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MIND IN CREATION, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Sometimes by nature your enlightened school
Last Line: While none in all th' original appear?
Subject(s): Creation


Sometimes by Nature your enlightened school
Intends of things the universal whole.
Sometimes it is the order that connects,
And holds the chain of causes and effects.
Sometimes it is the manner and the way
In which those causes do their force convey
And in effects their energy display.
That she's the work itself you oft assert,
As oft th' artificer, as oft the art.
That is, that we may Nature clearly trace
And by your marks distinctly know her face,
She's now the building, now the architect,
And now the rule which does His hand direct.

But let this Empress be whate'er you please;
Let her be all, or any one of these,
She is with reason, or she's not, endued;
If you the first affirm, we thence conclude
A God, whose being you oppose, you grant;
But if this mighty queen does reason want,
How could this noble fabric be design'd
And fashion'd by a maker brute and blind?
Could it of art such miracles invent,
And raise a beauteous world of such extent?
Still at the helm does this dark pilot stand,
And with a steady, never-erring hand,
Steer all the floating worlds, and their set course command?

That clearer strokes of masterly design,
Of wise contrivance, and of judgment shine
In all the parts of nature, we assert,
Than in the brightest works of human art:
And shall not those be judged th' effect of thought,
As well as these with skill inferior wrought?
Let such a sphere to India be convey'd,
As Archimede or modern Huygens made;
Will not the Indian, though untaught and rude,
This work th' effect of wise design conclude?
Is there such skill in imitation shown,
And in the things we imitate, is none?
Are not our arts by artful nature taught,
With pain and careful observation sought?

Behold the painter, who with Nature vies,
See his whole soul exerted in his eyes!
He views her various scenes, intent to trace
The master lines that form her finish'd face:
Are thought and conduct in the copy clear,
While none in all th' original appear?





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