To the Same, on the Same Subject

O'er curious models as you rove The vales with piles to crown, And great Palladio's plans improve With nobler of your own;

O bid a structure o'er the floods From this high mountain rise, Where we may sit enthron'd like gods, And revel in the skies.

Th' ascending breeze, at each repast, Shall breathe an air divine, Give a new brightness to the taste, New spirit to the wine.

Or these low pleasures we may quit For banquets more refin'd, The works of each immortal wit The luxury of the mind.

Plato, or Boyle's, or Newton's page Our towering thoughts shall raise, Or Homer's fire, or Pindar's rage, Or Virgil's lofty lays.

Or with amusive thoughts the Sea Shall entertain the mind, While we the rolling scene survey, An emblem of mankind.

Where, like sworn foes, successive all, The furious surges run, To urge their predecessor's fall, Tho' follow'd by their own.

Where, like our moderns so profound, Engag'd in dark dispute, The skuttles cast their ink around To puzzle the dispute.

Where sharks, like shrewd directors, thrive, Like lawyers, rob at will; Where flying-fish, like trimmers live; Like soldiers, sword-fish kill.

Where on the less the greater feed, The tyrants of an hour, 'Till the huge royal whales succeed, And all at once devour.

Thus in the moral world we now Too truly understand, Each monster of the sea below Is match'd by one at land.