rl TO ERASMUS DARWIN. 



Now in ftrong lines, with bolder tints defign'd, 

 You {ketch ideas, and portray the mind ; 

 Teach how fine atoms of impinging light 



To ceafelefs change the vifuai fenfe excite: 40 



While the bright lens collects the rays, that fwerve, 

 And bends their focus on the moving nerve. 

 How thoughts to thoughts are link'd with viewlefs chains, 

 Tribes leading tribes, and trains purfuing trains ; 

 With fhadowy trident how Volition guides, 45 



Surge after furge, his intellectual tides; 

 Or, Queen of Sleep, Imagination roves 

 With frantic Sorrows, or delirious Loves. 



Go on, O FRIEND ! explore with eagle eye, 



Where wrapt in night retiring Caufes lie : 50 



Trace their flight bands, their fecret haunts betray, 

 And give new wonders to the beam of day ; 

 Till, link by link, with ftep afpiring trod, 

 You climb from NATURE to the throne of GOD. 



So faw the Patriarch with admiring eyes, 55 



From earth to heaven a golden ladder rife ; 

 Involv'd in clouds the myftic fcale afcends, 

 And brutes and angeis crowd the diflant ends. 



TRIN. COL. CAMBRIDGE, Jan. 1, 1794. 



REFERENCES. 



Botanic Garden, Part I. 

 Canto I. 1. 105 

 IV. 1. 402 

 I. 1. 140 



III. 1. 401 



IV. 1. 452 

 I. 1. 14 



Zoonomia. 

 . 12. Sea. XIII. 

 .13. XXXIX. 4. 1. 



Sea. XVI. 2. and XXXVIII. 



XVI. 4. 



XVI. 4. 



XVI. 6. 



HI. and VII. 



X. 



XVIII. 17. 



XVII. 3. 7. 



XVIII. 8. 



XXXIX. 4. 8. 



- XXXIX. the Motto, 



XXXIX. 8. 



