Page:The Pleasures of Imagination - Akenside (1744).djvu/19

Book I.
 * But not alike to every mortal eye

Is this great scene unveil'd. For since the claims Of social life, to different labours urge The active pow'rs of man; with wise intent The hand of nature on peculiar minds Imprints a diff'rent byass, and to each Decrees its province in the common toil. To some she taught the fabric of the sphere, The changeful moon, the circuit of the starrs, The golden zones of heav'n: to some she gave To weigh the moment of eternal things, Of time, and space, and fate's unbroken chain, And will's quick impulse: others by the hand She led o'er vales and mountains, to explore What healing virtue swells the tender veins Of herbs and flow'rs; or what the beams of morn Draw forth, distilling from the clifted rind In balmy tears. But some, to higher hopes Were destin'd; some within a finer mould She wrought, and temper'd with a purer flame. To these the sire omnipotent unfolds The world's harmonious volume, there to read The transcript of himself. On every part They trace the bright impressions of his hand: In earth or air, the meadow's purple stores, The moon's mild radiance, or the virgin's form Blooming with rosy smiles, they see portray'd That