Classic Poem

Whence issuing torrents burst the mountain's side,
And hence impetuous pour their headlong tide.
Still central from the wide circumfluous waves,
(Whose briny dash each bounded region laves)
The soil, still rising, from the deep retires,
And mediate, to the neighbouring heaven aspires.
Hence, where the spring its surging effluence boils,
The stream ne'er refluent on the fount recoils,
But trips progressive, with descending pace,
And tunes, thro' many a league, its warbling maze;
Here blended, swells with interfering rills;
And here the lake's capacious cistern fills;
Or wanton, here a snaky labyrinth roams;
Impervious here, with indignation foams;
Or here with rapture shoots the nether glade,
And whitening silvers in the steep cascade;
Or slackening here, its length of labour sooths;
And slumbering soft, its sleepy surface smooths;
Wide, deep, and slow, the doubtful current glides,
And o'er the flux the tilting vessel rides.
The embroidered banks their gaudy fringes dip,
And pendent flowers the smiling liquors sip;
Or gently where the humid mirrors pass,
The forest rises to the watry glass;
Self-worshipping the stately shade admires,
And to a double heaven its height aspires.
The social stream a winding motion steers,
And mindful of the neighbouring region veers;
With traverse or inverted circuit bends,
Nor leaves, unvisited, remotest friends;
With genial bounty spreads the verdant wealth,
And pours large draughts of ever blooming health:
Delight diffusive down the current flows,
And pleasure on the flowery margin grows.
Thro' many a realm, where mighty monarchs reign,
The stately flood protracts its floating train;
Revolving suns the wondrous length pursue,
Nor in one day the liquid wanderer view;
Its facil maze the varying seasons wind,
And chrystal flakes the struggling fountain bind,
Which distant glows beneath the fervid beam,
And into ocean pours the copious stream.

Thus Beauty flows in one perpetual ring,
And uses circling from our oceans spring;
Beneath, attracted, thro' the strata rise;
Above, exhaled, usurp the ambient skies;
Meet in the limpid source, or purling rill,
And bathe the vale, or sweep the shelving hill:
From hence their tributary floods repay,
And grateful nourish the recruited sea;
The sea replenished trafficks as before,
And back to earth returns the fruitful store.
To earth! for here, concentring, air, and fire,
And flood, in mutual triple league conspire:
Since H E , on whom the mighty fabrick leans,
The E TERNAL , from eternity ordains
Variety, which union must produce;
And order knit consummate, into use;
That D EITY throughout the world may shine,
And Nature's birth confess her Sire D IVINE .

Nature, bright effluence of the O NE S UPREME !
O how connected is thy wondrous frame!
(Thy grand machine, thro' many a wanton maze,
Steered where it winds, and streightning where it strays,
There most direct where seeming most inflext,
Most regular when seemingly most perplext,
As tho' perfection on disorder hung,
And perfect order from incaution sprung)
Still, endless as thy beauteous scenes arise,
Still, endless multiplies our deep surprize.

Say, does each mote know its peculiar place,
All conscious, thro' the gulf of boundless space?
Can atoms be omniscient, to discern
(What human wisdom strives, but strives in vain to learn)
What mode mysterious paints the purpling rose,
What melts the current when Maeander flows?
What modes our adamantine marble bind?
What ruffle active in the blustering wind?
From inky jett exclude the piercing day;
Or thro' the brilliant drink the trembling ray;
Nip in the frost, or in the furnace glow;
With gay enamel arch the showery bow;
With various influence our senses greet,
Point in the sour, grow luscious in the sweet,
Scent in the civet, stifle in the draught,
Light from the doe the tainting odour waft,
Excite the nostril of the opening hound;
More subtile still the organick sense compound;
Thro' elements, plant, reptile, man, and brute,
This thing to that, and all to other suit?
Can clay, such virtues, forms, and modes assign?
Debating, methodize, conspire, combine?
Studious deliberate on the publick weal,
And ne'er like human politicians fail?
Each particle its separate province chuse,
Nor that prefer, nor froward this refuse;
Each for itself, and for the whole advise;
All good, all right, all perfect, and all wise?
Prophetick, thro' eternity foreknow,
From past, what future revolutions flow?