O Nature! all-sufficient! over all! <br />Enrich me with the knowledge of Thy works! <br />Snatch me to heaven; Thy rolling wonders there, <br />World beyond world, in infinite extent, <br />Profusely scatter'd o'er the void immense, <br />Shew me; their motions, periods, and their laws, <br />Give me to scan; through the disclosing deep <br />Light my blind way; the mineral strata there; <br />Thrust, blooming, thence the vegetable world; <br />O'er that the rising system more complex, <br />Of animals; and higher still, the mind, <br />The varied scene of quick-compounded thought, <br />And where the mixing passions endless shift; <br />These ever open to my ravish'd eye; <br />A search, the flight of time can ne'er exhaust! <br />But if to that unequal; if the blood, <br />In sluggish streams about my heart, forbid <br />That best ambition; under closing shades, <br />Inglorious, lay me by the lowly brook, <br />And whisper to my dreams. From Thee begin, <br />Dwell all on Thee, with Thee conclude my song: <br />And let me never, never stray from Thee!<br /><br />James Thomson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-study-and-beauties-of-the-works-of-nature/
