terials for a panegyric not unworthy the pen of some future Pliny. From so noble a subject as the Earl of Dorset, to so mean a one as myself, is (I confess) a very Pindaric transition: I shall only say one word, and trouble the reader no further. I published my Poems formerly, as Monsieur Jourdain sold his silk he would not be thought a tradesman ; but ordered some pieces to be measured out to his particular friends. Now I give up my shop, and dispose of all my poetical goods at once; I must therefore desire that the public would please to take them in the gross, and that every body would turn over what he does not like. O DE S. ON EXODUS iii. 14'. 'I AM THAT I AM." MAN! foolish man! Scarce know'st thou how thyself began; Scarce hast thou thought enough to prove thou art; Yet, steel'd with studied boldness, thou darest try To send thy doubting Reason's dazzled eye Through the mysterious gulf of vast immensity: Much thou canst there discern, much thence impart. Vain wretch! suppress thy knowing pride; Mortify thy learned lust: Vain are thy thoughts, while thou thyself art dust. Let Wit her sails, her oars let Wisdom lend; Yet cease to hope thy short-lived bark shall ride And, in the bosom of that boundless sea, 1 Written in 1688, as an exercise at St. John's college, Cambridge. With daring pride and insolent delight [crown'd, Your doubts resolved you boast, your labours And, EYPHKA! your God, forsooth is found Incomprehensible and infinite: But is he therefore found? Vain searcher! no: Let your imperfect definition show That nothing you, the weak definer, know. Say, why should the collected main Itself within itself contain? Why to its caverns should it sometimes creep, And with delighted silence sleep On the loved bosom of its parent deep? Why should its numerous waters stay, Till winds and tides exert their high command? Why do the rising surges spread Their opening ranks o'er earth's submissive head, Marching through different paths to different lands? Why does the constant sun, With measured steps his radiant journies run? To leave earth's other part, and rise in ours? Love the just limits of its proper sphere? In turns to move, and subsequent appear, Man does with dangerous curiosity These unfathom'd wonders try: With fancied rules, and arbitrary laws, Matter and motion he restrains, And studied lines and fictious circles draws; Lord of this new hypothesis he reigns. He reigns! How long? till some usurper rise! That all his predecessors' rules Were empty cant, all jargon of the schools; And shows his friend's mistake, and thence confirms his own. On earth, in air, amidst the seas and skies, Through either ocean, foolish man! That pregnant Word sent forth again, Might to a world extend each atom there; [star. Let cunning earth her fruitful wonders hide, Low, reverently low, Make thy stubborn knowledge bow; Weep out thy reason's and thy body's eyes; To look to Heaven, be blind to all below. Then Faith, for Reason's glimmering light, shall Her immortal perspective, [give And Grace's presence Nature's loss retrieve: Then thy enliven'd soul shall see, With all their comments, never could invent To reach the heaven of heavens, the high abode, As was that ladder which old Jacob rear'd, |