HESE,as they change, ALMIGHTY FATHER,thefe, Tare but the varied Gop. The rolling year
Forth in the pleafing Spring
THY beauty walks, THY tenderness and love.
Wide flush the fields; the foftening air is balm;
Echo the mountains round; the foreft fmiles;
And every sense, and every heart is joy.
Then comes THY glory in the fummer-months,
With light and heat refulgent. Then THY fun
Shoots full perfection thro' the fwelling year: "ro
And oft THY voice in dreadful thunder speaks;
And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve,
By brooks and groves, in hollow whispering gales. T
THY bounty shines in Autumn unconfin'd,
And spreads a common feaft for all that lives.
In Winter awful Thou? with clouds and forms
Around THEE thrown, tempeft o'er tempest roll'd,
Majestic darknefs! on the whirlwind's wing,day
Riding fublime, THOU bid't the world adore;
And humbleft Nature with THY northern blast. 20
Mysterious round! what fkill, what force divine,
Deep felt, in these appear! a simple train, ·
Yet fo delightful mix'd, with fuch kind art,
Such beauty and beneficence. combin'da od OTH
Shade, unperceiv'd, fo foftening into fhaded foot 25
And all fo forming an harmonious wholewoy odtan Y
Whether the bloffom blows, the fummer-ray
Ruffets the plain, infpiring Autumn gleams;
Or Winter rises in the blackening east;
Be my tongue mute, may fancy paint no more,
And, dead to joy, forget my heart to beat!
Should fate command me to the fartheft verge 100
Of the green earth, to distant barbarous climes,
Rivers unknown to Song; where first the fun
Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beam
Flames on th' Atlantic ifles; 'tis nought to me:
Since GOD is ever present, ever felt,
In the void waste as in the city full;
And where HE vital breathes, there must be joy.
When even at laft the folemn hour shall come,
And wing my myftic flight to future worlds,
I chearful will obey; there, with new powers,
Will rifing wonders fing: I cannot go
Where UNIVERSAL LOVE not fimiles around,
Sustaining all yon orbs and all their fons;
From feeming evil ftill educing good,
And better thence again, and better still,
In infinite progression. But I lose
Myself in HIM, in LIGHT INEFFABLE!
Come then, expreffive filence, mufe His praise.
HALL the great foul of NEWTON quit this earth, To mingle with his stars; and every Mufe, Aftonish'd into filence, fhun the weight
Of honours due to his illuftrious name?
But what can man?.
-Ev'n now the fons of light 5
In ftrains high-warbled to feraphic lyre,
Hail his arrival on the coaft of blifs.
Yet am not I deterr'd, though high the theme,
And fung to harps of angels; for with you,
Aethereal flames! ambitious, I afpire
In Nature's general fymphony to join.
And what new wonders can you fhow your guest! Who, while on this dim fpot, where mortals toil Clouded in duft, from Motion's fimple laws, Could trace the fecret hand of Providence, Wide-working thro' this univerfal frame.
Have ye not listened, while he bound the funs
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