Classic Poem

Wondrous Machine! which can by magick Light,
Mature an embryo Atome to the Sight.
Full to our View which can, in unform'd Clay,
An Insect, working into Form, display;
And thro' whose mystick Power, a Gyant Size
Or does, or seems, from Miniature to rise
See! Ripe in Mirrour, see! the Egg-Worm sleep,
And, e'er his Shell is broke, proportion'd creep.
Parts, yet imperfect, now appear compleat;
Tho' mix'd, yet sever'd; tho' minute, yet, great.
Hail mighty Crystal! whose most powerful Light,
To Order Chaos turns; to Day the Night.

Consult the Glass, and see yon puny Flea;
Disturber Cynthia of thy Dreams and Thee!
See! with what monstrous Port and stately Pride,
The Pigmy swells, and tempts an awker'd Stride;
See his Proboscis ! see his well-hing'd Thigh;
His Lobster-Legs; and see his Eagle-Eye.

O Microscopia ! Goddess heavenly bright,
Which to an Angel's Ken has stretch'd my Sight,
Stop not thy Bounty, but be still more kind,
Enlarge the Purlieu of my narrow Mind:
In Colours, plain, expose to Reason's Eye,
What, yet, to Reason Nature does deny:
What 'tis to think, teach my amazed Thought;
And let, O! let me, whence I came , be taught;
Be taught, what am I ? Where, at Death, I go?
What Spirits do above, what Shades, below?
Open of future Scenes the hidden Doom;
Explain the present and the Things to come;
And then, in pious Hymns and grateful Lays,
O Goddess! I'll enshrine thy deathless Praise.