viii TO ERASMUS DARWIN. 



Seeks with fpread hands the bofom's velvet orbs, 



With clofing lips the milky fount abforbs ; 3 



And, as comprefs'd the dulcet ftreams diftil, 



Drinks warmth and fragrance from the living rill ; 



Eyes with mute rapture every waving line, 



Prints with adoring kifs the Paphian fhrine, 



A nd learns erelong, the perfect form confefs'd, 35 



Ideal Beauty from its mother's breaft. 



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



You fketch ideas, and portray the mind ; 



Teach how fine atoms of impinging light 



To ceafelefs change the vifual 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 trajns ; 



With fhadowy trident how Volition .guides, 45 



Surge after furge, his intellectual tides ; 



Or, Qiieen of Sleep, Imagination roves -^ 



With frantic Sorrows, or delirious Loves. 



Go on, O FRIEND ! explore with eagle-eye ; 

 Where wrapp'd 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 ; 

 jnvolv'd in clouds the myfticfcale afcends, 

 And brutes and angels crowd the diftant ends. 



Trtn. Col. Cambridge, 

 Jan. I, 1794. 



REFERENCES TO THE WORK. 



Butane Garden, Part I. Line 1 8. Seft. XVI. a. and XXXVIII. 



