"Of that long-chain'd Succeffion is fo frail; "Can every Part depend, and not the Whole?* "Yet grant it True; new Difficulties rife;

"I'm ftill quite out at Sea; nor fee the Shore. "Whence Earth, and these bright Orbs?— Eternal! too?

"Grant Matter was Eternal; still these Orbs

"Would want fome Other Father:-Much Design: "Is seen in all their Motions, all their Makes:

64

Defign implies Intelligence, and Art;

"That can't be from Themselves-or Man: That Aft "Man scarce can comprehend, could Man bestow?

66.

And nothing greater, yet allow'd, than Man."Who Motion, foreign to the smallest Grain, "Shot thro' vaft Maffes of enormous Weight? * "Who bid brute Matter's reftive Lump affume "Such various Forms, and gave it Wings to fly ?" "Has Matter innate Motion? Then each Atom, "Afferting its indifputable Right

2

"To dance, would form an Universe of Duft: "Has Matter none? Then whence thefe glorious Forms, "And boundless Flights, from Shapeless, and Repos'd? "Has Matter more than Motion? Has it Thought, "Judgment, and Genius? Is it deeply learn'd "In Mathematics? Has it fram'd fuch Laws, "Which, but to guess, a NEWTON made Immortal?→ "If fo, how each fage Atom laughs at me, · "Who think a Clod inferior to a Man?

"If Art, to form; and Counsel, to conduct;~ "And That with greater far, than Human Skill; "Refides not in each Block;-a GODHEAD reigns.-

"Grant, then, Invifible, Eternal, MIND;

"That granted, All is folv'd.-But, granting That, -"Draw I not o'er me a still darker Cloud?

"Grant I not that which I can ne'er conceive?

"A Being without Origin, or End!

"Hail, Human Liberty! There is no GOD"Yet, Why? On either Scheme that Knot fubfifts; "Subfift it must, in GOD, or Human Race; "If in the Laft, how many Knots befide, "Indiffoluble All-Why chufe it There, “Where, chosen, still subsist Ten thousand more? Reject it; where That chofen, all the Rest

66

66

Difpers'd, leave Reafon's whole Horizon clear?: "This is not Reason's Dictate; Reason fays,

"Clofe with the Side where One Grain turns the Scale, "What vaft Preponderance is Here? Can Reason "With louder Voice exclaim-Believe a GOD? "And Reason heard, is the fole Mark of Man. "What Things Impoffible muft Man think True, "On any other System? And how strange "To Disbelieve through mere Credulity ?"

IF, in this Chain, LORENZO finds no Flaw,
Let it for ever bind him to Belief;

And where the Link, in which a Flaw he finds?—
And, if a GOD there is, that GOD how Great ?
How Great that PowER, whofe Providential Care
Thro' these bright Orbs dark Centers darts a Ray?
Of Nature univerfal, threads the Whole?
And hangs Creation, like a precious Gem,
Tho' Little, on the Footstool of His Throne ?

THAT Little Gem, how Large? A Weight let fall From a fixt Star; in Ages can it reach

This diftant Earth? Say, then, LORENZO! where,
Where, ends this mighty Building? Where, begin
The Suburbs of Creation? Where, the Wall
Whofe Battlements look o'er into the Vale
Of Non-Existence? NOTHING's ftrange Abode !
Dread, bottomlefs, Amazement! how it yawns ?
How fhuddering Fancy fickens, and recoils ?
And is it there LORENZO hopes to dwell?
Say, at what Point of Space JEHOVAH dropp'd

His flacken'd Line, and laid His Ballance by ;
Weigh'd Worlds, and measur'd Infinite, no more
Where, rears His terminating Pillar high
Its extra-mundane Head? and says, to Gods,
In Characters illuftrious as the Sun,

“I ftand, the Plan's proud Period; I pronounce
"The Work accomplish'd; the Creation clos'd:
"Shout, all ye Gods! nor fhout, ye Gods alone
"Of all that lives, or, if devoid of Life,
"That refts, or rolls, ye Heights, and Depths, refound!!
"Refound! refound! ye Depths, and Heights, refound!"
Hard are thofe Questions?-Answer, harder fill.
Is This the Sole Exploit, the Single Birth,
The Solitary Son, of Power divine?

Or, has th' almighty FATHER, with a Breath,
Impregnated the Womb of diftant Space?
Has He not bid, in various Provinces,
Brother-Creations the dark Bowels burft
Of Night primæval; barren, now, no more?
And He the central Sun, tranfpiercing all
Thofe Giant-Generations, which difport,
And dance, as Mates, in His Meridian Ray ;
That Ray withdrawn, Benighted, or Absorb'd,
In that Abyss of Horror, whence they sprung
While Chaos triumphs, repoffeft of All
Rival Creation ravish'd from His Throne ?
CHAOS! of Nature both the Womb, and Grave!
THINKS'T thou, my Scheme, LORENZO! spreads
too wide?

Is This extravagant ?-No; This is juft;
Juft, in Conjecture, tho' 'twere falfe in Fact:

́If 'tis an Error, 'tis an Error fprung

From noble Root, High Thought of the MOST-HIGH..
But wherefore Error? Who can prove it Such. ?—
He that can fet OMNIPOTENCE a Bound:

Can Man conceive beyond what God can do?

Nothing,

Nothing, but Quite-impoffible, is Hard;
He fummons into Being, with like Ease,

A Whole Creation, and a Single Grain.

Speaks He the Word? a Thousand Worlds are born!→→
A Thousand Worlds? There's Space for Millions more ;
And in what Space can his great Fiat fail?
Condemn me not, cold Critic! but indulge
The warm Imagination: Why condemn ?

Why not indulge Such Thoughts, as fwell our Hearts
With fuller Admiration of That Power,

Who gives our Hearts with such high Thoughts to fwell
Why not indulge in His augmented Praise?

Darts not His glory a still brighter Ray,
The lefs is left to Chaos, and the Realms
Of hideous Night, where Fancy ftrays aghaft;
And, tho' moft talkative, makes no Report?
Still feems my Thought enormous? Think again;
Experience-Self fhall aid thy lame Belief:
Glaffes, (that Revelation to the Sight!)
Have they not led us deep in the Disclose
Of fine fpun Nature, exquifitely Small;
And, tho' demonftrated, still ill conceiv'd?

If, then, on the Reverse, the Mind would mount
In Magnitude, what Mind can mount too far,
To keep the Ballance, and Creation poize ?
Defect alone can err on fuch a Theme:
What is too Great, if we the Cause survey ?

Stupendous ARCHITECT! THOU, THOU art All!
My Soul flies up and down in Thoughts of THEE,
And finds herself but at the Centre ftill!

I AM, Thy Name! Existence, all Thine orn!
Creation's Nothing; flatter'd much, if ftyl'd
"The thin, the fleeting Atmosphere of GOD."
OFOR the Voice--of What? of Whom?--What Voice
Can answer to my Wants, in fuch Ascent,

As dares to deem One Universe too small ?

Tell

Tell me, LORENZO! (for now Fancy glows,
Fir'd in the Vortex of Almighty Power)
Is not this Home Creation, in the Map
Of univerfal Nature, as a Speck,

Like fair BRITANNIA in our little Ball,
Exceeding fair, and glorious, for its Size,
But, elsewhere, far out-meafur'd, far outshone?
In Fancy (for the Fact beyond us lies)

Canft thou not figure it, an Isle, almost

Too fmall for Notice, in the Vaft of Being;
Sever'd by mighty Seas of un-built Space,
From other Realms; from ample Continents
Of higher Life, where nobler Natives dwell;
Lefs Northern, lefs remote from DEITY,
Glowing beneath the Line of the SUPREME,
Where Souls in Excellence make Hafte, put forth
-Luxuriant Growths; nor the late Autumn wait
Of Human Worth, but ripen foon to Gods?

YET why drown Fancy in fuch Depths as these?
Return, prefumptuous Rover! and confefs

The Bounds of Man; nor blame them, as too fmall:
Enjoy we not full Scope in what is feen?
Full ample the Dominions of the Sun!

Full glorious to behold! How far, how wide,
The matchlefs Monarch, from his flaming Throne,
Lavish of Luftre, throws his Beams about him,..
Farther, and fafter, than a Thought can fly,
And feeds his Planets with eternal Fires?
This Heliopolis, by Greater far,

Than the proud Tyrant of the Nile, was built ;;
And He alone, who built it, can destroy.
Beyond this City, why ftrays human Thought ?:
One Wonderful, enough for Man to know!
One Infinite, enough for Man to range!
One Firmament, enough for Man to read!
O what Voluminous Inftruction Here ?.

What