Classic Poem

There are rich veins of gold, and silver mines,
Whose ore the fire in crucibles refines.
So digg'd up iron is in the furnace blown,
And brass extracted from the melting stone.
Men through the wounded earth enforce their way,
And show the under shades an unknown day,
While from her bowels they her treasure tear,
And to their avarice subject their fear.
There they with subterranean waters meet,
And currents never touch'd by human feet;
These by their bold endeavours are made dry,
And from the industry of mortals fly.
The earth with yellow ears her brows attires,
Although her jaws exhale embosom'd fires.
Torn rocks the sparkling diamond unfold,
The blushing ruby, and pure grains of gold.
Those gloomy vaults no wand'ring soul descries,
Nor are they pierced by the vulture's eyes.
Swift tigers, which in pathless deserts stray,
Nor solitary lions tread that way.
Their restless labours cleave the living stone,
Cloud-touching mountains by their roots o'erthrown.
New streams through wond'ring rocks their tract pursue,
While they the magazines of nature view,
Who swelling floods with narrow bounds enclose,
And what in darkness lurk'd, to light expose.
But where above the earth, or under ground,
Can Wisdom by the search of man be found?
Her worth his estimation far excells,
Conceal'd from sense, nor with the living dwells.
The seas reply: " She lies not in our deeps,
Nor in our floods her radiant tresses steeps.
Nor are her rare endowments to be sold
For silver hills, or rivers pav'd with gold;
Nor for the glitt'ring sand by Ophir shown,
The blue-ey'd sapphire, or rich onyx stone,
For rocks of crystal from the ocean brought,
Nor jewels by the rarest workman wrought.
Can blazing carbuncles with her compare,
Or groves of coral harden'd by the air?
The topaz sent from scorched Meroi,
Or pearls presented by the Indian sea?
Whence comes she? from what undiscover'd land?
Or where doth her concealed palace stand?
Since, O, invisible to mortal eye,
Or winged travellers that trace the sky."
Death and destruction say, " Her fame alone
Hath reach'd our ears, but to our eyes unknown.
God only understands her sacred ways,
The temple knows where she her light displays.
For He at once the orb of earth beholds,
And all that heav'n's blue canopy enfolds;
To measure out the struggling winds by weight,
That else the world would tear in their debate;
And bridle the wild's floods, lest they their bound
Again should pass, and all the earth surround.
When He in clouds the dropping waters hung,
And through their roaring jaws His lightning flung,
Then He beheld her face, her light display'd,
Prepar'd her paths, and thus to mortals said:
" The fear of God is wisdom; and to fly
From evil, is of virtues the most high." "