With loads of acorns overspread the ground,
And see their offspring rising wide around.
Behold their leafy tops, how fair they show!
Know'st thou the laws by which their juices flow
Upward'gainst nature's course?-What pipes convey
Those gen'rous streams which make them fresh and

[gay? Does this seem strange ?-Much stranger yet

[remains. Nothing brings forth but what itself contains : 'Tis nature's constant law that ev'ry thing From parents like itself, in order spring : She no spontaneous production knows, But life, in regular progressions, flows.

Each seed includes a plant: that plant, again, Has other seeds which other plants contain:

Those other plants have all their seeds, and those

More plants again, successively, inclose.

Thus, ev'ry single berry that we find,
Has, really; in itself, whole forests of its kind.

Empire and wealth one acorn may dispense,
By fleets to sail a thousand ages hence.

Each myrtle seed includes a thousand groves,

Where future bards may warble future loves.

Thus Adam's loins contain’d his large posterity,

All people that have been, and all that e'er shall be.

Amazing thought! what mortal can conceive

Such wond'rous smallness ?-Yet, we must believe What Reason tells : for Reason’s piercing eye Discerns those truths our senses can't descry.

From things inanimate withdraw thine eyes, For, wide around thee, living wonders rise : The various kinds which cut the briny main, The forest range, or graze upon the plain;

The feather'd tribes which fly from land to land,

And insects, num'rous as the grains of sand

All these declare from whence their being came, 7
Their maker's goodness and his pow'r proclaim,
And call thee forth, with them, to praise his name. J
For, every creature does his bounty share,
Though man pretends that He has all his care.

God gives the strength whereby the Lion reigns, And drives the torrent boiling through his veins.

When with his roar the desert echoes round,

And trembling beasts affrighted hear the sound,

He gives the voice :-his raging thirst supplies,
And with sufficient food his hunger satisfies.

As lightning swift, and panting for the course, With iron sinews he has arm’d the HORSE:

Hark! from afar the trumpet's sprightly sound!

His restless hoofs, impatient, spurn the ground: He snorts ; he foams ; fire flashes from his eyes, And from his nostrils curling volumes rise. Furious, he grasps the distance in his mind,

Bounds o'er the plains, and leaves the winds behind :

Headlong through all he drives, devoid of fear, Mocks at the brandish'd sword, and scorns the

lengthen'd spear.* He gives the tow'ring EAGLE wings, to rise

High.o'er the clouds, to pure etherial skies.
Aloft, on craggy cliffs, she builds her nest,

Secure from foes, with endless quiet blest.

Unheard, the surges break upon the shores,

And all below, unheard, the raging tempest roars :

Hence, wide around, her piercing eyes survey,
And, far beneath, mark out the destin'd prey :
The red-hot bolt which splits the stubborn oak,

Scarce flies more swift, or gives a surer stroke.

Her young are feasted with the reeking food,

And early learn to gorge themselves with blood :

Their nostrils snuff the battle from afar,

alar,

And they still bend their flight to where the slaugh

ster'd are. 'Tis he bestows, delightful to behold,

The Peacock's plumes, out-shining beaten gold.

Lo! on the ground, with scorn he seems to tread;

The various glory waving o'er his head.

Ambitions to be seen, with stately pace,

He stalks, exulting, on the highest place.
Proudly he spreads his plumes against the sun,
Disdaining by its beams to be outdone: