Vain Wretch! fupprefs thy knowing Pride;

Mortifie thy learned Luft:

Vain are thy Thoughts, while thou thy felf art Duft.

II.

Let Wit her Sails, her Oars let Wisdom lend;
The Helm let politick Experience guide:

Yet cease to hope thy fhort-liv'd Bark shall ride
Down spreading Fate's unnavigable Tide.
What, tho' ftill it farther tend?

Still 'tis farther from its End;

And, in the Bofom of that boundless Sea,
Still finds its Error lengthen with its Way.
III.

With daring Pride and infolent Delight

Your Doubts refolv'd you boast, your Labours crown'd; And, "ETPHKA! your God, forfooth is found

Incomprehenfible and Infinite.

But is He therefore found? Vain Searcher! no:

Let your imperfect Definition fhow,

That nothing You, the weak Definer, know.

IV.

Say, why shou'd the collected Main

It felf within it felf contain?

Why to its Caverns fhou'd it fometimes creep,

And with delighted Silence fleep

On the lov'd Bofom of its Parent Deep?
Why fhou'd its num'rous Waters stay

In comely Discipline, and fair Array,

Till Winds and Tides exert their high Command?

Then prompt and ready to obey,

Why do the rifing Surges spread

Their op'ning Ranks o'er Earth's fubmiffive Head, Marching thro' different Paths to different Lands? V.

Why does the constant Sun

With measur'd Steps his radiant Journeys run?
Why does He order the Diurnal Hours
To leave Earth's other Part, and rife in Ours?
Why does He wake the correspondent Moon,
And fill her willing Lamp with liquid Light,
Commanding Her with delegated Pow'rs
To beautifie the World, and bless the Night?
Why does each animated Star

Love the just Limits of it's proper Sphere?
Why does each consenting Sign

With prudent Harmony combine

In Turns to move, and subsequent appear,
To gird the Globe, and regulate the Year?

VI.

Man does with dangerous Curiofity

These unfathom'd Wonders try:

With fancy'd Rules and arbitrary Laws

Matter and Motion he restrains;

And study'd Lines and fictious Circles draws:
Then with imagin'd Sovereignty

Lord of his new HYPOTHESIS he reigns.
He reigns: How long? 'till fome Ufurper rife;
And he too, mighty Thoughtful, mighty Wife,
Studies new Lines, and other Circles feigns.

From this last Toil again what Knowledge flows?
Just as much, perhaps, as fhows,

That all his Predeceffor's Rules

Were empty Cant, all JARGON of the Schools ;

That he on t'other's Ruin rears his Throne;

And shows his Friend's Miftake, and thence confirms hist

VII.

On Earth, in Air, amidst the Seas and Skies,
Mountainous Heaps of Wonders rife ;
Whose tow'ring Strength will neʼer submit
To Reason's Batteries, or the Mines of Wit:
Yet ftill enquiring, ftill mistaking Man,

[own.

Each Hour repuls'd, cach Hour dare onward prefs; And levelling at GOD his wandring Guess,

(That feeble Engine of his reasoning War,

Which guides his Doubts, and combats his Despair)
Laws to his Maker the learn'd Wretch can give:
Can bound that Nature, and prescribe that Will,
Whole pregnant Word did either Ocean fill:

[and live. Can tell us whence all BEINGS are, and how they move Thro' either Ocean, foolish Man!

That pregnant Word fent forth again,

Might to a World extend each ATOм there

For every Drop call forth a Sea, a Heav'n for every Star.

VIII.

Let cunning Earth her fruitful Wonders hide;

And only lift thy staggering Reason up

To trembling CALVARY'S astonish'd Top;

Then mock thy Knowledge, and confound thy Pride,

Sustaining

Explaining how Perfection fuffer'd Pain,
Almighty languifh'd, and Eternal dy'd:
How by her Patient Victor Death was flain;
And Earth prophan'd, yet bless'd with Deicide.

Then down with all thy boafted Volumes, down;
Only referve the Sacred One:

Weep out thy Reafon's, and thy Body's Eyes;
Deject thy felf, that Thou may'st rise ;
To look to Heav'n, be blind to all below.

IX.

T

Then Faith, for Reason's glimmering Light, fhall give Her Immortal Perspective 3 ani nĩ quildad yif And Grace's Prefence Nature's Lofs retrieve:o su T Then thy enliven'd Soul fhall fee,

2

That all the Volumes of Philofophy, ma¶ idl
With all their Comments, never cou'd inventabA
So politick an Inftrument, aw 'woʻ% all an end
To reach the Heav'n of Heav'ns, the high Abode,
Where MOSES places his Myfterious God,
As was that Ladder which old JACOB rear'd,
When Light Divine had human Darknefs clear'd;
And his enlarg'd Ideas found the Road, In
Which Faith had dictated, and Angels trod.
MY Les log) nas TA

TO THE

COUNTESS of EXETER,

WHAT

Playing on the LUTE.

:

HAT Charms You have, from what high Race
You sprung,

Have been the pleasing Subjects of my Song:
Unskill'd and young, yet fomething still I writ,
Of CA'NDISH Beauty join'd to CECIL'S Wit..!
But when You please to show the lab’ring Muse,
What greater Theam your Musick can produce;
My babling Praises I repeat no more, jrti
But hear, rejoice, ftand filent, and adore.

The PERSIANS thus, firft gazing on the Sun, t Admir'd how high 'twas plac'd, how bright it fhone; But, as his Pow'r was known, their Thoughts were rais'd; And foon they worship'd, what at firft they prais'd.

ELIZA'S Glory lives in SPENCER'S Song ; ; 257 ? And COWLEY's Verse keeps Fair ORINDA young. That as in Birth, in Beauty You excell, le ali ba^ The Mufe might dictate, and the Poet tell

Your Art no other Art can speak; and You,
To show how well you play, must play anew:
Your Musick's Pow'r your Musick must disclose;
For what Light is, 'tis only Light that shows.

"

Strange