Shoot forth the twine, their light aerial guide, And mounting o'er the distant zenith ride. Or who a twofold apparatus share, Natives of earth, and habitants of air;
Like warriors stride, oppress'd with shining mail, But furl'd, beneath, their silken pennons veil : Deceiv'd, our fellow reptile we admire,
His bright endorsement, and compact attire, When lo! the latent springs of motion play, And rising lids disclose the rich inlay ; The tissu'd wing its folded membrane frees, And with blithe quavers fans the gath❜ring breeze; Elate tow'rds Heav'n the beaut'ous wonder flies, And leaves the mortal wrapp'd in deep surprise. So when the guide led Tobit's youthful heir, Elect, to win the seven times widow'd fair, Th' angelic form, conceal'd in human guise, Deceiv'd the search of his associate's eyes; Till swift each charm bursts forth like issuing flame, And circling rays confess his heavenly frame; The zodiac round his waist divinely turns, And waving radiance o'er his plumage burns: In awful transports rapt, the youth admires, While light from earth the dazzling shape aspires. O think, if superficial scenes amaze, And e'en the still familiar wonders please, These but the sketch, the garb, the veil of things, Whence all our depth of shallow science springs; Think, should this curtain of Omniscience rise, Think of the sight! and think of the surprise!
Scenes inconceivable, essential, new,
Whelm'd on our soul, and lightning on our view!— How would the vain disputing wretches shrink, And shiv'ring wish they could no longer think; Reject each model, each reforming scheme, No longer dictate to the Grand Supreme, But, waking, wonder whence they dar'd to dream! All is phenomenon, and type on earth, Replete with sacred and mysterious birth, Deep from our search, exalted from our soar; And reason's task is, only to adore.
Who that beholds the summer's glist'ring swarms, Ten thousand thousand gaily gilded forms, In volant dance of mix'd rotation play, Bask in the beam, and beautify the day; Would think these airy wantons so adorn, Were late his vile antipathy and scorn, Prone to the dust, or reptile through the mire, And ever thence unlikely to aspire?
Or who with transient view, beholding, loathes. Those crawling sects, whom vilest semblance clothes; Who, with corruption, hold their kindred state, As by contempt, or negligence of fate;
Could think, that such, revers'd by wondrous doom, Sublimer powers and brighter forms assume; From death, their future happier life derive, And though apparently entomb'd, revive ; Chang'd, through amazing transmigration rise, And wing the regions of unwonted skies; So late depress'd, contemptible on Earth, Now elevate to Heav'n by second birth?
No fictions here to willing fraud invite, Led by the marvellous, absurd delight; No golden ass, no tale Arabians feign; Nor flitting forms of Naso's magic strain, Deucalion's progeny of native stone,
Or armies from Cadmean harvests grown ; With many a wanton and fantastic dream, The laurel, mulberry, and bashful stream; Arachne shrunk beneath Tritonia's rage; Tithonus chang'd and garrulous with age. Not such mutations deck the chaster song, Adorn'd with nature, and with truth made strong; No debt to fable, or to fancy due,
And only wondrous facts reveal'd to view.
Though numberless these insect tribes of air, Though numberless each tribe and species fair, Who wing the noon, and brighten in the blaze, Innumerous as the sands which bend the seas; These have their organs, arts, and arms, and tools, And functions exercised by various rules; The saw, ax, auger, trowel, piercer, drill; The neat alembic, and nectareous still: Their peaceful hours the loom and distaff know; But war, the force and fury of the foe, The spear, the falchion, and the martial mail, And artful stratagem, where strength may fail. Each tribe peculiar occupations claim, Peculiar beauties deck each varying frame; Attire and food peculiar are assign'd,
And means to propagate their varying kind.
Each, as reflecting on their primal state, Or fraught with scientific craft innate, With conscious skill their oval embryon shed, Where native first their infancy was fed: Or on some vegetating foliage glu'd;
Or o'er the flood they spread their future brood; A slender cord the floating jelly binds, Eludes the wave, and mocks the warring winds; O'er this their sperm in spiral order lies, And pearls in living ranges greet our eyes. In firmest oak they scoop a spacious tomb, And lay their embryo in the spurious womb: Some flow'rs, some fruit, some gems, or blossoms choose,
And confident their darling hopes infuse;
While some their eggs in ranker carnage lay, And to their young adapt the future prey.
Meantime the Sun his fost'ring warmth bequeaths, Each tepid air its motive influence breathes, Mysterious springs the wav'ring life supply, And quick'ning births unconscious motion try; Mature, their slender fences they disown, And break at once into a world unknown. All by their dam's prophetic care receive Whate'er peculiar indigence can crave: Profuse at hand the plenteous table's spread, And various appetites are aptly fed.
Nor less each organ suits each place of birth, Finn'd in the flood, or reptile o'er the earth; Each organ, apt to each precarious state, As for eternity design'd complete.
Thus nurs'd, these inconsiderate wretches grow, Take all as due, still thoughtless that they owe. When lo! strange tidings prompt each secret breast, And whisper wonders not to be express'd; Each owns his error in his later cares,
And for the new unthought-of world prepares: New views, new tastes, new judgments are acquir'd, And all now loathe delights so late admir'd. In confidence the solemn shroud they weave, Or build the tomb, or dig the deadly grave; Intrepid there resign their parting breath, And give their former shape the spoils of death; But reconceiv'd as in a second womb, Through metamorphoses, new forms assume: On death their true exalted life depends, Commencing there, where seemingly it ends. The fulness now of circling time arrives; Each from the long, the mortal sleep revives; The tombs pour forth their renovated dead, And, like a dream, all former scenes are fled. But O! what terms expressive may relate The change, the splendour of their new-form'd state? Their texture nor compos'd of filmy skin, Of cumbrous flesh without, or bone within, But something than corporeal more refin'd, And agile as their blithe informing mind. In ev'ry eye ten thousand brilliants blaze, And living pearls the vast horizon gaze; Gemm'd o'er their heads the mines of India gleam,
And Heav'n's own wardrobe has array'd their frame;
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