And infpiration. Ere the radiant fun
Sprang from the east, or 'mid the vault of night
The moon fufpended her ferener lamp;
Ere mountains, woods, or ftreams, adorn'd the globe, Or wisdom taught the fons of men her lore;
Then liv'd the almighty One: jthen, deep-retir'd
In his unfathom'd effence, view'd the forms,
The forms eternal of created things;
The radiant fun, the moon's nocturnal lamp,
The mountains, woods, and streams, the rowling globe,
And wifdom's mien celeftial. From the first
Of days, on them his love divine he fix'd,
His admiration: till in time compleat,
What he admir'd and lov'd, his vital smile
Unfolded into being. Hence the breath
Of life informing each organic frame,
Hence the green earth, and wild refounding waves; 75
Hence light and shade alternate; warmth and cold;
And clear autumnal (kies and vernal fhowers,
And all the fair variety of things.
But not alike to every mortal eye
Is this great fcene unveil'd. For fince the claims 80
Of focial life, to different labours urge
The active powers of man; with wife intent
The hand of nature on peculiar minds
Imprints a different byafs, and to each
Decrees its province in the common toil.
To fome the taught the fabric of the sphere,
The changeful moon, the circuit of the stars,
The golden zones of heaven: to fome she gave
To weigh the moment of eternal things,
Of time, and space, and fate's unbroken chain,
And will's quick impulfe: others by the hand
She led o'er vales and mountains, to explore
What healing virtue fwells the tender veins
Of herbs and flowers; or what the beams of morn
Draw forth, diftilling from the clifted rind
But fome, to higher hopes
Were deftin'd; fome 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 impreffions of his hand :
In earth or air, the meadow's purple stores,
The moon's mild radiance, or the virgin's form
Blooming with rofy fmiles, they see portray'd
That uncreated beauty, which delights
The mind fupreme. They alfo feel her charms,
Enamour'd; they partake the eternal joy.
For as old Memnon's image, long renown'd
By fabling Nilus, to the quivering touch
Of Titan's ray, with each repulfive string
Confenting, founded through the warbling air
Unbidden frains; even fo did nature's hand
To certain fpecies of external things,
Attune the finer organs of the mind :
So the glad impulfe of congenial powers,
Or of sweet found, or fair proportion'd form,
The grace of motion, or the bloom of light,
Thrills through imagination's tender frame,
From nerve to nerve: all naked and alive
They catch the spreading rays: till now the foul
At length difclofes every tuneful spring,
To that harmonious movement from without
Refponfive. Then the inexpressive strain
Diffufes its inchantment: fancy dreams
Of facred fountains and Elyfian groves,
And vales of blifs: the intellectual power
Bends from his awful throne a wondering ear,
And fmiles: the paffions, gently footh'd away,
Sink to divine repose, and love and joy
Alone are waking; love and joy, ferene
As airs that fan the fummer.
Whoe'er thou art, whom thefe delights can touch,
Whofe candid bofom the refining love
Of nature warms, O! liften to my fong;
And I will guide thee to her favourite walks,
And teach thy folitude her voice to hear,
And point her loveliest features to thy view.
Know then, whate'er of nature's pregnant ftores,
Whate'er of mimic art's reflected forms
With love and admiration thus inflame
The powers of fancy, her delighted fons
To three illuftrious orders have réferr'd;
Three fifter-graces, whom the painter's hand,
The poet's tongue, confefles; the fublime,
The wonderful, the fair I fee them dawn!
I fee the radiant vifions, where they rise,
More lovely than when Lucifer displays
His beaming forehead through the gates of morn,
To lead the train of Phoebus and the spring.
Say, why was man fo eminently rais'd
Amid the vast creation; why ordain'd
Through life and death to dart his piercing eye,
With thoughts beyond the limit of his frame;
But that the omnipotent might send him forth
In fight of mortal and immortal powers,
As on a boundless theatre, to run
The great career of justice; to exalt
His generous aim to all diviner deeds;
To chafe each partial purpose from his breast;
And through the mists of passion and of sense,
And through the toffing tide of chance and pain,
To hold his courfe unfaultering, while the voice
Of truth and virtue, up the steep ascent
Of nature, calls him to his high reward,
The applauding smile of heaven? Elfe wherefore burns In mortal bofoms this unquenched hope,
That breathes from day to day fublimer things,
And mocks poffeffion? wherefore darts the mind,
With fuch refiftlefs ardour to embrace
Majestic forms; impatient to be free,
Spurning the grofs control of wilful might;
Proud of the strong contention of her toils ;
Proud to be daring? Who but rather turns
To heaven's broad fire his unconstrained view,
Than to the glimmering of a waxen flame?
Who that, from Alpine heights, his labouring eye
Shoots round the wide horizon, to furvey
Nilus or Ganges rowling his bright wave
Through mountains, plains, through empires black with hade
And continents of fand; will turn his gaze
To mark the windings of a fcanty rill
That murmurs at his feet? The high-born foul
Difdains to rest her heaven-aspiring wing
Beneath its native quarry. Tir'd of earth
And this diurnal fcene, the fprings aloft
Through fields of air; purfues the flying ftorm
Rides on the vollied lightning through the heave
Or, yok'd with whirlwinds and the northern bla,
Sweeps the long tract of day. Then high fhe foars 190
The blue profound, and hovering round the fun
Beholds him pouring the redundant stream
Of light; beholds his unrelenting sway
Bend the reluctant planets to absolve
The fated rounds of time. Thence far effus'a
She darts her fwiftnefs up the long career
Of devious comets; through its burning figns
Exulting measures the perennial wheel
Of nature, and looks back on all the ftars,
Whofe blended light, as with a milky zone,
Invests the orient. Now amaz'd fhe views
The empyreal wafte, where happy fpirits hold,
Beyond this concave heaven, their calm abode;
And fields of radiance, whofe unfading light
Has travel'd the profound fix thousand years,
Nor yet arrives in fight of mortal things.
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