"Fancy will sometimes take the lead / And play its part in Reason's stead."

Fancy will sometimes take the lead
And play its part in Reason's stead.
--The Virtuoso is profound
In all the wonders that abound
Through Nature's realms, with all the store
She yields to him who dare explore
The mountain's top, the secret cave,
Or shores lash'd by the briny wave,
For what is beautiful or rare
That she has lodg'd or planted there.
He reasons on the wond'rous power
That, from Creation's awful hour,
Has teem'd in never-ceasing birth,
As if to renovate the Earth
With fresh materials, to maintain,
From Time's wide waste, old Nature's reign.
Then in bold, pompous language wields
The Doctrines which each System yields
That sage Philosophers have shewn;--
And closes boldly with his own.
Nature's first works, he says, are met
Within his costly Cabinet;--
Then opes a Drawer, and slowly shows
His Shells, arrang'd in various rows;
And disappoints th'expecting eyes
With Insects, and with Butterflies.

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2005-06-01