Temple of Nature
Imperious man, who rules the bestial crowd,*
Of language, reason, and reflection proud, 310
With brow erect who scorns this earthy sod,
And styles himself the image of his God;
Arose from rudiments of form and sense,
An embryon point, or microscopic ens!
“Now in vast shoals beneath the brineless tide,*
On earth’s firm crust testaceous tribes reside;
Age after age expands the peopled plain,
The tenants perish, but their cells remain;
Whence coral walls and sparry hills ascend*
From pole to pole, and round the line extend.
When Time’s cold hands the languid senses seize,
Chill the dull nerves, the lingering currents freeze;
Organic matter, unreclaim’d by Life,*
Reverts to elements by chemic strife.
Thus Heat evolv’d from some fermenting mass*
Expands the kindling atoms into gas; 10
Which sink ere long in cold concentric rings,
Condensed, on Gravity’s descending wings.
“But REPRODUCTION with ethereal fires
New Life rekindles, ere the first expires;
Calls up renascent Youth, ere tottering age
Quits the dull scene, and gives him to the stage;
Bids on his cheek the rose of beauty blow,
And binds the wreaths of pleasure round his brow;
With finer links the vital chain extends,
And the long line of Being never ends.*
