Thee could the ableft of thy creatures know,
Loft were thy unity, for he were Thou;
Yet present to all sense thy power remains,
Reveal'd in nature, nature's author reigns:
In vain would error from conviction fly,
Thou every where art present to the eye:
The sense how ftupid, and the fight how blind,
That fails this univerfal truth to find?
Go!all the fightless realms of space furvey,
Returning, trace the planetary way;

The fun, that in his central glory fhines,
While every planet round his orb inclines;
Then at our intermediate globe repose,
And view yon lunar fatellite that glows!
Or caft along the azure vault thy eye,
When golden day enlightens all the sky;
Around behold earth's variegated scene,
The mingling profpects, and the flowery green;
The mountain's brow, the long extended wood,
Or the rude rock that threatens o'er the flood;
And fay, are these the wild effects of chance?
Oh ftrange effect of reafoning ignorance!
Nor power alone confefs'd in grandeur lies,
The glittering planet, or the painted skies;
Equal, the elephant's or emmet's dress,
The wisdom of omnipotence confess;
Equal, the cumb'rous whale's enormous mass,
With the small infect in the crouded grass;

The

The mite that gambols in its acid sea,
In shape a porpus, tho' a speck to thee!
Even the blue down the purple plum furrounds,
A living world, thy failing fight confounds!
To him a peopled habitation shows,
Where millions tafte the bounty God bestows!
Great lord of life, whofe all-controuling might
Thro' wide creation beams divinely bright;
Nor only does thy power in forming shine,
But to annihilate, dread king! is thine.
Shouldft thou withdraw thy ftill-supporting hand,
How languid nature would astonish'd stand!
Thy frown night's antient empire would restore,
And raise a blank-where systems smil'd before.
See in corruption, all-furprizing ftate,

How ftruggling life eludes the stroke of fate;
Shock'd at the scene, tho' sense averts its eye,
Nor ftops the wonderous process to defcry;
Yet jufter thought the myftic change pursues,
And with delight almighty wisdom views;
The brute, the vegetable world surveys,
Sees life fubfifting even from life's decays:
Mark there, felf-taught, the penfile reptile come,
Spin his thin fhroud, and living build his tomb!
With conscious care his former pleasures leave,
And drefs him for the business of the grave:
Thence, pass'd the short-liv'd change, renew'd he
fprings,

Admires the fkies, and tries his painted wings:

With airy flight the infect roves abroad,
And fcorns the meaner earth he lately trod.
Thee, potent, let deliver'd Ifrael praise,
And to thy name their grateful homage raise :
Thee, potent God! let Egypt's land declare,
Which felt thy juftice, awfully fevere :

How did thy frown benight the shadow'd land?
Nature revers'd, how own thy high command ?
When jarring elements their use forgot,
And the fun felt thy overcafting blot:
When earth produc'd the peftilential brood,
And the foul ftream was crimson'd into blood :
How deep the horrors of that awful night!
How ftrong the terror, and how wild the fright!
When o'er the land thy fword vindictive past,
And men and infants breath'd at once their laft!
How did thy arm thy favour'd tribes convey,
Thy light, conducting, point th' amazing way!
Obedient ocean to their march divide,
The watery wall distinct on either fide;
While thro' the deep the long proceffion led,
And faw the wonders of the oozy bed!

Nor long they march'd, till blackening in the rear,
The vengeful tyrant and his hoft appear;
Plunge down the deep,-the waves thy nod obey,
And whelm the threatening ftorm beneath the sea.
Nor yet thy power thy chosen train forsook,
When thro' Arabia's fands their way they took;

By

By day thy cloud was present to the fight,
Thy fiery pillar led the march by night;
Thy hand amidst the wafte their table spread,
With feather'd viands, and with heavenly bread:
When the dry wilderness no ftreams fupplied,
Gush'd from the yielding rock the vital tide:
What limits can omnipotence confine!
What obftacles restrain thy arm divine!
Since ftones and waves their settled laws forego,
Since seas can harden, and fince rocks can flow?
On Sinai's top the mufe, with ardent wing,
The triumphs of omnipotence would fing,
When o'er its airy brow thy cloud display'd,
Involv'd the nations in its awful shade:

When gloomy darkness fill'd its midmost space,
And the rock trembled to its rooted bafe;
Yet there thy majesty divine appear'd,

There fhone thy glory, and thy voice was heard ;
Even in the blaze of that tremendous day,
Idolatry its impious rites could pay:

Oh shame to thought!-Thy facred throne invade, And brave the bolt that linger'd round its head.

VII. WISDOM.

O thou, who when th' Almighty form'd this all, Upheld the scale, and weigh'd each ballanc'd ball;

And

And as his hand compleated each defign,
Number'd the work, and fix'd the feal divine;
O wisdom infinite! creation's foul,

Whose rays diffuse new luftre o'er the whole;
What tongue fhall make thy charms celestial known?
What hand, fair Goddess! paint thee but thy own?
What tho' in nature's universal store,

Appear the wonders of almighty power?
Power unattended, terror would inspire,
Aw'd must we gaze, and comfortless admire.
But when fair wifdom joins in the defign,
The beauty of the whole refult's divine.
Hence life acknowledges its glorious cause,
And matter owns its great disposer's laws;
Hence in a thousand different models wrought,
Now fix'd to quiet, now allied to thought;
Hence flow the forms and properties of things,
Hence rifes harmony, and order fprings,
Elfe had the mafs a fhapeless chaos lay,
Nor ever felt the dawn of wisdom's day.
See, how affociate round their central fun,
Their faithful rings the circling planets run;
Still equi-diftant, never yet too near,
Exactly tracing their appointed sphere.
Mark how the moon our flying orb pursues,
While from the fun her monthly light renews;
Breathes her wide influence on the world below,
And bids the tides alternate ebb and flow.