The text comes from Finch’s Miscellany Poems on Several Occasions (1713).
Cou’d our First Father, at his toilsome Plough, | ||
Thorns in his Path, and Labour on his Brow, | ||
Cloath’d only in a rude, unpolish’d Skin, | ||
Cou’d he a vain Fantastick° Nymph have seen, | imagined | |
5 | In all her Airs, in all her antick Graces, | |
Her various Fashions, and more various Faces; | ||
How had it pos’d that Skill, which late assign’d | ||
Just Appellations° to Each several Kind! | names | |
A right Idea of the Sight to frame; | ||
10 | T’have guest from what New Element she came; | |
T’have hit the wav’ring Form, or giv’n this Thing a Name. |