The Feet of Birds. 53 



the poet who was so accurate and so admiring an observer of the 

 various works of God : 



' Let no presuming impious railer tax 

 Creative Wisdom, as if aught was 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 proportioned dome 

 Of 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 dependance so, and firm accord, 

 As with unfaltering accent to conclude 

 That this availeth naught ? Has any seen 

 The mighty chain of beings, lessening down 

 From Infinite Perfection to the brink 

 Of dreary nothing, desolate abyss ! 

 From which astonished thought, recoiling, turns V 

 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/ 



