NEBULA TO MAN 
Some horses now are brought to labour stern, 
Though oft " against the traces " they may turn. 
Deer too about the prosperous farms we see, 
Grazing the land, in meek captivity. 
From yelling brutes to wolf and fox allied, 230 
Whose howls indeed still wake the woodlands wide 
Trained is the dog to hunt and to defend, 
And long will he live on, Man's faithful friend. 
Dominion great indeed will man assume 
O'er things of earth, in times far off to come. 235 
And life from time to time will transformed be 
By his invention and discovery : 
Yet in the meed of praise that we bestow 
On those that make the course of life to flow 
On grander lines, let place and share be found 240 
For those that subject made wild life around ; 
And struck the line and pathway, as it were, 
That brought to man in Nature's rule a share. 
Not brutes alone have these men now in hand, 
For wild plant-life alike do they command. 245 
Seeds have they sown of grasses from the sward, 
And wheat and barley crops their pains reward. 
And mealing stones, well wrought, they too possess, 
Wherewith to flour their grainy stores to press. 
Metal as yet to them seems quite unknown ; 250 
But in their tools and weapons, wrought of stone, 
216 
