The Origin of Doubt

When Jove at first from nothing call'd forth all, And various beings fill'd this pendant ball, In rank superior to our boasted race, Subaltern gods, now seldom seen, had place: Immortal these, but of a doubtful birth, And all with man joint sojourners on earth. Sacred, to some bright nymph, was every tree, To Naiads brooks, to Nereids all the sea. By Jove in mercy to her care consign'd Reason, bright empress! claim'd the human mind. Not the pure radiance that resides above, And guides the councils of immortal Jove, But humbler far, tho' honour'd with the name, And less in power, in essence though the same. With Man coeval Time began to be, Form'd from an atom of eternity. Earth's genial power produc'd a giant-son, Ignorance his name, a wretch belov'd of none: From these deriv'd, a motley race began, Not kind with kind commixing, as in man.

Time, in the youth of all that vigorous power Which still sustains him in his waining hour, Smit with fair Reason bright in blooming charms, Clasp'd the consenting goddess in his arms; Nor barren joys the fond embrace bestows, A lovely daughter hence, fair Knowledge, rose; Favour'd by both, of Time and Reason bred, The father nurs'd her, and the mother fed; Her charms improving as her stature grew, Unknown desir'd, and lov'd by all who knew: Truth's radiant hand adorn'd her form with care, And Virtue, fondly smiling, call'd her fair.

Fast, by the foot of proud Parnassus stood, Remote from vulgar view, a sacred wood, Here Contemplation keeps her hallow'd court, And young Ideas on the breezes sport, Celestial truths in holy dreams are taught, And busy Silence plumes the wings of Thought.

Here Knowledge, shelter'd from the noontide ray, Frequent was wont with chaste delight to stray. Yet none, not deities, if born below, The fates exempt from violence and woe; For here as once she sate in thought profound, Her mind in heaven, her eyes upon the ground, And mus'd on man's free-will, Jove's fixt decrees, On choice, on prescience which all future sees, On acts impell'd by motives strong as fate, Rewarded, punish'd, in an endless state, On chance, necessity, effect and cause, Great nature's end, and truth's eternal laws, Lo! the huge form of Ignorance appear'd, Whom known by instinct, she by instinct fear'd. With terror wing'd the virgin flies the place, The monster follows with unequal pace: Tho', fir'd with brutal rage, he perseveres, The widening distance half dispell'd her fears; When now, too much elated with her speed, Her lifted eyes no more her footsteps heed, She stumbles, falls, the ravisher is nigh; 'Tis vain to plead, impossible to fly: His idiot form compress'd the trembling maid, And his rude joys prophan'd the conscious shade; But from the loath'd embrace the pregnant dame Conceiv'd a son, and Doubt (when born) his name, Fond of his mother's virtues to partake, Who shuns and hates him for his father's sake.