You shall emerge to light, and humbly here-
Again fhall bow before his favouring throne,
If your own virtue fecond my decree :
But all must have their manes first below,
So ftands th' eternal fate, but smoother yours
Than what loft angels feel; nor can our reign,
Without juft dooms, the peace of heav'n fecure;
For forms celeftial new erect in glory
Would totter, dazzled with the heights of power,
Did not the nerves of justice fix their fight.
See, where below in Chaos wond'rous deep
A fpeck of light dawns forth, and thence throughout
The shades, in many a wreath, my forming power
There fwiftly turns the burning eddy round,
Absorbing all crude matter near its brink;
Which next, with subtle motions, takes the form
I please to stamp, the feed of infant worlds
All now in embryo, but ere long fhall rise
Variously scatter'd in this vast expanse,
Involv'd in winding orbs, until the brims
Of outward circles brufh the heavenly gates.
The middle point a globe of curling fire
Shall hold, which round it sheds its genial heat;
Where'er I kindle life the motion grows
In all the endless orbs, from this machine i
And infinite viciffitudes fhall roll
About the restless center; for I rear,
In those meanders turn'd, a dusty ball,
Deform'd all o'er with woods, whofe fhaggy tops
Inclofe eternal mifts, and deadly damps
Hover within their boughs, to choak the light;
Impervious scenes of horror, 'till reform'd
To fields, and graffy dales, and flow'ry meads,
By your continual pains. The torrid zone
Here fries with conftant heat, the swarthy world;
Parching the plains where hideous monsters glare,
And dufty mountains, tumbled by the winds,
Stretch their uncertain heaps; no less the frost
At either end shall rage, and high shall raise
Firm promontories; vaft the ruins feem
Of defart nature, and th' eternal piles
Load all the dreary coaft, and thick in ice,
Arm either pole, that yearly peeps afkance
On coming light, but feels no gentle ray
Unbind the frozen chain. 'Between these lie
The changeful climes, alternately they burn,
And chill again by turns; for both extremes
Make their incurfions here; and this my will
Unchangeable ordains your doleful feat.
Beneath mishapen Chaos, and the field
Of fighting atoms, where hot, moist, and dry,
Wage an eternal war with dismal roar;
The difmal roar breaks fmoothly on the ground,
Sacred to horror, and eternal night:
Here Silence fits, whofe vifionary shape
In folds of wreathy mantling finks obfcure,
And in dark fumes reclines his drowsy head;
An urn he holds, from whence a lake proceeds,
Wide, flowing gently, smooth, and Lethe nam'd:
Hither compell'd, each foul muft drink long draughts
Of those forgetful ftreams, 'till forms within,
And all the great ideas fade and die:
For if vaft thought should play about a mind
Inclos'd in flesh, and dragging cumbrous life,
Flutt'ring and beating in the mournful cage,
It foon would break its grates and wing away:
'Tis therefore my decree, the foul return
Naked from off this beach, and perfect blank,
To visit the new world; and strait to feel
Itself, in crude confiftence closely fhut,
The dreadful monument of juft revenge;
Immur'd by heaven's own hand, and plac'd erect
On fleeting matter all imprison'd round
With walls of clay; th' ætherial mould shall bear
The chain of members, deafen'd with an ear,
Blinded by eyes, and manacled in hands.
Here anger, vaft ambition, and disdain,
And all the haughty movements rise and fall,
As storms of neighbouring atoms tear the foul;
And hope, and love, and all the calmer turns
Of eafy hours, in their gay gilded shapes,
With fudden run, skim o'er deluded minds,
As matter leads the dance; but one defire,
Unsatisfy'd, fhall mar ten thousand joys.
The rank of beings, that shall first advance,
Drink deep of human life; and long shall stay
On this great scene of cares. From all the rest,
That longer for the deftin'd body wait,
Lefs penance I expect; and fhort abode
In those pale dreary kingdoms will content:
Each has his lamentable lot, and all,
On different racks, abide the pains of life.
The pensive spirit takes the lonely grove:
Nightly he vifits all the fylvan scenes,
Where far remote, a melancholy moon
Raifing her head, ferene and fhorn of beams,
Throws here and there the glimmerings thro' the trees, .
To make more aweful darkness. Starry lights,
Hung up on high, fhed round 'em as they burn
A pale fad influence; and they gild the plains
With doubtful rays, which strike within the shades
A trembling luftre and uncertain light.
The SAGE fhall haunt this solitary ground,
And view the dismal landscape, limn'd within
In horrid fhades, mix'd with imperfect light.
Here JUDGMENT, blinded by delufive SENSE,
Contracted through the cranny of an eye,
Shoots up faint languid beams, to that dark feat,
Wherein the foul bereav'd of native fire,
Sits intricate, in mifty clouds obscur'd,
Ev'n from itself conceal'd, and there prefides
O'er jarring images with Reason's fway,
Which by his ordering more confounds their form;
And by decifions more embroils the fray:
The more he strives t' appease, the more he feels
The ftruggling furges of the dark fome void
Impetuous, and the thick revolving thoughts
Encount'ring thoughts, image on image turn'd,
A Chaos of wild fcience, where fometimes
The clashing notions strike out cafual light,
Which foon must perish and be lost again
|