Page:The Harveian oration, 1873.djvu/95

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

89 phical and other interest, it has some literary claims upon our attention, it being not quite impossible, considering its line of thought and arrangement of words, that Pope, who borrowed on all sides, and made acknow- ledgments on none, may have had it before him when he composed his Universal Prayer. It runs thus : — 'Nempe agnoscimus Deum, Creatorem summum atque omnipotentem, in cuncto- rum animalium fabrica ubique praesentem esse, et in operibus suis quasi digito mon- strari; Cujus in procreatione pulli instru- menta sint gallus et gallina. Constat quippe in generatione pulli ex ovo omnia singulari providentia, sapientia diving, artificioque admirabili et incomprehensibili exstructa ac efformata esse. Nee cuiquam sane haec at- tributa conveniunt, nisi omnipotenti rerum principio ; quocunque demum nomine id ip- sum appellare libuerit : sive mentem divi- nam cum Aristotele; sive cum Platone Animam mundi ; aut cum aliis Naturam naturantem; vel cum Ethnicis Saturnum aut Jovem; vel potius, ut nos decet, Crea- torem ac patrem omnium quae in coelis et H