50 



ordinance in favour of mankind, the race might 

 have been destroyed. 



Or, perhaps there has been in this tyrannic 

 animal's day a race of people who had as com- 

 plete a dominion over that astonishing being, 

 as the present race have over the animals of the 

 present time I If so, what ideas can we have 

 of them ? And " how have the mighty fallen I" 

 Here language fails; and man, poor short- 

 sighted man, is lost in clouds of amazement 

 and uncertainty : while, like the poet, we must 



Once more search, undismay'd, the dark profound^ 

 Where Nature works in secret ; view the beds 

 Of mineral treasure, and the eternal vault 

 That bounds the hoary ocean ; trace the forms 

 Of atoms, moving with incessant change, 

 Their elemental round ; behold the seeds 

 Of being and the energy of life, 

 Kindling the mass with ever-active flame : 

 Then to the secrets of the working mind 

 Attentive turn ; from dim oblivion call 

 Her fleet, ideal, band ; and bid them ' go 

 Break thro' Time's barrier, and o'ertake the hour 

 That saw the heav'ns created ; then declare 

 If ought were ever found in those external scenes 

 To move thy wonder now I ' For what are all 

 The forms which brute, unconscious matter wears, 

 Greatness of bulk, or symmetry of parts I 



