Genre:

Poetry, Extract

Publications extracted:

James Montgomery

Subjects:

Theology of Nature, Design, Natural Economy, Human Species, Progress, Christianity, Natural Theology

    The early stanzas concern animals, plants and minerals, concluding: 'Gem, flower, and fish, the bird, the brute, / Of every kind, occult or known, / (Each equisitely form'd to suit / Its humble lot, and that alone,) / Through ocean, earth, and air, fulfil, / Unconsciously, their Author's will'. The remaining stanzas contrast these creatures with the human species, which, while feeble at birth, is self-willed: 'all aspire beyond their fate; / The least, the meanest, would be great'. These aspirations, the poet believes, must correspond with an immortal existence: 'Is there a God?—All nature shows / There is,—and yet no mortal knows: / The mind that could this truth conceive, / Which brute sensation never taught, / No longer to the dust would cleave, / But grow immortal at the thought!'.