Thus mutual traffick fever'd realms maintain,
And manufactures change to mutual gain ;
Each other's growth and arts they fell and buy,
Eafe their redundance, and their wants fupply.

Ye Britons, who the fruit of commerce find,

How is your Ifle a debtor to the wind,
Which thither wafts Arabia's fragrant fpoils,

Gems, pearls, and fpices, from the Indian ifles,
From Perfia filks, wines from Iberia's shore,

Peruvian drugs, and Guinea's golden ore!
Delights and wealth to fair Augusta flow

From every region whence the winds can blow.
See, how the vapours congregated rear

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Their gloomy columns, and obfcure the air!
Forgetful of their gravity, they rise,

770

Renounce the centre, and ufurp the fkies,

Where, form'd to clouds, they their black lines display, And take their airy march, as winds convey.

Sublime in air while they their course purfue,
They from their fable fleeces shake the dew
On the parcht mountain, and with genial rain
Renew the foreft, and refresh the plain :

775

They fhed their healing juices on the ground,

Cement the crack, and close the gaping wound.

Did not the vapours, by the folar heat

786

Thinn'd and exhal'd, rise to their airy feat,

Or not in watery clouds collected fly,

Then form'd to ponderous drops defert the sky;
The fields would no recruits of moisture find,
But, by the fun-beams dry'd, and by the wind,

785 Would

Would never plant, or flower, or fruit, produce,
Or for the beaft, or for his master's ufe.

But in the fpacious climates, which the rain
Does never blefs (fuch is th' Egyptian plain),
With how much art is that defe&t supply'd !
See, how fome noble river's fwelling tide,
Augmented by the mountain's melting fnows,
Breaks from its banks, and o'er the region flows!
Hence fruitful crops and flowery wealth ́enfue,
And to the fwain fuch mighty gains accrue,
He ne'er reproaches heaven for want of dew.
See, and revere, th' artillery of Heaven,
Drawn by the gale, or by the tempest driven !
A dreadful fire the floating batteries make,
O'erturn the mountain, and the forest shake.
This way and that they drive the atmosphere,
And its wide bofom from corruption clear,

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790

S}

800

While their bright flame confumes the fulphur trains,
And noxious vapours, which infect our veins.
Thus they refine the vital element,

Secure our health, and growing plagues prevent.
Your contemplation farther yet pursue ;
The wondrous world of vegetables view!
Obferve the forest oak, the mountain pine,
The towering cedar, and the humble vine,
The bending willow, that o'erfhades the flood,
And each spontaneous offspring of the wood!
The oak and pine, which high from earth arise,
And wave their lofty heads amidst the skies,
Their parent earth in like proportion wound,
And through crude metals penetrate the ground;

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815

Their ftrong and ample root defcend fo deep,
That fixt and firm they may their station keep,
And the fierce fhocks of furious winds defy,
With all the outrage of inclement sky.

But the bafe brier and the noble vine

820

Clings with its fibrous grapples to the wall.

Their arms around their stronger neighbour twine.
The creeping ivy, to prevent its fall,

825

Thus are the trees of every kind fecure,

Or by their own, or by a borrow'd power.
But every tree from all its branching roots
Amidft the glebe small hollow fibres shoots;
Which drink with thirsty mouths the vital juice,
And to the limbs and leaves their food diffufe:
Peculiar pores peculiar juice receive,

To this deny, to that admittance give.

Hence various trees their various fruits produce Some for delightful taste, and fome for use.

830

Hence sprouting plants enrich the plain and wood, 835
For phyfick fome, and fome defign'd for food.
Hence fragrant flowers, with different colours 'dy'd,
On fmiling meads unfold their gaudy pride.

Review thefe numerous fcènes, at once furvey
Nature's extended face; then, fcepticks, fay,
In this wide field of wonders can you find
No art discover'd, and no end design'd?

$40

CREA

CREATION.

BOOK

III.

THE ARGUMENT.

THE introduction. Ufeful knowledge firft purfued by man. Agriculture. Architecture. Sculpture. Painting. Muick. The Grecian Philofophers firft engaged in ufelefs fpeculations. The abfurdity of alerting the felf-exiftent, independent, and eternal being of atoms, according to the fcheme of Epicurus. Anfwer to the objections of Atheifts to the fcheme of Creation afferted in the two former books. The objections brought by Lucretius against Creation, from the neceflity of pre-exiftent matter for the formation of all kinds of beings; from the pretended unartful contrivance of the world; from thorns, briers, and noxious weeds; from favage beasts, ftorms, thunder, difeafes; from the painful birth and d the fhort life of man; from the inequality of heat and cold in different climates; anfwered." The objections of the Pyrrhonians, or Scepticks, anfwered. A reply to thofe who affert all things owe their being and their motions to nature. Their different and fenfelefs account of that word. More apparent and eminent skill and wifdom ex, reffed in the works of nature than in those of human art. The unreaLonableness of denying skill and defign in the Author of those works. Vaninus, Hobbes, and Spinofa, confidered.

E

RE vain Philofophy had rear'd her school,
Whofe chiefs imagin'd realms of science rule,
With idle toil form vifionary schemes,

And wage eternal war for rival dreams;
Studious of good, man difregarded fame,
And ufeful knowledge was his eldest aim :
Through metaphyfic wilds he never flew,
Nor the dark haunts of school chimæras knew,
But had alone his happiness in view.

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He milk'd the lowing herd, he prefs'd the cheese, Folded the flock, and spun the woolly fleece. In urns the bees delicious dews he lay'd, Whofe kindling wax invented day display'd ; Wrefted their iron entrails from the hills, Then with the fpoils his glowing forges fills; And fhap'd with vigorous ftrokes the ruddy bar To rural arms, unconscious yet of war. He made the ploughfhare in the furrow shine, And learn'd to fow his bread, and plant his vine. Now yerdant food adorn'd the garden beds, And fruitful trees fhot up their branching heads; Rich balm from groves, and herbs from graffy plains, His fever footh'd, or heal'd his wounded veins.

Our fathers next, in architecture skill'd,

Cities for ufe, and, forts for fafety, build:

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Then palaces and lofty domes arofe,

These for devotion, and for pleasure those.

Their thoughts were next to artful, fculpture turn'd,
Which now the palace, now the dome adorn'd.