Poems on Various Subjects :: :: University of Virginia Library

As useful labors call for grateful praise,
Accept this tribute of my humble lays:
Great is the task, extensive is the theme,
Great as your work, extensive as your fame;
Yet shall the muse attempt the vast design,
And your applause resound in every Line.

In the primæval, happy days of old,
When golden years their radiant circles roll'd,

380

When on wild fruits, and herbs, men liv'd content,
And thankful took what heaven's rich bounty sent.
No noxious humors stain'd the purple tide,
Nor luxury sought, what nature had deny'd:
They drank the chrystal stream, and sweetly slept
On mossy couches, with the flocks they kept;
Grief then was absent, sickness hardly known,
Peaceful they liv'd, and dy'd without a groan.

Disease at first sprung from its parent vice,
And hence the Healing Art deriv'd its rise:
Immortal art! whose power divinely saves,
From pining sickness, and devouring graves.
Plain remedys at first were valu'd most,
The drugs were few, and moderate the cost.
The sick were cur'd without a gilded pill,
A sovereign bolus, or a pompous bill.
As vice increas'd, so physic, by degrees,
Increas'd its empire, and increas'd its fees;
In after ages more misterious grew,
As pride prevail'd, and interest came in view;
Drest by designing Men, in dark disguise,
And veil'd in awful shapes from vulgar eyes.

With Galen's sect a cloud of med'cines came,
Of various form, and venerable name;
Physic was all confusion, all profound,
While jargon reign'd, and learning lay in sound.

381

The learned Arabs, from old writings, drew
A compound scheme, and model'd all anew.
Involv'd in clouds of smoak, and chymic flame,
Van Helmont next, and Paracelsus came.
While truth, and nature's light, was darken'd o'er,
And the great Coan precepts shone no more,
'Till the last age appear'd, when gleams of light
Shot thro' the chaos, and dispel'd the night.

Then Bacon flourish'd, whose extensive mind,
On solid fact immortal schemes design'd:
While Hobbs, and Harvey, Clerc, Baglive, and Boyle,
Pursu'd fair truth, with an unweary'd toil.
Boyle on experiment alone rely'd,
And nature, which he lov'd, was still his guide.

Locke now appear'd like some propitious light,
And chas'd the shades of metaphysic right;
He all the schoolmen's sophistry display'd,
And welcome truth to every art convey'd.

Sydenham made practice by experience plain,
Taught by no idle fictions of the brain;
Sydenham the old, the simple way renew'd,
Nor study'd what was great, but what was good.

The scene still changes each revolving year,
And lo! new wonders to our view appear:

382

See health on Seraphs wings, divinely bright,
Shines with the rays of mathematic light.
Such was of late the pleasing vast surprize,
When northern streamers lighted all the skys;
When, soon as shades of night the earth o'erspread,
Amaz'd we saw new morning o'er our head.
With thirst of knowledge fir'd, see every sage,
With learned labor, in the work engage.

But tho' such numbers have pursu'd the theme,
To you alone we owe a finish'd scheme.
All that Bellini, Keill, or Pitcairne dar'd,
At best is faint essay, with your's compar'd.
The great Boerhaave will hail the grateful sight,
And read you o'er with wonder and delight.

You leave the beaten circle of the schools,
And the dull round of antiquated rules;
On facts depend, then reason from th' effect,
And with establish'd truths your scheme connect;
While by just consequence, from these you draw
Some fundamental rule, and useful law.

Such was the path immortal Newton trod,
He form'd the wond'rous plan, and mark'd the rod;
Led by this clue, he travel'd o'er the sky,
And marshal'd all the shining worlds on high.

383

Mature in thought, you Newton's laws reduce
To nobler ends, and more important use:
To guard man's feeble frame from fell disease,
Or when we sink with pain to give us ease:
For every ail ascribe its proper cause,
To nature's govern'd by mechanic laws;
You shew how springy air affects our frame,
To raise, or to depress the vital flame:
How orbs above by gravitation steer,
Impress their force, and influence the air;
How Cynthia's silent energy presides,
Ferments the blood, and agitates the tides.

When fatal fevers kindle flames within,
Which raging glow o'er all the scorch'd machine,
You shew how nature prudently detains
Diluting serum in the burning veins;
Your well-tim'd medicines mitigate the heat,
And o'er the frame diffuse a balmy sweat:
The monster Febris flys the potent spell,
In haste retires, and calmly seeks her cell.
Medicine from hence shall triumph with success,
Nor pining patients linger in distress.

My raptur'd muse sees with prophetic eyes,
New ages roll along, new systems rise;
Sees physic on mechanic reasoning climb,
And raise a structure to the skys sublime;

384

Sees sickness fled, Health bloom with cherub face,
And age creep on, with slow, reluctant pace;
Experience with her torch, direct our youth,
Scatter the mists, and light the way to truth.
While dark Hypothesis no more prevails,
Nor pupils listen to romantic tales:
Nor proud authority with bug-bear rules
Enslaves our minds, or dictates in the schools.
But liberty sits Goddess of our isle,
And peaceful blessings all around her smile;
Darkness and bigotry before her fly,
And truth, and virtue, grow beneath her eye.