Tell then, my Seer, from what dire sons of earth The brutal people drew their ancient birth; If these forgotten shores and useless tides Have form'd them different from the world besides, Born to subjection, when in happier time A nobler race should reach their fruitful clime; Or, if a common source all nations claim, Their lineage, form and faculties the same, What sovereign secret cause, yet undisplay'd, This wondrous change in nature's work has made; Why various powers of soul and tints of face In different lands diversify the race; To whom the Guide: Unnumbered causes lie, In earth and sea, in climate, soil and sky, That fire the soul, or damp the genial flame, And work their wonders on the human frame. See beauty, form and color change with place; Here charms of health the lively visage grace; There pale diseases float in every wind, Deform the figure, and degrade the mind. From earth's own elements thy race at first Rose into life, the children of the dust; These kindred elements, by various use, Nourish the growth and every change produce; In each ascending stage the man sustain, His breath, his food, his physic and his bane. In due proportions where these atoms lie, A certain form their equal aids supply; And while unchanged the efficient causes reign, Age following age the certain form maintain. But where crude atoms disproportion'd rise, And cast their sickening vapors round the skies, Unlike that harmony of human frame, That moulded first and reproduce the same, The tribes ill form'd, attempering to the clime, Still vary downward with the years of time; More perfect some, and some less perfect yield Their reproductions in this wondrous field; Till fixt at last their characters abide, And local likeness feeds their local pride. The soul too, varying with the change of clime, Feeble or fierce, or groveling or sublime, Forms with the body to a kindred plan, And lives the same, a nation or a man. Yet think not clime alone the tint controls, On every shore, by altitude of poles; A different cast the glowing zone demands, In Paria's groves, from Tombut's burning sands, Unheeded agents, for the sense too fine, With every pulse, with every thought combine, Thro air and ocean, with their changes run, Breathe from the ground, or circle with the sun. Where these long continents their shores outspread, See the same form all different tribes pervade; Thro all alike the fertile forests bloom, And all, uncultured, shed a solemn gloom; Thro all great nature's boldest features rise, Sink into vales or tower amid the skies; Streams darkly winding stretch a broader sway, The groves and mountains bolder walks display; A dread sublimity informs the whole, And rears a dread sublimity of soul.