HYMN TO SCIENCE. ]l 



Give me to learn each secret cause j 

 het numbers, figures, motion's laws, 



Reveal'd before me stand ; 

 Then to great nature's scenes apply, 

 And round the globe and through the sky 



Disclose her working hand. 



Next to thy nobler search resign'd 

 The busy restless human mind 



Through ev'ry maze pursue ; 

 Detect perception where it lies, 

 Catch the ideas as they rise, 



And all their changes view. 



Her secret stores bid Mem'ry tell, 

 Bid Fancy quit her airy cell 



In all her treasures drest ; 

 While, prompt her sallies to control, 

 Reason, the judge, recalls the soul 



To truth's severest test. 



Say from what simple springs began 

 The vast ambitious thoughts of man, 



That range beyond control. 

 Which seek eternity to trace, 

 Drive through the infinity of space, 



And strain to grasp the whole ? 



Then range through being's wide extent, 

 Let the fair scale with just ascent 



And equal steps be trod, 

 Till, from the dead corporeal mass, 

 Through each progressive rank you pass 



To instinct, reason, God ! 



There, Science, veil thy daring eye, 

 Nor dive too deep, nor soar too high, 



In the divine abyss ; 

 To faith content thy beams to lend. 

 Her hopes t' assure, her steps befriend, 



And light the way to bliss. 



Then downward take thy flight again, 

 Mix with the policies of men. 

 And social Nature's ties 



