those large Woods, that stretch a boundless Space,
Reside the Mock-Birds imitating Race,
That, docile, catch the widely-varied Lay,
Of ev'ry tuneful Warbler on the Spray.
Where the Ourissia Bee-like in it's Size,
Humming, from Flow'r to Flow'r, delighted flys,
And in a wond'rous, living Rainbow drest,
Shifts all it's Colours on his Wings and Breast.
Here the proud Guara , gay in tinctur'd Blooms,
Decks his sweet Form with metamorphos'd Plumes;
Then, next, in Crimson robed he tempts the Sight;
And, last, in dazzling Scarlet charms the Eye,
Which as his Years encrease improves its Die.
And Winds that from divided Quarters blow;
The perforating East's dispelling Wing,
And Zephyr, Husband of the blooming Spring;
Cold Aquilo, replete with gelid Pow'rs,
And Ausier, wet with ever-weeping Show'rs.
The cheering Dawn, and Twilight's soothing Shade,
Are each by its refractive Influence made.
This gives the Sky to smile in cheerful Blue,
And stains the listed Rainbow's varying Hue,
Diversify's the Clouds with Colours gay,
And thro' its Depths is shed the golden Day.
Nor serve its Regions less the Storm to pour
On guilty Realms, in Fate's avenging Hour,
Such as of late distrest Britannia felt;
O may no recent Stroke pursue her Guilt!
A Land to Vice inur'd, a stubborn Land,
Ripe for the Weight of Heav'n's vindictive Hand.
Ere in dark Skies the must'ring Winds were heard;
First, hoarse and low, the sullen Murmur pass'd,
Rose by degrees, and grew with ev'ry Blast.
Nought then was heard the Ear to entertain,
No Voice of Mirth, nor Music's chearful Strain.
But far resounded, thro' the dismal Gloom,
The rattling Clamours of the falling Dome,
Or the torn Roofs, in Show'rs of dreadful Hall,
With hideous Din clos'd ev'ry deaf'ning Gale.
Deep Terrour ev'ry trembling Breast amaz'd,
And Fear within, still fiercer Tempest rais'd.
From ev'ry Eye the downy Slumber fled,
And only, Sleep's soft Rule, possess'd the Dead.
Then rose aghast the pale adult'rous Pair,
Compell'd to kneel in forc'd, distracted Pray'r.
The sculking Thief, to nightly Murder prone,
Dreads, from the tott'ring Battlement, his own.
How diff'rent the religious Face appears!
His steadfast Brow an awful Calmness wears.
Tow'rd the loud Heav'ns his Eyes expressive roll,
And Danger wakes Devotion in his Soul.
Then Providence illustrious Tokens gave
Of its sure Pow'r, and watchful Care to save .
With equal Fury it assaults the Main.
Let, Ediston, thy massy Tow'r declare
How fierce the Elemental Conflict there,
From the firm Rock thy deep Foundations torn,
And to the Seas with total Ruin born.
Here the huge Bark unmoor'd, its Tackling lost,
By the chaf'd Waves, behold! confus'dly toss'd;
Or forc'd with all its Crew, a hapless Band,
On the swift-splitting Rock, or burying Sand.
There the driv'n Vessels meet, with clashing Weight,
And by one Blow, both sink in mingling Fate.
Nor ended here—the unrelieving Light
But only serv'd Fate's Terrors to disclose,
And a dire Scene of opening Horrours rose.
Lo! the tall Buildings, late admir'd for Strength,
That grac'd, but now, the City's spacious Length,
Uncouthly shatter'd shock th' averting Eye,
Or, with their Base, in levell'd Ruins lie.
On the Sea-Strand the Wreck profusely strow'd
Declar'd the Havock of the fatal Flood.
The prostrate Groves their faded Honours mourn,
Riv'd in the midst, or from their Bottoms torn.
Such dire Designs the airy Forces form,
When Heav'ns dread Word commands th' assisting Storm
To shake the Shores, and heave the wreckful Waves;
To dart direct the Light'nings burning Ball,
And roll the Thunder thro' th' aërial Hall.
In swarthy Numbers, shade the vernal Lands.
The naked Fields lament the wasteful Drove,
The ruin'd Harvest, and the leafless Grove.
And oft the South malignant Seasons brings,
And sickly Autumns on her burning Wings;
When livid Poisons taint her stagnant Breath,
With putrid Steams, and Pestilential Death.
Then Friendship shuts her hospitable Door,
The Tyes of Love, of Nature, bind no more,
No more gay Mirth and Melody invite,
The Bloom of Beauty can no more delight,
O'erspread with wan Disease: at Noon of Day,
Loneness and Silence haunt the publick Way.
The Babe and Sire, the Tim'rous and the Brave,
Bow with one Blow, and fill a mingled Grave.
Tho' last, yet not inferior, be the Lays.
Prolific Parent! Earth, and Sea, and Air,
Thro' all their Kinds, thy genial Use declare.
Without Thee all would sink in pristine Night,
Nor Heat had e'er been known, nor needful Light.
Lost in long Sleep, or dull, disabling Shade,
Did not thy Taper lend its gentle Ray,
And add fresh Hours of artificial Day!
Thy glowing Aids correct the wint'ry Air,
And wholesome Meals for craving Man prepare.
Else had Earth's Regions by th' unpeopling Frost,
And Stores of Food to human Use been lost.
To Thee his Skill the swarthy Cyclop owes,
And Manual Arts from thy Assistance rose.
The Source of ev'ry vital Power we own.
Some in the central Womb of Earth report
Thou hold'st obscure thy deep impervious Court.
And some thy native Residence convey
To Solar Regions, and the Worlds of Day.
How vaste! how wide an Empire dost thou know,
Planets, and Suns above, and Earth below!
Nature by constant gravitating Laws
Each Body to her downward Center draws:
But thine on new, on different Rules depends,
Mocks her Restraints, and retrograde ascends.
Strange Chymist! whose discriminating Art
Can the remotest Seeds of Things impart,
Unfold their Texture, and their Forms disclose;
The Solid fracture, the Disjoin'd compose.
Discordant Things, that widely disagree,
Are all united and commix in Thee.
And simple Flame, without Distinction, burn,
In Thee what wond'rous Contradictions meet,
Heat oft devoid of Light, and Light of Heat!
Thus glow the liquid Mineral's kindled Veins,
Yet dark and hid its lucid Seed remains.
Mark otherwise the Glow-Worm's living Light,
Whose beamy Tail with Radiance gilds the Night,
A harmless Fire: or wand'ring Whisp, that strays,
A gelid Flame, thro' Fenns and wat'ry Ways.
Who views not oft the Meteor shot from far
With trailing Light, a fancy'd Falling Star.
Whose seeming Fire, propell'd from nether Skies,
A cold, delusive, vap'rous Jelly lies?
Behold the North Aurora's flashing Light,
A new Phenomenon, how strangely bright!
Yet, all devoid of Heat, the bursting Rays
Are found a lambent, inoffensive Blaze.
Unlike to these the Lightning's forky Gleam,
That burns and blazes in a mixt Extreme,
Intensest Pow'rs of Light and Heat conjoin'd;
To Cattle dangerous, and th' unshelter'd Hind.
Why shou'd I sing of Mountains, that expire
From their torn Entrails Floods of sulph'rous Fire,
Which o'er whole Cities pour their scorching Train,
And mark in lengthen'd Paths the furrow'd Main?
For ever burn, and oft project their Flames.
Ev'n frozen Hecla , mid perpetual Snows,
With the same Rage, a dread Volcano glows,
Whose bursting Mouths like loudest Thunder roar,
And strew with Ruins the deserted Shore.
Might flinty Breasts with shiv'ring Dread assail?
How Heav'n, provok'd by Crimes of monstrous Size,
Rain'd Showers of Sulphur from th' avenging Skies,
At once, with instantaneous Waste o'erthrew;
A Monument of Wrath: where still remain
The Lake accurs'd, and solitary Plain.
Where Horror now deforms the blasted Vale,
A happy People dwelt; the fruitful Soil
Was rich in Vineyards, and profuse of Oyl.
Here fam'd Engedi fragrant Clusters gave,
And limpid Jordan led his wand'ring Wave.
Had not by monst'rous Guilt the daring Age
Their Land prophan'd, and urg'd th' Almighty Rage,
Still might their ruin'd Tow'rs, and branded Name,
Have proudly stood, and shone adorn'd in Fame.
But neither Nature, nor divine Command,
A gentle Climate, nor a fruitful Land,
Could the ungenerous Race from Crimes reclaim,
Crimes! Thought abhors, and Verse detests to name.
Preserv'd his Virtue from the public Snare:
With manly Shame and Anguish inly warm,
Beheld the Guilt, he knew not to reform.
Yet interposing oft, the Sire distrest
With such Complaint his anxious Speech address'd.
“Unfitly with the Human Title grac'd,
“Rather dire Monsters of th' Abyss below,
“For sure 'tis only there such Guilt could grow,
“Look to yon Skies, those Heights immense and fair;
“Speak they not some dread Pow'r that governs there?
“Taste not yourselves the Bounties of his Hand?
“Who crowns your Seasons? who defends your Land?
“Too much that Heav'n must want its Honours due:
“Will ye err worse, and put off Nature too?
“Nature complains, your Guilt of matchless Size
“Strikes at her Being, and alarms her Cries.
“Trace her wide Round, Earth, Seas, and Air sublime;
“Is there a Semblance of your daring Crime?
“Think of your Country, and her Wrongs repair,
“Your relative Regards, the Names you bear,
“Men, Husbands, Fathers,—venerable Names;
“Redeem their Honours, and fulfil their Claims.
“Restore the nuptial Dignity, restore
“To slighted Age, the Reverence once it bore,
“To Parents Piety, the Injur'd Laws,
“To Vice the Rod, to Virtue due Applause;
“And, ah! to Heav'n its sacred Rights restore
“Ere this, so oft provok'd, relent no more.
Fond of the Sin, and blind to the Disgrace!
Heav'n long beheld, yet long delay'd the Blow,
To succour speedy, to avenge how slow!
The Hour was come, reserv'd for heavier Doom,
At once the Guilt and Guilty to consume.
Lo, from the parting Skies a radiant Pair,
On sudden Wing, the dire Commission bear.
Near the ill-destin'd Walls unseen they light,
Their Forms conceal'd, and chang'd to human Sight.
The Shape of beauteous Youths they strait assume,
Soft wav'd their curling Hair, and fresh their Bloom.
In the thick Concourse they promiscuous join,
And wait the Hour to act the dread Design.
To flow'ry Hebron, bent on gracious Cares
To find the faithful Patriarch, and disclose
The fated Nation's soon-approaching Woes,
The last Extreme of Mercy to essay,
And on indulgent Terms their Doom delay.
The setting Sun display'd his parting Light;
Those Tow'rs, that must no more reflect his Rays,
But quickly shine in one consuming Blaze.
'Twas now, releas'd from the Restraints of Day,
The Sons of Uproar throng the public Way.
And form vain Schemes of distant guilty Joy.
Ah! ignorant of Heaven's severe Decree,
Nor Joy hast thou to know, nor Day to see!
Ere the next Sun thy Ruin must begin,
Exemplar, as thy strange, unequal'd Sin.
His homeward Steps with hasten'd Pace address'd.
Patient his Ear endur'd the scoffing Throng,
Nor in the publick felt his private Wrong.
Sad as he pass'd, the Angel-Pair surprize
The heedful Sire, and fix his wond'ring Eyes.
He mark'd the Stranger-Youths, their sober Air,
And noble Grace; then sigh'd with inward Care.
“Ah hapless, to so ill a Place betray'd!
“Accept (He faintly spoke) my friendly Aid.
“Perhaps you know not our detested Crimes?
“Happy were more like you to bless the Times!
“Beneath my fost'ring Roof remain conceal'd,
“Till Morn's Approach your safe Departure yield.”
Unwillingness they feign, till, deeply prest,
They yield, compliant, to his urg'd Request.
To taste the Bounties of his frugal Board,
Ere from without tumultuous Clamours sound,
And a rude Rout the threatned Gate surround.
Nor ev'n his Daughters in exchange denies;
Forgetting all their Sex's tender Shame,
And the white Honours of their Virgin Name,
Such was the pious Father's strange Intent,
By the less Guilt the greater to prevent.
When strait th' Immortals interpose their Pow'r,
And bent to punish, in a timely Hour,
Upon their visual Nerve Disorder threw,
And falsify'd each Object to their View.
Blinder in Soul, by Judgments harden'd more,
Madly thy rage, and still attempt the Door.
Astonish'd Lot, with boding Thoughts possess'd,
Ken'd the bright Youths, for now they shone confess'd.
Their Deed declar'd 'em heavenly, and engage
In low Prostrations the religious Sage.
Whom with a fixt and earnest Brow they view,
And kind bespoke—in Words abrupt and few.
“We warn Thee hence—fly, Man approv'd, with speed,
“Heav'n has by us thy Country's Doom decreed.
“Nor question—nor delay”—The Sire afraid,
Bow'd, and in haste th' unquestion'd Charge obey'd.
And big with Wrath the flaming Tempest pour.
Sudden as Light'nings thro' the Ether gleam,
Bursts the ripe Vengeance, an incessant Stream.
To close the Horrors of th' unequal'd Tale!
The Looks aghast with Dread, the pale Surprize,
The throbbing Anguish, and despairing Cries.
Horrors that mock the Thought, too faint to show
What the least Pang of that prodigious Woe.
The Hoards of Fire, a dreadful Magazine,
The Nitrous Trains, the Sulphur's sleeping Stores,
And Naptha that th' imprison'd Flame explores.
These, kindling oft in Earth's profoundest Womb,
With inward Waste the pillar'd Frame consume.
The bursting Vaults a hideous Chasm expose,
And Towns with all their Families enclose.
Earth's inmost Depths, and Orbs remote obey,
Thy awful Forces, in the last dire Hour,
Shall universal Nature's Strength o'erpow'r.
Ordains her grand Catastrophe by thee.
What Virtues raise! a World dissolv'd in Fire!
A Scene how awful! when the cracking Frame,
Sea, Earth and Skies shall sink in mingling Flame.
Then ev'ry Work in Judgment shall be brought;
Ponder, ye Sons of Guilt, th' awak'ning Thought!
Its Woes to shun, its Terrors to subdue,
Live with the solemn Certainty in view.
Thy Mind is fall'n, inconscious of thy Woe!
Slave to the meanest Passion, Folly, Sense,
Thy Reason blind, and Freedom, weak Pretence,
Where are they flown? thy native noblest Boast?
On sordid Cares, and vicious Pleasures lost.
Some, mad with Pride, or blind in sensual Night,
Reject, impure, the heavenly Christian Light,
Learn the dark Systems of the Sceptic Schools,
And sit degraded in the Form of Fools.
Some to their Idol Gold a Homage pay,
Some dream their soft, luxurious Hours away.
Th' adjusted Dress, the Compliment, the Ball,
The Play, the trifling Visit, waste 'em all.
O tear the Films from thy distemper'd Eyes,
Dare to be manly, virtuous, good and wise.
Mirth of the Thoughtless, Profligate and Vain.
The Drunkard's Revel, Gamester's Lure, evade,
And Harlot's Haunt, the shameless Masquerade:
The Atheist, Ravisher, and Ruffian there.
(Fit Emblem of th' infernal Gloom) repair.
Nor, by the fashionable Parties won,
With their mean Taste to senseless Pastimes run,
Ne'er, in a Canine, wanton Waste of Blood,
Let thy Gun spoil the Music of the Wood.
Nor thy free Steed, admir'd for Strength, and Grace,
On needless Speed strain, madly, in the Race.
Nor in the Butchery of the Chace engage;
That low Diversion of a barbarous Age.
Can the soft Heart humane, the polish'd Mind
In Sport so cruel, e'er a Pleasure find?
Or the fair Breast, to native Pity prone,
By such Delights, their tender Sex disown?
Let the wild Kinds, by Nature, savage bred:
The Wealth-spoil'd Rustic, of unthinking Head,
That feels no Bliss but what Disorder gives,
Nor boasts to know but that he sleeps, and lives,
Let such the Forest-Innocents annoy,
And with Destruction edge their brutal Joy.
Are these, Companions worthy of thy Kind!
Are these Amusements for a reasoning Mind
Man's Pleasures from that nobler Source should rise;
Not what blind Passions, or wrong Modes advise.
False is the Relish of the fev'rish Taste.
Virtue and Happiness are both the same,
They only differ in Degree and Name.
Behold! Philosophy thy Choice invites,
How safe a Guide, how blameless her Delights!
Where e'er we fix or turn our wond'ring Eyes,
Around, on ev'ry Side, what Objects rise!
A Field of Contemplation meets our View,
For ever pleasing, innocent, and new.
Fear not thro' all her harmless Maze to stray,
'Tis hard to err where Wisdom leads the Way.
No Monsters haunt, no Plagues infest the Air,
The Dangers, we engage, we carry there.
When Vice to low and base Delights persuades,
Retire, and lose her in these purer Shades.
Sport with the Virtues here, the sacred Nine,
Each moral Nymph, and loveliest Grace divine.
Confer with solid Reason, ask thy Mind
To what first Cause it owes its heav'nly Kind.
Enquire its Obligations, Duties, End;
Obey its Dictates, and it's Pow'rs extend.
Unfold their Orders, Parts, and secret Springs;
The Insect Tribes, the Vegetable Race,
And various Nature's universal Face.
These of gross Appetites the Soul divest,
Wake us to Man, and harmonize the Breast.
Myriads of Creatures (each too nicely small
Bare Sense to reach) for thy Inspection call.
In Animacules, Germs, Seeds, and Flowers
Live, in their perfect Shapes, the little Pow'rs.
Vast Trees lie pictur'd in their slend'rest Grains:
Armies one wat'ry Globule contains.
The Artificial Convex will reveal
The Forms diminutive that each conceal;
Some, so minute, that, to their fine Extreme,
The Mite a vast Leviathan will seem:
That yet of Organs, Functions, Sense, partake
Equal, with Animals of largest Make.
In curious Limbs, and Cloathing they surpass,
By far, the comeliest of the bulky Mass.
A World of Beauties! that thro' all their Frame,
Creations grandest Miracles proclaim.
To reach, in pleas'd Survey, the Fields of Light:
With Galileo's far-discovering Eyes
Explore the Circle of th' illumin'd Skies.
The Suns, that blaze in Distances profound;
The Planets, with their Moons, attendant, round.
And when thy Thoughts a due Refreshment need,
When faint Decays too arduous Toils succeed,
The pleasing Poet, the conversive Friend,
With these thy gloom'd o'erstudious Mind unbend.
Or if a Husband's, if a Parent's Name
Thy softer Hour, and fond Endearment claim,
Indulge their tender Suit, dissolve thy Heart,
And the warm Fervours of thy Love impart.
Let the brisk Grape refresh thy languid Soul,
But shun the Circe of th' enchanting Bowl.
Or seek Relief from Music's sweet Repairs,
Of Instrumental Touch, or Vocal Airs.
Music! I love thy soft recov'ring Pow'r,
Balm of my drooping, Thought-o'er-labour'd Hour!
Oft to the Field, when Summer's Bloom invites,
Thy Course direct, and view her green Delights.
Breathe up the Steeps, roam wide, the Lawns and Groves,
Or where the curving Brook soft-whisp'ring roves,
There may thy Eyes a thousand Pleasures trace
To watch the Instincts of the watery Race.
Which, as more known, thy Thoughts shall more admire.
What Entertainments of a various Kind,
To raise, engage, improve, and sooth thy Mind,
Thy God bestows! his rich Provision see:
Great, good, and pure, if not abus'd by thee.
Admire my Maker's Works, and sing his Praise.
And, if unblam'd my fond Desires might plead,
A little Cottage on the lonely Mead
Shou'd be my Choice; refresh'd by silver Floods,
By Hills surrounded, and obscur'd by Woods.
How sweetly here my few, short Years shou'd glide,
My Passions all subdu'd, and Wants supply'd;
Pleas'd I'd review a Life so calmly past,
Enjoy the present Hour, nor fear my last.
Plants, as Malphigi discover'd, have respiring Vessels as well as Animals. Insects have more And Fish pass the Air and Water by their Mouths and Gills. Some, as the Dace, Chub, &c. have efflated Air-Bladders.
The Seeds of Dandelion, Anemone, &c. and others of the papous or wingy Kind, have a Tomentum, or light Down, by which they are transported, when ripe, thro' the Air, to distant Places, for Semination.
The Humming Bird. One of which beautiful little Creatures with its Nest weighs no more than 24 Grains.
Called by Europeans the Sea-Curlew. The Chevalier des Marchais in his Voyage to Guinea, in 1727, mentions to have seen something there of a like Kind with this famous American Bird, but with this Difference, that it changes from black to red on its first Moulting, then becomes blue, then green, and lastly yellow, retaining his Colours always very lively, and without any Mixture of one with another.
See a curious Collection of Letters from all Parts, 8vo. entitled The Storm, written soon after this calamitous Accident, 1703.
At Catanea in Sicily, in digging for Pumice-Stones, they find, at the Depth of 68 Feet, Streets pav'd with Marble, and other Footsteps of Towns which have been o'erwhelm'd in former Ages by the Eruptions of Etna. In 1669, it overwhelm'd 14 Towns and Villages in the upland Country, where it had never made any Devastations before; even as no Sign is left where such Towns were, only the Church and Steeple of one, which stood alone on a high Ground, still appear. The whole Island of Sorea in the Molucca Islands was in danger of being swallowed by a Firey-Lake proceeding from a Volcano there, 1693, which occasion'd the Inhabitants to desert it, leaving their Effects and Moveables behind them. The Mountain upon Banda has cast so many Stones (some 6 Feet long) as to cover a great Part of the Island; and the Sea, which there has been 40 or 50 Fathoms deep, is fill'd up near the Shore, and appears as a dry Beach many Fathoms high above the Water. See Lowth. Abridg. Phil. Transact. Vol. II.
See some dreadful Instances of the Effects of these Fire-Damps in Mines, in Phil. Trans especially one by Mr. Robert Moyston. Lowth. Abridg. Vol. II. P. 378.
No less than 54 Cities felt the Calamities of the late Earthquake in the Island of Sicily in the Year 1692–3, by which 59693 Persons were destroyed: In the same Year 2000 perish'd by the same Accident in Jamaica.
What Anger, Envy, &c. can torment his Breast, whom not only the greatest and noblest Objects, but every Sand, every Pebble, every Grass, every Fly can divert? To whom the Returns of every Season, every Month, every Day do suggest a Circle of most pleasing Reflections? Sprat's Hist. of Roy. Societ. p. 345.
Some of these amazing Instruments (the best of which is the single Microscope) magnify the Cube, or solid Square of an Object, above Five Hundred Million Times; those view'd by the Solar Microscope, may be extended to, almost, any Dimensions.
BOOK III. A Survey of the Planetary Worlds.
The Argument.
A Commendation of Solitude and a Country Life. When the Subject proceeds, from a Survey of Earth, to consider the Planets which compose our System; where their Theory is summarily given with that of the Comets: And from a View and Comparision of their Physical Resemblances to our World, arise some Arguments in proof of their being inhabited: where the several Objections against it are also fully answered. From hence an occasion is taken to celebrate the Praise of Astronomy, with respect to its Discoveries, Improvements, Use, and Excellency.
Friend to our Thought, and Balm of all our Woe;
Where Lust no Objects for his Fires can gain,
And Pride wants Gazers to admire her Train;
Where Want no Cravings feels, no Insults bears,
Kind Lethe of our Passions and our Cares;
Far from the Burse, from Courts and Levees far,
The crouded Theatre, and wrangling Bar,
O! far from Cities my Abode remove,
To Realms of Innocence, and Peace, and Love.
Thus liv'd the Patriarchal Race of old,
Kings of the verdant Plain, and fleecy Fold;
By Angels honour'd, visited, caress'd,
Nor seldom with th' Almighty-Converse blest.
To royal Power his Plow and abject Herd,
Refus'd the Scepter of the World to wield,
And left the Throne to till his native Field.
How sweet the lab'ring Rustic's wholesome Toil,
The Flocks to tend, or dress the willing Soil!
To mend the Fences, or to mow the Plain,
Or in full Sheaves to bind the ripen'd Grain!
Here Philomel, unlike the warbling Throng,
At Evening, tunes her sweetly-mournful Song;
The watching Shepherd oft her Strains delight
And lonely Angler in the Summer-Night.
Sweet Bird of Darkness, from thy neighb'ring Bow'r
Cheer with thy Note, my still, nocturnal Hour!
Mother of Silence and lethargic Glooms,
Thy grateful Slumbers sooth the troubled Mind,
Best Solace of afflicted Human-Kind.
Welcome thy mild Returns; I love to muse,
Wrapt in thy Shades, and breathe thy humid Dews.
Thy Glooms the upper Worlds of Light display,
Hid in the fiercer Glare of dazzling Day;
His Season lures to Earth our grov'ling Eyes,
Thine lifts 'em upward, and unlocks the Skies.
Is spangled o'er, with pendant Orbs of Light;
A Train innumerous to the wond'ring View.
Six chiefly bear the Planetary Name,
And one entire, harmonious System frame.
These round the Sun, their common Centre, roll,
And reach at distant Times their annual Goal;
Those nearer, gravitate with swifter Pace,
Small are their Globes, and shorter is their Race,
While those remote, a Bulk, still larger show;
Their Orbits wider, and their Pace more slow.
Bright Mercury directs his circling Way,
In three short Months he rounds the Solar Sphere,
His Seasons shifts, and ends his transient Year.
Next Venus, matchless in her brilliant Light,
(Who seems the lesser Cynthia of the Night)
And double Time requires her Race to run.
Lo! in the midst, fair Earth, our native Seat,
And her attendant Moon their Course compleat.
And higher, see! in twice our annual Space.
Revolving Mars , conclude his larger Race.
Then Jove , prodigious Planet of the Skies!
His Orb presents; of huge amazing Size,
None equals his immense, enormous Mass,
The whole, joint System's his Contents surpass.
On Earth twelve Years their Date compleatly close,
Ere his, one finish'd Revolution knows.
View Saturn last, how faint his distant Gleam!
Remotest Planet in our Solar Scheme;
Our Thirty Years but show his annual Race.
Above, appear the Comets , devious Train,
Still slower moving thro' th' elliptic Plane.
Five hundred Years with us their Round repeat,
Ere some their tedious Period can compleat.
Unknown their Number, as their Use unknown,
But found vast Orbs, erratic like our own.
Exhal'd and rang'd beneath the Lunar Ball.
No Ills portentous, as the Vulgar hold,
Th' unusual Visitors to Earth unfold,
Tho' with red Trains their kindled Disks appear:
Cause of vain Doubt, and superstitious Fear.
Whole Ages chill'd with Frosts, or scorch'd with Fire!
Whether, to distant Suns by turns convey'd,
Far Systems they supply with secret Aid?
Or Worlds they be, to Conflagration doom'd
(As once must ours) on their last Pyre consum'd?
Or dolorous Mansions serve of penal Woe?
Too vainly curious, we aspire to know.
Perhaps, are Earths, all furnish'd like our own.
Else say, morose Disputer! why so small,
So distant plac'd from this terraqueous Ball?
If only for its nightly Use design'd,
If form'd alone to serve our single Kind,
Why oft do Clouds obscure their total Light?
Or why retire they from th' enquiring Sight?
Myriads of Orbs, that 'scape the naked Eye?
And farther still a new Discovery trace
Thro' the deep Circle of uncompass'd Space?
Wou'd Wisdom infinite such Works produce,
Design such Labours, and prevent their Use?
Wou'd HE, who no mean Atom forms in vain,
Such useless Trophies of his Pow'r ordain,
When a few Moons might brighter Influence lend,
And by an easier Means effect his End?
No, Man deceiv'd! to partial Views confin'd,
In nobler Thoughts extend thy straiten'd Mind;
And follow, while th' ethereal Muse descries
Worlds yet unsung, unview'd by vulgar Eyes.
With Earth, attendant on th' imperial Sun:
Resembling her's in Motion, Bulk and Frame.
All like Exchange of Seasons undergo,
And Days and Nights in due Succession know;
Surrounded with an Atmosphere of Air,
And Clouds discharge their treasur'd Meteors there:
Strong Intimation that some Creature Race
The beauteous. habitable Mansions grace.
Else for what End thus furnish'd? wherefore made?
Not merely our benighted Globe to aid.
For then why hides the close Mercurial Star
His bashful Head, beneath the Solar Car?
On Earth how rarely view'd; immerg'd in Day.—
Why flitts so fast the Cyprian Star away
Whose Orb has oft in Noon's full Shine been seen.
Sparkling and vivid, in her Eve-lov'd Hour,
Her dancing Rays their soft Effulgence pour.
Yet soon she leaves our wishing View, to rise
On Day-light Plains, obscur'd in lucid Skies.
Tell me (if all the Planets serve to wait
Attendants, merely on terrestrial State)
Proud Boaster, tell! so seldom why appear
Bright Mercury's or Saturn's paler Sphere?
Waste they the Light design'd for us alone?
How is Heav'n's Care employ'd, or Wisdom shown?
What needed Jove such Width of spacious Plains?
Two hundred Earths his single Orb contains.
Had Fate design'd him our Attendant Ball,
Why shines he plac'd so high, his Light so small?
Four radiant Moons surround th' imperial Star,
Large as our boasted World; whose silver Light
His Regions visit in the Gloom of Night.
Nor this the Fancy of deluded Eyes;
Mark'd are their Periods thro' sublimer Skies.
Oft does th' Astronomer his Tube display,
And view 'em, in Eclipse, with pleas'd Survey,
To this the curious Genius Knowledge owes
Of Light's swift Motion, and its Measure knows.
Their spacious Orb, and kindly Influence lend?
Why were they form'd?—to shine on barren Strands,
On rocky Wastes, and void unpeopled Lands?
On lifeless Meads to play with wasted Beams,
And glimmer o'er a length of useless Streams?
Too small their far-fixt Globes, too weak their Ray,
To reach our Confines thro' the distant Way,
Hid from past Ages, and a Secret still
But for the modern Artist's abler Skill.
To other Worlds their Virtues must dispense;
Or only stand vain Marks of Pow'r unwise,
Perplexing Error of the burthen'd Skies.
Far hence, ye Thoughts profane, with Rev'rence bow,
And the great Maker's sapient Work allow.
Whose Beams remote but faintly reach so far.
Ev'n here th' assisted Eye with pleas'd Amaze
A fresh Supply of Lunar Orbs surveys.
The weaken'd Sight can only five attain;
For new Discovery others may remain.
Some fam'd Observers, with Suspicion strong
Deem that more Moons to this fair World belong.
These in the Planet's sad, benighted Hour,
From different Quarters, their Refulgence pour,
Light his huge Plains, or in Eclipses view'd
May teach his Sailor needful Longitude,
While their joint gravitating Force presides
To swell, and sink by turns, his monstrous Tides.
How o'er the copious Orb a lucid Ring,
Opake and broad, is seen his Arch to spread,
Round the big Globe at stated Periods led;
Perhaps (its Use unknown) with gather'd Heat
To warm the Regions of that gelid Seat,
The want of nearer Phœbus to supply,
And fill with reflex Beams his Summer Sky,
Else might the high-plac'd World, expos'd to Frost,
Lie waste, in one eternal Winter lost.
And why in Life's Behalf such needless Care,
If no created Race inhabits there?
If only made to shine for Earth below,
Vain is the Light his circling Moons bestow:
Unserviceable here; how vain a Thing!
Vain the Convenience of his radiant Ring,
Entirely vain; as bright his Beams would show,
Tho' stript of these, or bound in endless Snow.
May have enrich'd like us the Sister-Earths;
These Moons, in the Positions they appear,
New Arguments suggest, in Reason's Ear.
Those two, near Neighbours to the Solar Light ,
Want no such Solace, in their gloom-less Night.
Aids may to each, reciprocal, supply.
While Earth, that farther from the Sun recedes,
The friendly Rays of one Satellite needs,
If, haply, none to Mars allotted fall,
Shall one lost Proof enerve the Strength of all?
Ours, or the Moons of Jove may light his Skies;
And less Degrees his Planet's Wants suffice.
Whose Axis shows him (different from the Rest)
With Length, unchang'd, of Summer-Radiance blest.
Jove, more remote, four large-orb'd Moons obtains;
Five, dimmer Saturn, to illume his Plains,
Wins not such pleading Evidence the Mind?
That indicates a Care so wise! so kind!
If chance-like-Pow'r, Heav'n's Vault dispers'd them o'er,
Why had Jove these? or why not Venus four?
So well proportion'd, by a proper Lot,
In Number, Magnitude, and Place!—for what?
‘For nothing‘—the obdurate Wrangler cries,
Or means, who Consequence so plain denies.
But, let th' Objector, unconvinc'd, disclose
His various Doubts, and all their Force oppose.
A Race of living Animals contain,
Those fixt in Mercury's too splendid Seat
Must sink, opprest beneath the fervid Heat ;
Or by too strong a Ray, the tortur'd Sight
Fail, quite o'erpower'd with unabating Light.
Or, if superior Planets we prefer,
High Jove's, or Saturn's large, extremest Star,
What Hercules enflam'd, as Fables tell,
Could in their mildest Climes attempt to dwell.
On whose Equator, Snows perpetual lie,
And ev'n our dreaded Poles their Heat outvie ?
Nor will it render our Opinion vain.
The same of us might the Mercurials hold,
“A Planet uninhabitably cold;”
Suppose us burnt with more than Ætna's Heat,
Each by their World comparing ours, might deem
Their Reasons firm, and err in wide Extreme.
Far as from Earth appears the Orb of Jove.
Perhaps the highest Star his Systems own,
Alars, Jove, and Saturn may be, there, unknown,
While we Saturnian-like, to him may seem;
Just dimly lighted by Day's faintest Gleam.
Perhaps from Jupiter's remoter Ball
Scarce are we view'd, or not discern'd at all ,
Unless the poring Sage, empower'd by Art,
The rare believ'd Discovery can impart.
His Mercury our fiery Planet seems,
Burnt in th' o'er-fervid Suns too neigh'bring Beams.
And yet our Earth a temperate Seat we find;
No ever-during Frosts the Furrows bind,
Nor burning Desart lies our wasted Plain,
Tho' deem'd unpeopled, by Conjecture vain.
Who ne'er on Earth beheld our living Brood,
Cou'd reason thus;—“This Element I view,
“Sure never Race of breathing Creatures knew
“Too thin a Region; in so purg'd a Sky
“How can the Lungs their labouring Tubes supply?
“Starv'd in Vacuity; my Medium yields
“Substantial Air, and more commodious Fields.”
Th' Objection shou'd the watry Kind rehearse,
Or we on them the Argument reverse,
Each, to themselves apt Reasoning might appear;
And serve, in our Debate, as aptly here.
With Wastes and fiery Plains lies cover'd o'er?
The Antients, while the World was scarcely known,
Fram'd like Conceptions of our torrid Zone.
By later Ages found a peopled Land,
Cool'd by vast Rains, by constant Breezes fann'd.
And who can tell but Solar Clouds may aid
Mercurial Skies, and yield a gelid Shade?
Or lend him Intervals of milder Light?
Or help his Seasons in their circling Flight?
Oft are they seen to maculate the Sun,
And round his Globe perpetual Courses run,
Succeeded still by new, as these retire,
Mysterious Exhalations from his Fire.
Swift to the Sun he turns his Planet round ,
Forbidding Night's long Stay to freeze his Air,
And soon regains the Sun-beams mild Repair.
The countervailing Day his Glebe may warm
With genial Seeds, and Winter's Force disarm.
Ev'n utmost Saturn, tho' he views from far
The less'ning Sun diminish'd to a Star ,
But feebly glimm'ring on his dusky Ball,
With Light and Heat proportionably small,
May from his Ring Amends of each receive,
Or by a length of Day the Loss relieve.
Scorch'd with hot Rays, or chill'd by prisoning Snows:
No doubt th' Almighty cou'd his Worlds replete
With Creatures, suited to their various Seat,
Intense Degrees of Cold or Heat to bear,
Of Light, or Gloom, a pleasing, proper Share,
Painful, howe'er, imagin'd, to the rest.
Of this on Earth Similitude we find;
Each Place to fit Inhabitants assign'd.
The Bird of Jove, with an undazzled Sight,
Kenns the clear Sun, and towers to reach his Light;
Whilst the benighted Bat, and Owl obscene,
Attend the Chariot of the shadowy Queen.
Upward the Feathery Nations all repair,
And range at large th' extensive Fields of Air;
To firmer Earth the grosser Kinds adhere,
And wat'ry Realms the finny Natives cheer.
The Ant and Mole their downward Courses guide,
And, deep intrench'd, a gloomy Race, reside.
And Bees their artful Palaces contrive
In the close Cavern of their darksome Hive.
Pleas'd, to his destin'd Mansion each is prone,
Form'd best to suit, and best approve his own.
And to the Moon our nearer Search confine.
Here obvious Mountains rise with lofty Head ,
And Seas and Lakes in wide Dimensions spread.
“With deepning Caverns in its Surface fall?
“Whence the dense Soil unwater'd, cleft, and dry,
“One waste, unpeopled lonesome Rock must lie.”
Weak Doubt! inseperate from the human Fool,
That SELF wou'd make the fixt, unvarying Rule:
As if an Atmosphere, more thin and pure,
No Plant could stand, no Animal endure;
As if, (allow no Clouds those Regions fill)
Dews might not, imperceptibly, distil.
Perhaps, did, there, extensive Oceans flow,
Rul'd by one common Cause with ours below,
Too strong a Gravity might Earth impel,
And their vast Tides in Deluges o'erswell.
How large her Size! how bright her Beams appear!
Thus meaner Virtues, to advantage plac'd,
Shine, oft, with a superior Lustre grac'd.
Nor shall we this our fair Satellite find
For Earth's meer ornamental Use design'd:
Wise Heav'n intended 'em, with friendly Aid,
By turns to shine, for mutual Service made.
We silver o'er her Plains in gloomy Hours;
Her larger Moon, increasing as she wains,
And full our Orb, when hers a Crescent gains.
Thrice five times brighter Influence we display,
Light scarce inferiour to a second Day .
A glaring Globe we seem, immense and vast:
O'er the small World, in fixt Suspension plac'd;
While only half her Disk the Sight attains.
Obscur'd her adverse Hemisphere remains.
That still enjoys Earth's large reflected Light,
This Darkness mantles in uncheering Night.
So Jove's fair Moons, so those that Saturn grace,
Turn to their Chiefs, like ours, one constant Face.
Best known of all the Planetary Scheme,
Of what we obvious view but least we know.
Her Variations so extremely wide,
Mock our weak Rules, to no sure Measures ty'd;
None can her strange Phenomena impart,
Humbling to human Pride, the Foil of Art.
To this new World, have sought a vent'rous Way,
Upborn on airy Sails, presumptuous Aim!
And justly gain'd of Lunatick the Name?
Ah! Wretch, be warn'd, so rash a Strife forbear,
Nor, boldly urg'd, the certain Ruin dare.
Keep Icarus' unhappy Fate in view,
The Tale fictitious, but the Moral true.
Dash'd on the rocky Surge, the fatal Flood
Strew'd with his borrow'd Plumes, and stain'd with Blood.
But if no Caution, no Reproof can find
A pow'rful Charm to awe thy hardy Mind,
Think o'er thy Scheme, impracticably vain;
Attracting Earth thy Passage would restrain:
That Pow'r which checks her centrifugal Force,
Wou'd fast withhold thy strange, eccentric Course.
What Guide shou'd lead thee thro' the void Profound?
Cold, dark, and destitute of vital Air
Thy Lungs to nourish, or thy Flight to bear!
Eternal Ages fix'd thou must appear
Of suff'ring Fools a Monument severe.
Involv'd our Sire and all his Race in Woe,
If Love of Things unknown inflame thy Mind,
On Earth a safer, easier Labour find.
The South's vast undiscover'd Tracts explore,
And brave the Winter of our polar Shore:
Or wouldst thou such advent'rous Toil forbear,
And on more useful Search employ thy Care,
To know thyself, the nobler World within,
And all that lies unnotic'd there, begin.
To sail the Seas of Passion understand,
And steer aright to Reason's flow'ry Land.
What pois'nous Weeds spontaneous Growth obtain
Discreetly prove, and what resists their Bane.
To cultivate the wilder'd human Mind,
With Seeds of ev'ry wise and virtuous Kind,
Prepare; let Piety enrich the Place,
And ev'ry moral, learn'd, and social Grace.
Let the sweet Charms of sacred Science move
To contemplate the shining Orbs above,
And wond'ring Thought in pleas'd Conjecture lose.
The differing Times, revolving Planets know,
Will pleasing Lessons to the Mind bestow.
To theirs how lengthen'd seems its hasty Race!
Like us if subject to be born and die,
If Fate Life's Course by our short Measure try,
Alas, how soon they reach the destin'd Gole,
Whose four full Years in our one Period roll!
From Embryo Seeds its swift Perfection gains.
The grown, pleas'd Insect skims the native Flood,
Acts, rests, and propagates her future Brood;
Yet few short Hours include her vital Date,
One transient Eve both gives her Birth, and Fate.
The spacious Measure of Saturnian Years!
While two the Infant, there, can fully gain,
Man's whole threescore completed Date obtain:
When, to the Comets, Saturn's Year compare,
In some, as vast exceeds the Difference there.
The restless Mind has fresh Enquiries still.
Dispens'd to each, Creative Pow'r imparts?
Seem they like ours, or differ each, in all?
Fix how we can, on Mystery we fall!
Whatever Race possess th' ethereal Plain,
What Orbs they people, or what Ranks maintain,
Tho' the deep Secret Heav'n conceal below,
One Truth, of universal Scope, we know;
Our nobler Part, the same celestial Mind,
Relates Earth's Sons to all their Reas'ning Kind.
One Deity, one sole creating Cause,
Our active Cares, and joint Devotion draws.
Whether (since doubtless from Man's Trespass freed)
Their Pray'rs the Mediatorial Incense need,
Lies closely veil'd. Heav'n's Oracles record
All Worlds were form'd by this efficient Word:
And whether the Eternal, pleas'd to own
By full, illustrious Marks his darling Son;
Or, his Perfections brighter to display,
Deigns no Approach, but this appointed Way,
Say, Race of social Creatures! who fulfil
His high Command, and know th' Almighty Will.
They praise, and hail Thee, universal Lord!
Thee first, from everlasting, they proclaim,
Just, wise, almighty, pure,—thy awful Name;
Then all thy milder Glories they diffuse,
The darling Titles thou delight'st to use,
Mild Father, kind Preserver of their Race;
A Name thy dear Affections well approve,
Whose Nature, indefectible, is Love.
Meet me, blest Thought, in my retired Hour,
When my bent Knees confess this wond'rous Pow'r!
When with rais'd Eyes I view those Worlds above,
Engag'd in the same grateful Work of Love,
Let the grand Scene my solemn Act prepare,
And my Soul join a universal Pray'r!
Thy Schemes the Life assist, the Mind adorn.
To changing Seasons give determin'd Space,
And fix to Hours and Years their measur'd Race.
The pointing Dial, on whose figur'd Plane
Of Time's still Flight we Notices obtain;
The Pendulum, dividing lesser Parts,
Their Rise acquire from thy inventive Arts.
Th' acute Geographer, th' Historian sage,
By thy Discov'ries clear the doubtful Page.
From mark'd Eclipses Longitude perceive,
Can settle Distances, and Æras give.
From his known Shore the Seaman distant far
Steers, safely guided, by thy Polar Star;
Nor errs when Clouds and Storms obscure its Ray,
His Compass marks him as exact a Way.
Supply'd, the Prize of philosophic Art!
Two curious mimic Globes, to crown the Plan,
Were form'd; by his Creator's Image, Man.
The first, with Heav'n's bright Constellations vast
Rang'd on the Surface, with the Earth's Climes the last.
Copy of this by Human Race possess'd:
Which Lands indent, and spacious Seas invest.
Fram'd on imaginary Poles to move,
With Lines, and different Circles mark'd above.
The pleasur'd Sense, by this Machine, can tell
In what Positions various Nations dwell:
Round the wide Orb's exteriour Surface spread;
How Side-ways some the solid Convex tread:
While a more sever'd Race of busy Pow'rs
Project, with strange Reverse, their Feet to ours.
So, in the limpid Pool, the Gazer sees
Huge Mountains pendant, and inverted Trees.
So on the Apples smooth, suspended Ball
(If greater we may represent by small)
The swarming Flies their reptile Tribes divide,
And cling, Antipodal, on every Side.
Hence pleasant Problems may the Mind discern
Of ev'ry Soil their Length of Days to learn;
Can tell when round, to each fix'd Place, shall come
Faint Dawn, Meridian Light, or Midnight Gloom:
Its use extensive, yet its Growth but slow.
If back we look on antient Sages Schemes,
They seem ridiculous as Children's Dreams:
How shall the Church, that boasts unerring Truth,
Blush at the Raillery of each modern Youth;
When told her Pope , of Heresy, arraign'd
The Sage, who Earth's Rotation once maintain'd!
Misdeem'd our Globe a plane quadrangle Mass;
A fine romantic Terras spread in State,
On central Pillars that support its Weight;
Like Indian Sophs , who this terrestrial Mold,
Affirm four sturdy Elephants uphold.
What Ideot Fables of the Sun they feign!
“New ev'ry Morn, ascending from the Main,
“A smooth, flat Disk, nor of a larger Size,
“Than what it measures to the naked Eyes.”
As pos'd the Stagyrite's dark School appears,
Perplex'd with Tales devis'd of Crystal Spheres,
Strange solid Orbs, and Circles oddly fram'd;
Who with Philosophy their Reveries nam'd.
With Doubts deep-puzzling each Scholastic Head.
Till, like the Theban wise, in Story fam'd,
Copernicus that Sphynxian Monster sham'd;
He the true Planetary System taught,
Which the learn'd Samian first from Egypt brought,
Long from the World conceal'd, in Error lost,
Whose rich Recovery latest Times shall boast.
Then Tycho rose, who, with incessant Pains,
In their due Ranks replac'd the starry Trains.
His Labours, by a fresh Industry mov'd,
Hevelius, Flamsteed, Halley, since improv'd.
Lo! the great Lyncian Artist now aspires
Thro' the rais'd Tube to mark the Stellar Fires!
The Galaxy with clust'ring Lights o'erspread,
The new-nam'd Stars in bright Orion's Head,
The varying Phases circling Planets show,
The Solar Spots, his Fame was first to know,
Of Jove's Attendants, Orbs till then unknown,
Himself the big Discovery claims alone.
The Moons and wond'rous Ring of Saturn found.
Sagacious Kepler, still advancing, saw
Th' elliptic Motion, Nature's plainest Law,
That universal acts thro' every Part:
This laid the Basis of Newtonian Art.
Newton! vast Mind! whose piercing Pow'rs apply'd
The secret Cause of Motion first descry'd;
Found Gravitation was the primal Spring,
That wheel'd the Planets round their central King;
Mysterious Impulse! that more clear to know
Exceeds the finite Reach of Art below.
Own God immediate acting thro' the Frame.
'Tis He, unsearchable, in all resides;
He, the First Cause their Operations guides.
Fear on his awful Privacy to press,
But, honouring Him, thy Ignorance confess.
Mercury is about two thirds of the Earth's Magnitude, near 32 Millions of Miles distant from the Sun, and 88 Million from us. He moves round it in something less than 88 Days, with the Velocity of about 100 Thousand Miles an Hour, which is almost as swift again as the Earth's Motion.
Venus is nigh the Bigness of the Earth, distant from the Sun near 60 Million of Miles; her diurnal Revolution is in about 23 Hours; her annual 224 Days; her Motion in an Hour about 70 Thousand Miles. She never recedes above 48 Degrees from the Sun, whose Light and Heat is there 4 times as great as with us.
Next to Venus is the Orbit of the Earth (with that of the Moon.) Her Distance from the Sun is (Mr. Locke computes) 81 (others) 90 Millions of Miles. annual Revolution 365 Days, 5 Hours, 49 Minutes.
Mars is much less than our Earth, distant from the Sun 123 Millions of Miles, revolves round him in 687 Days nearly, at the Rate of 45 Thousand Miles an Hour. His Light and Heat are twice, sometimes thrice, less than we receive from the Sun.
Jupiter is distant from the Sun 424 Millions of Miles, round which he revolves in 11 Years and 10 Months, at the Rate of 24 Thousand Miles an Hour.
Saturn, the last Planet in our System, is distant from the Sun 777 Million of Miles; his annual Revolution is in 29 Years, 138 Days, his hourly 18 Thousand Miles, he is about 94 times as big as our Earth.
The Comets are a kind of Temporary Planets, revolving in determined Periods round the Sun, only visible to us in their Perihelion, or nearest Approach; they are generally of the Size of the Planets, and have Atmospheres like our Earth, tho' more dense and thick: They sometimes appear very large; that in the Time of Nero, Seneca relates, was not inferior in Magnitude to the Sun itself; that in 1652, Hevelius observes, was as large as the Moon. They move in Elliptical Orbits, extremely excentric, insomuch that many Astronomers maintain their Courses are Rectilinear; hereby their Nearness and Distances from the Sun are such, that their greatest to the smallest Degree of Light and Heat differ so much as to be above 400 Millions of times to 1.
The irregular and various Motions of Comets have confirmed these three great Points, viz. that there are no such solid Orbs as the Ptolemaic System imagin'd, no Vortices, or fluid Whirlpools, as Des Cartes maintain'd, and that the Planets move in a perfect Vacuum without any resisting Matter.
As is the Case especially of Mercury, whose Proximity to the Sun, never receding more than 28 Degrees, makes him seldom discernable.
Instanc'd in Jupiter's and Saturn's Moons, the Galaxy, or Milky Way, whose strange Whiteness is found to proceed from the vast Number of small Telescopic Stars: As in the Pleiades, or little Constellation of 7 Stars (as they are call'd) more than 70 have been counted.
The Scriptures speak of God as making all Things in Number, Weight and Measure, weighing the Mountains in Scales, and the Hills in a Balance.
Observable in Saturn particularly, whose Axis inclines to the Place of the Ecliptic above 31 Degrees, which is 8 more than is in ours.
That Venus, Mars and Jupiter have Atmospeeres is indisputable: As, from the Observation of solar Eclipses, some Astronomers conceive the Moon to have; tho' different from ours.
The Spots in Jupiter and Mars are a Proof of this, by their dark Colour, continual Change, and frequent Dissipation.
This is only observable when the Earth is in her Peribelion, and Venus in her inferior Conjunction with the Sun, at which time she is 6 times nearer to us than in her superior Conjunction. When we behold her with this delightful Brightness, a fourth Part of her Disk only appears enlighten'd thro' the Telesepe, and she is then horned like our New-Moon. Mr. De la Hire observed in the inner Part of her Crescent a Train of very high Rocks, that he thinks contribute greatly to this extraordinary Lustre.
Jupiter is about 220 times bigger than the Earth, which is more than equal in Bulk to all the Planets put together.
By Observations made from the Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites, the Motion of Light was first calculated and demonstrated by Mr. Romer. Mr. Huygens observes, that a Bullet discharged from a Cannon would be 25 Years in coming from the Sun to us, whereas the Rays of Light (which is a Body too) arrive in 7 Minutes and a half of Time.
This was the Opinion of Mr. Huygens and Dr. Harris. Between the 4th and 5th of Saturn's Satellites (say they) there is a Distance not at all proportionable to that between all the others, where may probably be a 6th Moon, or perhaps another may lie without the 5th, which yet may have escaped us. Cosmotheo. p. 114 Ast. Dial. p. 133.
The Axis of Mars having very little or no Inclination to the Plane of his Orbit (as the Motion of his Spots discover) shows no perceivable Variation of Seasons there, and that there is little sensible Difference of Summer and Winter in that Planet.
Which is there (Dr. Harris thinks seven, Mr. Huygens) nine Times as great as our hottest Summer, and is supposed sufficient to make Water boil. His Fluids and other Parts must be dense in Proportion, or the Sun would ratify them so as to make them (it is believed) all pass off in Fume and Vapour.
The Solar Light and Heat which Jupiter receives, is but a 27th (Dr. Keil says a 25th) Part of what we enjoy. In Saturn the Sun appears 100 times less than we see him, and both his Light and Heat are diminished in the same Proportion. His warmest Regions are therefore more frigid than our coldest.
The Earth observ'd from Jupiter, never departing above 11 Degrees from the Sun, which is not so much as half Mercury's greatest Elongation with us, may, as Dr. Keil observes, “make the Sight of it (even there) a strange and unusual Spectacle,” and to answer in some respect what he conjectures of the Saturnian Astronomers “that perhaps they may not have yet discovered that there is such a Body as our Earth in the Universe.”
Jupiter is observ'd to have perpetual Equinoxes, and the Interchanges of Day and Night successively every five Hours.
The apparent Diameter of the Sun, seen from Saturn, will be little more than twice the Diameter of Venus, when nearest the Earth.
These are larger in Proportion than ours. Their Tops gilded by the Sun appear as so many bright Specks up and down, a considerable Time before the darker Interspaces, which are the Valleys, become enlightened.
The Moon being in our Neighbourhood (distant but 60 Semi-Diameters of the Earth, which make two hundred thirty nine Thousand and ten Miles) her Diameter is nearly the same with the Sun's apparent Diameter, yet is in reality not above a fortieth Part of the Earth's bigness.
The Earth appear 15 times bigger and brighter to the Moon than she does to us. This may be observ'd just about new Moon and after; when her then dark Body is render'd plainly visible by the reflected Light of our Earth; yet this terrestrial Light, when the Earth appears at Full to the Lunar People, is not above a 3600th Part of the Sun's Light there.
The Moon who in respect of the Sun and Stars turns round herself, in respect of us does not turn at all; they seem to her to rise and set in the space of 15 Days; but our Earth appears to her to be held up in the same Place of the Heavens. Fontan. Plural. of Worlds. p. 44.
The centripetral or gravitating Force exceeds the centrifugal, almost 300 times, by which all Bodies are kept subsiding to the Surfaces of their respective Planets.
Urban VIII. who imprison'd Galileo in the Inquisition five Years., for asserting the Motion of the Earth round the Sun, and exacted his Recantation at the Age of 60, before he could obtain his Enlargement.
Pythagoras learnt from the Egyptian Priests the true Theory of the Universe, and brought it into Greece, which Copernicus since restor'd and establish'd.
Galileo was the first that toward the beginning of the last Century, applied the Telescope (the admired Invention of Metius of Amsterdam) to celestial Observations.
BOOK IV. Observations on the Sun and Fixed Stars.
The Argument.
The former Books having been employed in a Survey of the Earth and Planets, This last proceeds to consider the Sun, the Head and Principal of our System, and from thence, by Occasion, passes on to a View of the Fixed Stars, believed in their Nature and Uses to resemble our Solar Orb; where a few Enquiries are proposed concerning the Times of their Creation and Dissolution, with some Reflections on Comets, and the sudden Appearing and Disappearing of several new Stars. Whence the Absurdity of the Peripatetic Philosophy is inferr'd. And the Epicurean appeal'd to, for the Existence of a God and Providence. The whole concluding with a Hymn of Praise to the tremendous and adorable Deity.
From Planets, that their changeless Course repeat;
More boldly ventrous I my Search pursue:
And Suns above, in vast Expansion view.
Dear to thy Britain by her Cato's Name!
To Me, by grateful Memory, dearer still!
First, generous Prompter of my tuneful Skill.
Who my young Genius by thy Favours rais'd:
Long to be mourn'd! as ever to be prais'd!
Sad, round thy Urn, the pious Muse shall bind.
Small, neighb'ring Globe, array'd in lucid Beams:
That West appears, deceptive of our Eyes,
At Eve to set; that East appears to rise;
Behold! (amaz'd, when serious we enquire)
Immense his Size we find, an Orb of Fire,
So large, ten Million Earths like ours below
Wou'd but suffice his equal'd Mass to show.
So distant, eighty Million Miles wou'd fail,
Vast Sum! to count a full proportion'd Tale.
Plac'd in the midst he keeps his central Throne,
In State revolving on himself alone;
Twelve Days here doubly clos'd his Motion spends
Ere the huge Sphere one Circulation ends.
While thro' his System, from his Regal Seat,
His Rays dispense prolific Light and Heat;
Their Homage Planetary Subjects pay,
And round him, distanc'd, take their order'd Way.
Or liquid all? an Orb of melted Gold?
Whose Action, Density, and Bulk, conspire
Perpetual to preserve his wond'rous Fire;
Cloath'd with an Atmosphere, whose Weight's Excess
May forcibly th' exhaling Parts compress,
As Magnets back their Steams retracted call;
Or Floods disgorg'd, in their own Whirlpools fall.
Else his exhausted Stores, with dread Decay
Wou'd, by long Time, burn out, and fume away.
Six thousand Years, to Life, prodigious Space!
His Beams, incessant, have refresh'd our Race,
On all th' ethereal Wand'rers shed their Light,
Yet still his Pow'rs unwasted seem to Sight.
If meer Antiquities of ev'ry kind
Impress a pleasing Rev'rence on the Mind,
The useless Coin obscur'd with eating Rust,
The shatter'd Ruin, or the mould'ring Bust,
More venerable far our Thoughts should deem
This eldest, signal Work, of Pow'r supreme.
Dim Spots shou'd e'er its lucid Face enclose?
Yet such, detected by th' assisting Glass,
Oft o'er its Surface in Succession pass:
Vast as our World, th' observing Eye attains.
Now form'd, augmenting while their Tour they make
Now lost, as floating o'er th' enkindled Lake;
Borne on his Ball they keep mysterious Round,
A while obscure him, and then scarce are found.
Whole Days their Mists have veil'd his Light from View,
Whole Years it wore a faint and palid Hue.
Shall they at last, in desolating Shade,
Th' incrusted Star with dire Eclipse invade?
And as the Seers inspir'd, prophetic, write ,
‘Blot his fair Lustre with eternal Night?’
Prelude of fatal Doom; when in return
Earth, scorch'd with purifying Flames, shall burn;
Perhaps consum'd, but (Phœnix like) to rise,
Fair as a Sun, in renovated Skies.
Heav'n's hid Decree, inscrutable to Man.
See'st thou those Orbs that numerous roll above?
Those Lamps, that nightly greet thy visual Pow'rs,
Are each a bright capacious Sun like ours.
How vivid they emit their lucid Streams!
Not like the Planets dull, reflected Beams;
Of their own Essence, like the Solar Ray,
Thro' boundless Spaces they their Flames convey.
Observe, two close-appearing Stars are found.
Both small, tho' diff'ring; both so near reside,
A Hand might seem the shining Points to hide.
Ah! treach'rous Sense!—each far from each remains,
Far, as from either lie Earth's sever'd Plains.
Tho' in our annual Path we upward run,
Rais'd in the Heav'ns twice higher than the Sun,
No seeming Difference can we there espy.
Thro! our whole Circle in the changing Year,
From all Positions they the same appear:
No Benefit of Height, no Help of Art,
Can to their Figures least Increase impart;
Tho' of these Optic Instruments they tell
Some, ev'n to Hundred Times, their Objects swell.
How strong he glitters on the pleasur'd Eye,
In Lustre matchless, on the azure Plain,
Nearest to Earth of all the station'd Train:
Than Rule can measure, or than Mind can soar.
Stretch to the Sun thy long prodigious Flight,
Thence, twice ten thousand times, exceed his Height,
But little, little Gain thy Toil wou'd cheer,
Scarce there, his Orb wou'd magnify'd appear;
Six hundred thousand Million Miles proceed,
Short of thy End th' extended Path would lead .
Yet this, the only measur'd Star we know,
Compar'd, will seem diminutively low:
Farther from this, than this from Earth is plac'd,
Th' ethereal Regions with new Orbs are grac'd;
Farther than those from this, fresh Numbers still
The Depths of lost Infinity may fill.
Since from our Centre so remote they lie,
Can our far Sun their Flux of Light supply?
Cou'd we receive the weak, reflected Ray?
What can they be? (thus self-illustrious shown)
What, less than Suns? resembling each our own.
This Orb, but for his Planets mutual Use?
Have theirs, to cherish with their vital Fires,
No happy Train, no circulating Quires?
Shine they all void thro' solitary Space?
Fair to no Service? fruitful with no Race?
No Reptile, Plant, nor Animal, to tend?
Vast, without Worth? and active, for no End?
O! rather think, since form'd with equal Pow'rs,
Heav'n meant their Systems as compleat as ours.
O'erwhelming Image! what a boundless Scene
Breaks on the Mind! what Musings intervene!
What! when Discov'ries still their Sum enlarge,
Swell on, and Mental Faculties o'ercharge.
With the Perspective; lo! th' Observer sees
More num'rous Orbs, and more, succeed to these.
Full seventy clust'ring Luminaries join;
Where fam'd Orion's Constellation glows,
Two thousand mingling Stars their Orbs disclose.
How thick, discernible to aided Sight,
Their Central Forms possess the Milky Height!
Whose Spheres elude the Reach of naked Eyes,
And seem with Light to belt the whiten'd Skies.
Have each (a Sov'reign in his System's Bound)
Their lighted Earths, and Moons, revolving round,
Inhabitable all? their Plants and Flow'rs?
Their Insects, Animals, and Reasoning Pow'rs?
Confute it, Mortal! whose elating Pride
Wou'd to thyself the Universe divide.
What, tho' no Planets round those Orbs of Light
Appear, thus distant, to thy failing Sight,
Seen from their Region would thy Wand'rers run
To a like Point, all shrunk within thy Sun.
Thy Sun wou'd seem, by a Remove so far,
Diminutive as theirs, suppos'd a Star.
View'd with his kindred Lamps, their Night to cheer,
In the same Surface of one concave Sphere.
Say, do Reflections, Man! enlarg'd like these,
Thy vain Ambition's ruling Lust displease;
Yet, humble Christian, thy unswelling Mind
May from their Lessons deep Instruction find.
Jesus the God! th' existing Worlds proclaim,
To Thee related by a dearer Name;
To thy admiring Thoughts they more commend;
He, who thy Nature bore, thy Sins atton'd,
Is Lord of all this vast Creation own'd;
If lessen'd by the View thyself thou see,
The more his Love it magnifies for Thee.
Can'st to Heaven's Sov'reign nigh access afford;
Can'st introduce me to his bright Abode,
And raise a Worm, to view his wond'rous God.
Eas'd of my Guilt, his Terrors disappear;
No more his Justice wakes my trembling Fear:
His Holiness, his Truth, my dread before,
All leagu'd with Mercy, now dismay no more.
By Thee redeem'd, thy Mite, thy breathing Dust,
Sees him appeas'd, yet holy; good, yet just.
Sees o'er the Angelic Nature Man's preside,
With Godhead's self in near Relation ty'd:
Sons new adopted, ransom'd to supply
Thrones of fall'n Seraphs, in th' eternal Sky.
O! may their Wand'rings ne'er my Heart misguide,
Keep me, blest Saviour! from their Wiles and Pride;
If with pure Souls thy Love has number'd mine,
Thine be the Praise, as all the Merit Thine.
And ask when rose these Glories of the Sky:
And to one final Period all ordain'd?
Or, since wide Space they independent fill,
Apart created? or creating still?
Do Scriptures clear, the aw'd Assent oppose?
They chiefly our Original disclose.
Do they assert, ere we in Being came,
God ne'er was own'd by the Creator's Name?
Where then were Angels , elder Race to Man?
Who fell seduc'd, perhaps, ere He began:
Do they assert prolific Pow'r, at rest,
Shall in no future Instance shine confest?
How then shall, long foretold, (declare ye Wise)
New Worlds, new Heav'ns in distant Ages rise?
What if the sacred Page shou'd only mean
To paint the forming one creative Scene,
These Heav'ns that visibly our World embrace,
This Sun with all his Planetary Race?
Perhaps, too, Suff'rers in one Doom alone.
Must all those sep'rate Worlds with ours below,
Fix'd by one Law, a general Period know?
What, to the Muse, conject'ral, has been taught.
Some think more Planets, than have reach'd our Sight,
Lie hid 'twixt Mercury, and the Solar Light ;
More still, betwixt the Orb of Saturn cast,
And the Fix'd-Stars, may fill that mighty Vast,
Which God, on his creating Work employ'd,
Perhaps, wou'd scarcely leave one total Void.
Six Thousand have been guess'd their Sums, and more,
That might be rang'd this wide Expansion o'er ;
The Sun's o'er-close Proximity shall burn,
Whirld (in eccentrical Descension lost)
It's Sphere too nigh; or in its Furnace tost.
And each new Comet, that our Sight acquires,
Of such doom'd Worlds may be the Funeral Fires .
Earth and her five near Sisters 'scape so long.
Had, each ten Years since first our World begun,
The fatal Conflagration seiz'd on One.
More than five Thousand of the numerous Train,
Safe in their separate Bounds wou'd yet remain;
One Neighbour should those tragick Flames infest,
Presageful Dread might well alarm the Rest.
Still, stranger to Heav'n's mystical Decree.
Yet will she ask why in sublimest Skies,
Suns, there, themselves expire, and New arise?
In that Lacteal Path that shines above,
Frequent those direful Revolutions prove.
Two signal Stars have long their Stations lost.
The well-known Orbs no Search could yet regain;
Void lie their Regions on th' ethereal Plain.
Once seven were number'd in the Pleiade Throng,
Where since, for Ages, only Six belong.
'Tis thought, their Spots might fatal Growth acquire,
Dim the clos'd Orbs, and quench their native Fire.
Near fair Andromeda's illustrious Sign,
The Modern first discern'd a Globe to shine;
Unview'd, till beaming on his wond'ring Sight,
As Sirius large, as nearest Venus bright.
Yet, strange to tell, ere two short Years were past,
The vanish'd Star a total Shade o'ercast.
A fresh Discov'ry claims our noting Eyes,
An Orb, far less, but Stationary found;
Like the bright Centres which our View surround.
Since, have an hundred Years their Circles roll'd,
Yet clear its fixt Illuminations hold.
Are Worlds created there, and Worlds destroy'd?
Some, lucid Suns just kindling into Light?
Some, whelm'd, and closing in a fatal Night?
Some, half obscur'd, eluding all Survey,
Then glimmering with a temporary Ray?
State, dismal sure! to all the Systems near,
If Planets, Life, and Creatures plac'd to cheer.
Are these unfathom'd Myst'ries, that we trace,
True Solar Lustres , fix'd thro' vary'd Space?
Whose Fires, in-pent, thick Spots have dark entomb'd,
Freed by some Comets Blaze, and re-illum'd?
Or Planets, seen when nearest our Abode,
The Suns, wide circling of the Milky-Road?
Or Comets that excentrical convert?
Omnific God! thy Beam refulgent vail!
To trace thy Works all Man's Ideas fail.
Confuted, now, thy Ignorance declare;
Who bold, yet blind, who teaching, to be taught,
Of changeless Make the Heavenly Matter thought,
Its Orbs firm Diamond, of dural Stay:
All unsusceptible of least Decay.
Ye vainly learn'd in Epicurus' School,
Who heavenly Pow'r, and Providence disgrace,
To clear Conviction yield, ye erring Race!
Search the least Path creative Pow'r has trod,
How plain the Footsteps of th' apparent God!
His Art cou'd Organs, Strength, and Sense implant
In the small agile Fly, and reptile Ant,
In the mean Mite, so much minuter still,
Thy Finger's pressing Point may Millions kill.
In ev'ry Place, what Proofs will stand display'd!
Lo! from the stagnant Pool one Drop obtain;
Of Insects this includes a sumless Train:
Buoy'd in the little Pool they frisk and play.
Pleas'd with their short Existence of a Day.
That Blue with which the glossy Plum is grac'd,
(That gives such poignant Pleasure to it's Taste)
Or azures o'er the Damsen's Velvet Rhind,
A Groupe of smallest Animals we find.
The little Gnat, in Beauties, may compare
With all his rival Brothers of the Air,
Transparent Feathers, Purple, Green, and Gold,
His Wings, small Feet, and gay-fring'd Tail enfold.
Four sharpen'd Spears his Head with Weapons arm,
And his pearl'd Eyes with liveliest Graces charm.
In Down of ev'ry variegated Die
Shines, flutt'ring soft, the gaudy Butterfly.
That Powder which thy spoiling Hand distains,
The Forms of Quills, and painted Plumes contains;
Not Courts can more Magnificence express,
In all their Blaze of Gems, and Pomp of Dress.
Encircled with his brilliant Ring, of Eyes:
By one quick Glance directing ev'ry Way,
The watchful Hunter to secure his Prey.
Thy Mycroscopic Glass admiring bring,
And view the humble Hornet's sharpen'd Sting.
Then on the slend'rest Needle turn thy Eye,
And the vast Diff'rence in their Points descry:
This view'd, more polish'd seems, acuter far;
That, rough as from the Forge some blunted Bar.
God's smallest Work all human Skill degrades,
Foils the lost Man, and sinks his Worth in Shades.
If lesser Proofs such Demonstration show,
What may th' unmeasur'd Universe bestow?
Think, cou'd blind Chance, dead, unexisting Name,
Produce such Order, so complete a Frame?
That Sun, bright Fountain of Life-gladd'ning Day,
Who kindled first his cheering vital Ray?
(Fix'd, that not too remote, nor near he shines)
And stores with Fuel his eternal Mines?
What Hand th' unnumber'd Solar Worlds sustains,
And guides their circling Planetary Trains;
That from their Orbits ne'er excentric wheel
The whirling Spheres, and dire Confusion feel?
Is there no Wisdom in th' Appointment shown?
Own they no Former, no Preserver own?
Cou'd Nature's constant, wise, harmonious Laws,
Spring from weak Chance? so impotent a Cause!
Or needful Instincts on th' inferiour Kind?
Or the mixt Species of their various Race
Maintains, in due Succession, Number, Place?
Can it their diff'rent Wants discern, relieve?
Whence has it Pow'r? and how does it perceive?
Reflect, vain Dreamers, ye pretended Wife!
You who confide on darken'd Carus' Eyes,
Close his dim Leaves, and ponder Nature's Page,
There let clear Truth your pleas'd Assent engage,
And the dread God confess; his Sapience own,
Thro' the fill'd Space with brightest Lustre shown.
Form'd, conservates and rules the Worlds around;
How grand a Scheme, cou'd we our Search pursue,
And thro' its various Ranks Creation view!
The Depths 'twixt Seraphim and Angel scan,
And trace, by slow Gradations, down to Man;
From Man, thro' Orders numberless, descend,
'Till the last Link the Chain of Beings end;
Lost in the Point where Entity begun.—
Or, backward, cou'd the Mind revolving run;
Quite up again, and with admiring Eyes,
See the huge Scale to new Perfection rise.
From Seraph, up thro' Hierarchies unknown,
Onward advancing, nearer to the Throne,
Yet infinite the Distance as before.
So vast a Plan! to ev'ry Part descend,
And know their various Int'rests to pursue,
At one clear, unperplex'd, immediate View!
Admir'd Omniscience, that at once can see
Past, present, and whate'er shall future be!
How great a Pow'r must all their Wants supply!
Its Cares how watchful, and its Aids how nigh!
Each Spring to move, each Hind'rance to controul,
And act, by Parts, subservient to the Whole!
The Muse began, with Thee shall end my Lays.
These are thy Works, blest Architect divine!
Earth, all this universal Offspring thine!
Thy Breath first bid inactive Matter move,
And strait wirh Life the genial Atoms strove;
Producing Animal, and Plant, and Flow'r,
Concurrent Proof of Wisdom and of Pow'r.
Thy potent Word infus'd the Solar Light,
And spread the Curtain of refreshing Night,
With splendid Orbs enrich'd the Void profound,
Rang'd the bright Worlds, and roll'd their Courses round.
Created Kinds, the Strains of Praise from You?
How grateful the deserv'd Returns of Love!
Praise Him, thou Earth, ye Worlds that roll above,
Each Pow'r, whole Nature, all His Works, conspire
In Songs of Praise; an Universal Quire!
And all ye Solar Orbs that deck the Sky,
Round whose vast Systems peopled Planets move,
Ye central Suns of numerous Earths above;
Praise the dread Pow'r, whose Goodness ye proclaim,
And let your warbling Spheres attune His Name!
Brighten the shapeless Gloom of awful Night;
And you Satellitary Orbs on high,
Who kindly Beams to distant Worlds supply,
Hymn your Creator's Praise; whose Skill divine
Impow'r'd your Mass to roll, your Globes to shine.
Whole Ages finishing your annual Way;
Thou Darkness! Nature's emblematic Tomb,
Yield him thy Reverence of impressive Gloom,
In silent Praise! And thou, dread Space profound,
Thro' all thy waste, interminable Round.
Swell with loud Accents in your Maker's Praise,
And you, soft Breezes, that perfume the Spring,
Bear Him a Tribute on your gentler Wing.
Spread it, ye pealing Thunders, round the Sky,
Wide as your Vollies roll, or Lightnings fly!
Ye Meteors! your Creator's Praises show;
The spangled Dew, the Clouds reflected Bow,
And moist'ning Show'r. Ye Frosts! his Praise proclaim;
The pendant Isicle's clear, native Gem;
Hoar Mists congeal'd, that dress the Meadow pale:
Blue Vapour, whitening Snows, and pearly Hail!
And Summer blooming with maturer Grace;
Ripe Autumn, clad in Wines, with Harvests crown'd,
And Winter old; His solemn Praise resound!
Your lovely Forms, and dazzling Hues display!
Young fruitful Branches! white with vernal Bloom,
In rich Oblations breathe your fresh Perfume!
Praise Him, ye Plants! with all your sweet Supplies;
Ye od'rous Herbs, in grateful Incense rise!
In Troops your tributary Homage bring.
And the finn'd Race that Stream and Ocean breeds.
Own'd Symbols of the Trinity divine!
Ye Seraphim, bright Flames! ye Angel Quires!
To the lov'd Theme tune all your sounding Lyres!
In noblest Strains your loftier Praise bestow!
Man! Image of thy Maker's moral Pow'r,
Last, labour'd Work of Heav'n's creating Hour!
No warm Returns, nor swell the Breath of Love?
Priest of the mute Creation, He demands
Their Off'rings from thy consecrated Hands,
Deputed Lord; from thy dead Slumber start;
Let Nature wake, awake the Pow'rs of Art,
And with exerted Force attune his Praise,
In Notes may emulate celestial Lays.
Let Music her divinest Succours bring,
The breathing Flute, the Viol's warbling String,
And dulcid Voice. Ye Concerts, louder grow!
Let the shrill Trump, the deep'ning Organ blow,
While with the Notes the tremulating Ground,
And echoing Roofs, strike awful Rapture round.
Praise him, each Creature, Plenitude, and Space;
Things of Inanimate and living Race!
From the Terrestrial to the Starry Pole,
Praise him his Works, and thou, my prostrate Soul!
Pursue on Earth a false, imagin'd Good;
That Good, which Creatures never can bestow,
With him still only found, from whom they flow;
While Gold or Lust, with a deceitful Bribe,
Tempt to sure Woes the easy-list'ning Tribe;
While Faction leads th' unsteady Herd aside,
And Deism perverts the Sons of Pride;
Conversing with the Themes of heavenly Love.
These shall my Hours of virtuous Life amuse,
Cheer its dull Glooms, and brighter Hopes infuse:
Pleas'd the lov'd Visit frequent to renew,
While certain Bliss my rais'd Desires pursue,
To meditate my Maker; and my Lays
Tune to his Pow'r, who gave me Breath to praise.
The Sun's Diameter, or Breadth from side to side, is about eight hundred thousand Miles; therefore the Quantity of Matter in him must exceed that of the Earth above ten million times.
Theophanes the Historian relates it was once so dark, in the Time of Irene the Empress, for 17 Days together, that Ships lost their Way, and were in Danger of splitting against each other.
The Year following Julius Cæsar's Death, Pliny affirms there were “prodigiosi & longiores Solis defectus, totius anni pallore continuo.” Hist. Nat. L. 2. It appear'd again a whole Year so in Justinian's Time, Cedrenes writes, with a very dim and duskish Hue, as if he had been in perpetual Eclipse. The Solar Maculæ were not then discover'd, but it is not questioned but they were the Occasion.
It is one very considerable Argument for the immense Distance of the fixed Stars, that those two in the Tail of the Great Bear afford no Parallax, nor admit of any Encrease, whatever Point of our Orbit we view them from; which is very strange, for in moving round the Sun we must have approached toward them by the whole Diameter of the Magnus Orbis, which consequently is double our Distance from hence to the Sun, and an advance in the Heavens, of one hundred and sixty Millions of Miles, by the lowest Computation.
Sirius, or the Dog-Star, is supposed the nearest to us of any of the fixed Stars. Mr. Huygens imagining him much about the Bigness and Brightness of our Sun, thought upon an Experiment to measure his Distance (given in his Cosmetheo. &c.) by so lessening the Sun's Diameter as to make him appear thro' the Tube not larger than the Dog-Star. He found the Difference was as twenty seven Thousand six Hundred sixty four to one, or that Sirius is so many of the Sun's Distances from us, which (taking Dr. Harris's lesser Computation) is Twenty seven Thousand six hundred sixty four times 80 Million of Miles; tho' Mr. Derham, Dr. Halley, &c. think the Sun's Distance to be almost 40 Million of Miles more, which makes the Amount, nearly, half as much again.
Mr. Huygens has observ'd, the Distance from us to Sirius is twenty seven Thousand six Hundred sixty four times the Sun's Distance from us. After 20 thousand of those could be passed, there is 7664 Distances remaining, which multiply'd by 80 Millions, the least supposed Distance of the Sun, amounts to more than the Numbers I have mentioned. It may be thought incredible so large an Accession of Miles should not alter the Appearance of these Bodies, yet it is Dr. Harris's Observation, “That could we advance 99 Parts in 100 of the whole Distance, and there was but the one hundredth Part left, they would appear very little larger than they do now.” Astron. Dial. p. 82.
“Questionless those sparkling Fires have a nobler Use than barely to spangle our Hemisphere; a Benefit every passing Cloud can deprive us of—How much more rational is it to consider them as the several Suns of different Systems of Planets!” Phil. to Hydasp. 2d Con. p. 21.
“Who shall presume to set Bounds to the Production of infinite Power, actuated by infinite Benevolence? Who shall circumscribe the Theatre upon which an omnipotent Goodness may think proper to display itself.” Phil. to Hyd.
The Formation of Angels prior to Man, is an Opinion the Generality of Divines have allow'd: As the more judicious have thought the Creation recorded by Moses, was confined in its View to that of our visible and Solar System.
The regular Returns of the same Spots in the Sun have been, by some, thought favourable to this Hypothesis, (whose Author is the learned Mr. Wall) none knowing what those Spots are. After several Years that they have been lost, we begin to see them again; generally at the Hour and Place of the Sun, where they ought to appear. M. de la Hire. Hist. del'Acad. des Scien. 1700.
Suppose (to take the least Measure for the vast Space betwixt Saturn and the fixed Stars) it be a thousand Times as far as from the Sun to Saturn; there being six Planets in the latter, proportionably, six Thousand may be in the Former.
A Comet is a solid Body about the Earth's bigness (more or less) all on Fire. They have always their Line of Motion falling towards the Sun.
This Calculation is founded upon the Observation, that about seven Comets have been seen thus falling within the last seventy Years of our Time.
“These were in the Stern and Yard of the Ship Argo, observed in 1664, but in 1668 there was not the least Glimpse of them to be seen; when they disappeared first is not known: The rest about them, even of the 3d and 4th Magnitudes, remain'd the same. I have observ'd many more Changes, to the Number of 100, among the Fixed Stars, yet none so great at these, &c.”
Mr. Montanere's Letter to the Roy. Soc.
The new Star in Cassiopeia was first observed about the middle of November 1572, its Lustre was so great it could be seen in fair Sun-shine. It never changed its Place all the Time, but by Degrees diminished, and in about 18 Months became invisible.
That other new Star in the Swan's Breast, was discovered by Kepler in the Year 1600; afterwards for some time it disappear'd, but was discern'd again by Hevelius in 1666, just in its first Place, as a Star of the Sixth Magnitude, where it still appears.
It is difficult to determine what these new Stars are. The sudden Appearing of some; the total Disappearing of others; and the Half-occultation of a third Sort, sometimes turning their dark, then their light Sides toward us, has occasioned various Conjectures of learned Men, express'd in the Poem. None of which solve all the Phenomena, the same having been discovered of some of the known six'd Stars themselves: A Wonder, which, perhaps, Man's Art will never fathom.
These are composed of several Thousand little Hemispheres, or in Reality are so many distinct Eyes; which have such a Power of magnifying, and are of such a wonderful Structure, in many of the minutest Insects, that they are capable herewith to discover Objects many thousand Times less than themselves.
Ezekiel i. 28. x. 18, 19, 20. Fire, Light, and Air (or Spirit) seem to have been the proper, known, and scriptural Emblems of the Trinity in the one Essence. Their familiar Hieroglyphicks were the Ox; whose curled Forehead aptly represented the Fire, the Emblem of the First Person. The Lion, from his brightness of Sight, was used for the Hieroglyphick of the Second. And the Eagle, the highest soaring Bird, of the Third. Accordingly the Cherubic-Faces, exhibited in the above-cited prophetical Vision, bore these several Figures. The fourth Face, of a Man joined to that of the Lion (the Hieroglyphick for Light, the Emblem of the Second Person in the Trinity) had a beautiful and teaching Signification, of the Assumption of the Human into the Divine Nature by our Lord Jesus Christ; and might convey this comfortable Doctrine to our first Parents, when thus beheld (in the Appearance of the Cherubim placed over the Gates of Paradise) at their Expulsion. See also Rev. iv. 6, 7.
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