"So human progenies, if unrestrain'd,
By climate friended, and by food sustain'd, 370
O'er seas and soils, prolific hordes! would spread
Erelong, and deluge their terraqueous bed;
But war, and pestilence, disease, and dearth,
Sweep the superfluous myriads from the earth.
Thus while new forms reviving tribes acquire
Each passing moment, as the old expire;
Like insects swarming in the noontide bower,
Rise into being, and exist an hour;
The births and deaths contend with equal strife,
And every pore of Nature teems with Life; 380
[Which buds or breathes] from Indus to the Poles,
And Earth's vast surface kindles, as it rolls!
"Hence when a Monarch or a mushroom dies,
Awhile extinct the organic matter lies;
But, as a few short hours or years revolve,
Alchemic powers the changing mass dissolve;
[Born to new life] unnumber'd insects pant,
New buds surround the microscopic plant;
Whose embryon senses, and unwearied frames,
Feel finer goads, and blush with purer flames; 390
Renascent joys from irritation spring,
Stretch the long root, or wave the aurelian wing.
"When thus a squadron or an army yields,
And festering carnage loads the waves or fields;
When few from famines or from plagues survive,
Or earthquakes swallow half a realm alive;—
While Nature sinks in Time's destructive storms,
The wrecks of Death are but a change of forms;
Emerging matter from the grave returns,
Feels new desires, with new sensations burns; 400
With youth's first bloom a finer sense acquires,
And Loves and Pleasures fan the rising fires.—
[Thus sainted Paul], 'O Death!' exulting cries,
'Where is thy sting? O Grave! thy victories?'
"Immortal Happiness from realms deceased
Wakes, as from sleep, unlessen'd or increased;
Calls to the wise in accents loud and clear,
Sooths with sweet tones the sympathetic ear;
Informs and fires the revivescent clay,
[And lights the dawn] of Life's returning day. 410
"[So when Arabia's Bird], by age oppress'd,
Consumes delighted on his spicy nest;
A filial Phœnix from his ashes springs,
Crown'd with a star, on renovated wings;
Ascends exulting from his funeral flame,
And soars and shines, another and the same.
"[So erst the Sage] with scientific truth
In Grecian temples taught the attentive youth;
With ceaseless change how restless atoms pass
From life to life, a transmigrating mass; 420
How the same organs, which to day compose
The poisonous henbane, or the fragrant rose,
May with to morrow's sun new forms compile,
Frown in the Hero, in the Beauty smile.
Whence drew the enlighten'd Sage the moral plan,
That man should ever be the friend of man;
Should eye with tenderness all living forms,
His brother-emmets, and his sister-worms.
"Hear, O ye Sons of Time! your final doom,
And read the characters, that mark your tomb: 430
[The marble mountain], and the sparry steep,
Were built by myriad nations of the deep,—
Age after age, who form'd their spiral shells,
Their sea-fan gardens and their coral cells;
Till central fires with unextinguished sway
Raised the primeval islands into day;—
The sand-fill'd strata stretch'd from pole to pole;
Unmeasured beds of clay, and marl, and coal,
Black ore of manganese, the zinky stone,
And dusky steel on his magnetic throne, 440
In deep morass, or eminence superb,
Rose from the wrecks of animal or herb;
These from their elements by Life combined,
Form'd by digestion, and in glands refined,
Gave by their just excitement of the sense
The Bliss of Being to the vital Ens.
"Thus the tall mountains, that emboss the lands,
Huge isles of rock, and continents of sands,
Whose dim extent eludes the inquiring sight,
[Are mighty Monuments] of past Delight; 450
Shout round the globe, how Reproduction strives
With vanquish'd Death,—and Happiness survives;
[How Life increasing] peoples every clime,
And young renascent Nature conquers Time;
—And high in golden characters record
The immense munificence of Nature's Lord!—
"He gives and guides the sun's attractive force,
And steers the planets in their silver course;
With heat and light revives the golden day,
And breathes his spirit on organic clay; 460
With hand unseen directs the general cause
By firm immutable immortal laws."
Charm'd with her words the Muse astonish'd stands,
The Nymphs enraptured clasp their velvet hands;
Applausive thunder from the fane recoils,
And holy echoes peal along the ailes;
O'er Nature's shrine celestial lustres glow,
And lambent glories circle round her brow.