TO ~NEWTON~’s genius, and immortal fame Th’ advent’rous muse with trembling pinion soars. Thou, heav’nly truth, from thy seraphick throne Look favourable down, do thou assist My lab’ring thought, do thou inspire my song. NEWTON, who first th’ almighty’s works display’d, And smooth’d that mirror, in whose polish’d face The great creator now conspicuous shines; Who open’d nature’s adamantine gates, And to our minds her secret powers expos’d; NEWTON demands the muse; his sacred hand Shall guide her infant steps; his sacred hand Shall raise her to the Heliconian height, Where, on its lofty top inthron’d, her head Shall mingle with the Stars. Hail nature, hail, O Goddess, handmaid of th’ ethereal power, Now lift thy head, and to th’ admiring world Shew thy long hidden beauty. Thee the wise Of ancient fame, immortal ~PLATO~’s self, The Stagyrite, and Syracusian sage, From black obscurity’s abyss to raise, (Drooping and mourning o’er thy wondrous works) With vain inquiry sought. Like meteors these In their dark age bright sons of wisdom shone: But at thy ~NEWTON~ all their laurels fade, They shrink from all the honours of their names. So glimm’ring stars contract their feeble rays, When the swift lustre of ~AURORA~’s face Flows o’er the skies, and wraps the heav’ns in light. THE Deity’s omnipotence, the cause, Th’ original of things long lay unknown. Alone the beauties prominent to sight (Of the celestial power the outward form) Drew praise and wonder from the gazing world. As when the deluge overspread the earth, Whilst yet the mountains only rear’d their heads Above the surface of the wild expanse, Whelm’d deep below the great foundations lay, Till some kind angel at heav’n’s high command Roul’d back the rising tides, and haughty floods, And to the ocean thunder’d out his voice: Quick all the swelling and imperious waves, The foaming billows and obscuring surge, Back to their channels and their ancient seats Recoil affrighted: from the darksome main Earth raises smiling, as new-born, her head, And with fresh charms her lovely face arrays. So his extensive thought accomplish’d first The mighty task to drive th’ obstructing mists Of ignorance away, beneath whose gloom Th’ inshrouded majesty of Nature lay. He drew the veil and swell’d the spreading scene. How had the moon around th’ ethereal void Rang’d, and eluded lab’ring mortals care, Till his invention trac’d her secret steps, While she inconstant with unsteady rein Through endless mazes and meanders guides In its unequal course her changing carr: Whether behind the sun’s superior light She hides the beauties of her radiant face, Or, when conspicuous, smiles upon mankind, Unveiling all her night-rejoicing charms. When thus the silver-tressed moon dispels The frowning horrors from the brow of night, And with her splendors chears the sullen gloom,