Haft thou explor❜d the fecrets of the deep, Hath the cleft centre open'd wide to Thee? Where dwells the light? In what refulgent dome? Are mifts begotten? Who their father knew? Whose pow'rful breath, from northern regions blown, Thou know'ft Me not; Thy blindness cannot fee Put forth thy hand, and shade the world with night? Who Who can refresh the burning fandy plain, To check the show'r, who lifts his hand on high, When earth no longer mourns her gaping veins, My funds of vengeance for the day of war, When clouds rain death, and storms, at my command, Who taught the rapid winds to fly so fast, Or shakes the centre with his eastern blast ? Who drew the comet out to such a fize, And pour'd his flaming train o'er half the skies? Who on low earth can moderate the rein, Appoint Appoint their feafons, and direct their course, Doft Thou pronounce where day-light shall be born, Who did the foul with her rich powers invest, And light up reason in the human breast? To shine, with fresh increase of luftre, bright, When stars and fun are fet in endless night? To these my various questions make reply. Th' Almighty fpoke; and, fpeaking, fhook the fky. What then, Chaldæan Sire, was thy furprize! Thus Thou, with trembling heart, and down-caft eyes: "Once and again, which I in groans deplore, My tongue has err'd; but shall presume no more. My voice is in eternal filence bound, "And all my foul falls proftrate to the ground." He ceas'd: When, lo! again th' Almighty spoke; The fame dread voice from the black whirlwind broke.. Can that arm measure with an arm divine? And canft thou thunder with a voice like Mine? VOL. I. Or Or in the hollow of thy hand contain Come forth, in beauty's excellence array'd; Dream of a dream! and fhadow of a fhade! What worlds haft Thou produc'd, what creatures fram'd; What infects cherish'd, that thy God is blam'd? * When pain'd with hunger, the wild Raven's brood Loud calls on God, importunate for food, Who hears their cry, who grants their hoarse request, Who in the stupid Oftrich † has subdu'd A parent's care, and fond inquietude? While * Another argument that Mofes was the author, is, that most of the creatures here mentioned are Egyptian. The reason given why the raven is particularly mentioned as an object of the care of Providence, is, because by her clamorous and importunate voice, she particularly feems always calling upon it; thence páσσ a κόραξε Elian. 1. ii. c. 48. is to afk earnestly. And fince there were ravens on the bank of the Nile more clamorous than the reft of that fpecies, thofe probably are meant in that place. There are many instances of this bird's ftupidity: Let two fuffice While far fhe flies, her scatter'd eggs are found, May crush her young in their neglected bed. * What time she skims along the field with speed, + She fcorns the rider, and pursuing fteed. How fuffice. First, it covers its head in the reeds, and thinks itself all out of fight, Secondly, They that go in pursuit of them, draw the skin of an Oftrich's neck on one hand, which proves a fufficient lure to take them with the other. They have fo little brain, that Heliogabalus had fix hundred heads for his fupper. Here we may observe, that our judicious as well as fublime author, just touches the great points of diftinction in each creature, and then haftens to another. A description is exact when you cannot add, but what is common to another thing; nor withdraw, but fomething peculiarly belonging to the thing described. A likeness is Loft in too much description, as a meaning often in too much illuftration. * Here is marked another peculiar quality of this creature, which neither flies nor runs directly, but has a motion composed of both, and using its wings as fails, makes great speed. Vafta velut Libye venantum vocibus ales Cum premitur, calidas curfu transmittit arenas, Inque modum veli finuatis flamine pennis Pulverulenta volat Claud. in Eutr. + Xenophon fays, Cyrus had horfes that could overtake the goat and the |