Then trivial Knowledge,and firft Thoughts commence,
And Reason's Twilight gleams in lifping Senfe.
But when it fines in full Perfection bright,
The confcious Mind perfues her boundless Sight *
Man fees thro' all; one View this Knowledge brings
The Chain of Causes, and Result of Things:
The Creatures all obey; he gives the Word,
They patient yield, and own their deftin'd Lord.
MAN, lordly Creature! in whom Beauties meet
Unnumber'd, and the lovely Frame complete.
Mark the nice Structure, and the wond'rous Art;
How just the Whole, how curious ev'ry Part.
By the Child's Features we the Parent guess,
And Looks divine an heav'nly Sire confefs.
Man amiable, Majestick, walks erect,

And from th' inferiour World commands Respect;
Reafon curbs Force, and gives to Fury Laws,
And fierceft Creatures to Subjection awes.

They confcious yield, and own the righteous Sway's
And their juft Sovereign paffively obey.
Man is the Univerfe, in little fhewn,
The fcatter'd Beauties here are joyn'd in one ;
In him the feveral Motions are explain'd,
And the great World is in the lefs contain'd.
For as th' Almighty's Throne is fix'd on high,
(Far from thefe lower Spheres, and arched Sky,
Where Seraphs, and Cherubic Orders stand,
Attend the Nod, and wait the blefs'd Command;
Then with angelic Motion fwift obey,

And inftantly themfelves to farther Worlds convey.)
Thus feated in the Brain the Reafoning Soul:
Exalted fits, and there directs the Whole :-
At the leaft Hint the confcious Spirits start,
Loaden with Images from ev'ry Part;
In branched Tubes the fubtile Atoms roam,
And from each Senfe bring fresh Advices home.
The immaterial Mind attends above,

While they inform how outward Objects move,

The God of Light fends down his ftreaming Rays
On the warm'd Earth, and chears with fmiling Days.
And thus the central Heart the Source contains
Of vital Heat, and in its Cavern strains

The bubling Streams that stretch the fwelling Veins.
Still it conveys the swift returning Blood,
And reftlefs thus maintains the circling Flood.
The Sun (when Summer-heats the Spring fucceed)
Changes the tarnish'd Verdure of the Mead :
The dry'd up Rills no longer murmuring creep..
O'er the smooth Pebbles, and invite to sleep,
Bat buzzing Infects make an uncouth Noife,
And fulph'rous Vapours thunder in the Skies.
So when the Heart tumultuous Paffions move,
If melting in the fofter Flames of Love,
With quicker Strokes the hafty Pulses beat,
And glowing Cheeks confefs the inward Heat:
Or if fierce Rage provoke, and vengeful Ire,
The Eyes then fparkle with unufual Fire:
Ah! foon the Flames their rapid Fury fpread,
And colour all with a malignant red:
Curfes and Oaths th' unthinking Wretoh repeats,
And the Tongue falters in half-utter'd Threats.
How like the Earth mix'd with the watry Mafs,
Where troubled Seas the flimy Land embrace,
Are Man's lefs nobler Parts, th' inferiour Drain,
Where forc'd, the cruder Sediments remain?
Here ftagnate Filth, and acid worthlefs Lees,
And noifom Heaps from various Foods increase:
Hence windy Fumes, and fudden Vapours fpread,
That fwell the Breaft, and rack the aching Head,.
'Till forc'd by ftronger Nature to retreat,,-
They melting fall, and all diffolve in Sweat :
Difpers'd in watry Drops they pain no more,
But work infenfibly thro' ev'ry Pore.
And as the Sun by his own Heat exhales

Clouds from the Sea, and Fogs from marshy Vales;

Which (tho' bafe-born) ambitious higher move,
Prevent the Light, and hide the Worlds above:
So from corporeal Dregs the Mifts condenfe,
And intercept the Meffengers of Senfe.

Hence the clogg'd Spirits their Confinement mourn,
And Reafon waits in vain their fwift Return.
The clouded Images their March delay,
'Till the rouz'd Soul, by a fuperior Ray
Breaks thro' the Shade, and urges on the Day.
The Sages grant, what they on Reafon found,
The Heat and Vigour in the Male abound;
This Truth by plain Experiment is feen,
In Man's excelling Strength, and portly Mien,
In well-knit Limbs, and clofer Parts confefs'd,
And turgent Spirits heaving in the Breaft:
This too from their fuperiour Soul is prov'd,
Unfhock'd by Danger, and by Fear unmov'd;
From Parts to Bus'nefs turn'd, from Wit refin'd,
And the long Studies of th' unweary'd Mind.

(Sewell's Call.. And chiefly MAN, who o'er Earth, Air, and Main, Extends his wide and undifputed Reign.

Such, Earth, thy Fate; what then canft thou afford To comfort and fupport thy guilty Lord?

Man, haughty Lord of all beneath the Moon,
How muft he bend his Sons Ambition down?
Proftrate the Reptile own, and disavow
His boasted Stature, and affuming Brow?
Claim Kindred with the Clay, and curfe the Forma
That speaks Distinction from his Sifter Worm?
Next Man arofe at thy creating Word,

Of thy terreftial Realms vicegerent Lord.
His Soul more artful Labour, more refin'd,
And emulous of bright feraphick Mind,
Ennobled by thy Image, fpotlefs fhone,

Prais'd Thee her Author, and ador'd thy Throne :

Able

Able to know, admire, enjoy her God,
She did her high Felicity applaud.

That Man is frail and mortal, is confefs'd;
Convulfions rack his Nerves, and Cares his Breast.
His flying Life is chac'd by rav'ning Pains
Thro' all its Doubles in the winding Veins.
Within himself he fure Destruction breeds,
And fecret Torment in his Bowels feeds.
By cruel Tyrants, by the favage Beast,
Or his own fiercer Paffion he's opprefs'd:
Now breathes malignant Air, now Poyfon drinks;
By gradual Death, or by untimely, finks.

Ah hapless mortal Man! ah rigid Fate!
What Cares attend our fhort uncertain State?
How wide a Front, how deep and black a Reer?
What fad Varieties of Grief and Fear,
Drawn in Array, exert their fatal Rage,

And gall obnoxious Life thro' ev'ry Stage, (Creat.
From Infancy to Youth, from Youth to Age? Blac.
Man is but Man, inconstant still and various.
There's no To-morrow in him like to To-day:
Perhaps the Atoms, rolling in his Brain,
Make him think honeftly this prefent Hour;
The next, a Swarm of base ungrateful Thoughts
May mount aloft.

Who would truft Chance, fince all Men have the Seeds
Of Good or Ill, which should work upward first ?

(Dryd. Cleom. Men are but Children of a larger Growth,

Our Appetites as apt to change as theirs,
And full as craving too, and full as vain :
And yet the Soul, fhut up in her dark Room,
Viewing fo clear abroad, at home fees nothing;
But like a Mole in Earth, bufy and blind,
Works all her Folly up, and cafts it outward,
To the World's openi View. Dryd. All for Love.
Mankind one Day, ferene and free appear,
The next, they're cloudy, fullen, and fevere.

New

New Paffions new Opinions ftill excite,

And what they like at Noon, defpife at Night.
They gain with Labour what they quit with Ease,
And Health, for want of Change, becomes Difeafe:
Religion's bright Authority they dare,

And yet are Slaves to fuperftitious Fear.
They counfel others, but themfelves deceive,

And tho' they're couzen'd ftill, they still believe. Gar..
Were I, who to my Coft already am,

One of thofe ftrange prodigious Creatures Man,
A Spirit free to chufe for my own Share
What Cafe of Flesh and Blood I'd pleafe to wear,
I'd be a Dog, a Monkey, or a Bear;

Or any thing, but that vain Animal,,
Who is fo proud of being rational.

The Senfes are too grofs, and he'll contrive
A fixth to contradict the other five :
And before certain Inftinct will prefer
Reafon, which fifty Times for one does err.
Reafon, an Ignis Fatuus in the Mind,

}}

Which leaving Light of Nature, Senfe, behind,
Pathlefs and dang'rous wandring Ways it takes,
Thro' Errors fenny Bogs, and thorny Brakes ;
While the mifguided Follow'r climbs with Pain
Mountains of Whimfies heap'd in his own Brain ;
Stumbling from Thought to Thought, falls headlong
(down
Into Doubt's boundless Sea, where like to drown,
Books bear him up a while, and make him try.
To swim with Bladders of Philofophy,
In hopes ftill to o'ertake th' escaping Light,
'Till spent, it leaves him to eternal Night.
Huddled in Dirt the reas'ning Engine lies,
Who was fo proud, fo witty, and fo wife :
Pride drew him in, as Cheats their Bubbles catch,,
And made him venture to be made a Wretch:
His Wifdom did his Happiness destroy;
Aiming to know that World he should enjoy.
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