Mean time, the labour'd chyle pervades the pores In all the' arterial perforated shores;
The liguid food, which through those passes strives,
To every part just reparation gives;
Through holes of various figures various juice
Insinuates, to serve for nature's use.
See softer fibres to the flesh are sent,
While the thin membrane finer strings augment;
The tough and strong are on the sinews laid,
And to the bones the harder are convey'd,
But what the mass nutritious does divide,
To different parts the different portions guide,
What makes them aptly to the limbs adhere,
In youth augment them, and in age repair,
The deepest search could never yet declare.
Nor less contrivance, nor less curious art,
Surprise and please in every other part.
See, how the nerves, with equal wisdom made,
Arising from the tender brain, pervade,
And secret pass in pairs, the channel'd bone,
And thence advance through paths and roads un-
Form'd of the finest complicated thread, [known;
These numerous cords are through the body spread;
A thousand branches from each trunk they send,
Some to the limbs, some to the bowels tend;
Some in straight lines, some in transverse, are found,
One forms a crooked figure, one a round;
The entrails these embrace in spiral strings,
Those clasp the' arterial tubes in tender rings;
The tendons some compacted close produce,
And some thin fibres for the skin diffuse.
These subtle channels (such is every nerve!)
For vital functions, sense, and motion serve;
Included spirits through their secret road
Pass to and fro, as through the veins the blood;
Some to the heart advancing take their way,
Which move and make the beating muscle play;
Part to the spleen, part to the liver, flows,
These to the lungs, and to the stomach those;
They help to labour and concoct the food,
Refine the chyle, and animate the blood;
Exalt the ferments, and the strainers aid,
That, by a constant separation made,
They may a due economy maintain,
Exclude the noxious parts, the good retain.
Yet we these wondrous functions ne'er perceive,
Functions, by which we move, by which we live;
Unconscious we these motions never heed,
Whether they err, or by just laws proceed.
But other spirits, govern'd by the will,
Shoot through their tracks, and distant muscles fill:
This Sovereign by his arbitrary nod
Restrains, or sends his ministers abroad;
Swift and obedient to his high command,
They stir a finger, or they lift a hand;
They tune our voices, or they move our eyes;
By these we walk, or from the ground arise;
By these we turn, by these the body bend;
Contract a limb at pleasure, or extend.
And though these spirits, which obsequious go,
Know not the paths through which they ready flow,
Nor can our mind instruct them in their way,
Of all their roads as ignorant as they ;
Yet seldom erring, they attain their end,
And reach that single part, which we intend;
Unguided they a just distinction make,
This muscle swell, and leave the other slack;
And when their force this limb or that inflects,
Our will the measure of that force directs!
The spirits which distend them, as we please,
Exert their power, or from their duty cease.
These out-guards of the mind are sent abroad, And still patrolling beat the neighbouring road; Or to the parts remote obedient fly,
Keep posts advanc'd, and on the frontier lie.
The watchful centinels at every gate,
At every passage, to the senses wait;
Still travel to and fro the nervous way,
And their impressions to the brain convey.
Where their report the vital envoys make,
And with new orders are remanded back;
Quick, as a darted beam of light, they go,
Through different paths to different organs flow,
Whence they reflect as swiftly to the brain,
To give it pleasure, or to give to it pain.
Thus has the muse a daring wing display'd,
Through trackless skies ambitious flight essay'd,
To sing the wonders of the human frame;
But, oh! bewails her weak, unequal flame.
Ye skilful masters of Machaon's race,
Who nature's mazy intricacies trace,
And to sublimer spheres of knowledge rise
By manag'd fire, and late-invented eyes;
Tell, how your search has here eluded been,
How oft amaz'd and ravish'd you have seen
The conduct, prudence, and stupendous art,
And master-strokes in each mechanic part.
Tell, what delightful mysteries remain
Unsung, which my inferior voice disdain.
Who can this field of miracles survey? And not with Galen all in rapture sayBehold a God, adore him, and obey!
The introduction, in imitation of King Solomon's ironical conces cessions to the libertine. The Creator asserted, from the contemplation of animals. Of their sense of hearing, tasting, smelling, and especially of seeing. Of the nobler operations of animals, commonly called instincts. The Creator demonstrated farther, from the contemplation of human understanding, and the perfections of the mind. The vigour and swiftness of thought. Simple perception. Reflection. Of the mind's power of abstracting, uniting, and separating ideas. Of the faculty of reasoning, or deducing one proposition from two others. The power of human understanding, in inventing skilful works, and in other instances. The mind's self-determining power, or freedom of choice. Her power of electing an end, and choosing means to attain that end, Of controlling our appetites, rejecting pleasures, and choosing pain, want, and death itself, in hopes of happiness in a distant unknown state of life. The conclusion: being a short recapitulation of the whole; with a hymn to the Ceeator of the world.
WHILE rosy youth in perfect bloom maintains,
Thoughtless of age, and ignorant of pains ;
While from the heart rich streams with vigour spring,
Bound through their roads, and dance their vital ring;
And spirits, swift as sun-beams through the skies,
Dart through thy nerves, and sparkle in thy eyes;
While nature with full strength thy sinews arms,
Glows in thy cheeks, and triumphs in her charms;
Indulge thy instincts, and intent on ease
With ravishing delight thy senses please.
Since no black clouds dishonour now the sky,
No winds, but balmy genial zephyrs, fly;
Eager embark, and to the' inviting gale
Thy pendants loose, and spread thy silken sail;
Sportive advance, on pleasure's wanton tide,
Through flowery scenes, diffus'd on either side.
See how the hours their painted wings display,
And draw, like harness'd doves, the smiling day!
Shall this glad spring, when active ferments climb,
These months, the fairest progeny of time,
The brightest parts in all duration's train,
Ask thee to seize thy bliss, and ask in vain?
To their prevailing smiles thy heart resign,
And wisely make the proffer'd blessings thine.
Near some fair river, on reclining land,
Midst groves and fountains let thy palace stand;
Let Parian walls unrivall'd pomp display,
And gilded towers repel augmented day;
Let porphyry pillars in high rows uphold
The azure roof, enrich'd with veins of gold;
And the fair creatures of the sculptor's art
Part grace thy palace, and thy garden part;
Here let the scentful spoils of opening flowers
Breathe from thy citron walks and jasmine bowers;
Hesperian blossoms in thy bosom smell;
Let all Arabia in thy garments dwell.
That costly banquets and delicious feasts May crown thy table, to regale thy guests, Ransack the hills, and every park and wood, The lake unpeople, and despoil the flood;
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