Why do no arms the poet's fong employ
Before the Theban war, or fiege of Troy?
And why no elder histories relate

The rife of empires, and the turns of state?

If generations infinite are gone,

Tell, why fo late were arts and letters known ?
Their rife and progrefs is of recent date,

700

And still we mourn their young imperfect state.
If unconfin'd duration we regard,

7༠5

And time be with eternity compar'd,

But yesterday the fages of the East

First some crude knowledge of the stars exprest.
In facred emblems Egypt's fons conceal'd
Their myftic learning, rather than reveal'd.
Greece after this, for fubtle wit renown'd,

713

The sciences and arts improv'd or found;

First, causes search'd, and Nature's secret ways;

First taught the bards to fing immortal lays ;

The charms of mufick and of painting rais'd,

715

And was for building first, and first for sculpture prais'd. Man in mechanic arts did late excel,

That fuccour life, and noxous power repel;
Which yield fupplies for neceflary use,

Or which to pleasure or to pomp conduce.

720

How late was found the loadstone's magic force,
That feeks the north, and guides the failor's course !
How newly did the printer's curious skill
Th' enlighten'd world with letter'd volumes fill !
But late the kindled powder did explode

725

The maffy ball, and the braís tube unload;

The

730

The tube, to whofe loud thunder Albion owes
The laurel honours that adorn her brows;: 1
Which awful, during eight renown'd campaigns,
From Belgia's hills, and Gallia's frontier plains,
Did through th' admiring realms around proclaim
Marlborough's fwift conquests, and great Anna's name!
By this the leader of the British powers
Shook Menin, Lilla, and high Ganda's towers;
Next his wide engines level'd Tournay's pride,
Whofe lofty walls advancing foes defy'd

735

Though nitrous tempefts, and clandeftine death,
Fill'd the deep caves and numerous vaults beneath,
Which, form'd with art, and wrought with endlefs toil,
Ran through, the faithlefs: excavated foil.

See, the intrepid Briton delves his way,

740

And to the caverns lets in war and day;

Quells fubterranean foes, and rifes crown'd

With fpoils, from martial labour under ground.
Mons, to reward Blarignia's glorious field,

745

To Marlborough's terrors did submisfive yield.

The hero next affail'd proud Doway's head;
And fpite of confluent inundations spread
Around, in fpite of works for fure defence
Rais'd with confummate art, and cost immense,
With unexampled valour did fucceed:
(Villars, thy host beheld the hardy deed !>
Aria, Venantia, Bethune, and Bouchain,
Of his long triumphs close th' illustrious train.
While thus his thunder did his wrath declare,
And artful lightnings flafh'd along the air,

2

750

755

Somona's

Somona's castles with th' impetuous roar
Aftonish'd tremble, but their warriors more;
Lutetia's lofty towers with terror struck
Caught the contagion, and at diftance fhook.
Tell, Gallic chiefs, for you have often heard
His dreadful cannon, and his fire rever'd,
Tell, how you rag'd, when your pale cohorts run
From Marlborough's fword, the battle scarce begun.
Tell, Scaldis! Legia, tell! how to their head

Your frighted waves in refluent errors fled.

760

565

While Marlborough's cannon thus prevails by land, Britain's fea-chiefs, by Anna's high command, Refiftlefs o'er the Thufcan billows ride,

And, ftrike rebellowing caves on either fide;
Their fulphur tempefts ring from shore to shore,

770

Now make the Ligur start, and now the Moor.

Hark how the found difturbs imperious Rome,

Shakes her proud hills, and rolls from dome to dome! Her mitred princes hear the echoing noise,

775

And, Albion, dread thy wrath, and awful voice.

Aided by thee, the Austrian eagles rife
Sublime, and triumph in Iberian skies.
What panic fear, what anguifh, what diftrefs,
What confternation, Gallia's fons exprefs,

780

While, trembling on the coaft, they from afar
View the wing'd terrors, and the floating war!

CREATION

CREATIO N.

BOOK

VI.

THE ARGUMENT.

The fabulous account of the firft rife of mankind given by the ancient poets. The opinions of many of the Greek philofophers concerning that point not lefs ridiculous. The affertion of Epicurus and his followers, that our first parents were the fpontaneous production of the earth, moft abfurd and incredible. The true origin of man enquired into. He is proved to be at firft created by an intelligent, arbitrary cause; from the characters and impreffions of contrivance, art, and wisdom, which appear in his formation. The wonderful progrefs of it.

The

figure, fituation, and connexion, of the bones. The fyftem of the veins, and that of the arteries. The manner of the circulation of the blood described. Nutrition how performed. The system of the nerves. Of the animal fpirits, how made, and how employed in muscular motion and fenfation. A wife intelligent cause inferred from these appearances.

THE

НЕ

THE pagan world, to Canaan's realms unknown,

Where knowledge reign'd, and light celestial shone, Loft by degrees their parent Adam's name,

Forgot their flock, and wonder'd whence they came:
Unguided, in the dark they ftrove to find,
With fruitlefs toil, the fource of human kind.
The heathen bards, who idle fables dreft,
Illufive dreams in myftic verfe exprefs'd,
And, foes to natural science and divine,
In beauteous phrase made impious notions shine,
In ftrains fublime their different fictions fung,
Whence the first parents of our species fprung.
Prometheus (fo fome elder poets fay)
Temper'd and form'd a paste of purer clay,

To which, well mingled with the river's stream,
His artful hand gave human fhape and frame;
Then, with warm life his figures to infpire,
The bold projector stole celeftial fire.

While others tell us how the human brood
Ow'd their production to the fruitful wood;
How from the laurel and the afh they sprung,
And infants on the oak, like acorns hung:
The crude conceptions preft the bending trees,
Till cherish'd by the fun-beams, by degrees,
Ripe children dropp'd on all the foil around,
Peopled the woods, and overspread the ground.
Great Jupiter (fo fome were pleas'd to fing)
Of fabled gods the father and the king,
N

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The