And if these wonders we must with wonder abandon, Astronomy's Cosmos, the Immense, and those physical laws That link mind to matter, laws mutual in revelation, Which measure and analyse Nature's primordial orgasm, Lifegiving omnipotential LIGHT, its speed to determine, Untwist its rainbow of various earthcoloring rays, Counting strictly to each its own millionth-millimetred Wave-length, and mapping out on fray'd diffraction of ether All the adust elements and furnaced alchemy of[v]heav'n; Laws which atone the disorder of infinit observation 150 With tyrannous numbers and abstract theory, closing Protean Nature with nets of principle exact; Her metamorphoses transmuting by correlation, All heat, all chemical concourse or electrical action, All force and all motion of all matter, or subtle or gross:-- If we these wonders, I say, with wonder abandon, Nor can for mental heaviness their high study pursue, Yet no story of adventures or fabulous exploit Of famous'd heroes hath so rōmantic a discourse, As these growing annals of long heav'n-scaling achievement And far discoveries, which he who[v]idly neglecteth 161 Is but a boor as truly ridiculous as the village clown, In whose thought the pleasant sun-ball performeth a circuit Daily above mother earth, and resteth nightly beneath her. Nor will a man, whose mind respects its own operations, Lightly resign himself to remain in darkness uninform'd, While any true scīence of fact lies easy within reach Concerning Nature's ēternal essential object, Self-matter, embodying substratum of ev'ry relation Both of Time and Space, at once the machinery and stuff Of those Idēas; carrier, giver, only receiver 171 Of such perceptions as arise in sensible organs. Now whether each element is a cōherency of equal Strictly symmetric atoms, or among themselves the atoms are Like animals in a herd, having each an identity distinct, --So that atoms of gold compar'd with sulphur or iron Are but as ancient Greeks compar'd with Chinamen and Turks;-- Nor whether all elements are untransmutable offspring From one kind or more thro' endless eternity changing, Or whether invisibles claim rightly the name of immortals, I make no[v]enquiry; matter minutely divided 181 Showing a like paradox, with ever-continuous extent, And, as Adam, the atom will pose as a naked assumption:-- But since all the knowledge which man was born to attain to Hath these only channels, (which must limit and qualify[v]it,) We shall con the grammar, the material alphabet of life, Yea, ev'n more from error to preserve our inquisitive mind, Than to secure well-bēing against adversity and ill. Surely if all is a flux, 'tis well to look into the flūid,