 | Original Poems and Translations |  |
133
AN ELOGY ON Sir ISAAC NEWTON,
TRANSLATED From the Latin of Dr. HALLEY.
Behold the regions of the heav'ns survey'd!
And this fair system in the ballance weigh'd;
Behold the law which (when in ruin hurl'd
God out of Chaos call'd the beauteous world)
Th' almighty fix'd, when all things good he saw!
Behold the chaste, inviolable law!
And this fair system in the ballance weigh'd;
Behold the law which (when in ruin hurl'd
God out of Chaos call'd the beauteous world)
Th' almighty fix'd, when all things good he saw!
Behold the chaste, inviolable law!
Before us now new scenes unfolded lie,
And heav'n appears expanded to the eye;
Th' illumin'd mind now sees distinctly clear
What power impels each planetary sphere.
Thron'd in the centre glows the king of day,
And rules all nature with unbounded sway;
Thro' the vast void his subject planets run,
Whirl'd in their orbits by the regal sun.
What course the dire tremendous comets steer
We know, nor wonder at their prone career;
Why silver Phœbe, meek-ey'd queen of night,
Now slackens, now precipitates her flight;
Why, scan'd by no astronomers of yore,
She yielded not to calculation's power;
Why the Node's motions retrograde we call,
And why the Apsides progressional.
Hence too we learn, with what proportion'd force
The moon impels, erroneous in her course,
The refluent main: as waves on waves succeed,
On the bleak beach they toss the sea-green weed,
Now bare the dangers of th' engulphing sand,
Now swelling high roll foaming on the strand.
What puzzling schoolmen sought so long in vain,
See cloud-dispelling Mathesis explain!
O highly blest, to whom kind fate has given
Minds to expatiate in the fields of heaven!
All doubts are clear'd, all errors done away,
And truth breaks on them in a blaze of day.
Awake, ye sons of men, arise! exclude
Far from your breasts all low solicitude;
Learn hence the mind's etherial powers to trace,
Exalted high above the brutal race.
Ev'n those fam'd chiefs who human life refin'd
By wholesome laws, the fathers of mankind;
Or they who first societies immur'd
In cities, and from violence secur'd;
They who with Ceres' gifts the nations blest,
Or from the grape delicious nectar prest;
They who first taught the hieroglyphic stile
On smooth papyrus, native plant of Nile,
(For literary elements renown'd)
And made the eye an arbiter of sound;
All these, tho' men of deathless fame, we find
Have less advanc'd the good of human-kind:
Their schemes were founded on a narrower plan,
Replete with few emoluments to man.
But now, admitted guests in heav'n, we rove
Free and familiar in the realms above;
The wonders hidden deep in earth below,
And nature's laws, before conceal'd, we know.
Lend, lend your aid, ye bright superior powers,
That live embosom'd in Elysian bowers,
Lend your sweet voice to warble Newton's praise,
Who search'd out truth thro' all her mystic maze,
Newton, by every favouring muse inspir'd,
With all Apollo's radiations fir'd;
Newton, that reach'd th' insuperable line,
The nice barrier 'twixt human and divine.
And heav'n appears expanded to the eye;
Th' illumin'd mind now sees distinctly clear
What power impels each planetary sphere.
Thron'd in the centre glows the king of day,
And rules all nature with unbounded sway;
134
Whirl'd in their orbits by the regal sun.
What course the dire tremendous comets steer
We know, nor wonder at their prone career;
Why silver Phœbe, meek-ey'd queen of night,
Now slackens, now precipitates her flight;
Why, scan'd by no astronomers of yore,
She yielded not to calculation's power;
Why the Node's motions retrograde we call,
And why the Apsides progressional.
Hence too we learn, with what proportion'd force
The moon impels, erroneous in her course,
The refluent main: as waves on waves succeed,
On the bleak beach they toss the sea-green weed,
Now bare the dangers of th' engulphing sand,
Now swelling high roll foaming on the strand.
What puzzling schoolmen sought so long in vain,
See cloud-dispelling Mathesis explain!
O highly blest, to whom kind fate has given
Minds to expatiate in the fields of heaven!
135
And truth breaks on them in a blaze of day.
Awake, ye sons of men, arise! exclude
Far from your breasts all low solicitude;
Learn hence the mind's etherial powers to trace,
Exalted high above the brutal race.
Ev'n those fam'd chiefs who human life refin'd
By wholesome laws, the fathers of mankind;
Or they who first societies immur'd
In cities, and from violence secur'd;
They who with Ceres' gifts the nations blest,
Or from the grape delicious nectar prest;
They who first taught the hieroglyphic stile
On smooth papyrus, native plant of Nile,
(For literary elements renown'd)
And made the eye an arbiter of sound;
All these, tho' men of deathless fame, we find
Have less advanc'd the good of human-kind:
136
Replete with few emoluments to man.
But now, admitted guests in heav'n, we rove
Free and familiar in the realms above;
The wonders hidden deep in earth below,
And nature's laws, before conceal'd, we know.
Lend, lend your aid, ye bright superior powers,
That live embosom'd in Elysian bowers,
Lend your sweet voice to warble Newton's praise,
Who search'd out truth thro' all her mystic maze,
Newton, by every favouring muse inspir'd,
With all Apollo's radiations fir'd;
Newton, that reach'd th' insuperable line,
The nice barrier 'twixt human and divine.
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