LITMIR.BIZ

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the realms of Chaos and of Night;

       Of space unmeasured marks the first and last,

       Of endless time the present, future, past; 40

       Immortal Guide! O, now with accents kind

Give to my ear the progress of the Mind. How loves, and tastes, and sympathies commence From evanescent notices of sense? How from the yielding touch and rolling eyes The piles immense of human science rise?— With mind gigantic steps the puny Elf, And weighs and measures all things but himself!"

      The indulgent Beauty hears the grateful Muse,

       Smiles on her pupil, and her task renews. 50

       Attentive Nymphs in sparkling squadrons throng,

       And choral Virgins listen to the song;

       Pleased Fawns and Naiads crowd in silent rings,

       And hovering Cupids stretch their purple wings.

II. "First the new actions of the excited sense, Urged by appulses from without, commence; With these exertions pain or pleasure springs, And forms perceptions of external things. Thus, when illumined by the solar beams, Yon waving woods, green lawns, and sparkling streams, In one bright point by rays converging lie 61 Plann'd on the moving tablet of the eye; The mind obeys the silver goads of light, And Irritation moves the nerves of sight.

       "These acts repeated rise from joys or pains,

       And swell Imagination's flowing trains;

       So in dread dreams amid the silent night

       Grim spectre-forms the shuddering sense affright;

       Or Beauty's idol-image, as it moves,

       Charms the closed eye with graces, smiles, and loves; 70

       Each passing form the pausing heart delights,

       And young Sensation every nerve excites.

      "Oft from sensation quick Volition springs, When pleasure thrills us, or when anguish stings; Hence Recollection calls with voice sublime Immersed ideas from the wrecks of Time, With potent charm in lucid trains displays Eventful stories of forgotten days. Hence Reason's efforts good with ill contrast, Compare the present, future, and the past; 80 Each passing moment, unobserved restrain The wild discordancies of Fancy's train; But leave uncheck'd the Night's ideal streams, Or, sacred Muses! your meridian dreams.

       "And last Suggestion's mystic power describes

       Ideal hosts arranged in trains or tribes.

       So when the Nymph with volant finger rings

       Her dulcet harp, and shakes the sounding strings;

       As with soft voice she trills the enamour'd song,

       Successive notes, unwill'd, the strain prolong; 90

       The transient trains Association steers, And sweet vibrations charm the astonish'd ears.

"On rapid feet o'er hills, and plains, and rocks, Speed the scared leveret and rapacious fox; On rapid pinions cleave the fields above The hawk descending, and escaping dove; With nicer nostril track the tainted ground The hungry vulture, and the prowling hound; Converge reflected light with nicer eye The midnight owl, and microscopic fly; 100 With finer ear pursue their nightly course The listening lion, and the alarmed horse.

"The branching forehead with diverging horns Crests the bold bull, the jealous stag adorns; Fierce rival boars with side-long fury wield The pointed tusk, and guard with shoulder-shield; Bounds the dread tiger o'er the affrighted heath Arm'd with sharp talons, and resistless teeth; The pouncing eagle bears in clinched claws The struggling lamb, and rends with ivory jaws; 110 The tropic eel, electric in his ire, Alarms the waves with unextinguish'd fire; The fly of night illumes his airy way, And seeks with lucid lamp his sleeping prey; Fierce on his foe the poisoning serpent springs, And insect armies dart their venom'd stings.

      "Proud Man alone in wailing weakness born,

       No horns protect him, and no plumes adorn;

       No finer powers of nostril, ear, or eye,

       Teach the young Reasoner to pursue or fly.— 120

Nerved with fine touch above the bestial throngs, The hand, first gift of Heaven! to man belongs; Untipt with claws the circling fingers close, With rival points the bending thumbs oppose, Trace the nice lines of Form with sense refined, And clear ideas charm the thinking mind. Whence the fine organs of the touch impart Ideal figure, source of every art; Time, motion, number, sunshine or the storm, But mark varieties in Nature's form. 130

"Slow could the tangent organ wander o'er The rock-built mountain, and the winding shore; No apt ideas could the pigmy mite, Or embryon emmet to the touch excite; But as each mass the solar ray reflects, The eye's clear glass the transient beams collects; Bends to their focal point the rays that swerve, And paints the living image on the nerve. So in some village-barn, or festive hall The spheric lens illumes the whiten'd wall; 140 O'er the bright field successive figures fleet, And motley shadows dance along the sheet.— Symbol of solid forms is colour'd light, And the mute language of the touch is sight.

"Hence in Life's portico starts young Surprise With step retreating, and expanded eyes; The virgin, Novelty, whose radiant train Soars o'er the clouds, or sinks beneath the main, With sweetly-mutable seductive charms Thrills the young sense, the tender heart alarms. 150 Then Curiosity with tracing hands And meeting lips the lines of form demands, Buoy'd on light step, o'er ocean, earth, and sky, Rolls the bright mirror of her restless eye. While in wild groups tumultuous Passions stand, And Lust and Hunger head the Motley band; Then Love and Rage succeed, and Hope and Fear; And nameless Vices close the gloomy rear; Or young Philanthropy with voice divine Convokes the adoring Youth to Virtue's shrine; 160 Who with raised eye and pointing finger leads To truths celestial, and immortal deeds.

III. "As the pure language of the Sight commands The clear ideas furnish'd by the hands; Beauty's fine forms attract our wondering eyes, And soft alarms the pausing heart surprise. Warm from its cell the tender infant born Feels the cold chill of Life's aerial morn; Seeks with spread hands the bosoms velvet orbs, With closing lips the milky fount absorbs; 170 And, as compress'd the dulcet streams distil, Drinks warmth and fragrance from the living rill; Eyes with mute rapture every waving line, Prints with adoring kiss the Paphian shrine, And learns erelong, the perfect form confess'd, Ideal Beauty from its Mother's breast.

"Now on swift wheels descending like a star Alights young Eros from his radiant car; On angel-wings attendant Graces move, And hail the God of Sentimental Love. 180 Earth at his feet extends her flowery bed, And bends her silver blossoms round his head; Dark clouds dissolve, the warring winds subside. And smiling ocean calms his tossing tide, O'er the bright morn meridian lustres play, And Heaven salutes him with a flood of day.

      "Warm as the sun-beam, pure as driven snows,

       The enamour'd God for young Dione glows;

       Drops the still tear, with sweet attention sighs,

       And woos the Goddess with adoring eyes; 190

       Marks her white neck beneath the gauze's fold,

       Her ivory shoulders, and her locks of gold;

       Drinks with mute ecstacy the transient glow,

       Which warms and tints her bosom's rising snow.

       With holy kisses wanders o'er her charms,

       And clasps the Beauty in Platonic arms;

       Or if the dewy hands of Sleep, unbid,

       O'er her blue eye-balls close the lovely lid,

       Watches each nascent smile, and fleeting grace,

       That plays in day-dreams o'er her blushing face; 200

       Counts the fine mazes of the curls, that break

      

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