A foe to every wild extreme,

'Mid civil storms, the Roman Sage

Repress'd Ambition's frantic scheme, And check'd the madding people's rage.

Their country's peace, and wealth, and fame,

With patriot zeal their labours sought,

And Rome's or Athens' honour'd name Inspired and govern'd every thought.

Who now, in this presumptuous hour,
Aspires to share the Athenian's praise?
-The advocate of foreign power,
The Eschines of later days.

What chosen name to Tully's join'd,

Is thus announced to distant climes?

-Behold, to lasting shame consign'd,

The Catiline of modern times!

No. XV.

THE PROGRESS OF MAN.

A DIDACTIC POEM,

February 19.

IN FORTY CANTOS; WITH NOTES CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY;

CHIEFLY OF A PHILOSOPHICAL TENDENCY.

DEDICATED TO R. P. KNIGHT, ESQ.

CANTO FIRST.

CONTENTS.

The Subject proposed.-Doubts and Waverings.-Queries not to be answered.-Formation of the stupendous Whole.- Cosmogony; or the Creation of the World :the Devil-Man-various Classes of Being:-ANIMATED BEINGS-Birds-Fish Beasts the Influence of the Sexual Appetite-on Tigers—on Whales-on Crimpt Cod-on Perch-on Shrimps-on Oysters.-Various Stations assigned to different Animals:-Birds-Bears-Mackarel.-Bears remarkable for their furMackarel cried on a Sunday-Birds do not graze-nor Fishes fly-nor Beasts live in the Water.—Plants equally contented with their lot:-Potatoes-Cabbage— Lettuce-Leeks-Cucumbers.-MAN only discontented-born a Savage; not choosing to continue so becomes polished-resigns his Liberty-Priestcraft-Kingcraft-Tyranny of Laws and Institutions.—Savage Life—description thereof: The Savage free-roaming Woods-feeds on Hips and Haws-Animal Food— first notion of it from seeing a Tiger tearing his Prey-wonders if it is goodresolves to try-makes a Bow and Arrow-kills a Pig-resolves to roast a part· of it-lights a Fire-APOSTROPHE to Fires-Spits and Jacks not yet invented.— Digression.-CORINTH.-SHEFFIELD.-Love the most natural desire after Food. Savage Courtship. - Concubinage recommended. Satirical Reflections on Parents and Children-Husbands and Wives-against collateral Consanguinity. -FREEDOM the only Morality, &c. &c. &c.

WHETHER some great, supreme o'er-ruling Power,
Stretch'd forth its arm at Nature's natal hour,
Composed this mighty whole with plastic skill,
Wielding the jarring elements at will?

Or, whether sprung from Chaos' mingling storm,

5

The mass of matter started into form?

Or Chance o'er earth's green lap spontaneous fling

The fruits of autumn and the flowers of spring?

Whether material substance, unrefined,

Owns the strong impulse of instinctive mind,

Which to one centre points diverging lines,

Confounds, refracts, invig'rates, and combines ?

10

Ver. 3. A modern Author of great penetration and judgment, observes very shrewdly, that" the Cosmogony of the world has puzzled the philosophers of all ages. What a medley of opinions have they not broached upon the creation of "the world? Sanconiathon, Manetho, Berosus, and Ocellus Lucanus, have all "attempted it in vain. The latter has these words-Anarchon ara kai ateleutaion "to pan-which imply, that, all things have neither beginning nor end." See Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield; see also Mr. Knight's Poem on the Progress of Civil Society.

Ver. 12. The influence of Mind upon Matter, comprehending the whole question of the Existence of Mind as independent of Matter, or as co-existent with it, and of Matter considered as an intelligent and self-dependent Essence, will make the subject of a larger Poem in one hundred and twenty-seven Books, now preparing under the same auspices.

M

Whether the joys of earth, the hopes of heaven,
By Man to God, or God to Man, were given?
If virtue leads to bliss, or vice to woe?
Who rules above? or who reside below?

Vain questions all-shall Man presume to know?

On all these points, and points obscure as these,
Think they who will,-and think whate'er they please!

Let us a plainer, steadier theme pursue—

Mark the grim savage scoop his light canoe;

Mark the dark rook, on pendant branches hung,
With anxious fondness feed her cawing young.—

15

20

Mark the fell leopard, through the desert prowl,
Fish prey on fish, and fowl regale on fowl;—
How Lybian tigers' chawdrons love assails,

25

And warms, midst seas of ice, the melting whales ;—
Cools the crimpt cod, fierce pangs to perch imparts,
Shrinks shrivell'd shrimps, but opens oysters' hearts ;—

Ver. 14. See Godwin's Enquirer; Darwin's Zoonomia; Paine; Priestley, &c. &c. &c.; also all the French Encyclopedists.

Ver. 16. Quæstio spinosa et contortula.

Ver. 26. "Add thereto a tiger's chawdron.-Macbeth.

Ver. 26, 27. " In softer notes bids Lybian lions roar,

"And warms the whale on Zembla's frozen shore."

Progress of Civil Society, Book I. verse 98.

Then say, how all these things together tend

To one great truth, prime object, and good end?

First—to each living thing, whateʼer its kind,
Some lot, some part, some station is assign'd.
The feather'd race, with pinions skim the air—
Not so the mackarel, and still less the bear:
This, roams the wood, carniv'rous, for his prey;
That, with soft roe, pursues his watery way:
This, slain by hunters, yields his shaggy hide;
That, caught by fishers, is on Sundays cried.—

30

35

But each contented with his humble sphere,
Moves unambitious through the circling year;
Nor e'er forgets the fortune of his race,

40

Nor pines to quit, or strives to change his place.

Ver. 29. "An oyster may be cross'd in love."-Mr. Sheridan's Critic.
Ver. 34. Birds fly.

Ver. 35. But neither fish nor beasts-particularly as here exemplified.
Ver. 36. The bear.

Ver. 37. The mackarel-there are also hard-roed mackarel. Sed de his alio loco. Ver. 38. Bears' grease, or fat, is also in great request; being supposed to have a criniparous, or hair-producing quality.

Ver. 39. There is a special Act of Parliament which permits mackarel to be cried on Sundays.