To trace in Nature's most minute design

The signature and stamp of pow'r divine,
Contrivance intricate, express'd with ease,
Where unassisted sight no beauty sees,
The shapely limb and lubricated joint,
Within the small dimensions of a point,
Muscle and nerve miraculously spun,

His mighty work, who speaks and it is done,
Th' invisible in things scarce seen reveal'd,

To whom an atom is an ample field;

To wonder at a thousand insect forms,
These hatch'd, and those resuscitated worms,
New life ordain'd and brighter scenes to share,
Once prone on earth, now buoyant upon air,

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Whose shape would make them, had they bulk

and size,

More hideous foes than fancy can devise;

With helmet-heads and dragon-scales adorn'd,

The mighty myriads, now securely scorn'd,

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Would mock the majesty of man's high birth,

Despise his bulwarks, and unpeople earth:
Then with a glance of fancy to survey,

Far as the faculty can stretch away,

Ten thousand rivers pour'd at his command
From urns, that never fail, through ev'ry land;
This like a deluge with impetuous force,
Those winding modestly a silent course;

The cloud surmounting Alps, the fruitful vales;
Seas, on which ev'ry nation spreads her sails; 80
The sun, a world whence other worlds drink light,
The crescent moon, the diadem of night;

Stars countless, each in his appointed place,

Fast anchor'd in the deep abyss of

space

At such a sight to catch the poet's flame,

And with a rapture like his own exclaim,

These are thy glorious works, thou Source of good, How dimly seen, how faintly understood!

Thine, and upheld by thy paternal care,

This universal frame, thus wondrous fair;

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Thy pow'r divine, and bounty beyond thought

Ador'd and prais'd in all that thou hast wrought. Absorb'd in that immensity I see,

I shrink abas'd, and yet aspire to thee;

Instruct me, guide me to that heav'nly day

Thy words, more clearly than thy works, display,
That, while thy truths my grosser thoughts refine,
I may resemble thee and call thee mine.

O blest proficiency! surpassing all
That men erroneously their glory call,
The recompense that arts or arms can yield,
The bar, the senate, or the tented field.

Compar'd with this sublimest life below,

Ye kings and rulers, what have courts to show?
Thus studied, used and consecrated thus,

On Earth what is, seems form'd indeed for us;
Not as the plaything of a froward child,
Fretful unless diverted and beguil'd,
Much less to feed and fan the fatal fires

Of pride, ambition, or impure desires,

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But as a scale, by which the soul ascends

From mighty means to more important ends,

Securely, though by steps but rarely trod,
Mounts from inferior beings up to God,

And sees, by no fallacious light or dim,

Earth made for man, and man himself for him.

Not that I meant t' approve, or would enforce, A superstitious and monastic course:

Truth is not local, God alike pervades

And fills the world of traffic and the shades, 120
And
may be fear'd amidst the busiest scenes,
Or scorn'd where business never intervenes.

But 'tis not easy with a mind like ours,
Conscious of weakness in it's noblest pow'rs,
And in a world where, other ills apart,
The roving eye misleads the careless heart,
To limit Thought, by nature prone to stray
Wherever freakish Fancy points the way;
To bid the pleadings of Self-love be still,
Resign our own and seek our Maker's will;

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To spread the page

of Scripture, and compare

Our conduct with the laws engraven there;
To measure all that passes in the breast,
Faithfully, fairly, by that sacred test;

To dive into the secret deeps within,
To spare no passion and no fav'rite sin,
And search the themes, important above all,
Ourselves and our recov'ry from our fall.
But leisure, silence, and a mind releas'd

From anxious thoughts how wealth may be in

creas'd,

How to secure, in some propitious hour,

The point of int'rest, or the post of pow'r,
A soul serene, and equally retir'd

From objects too much dreaded or desir'd,
Safe from the clamours of perverse dispute,
At least are friendly to the great pursuit.
Op'ning the map of God's extensive plan,

We find a little isle, this life of man;
Eternity's unknown expanse appears
Circling around and limiting his years.

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