Something eternal: had there e’er been nought,
Nought still had been: eternal there must be.—
But what eternal?—Why not human race?
And Adam’s ancestors without an end?—
That’s hard to be conceived; since every link
Of that long-chain’d succession is so frail;
Can every part depend, and not the whole?
Yet grant it true; new difficulties rise;
I’m still quite out at sea; nor see the shore.
Whence earth, and these bright orbs?—eternal too?