The Study and Beauties of the Works of Nature

O Nature! all-sufficient! over all!

Enrich me with the knowledge of Thy works!

Snatch me to heaven; Thy rolling wonders there,

World beyond world, in infinite extent,

Profusely scatter'd o'er the void immense,

Shew me; their motions, periods, and their laws,

Give me to scan; through the disclosing deep

Light my blind way; the mineral strata there;

Thrust, blooming, thence the vegetable world;

O'er that the rising system more complex,

Of animals; and higher still, the mind,

The varied scene of quick-compounded thought,

And where the mixing passions endless shift;

These ever open to my ravish'd eye;

A search, the flight of time can ne'er exhaust!

But if to that unequal; if the blood,

In sluggish streams about my heart, forbid

That best ambition; under closing shades,

Inglorious, lay me by the lowly brook,

And whisper to my dreams. From Thee begin,

Dwell all on Thee, with Thee conclude my song:

And let me never, never stray from Thee!