324- CONCLUSION. 



Let no presuming impious railer tax 

 Creative Wisdom ; as if aught were form'd 

 In vain, or not for admirable ends. 

 Shall little haughty Ignorance pronounce 

 His works unwise, of which the smallest part 

 Exceeds the narrow vision of her mind? 

 As if, upon a full-proportion'd dome, 

 On swelling columns heav'd, the pride of art! 

 A critic fly, whose feeble ray scarce spreads 

 An inch around, with blind presumption bold, 

 Should dare to tax the structure of the whole. 

 And lives the man whose universal eye 

 Has swept at once th' unbounded scheme of things ; 

 Mark'd their dependence so, and firm accord, 

 As with unfaltering accent to conclude 

 That this availeth nought? Has any seen 

 The mighty chain of beings, lessening down 

 From infinite perfection to the brink 

 Of dreary nothing ; desolate abyss, 

 From which astonish 'd thought recoiling turns? 

 Till then alone let zealous praise ascend, 

 And hymns of holy wonder, to that Power 

 Whose wisdom shines as lovely on our minds, 

 As on our smiling eyes His servant -sun. THOMSON. 



CONCLUSION 



THE PRINCIPAL END OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



WHILE the inferior orders of Animals are solely intent 

 on the gratification of the senses, or are conducted to the 

 performance of certain duties by blind instinct, unconscious 

 of the wonders that surround them, it is the glory and 

 prerogative of Man to be gifted with ability to extend his 

 views beyond his own insulated existence, to examine the 

 relations and dependencies of things, and to contemplate 

 the vast universe of being. But noble and expansive as 

 his powers become with adequate cultivation, he too fre 

 quently neglects the improvement of their energies, casts 



