Classic Poem

Towards the four winds four telescopes he bends,
And on his own astrology depends;
Assured he glides beneath the smiling calm,
Bathes in the dew, and sips the morning balm;
The peach this pampering epicure devours,
And climbing on the topmost fruitage towers.

Such have we cull'd from nature's reptile scene,
Least accurate of all the wondrous train,
Who plunged recluse in silent caverns sleep;
Or multipede, earth's leafy verdure creep;
Or on the pool's new mantling surface play,
And range a drop, as whales may range the sea:
Or ply the rivulet with supple oars,
And oft, amphibious, course the neighbouring shores;
Or sheltering, quit the dank inclement sky,
And condescend to lodge where princes lie;
There tread the ceiling, an inverted floor,
And from its precipice depend secure:
Or who nor creep, nor fly, nor walk, nor swim,
But claim new motion with peculiar limb,
Successive spring with quick elastic bound,
And thus transported pass the refluent ground.

Or who all native vehicles despise,
And buoy'd upon their own inventions rise;
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 surl'd, beneath, their silken pennons veil:
Deceived 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 tissued wing its folded membrane frees,
And with blithe quavers fans the gathering breeze;
Elate towards heaven the beauteous wonder flies,
And leaves the mortal wrapp'd in deep surprize.

So when the Guide led Tobit's youthful heir,
Elect, to win the seven times widow'd Fair,
The angelic form, concealed in human guise,
Deceived 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 waste 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 even 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 O MNISCIENCE rise,
Think of the sight! and think of the surprize!
Scenes inconceivable, essential, new,
Whelm'd on our soul, and lightning on our view! —
How would the vain disputing wretches shrink,
And shivering, wish they could no longer think;
Reject each model, each reforming scheme,
No longer dictate to the Grand S UPREME ,
But waking, wonder whence they dared to dream!

All is phaenomenon, 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 A DORE .

Who that beholds the summer's glistering swarms,
Ten thousand thousand gaily gilded forms,
In volant dance of mix'd rotation play,
Bask in the beam, and beautify the day;
Who'd think these airy wantons so adorn,
Were late his vile antipathy and scorn,
Prone to the dust, or reptile thro' the mire,
And ever thence unlikely to aspire?
Or who with transient view, beholding, loaths
Those crawling sects, whom vilest semblance cloaths;
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 tho' apparently entomb'd, revive;
Chang'd, thro' amazing transmigration rise,
And wing the regions of unwonted skies;
So late depress'd, contemptible on earth,
Now elevate to heaven 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 lawrel, 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.

Tho' numberless these infect tribes of air,