Of fubterranean, excavated grots,
Black brow'd, and vaulted high, and yawning wide
From Nature's structure, or the scoop of Time ;
If ample of dimension, vast of size,
Ev'n Thefe an aggrandizing impulse give;
Of folemn thought enthusiastic heights
Ev'n Thefe infufe.-But what of vast in These?
Nothing or we must own the skies forgot.
Much lefs in Art.-Vain Art! Thou pigmy power!
How doft thou fwell and ftrut, with human pride,
To fhew thy littleness! What childish toys,
Thy watery columns fquirted to the clouds !
Thy bafon'd rivers, and imprifon'd seas !
Thy mountains moulded into forms of men!
Thy hundred-gated Capitals! or Thofe
Where three days travel left us much to ride;
Gazing on miracles by mortals wrought,
Arches triumphal, theatres immenfe,
Or nodding Gardens pendent in mid-air!
Or Temples proud to meet their Gods half-way!
Yet Thefe affect us in no common kind.
What then the force of such superior scenes ?
Enter a temple, it will strike an awe:
What awe from This the Deity has built?
A Good Man feen, though filent, counsel gives :
The touch'd fpectator wishes to be wife:
In a bright mirror His own hands have made,
Here we see something like the face of God.
Seems it not then enough, to say, Lorenzo!
To man abandon'd, "Haft thou feen the skies ?"
And yet, fo thwarted nature's kind design
By daring man, he makes her facred awe
(That guard from ill) his fhelter, his temptation
To more than common guilt, and quite inverts
Celestial art's intent. The trembling stars
See crimes gigantic, ftalking through the gloom 945
With front erect, that hide their head by day,
And making night ftill darker by their deeds.
Slumbering in covert, till the fhades defcend,
Rapine and Murder, link'd, now prowl for prey.
The miser earths his treasure; and the thief,
Watching the mole, half-beggars him ere morn.
Now Plots, and foul Confpiracies, awake;
And, muffling up their horrors from the moon,
Havock and devastation they prepare,
And kingdoms tottering in the field of blood.
Now fons of riot in mid-revel rage.
What fhall I do?-Supprefs it? or proclaim?-
Why fleeps the thunder? Now, Lorenzo! now,
His best friend's couch the rank adulterer
Afcends fecure; and laughs at gods and men.
Prepofterous madmen, void of fear or shame,
Lay their crimes bare to these chafte eyes of heaven; Yet fhrink, and fhudder, at a mortal's fight.
Were moon, and stars, for villains only made?
To guide, yet fcreen them,' with tenebrious light? 965 No; they were made to fashion the fublime
Of human hearts, and wifer make the Wife.
Thofe ends were answer'd once; when mortals liv'd Of stronger wing, of aquiline afcent
In theory fublime. O how unlike
Thofe vermin of the night, this moment fung,
Who crawl on Earth, and on her venom feed!
Those antient fages, Human ftars! They met
Their brothers of the Skies, at midnight hour;
Their counfel afk'd; and, what they afk'd, obey'd. 975
The Stagirite, and Plato, He who drank
The poifon'd bowl, and He of Tufculum,
With him of Corduba (immortal names!)
In these unbounded, and Elyfian, walks,
An area fit for Gods, and Godlike men,
They took their nightly round, through radiant paths
By Seraphs trod; inftructed, chiefly, thus,
To tread in Their bright footsteps here below;
To walk in worth still brighter than the skies.
There they contracted their contempt of Earth;
Of hopes eternal kindled, There, the fire;
There, as in near approach, they glow'd, and grew
(Great vifitants !) more intimate with God,
More worth to Men, more joyous to Themfelves. Through various Virtues, they, with ardour, ran 990 The Zodiac of their learn'd, illuftrious lives.
In Chriftian hearts, O for a Pagan zeal!
A needful, but opprobrious prayer! as much
Our Ardour Leís, as Greater is our Light.
How monftrous This in Morals! Scarce more strange 995
Would this Phenomenon in nature ftrike,
A Su, that froze her, or a Star, that warm'd.
What taught thefe heroes of the moral world?
To these thou giv'ft thy Praife, give Credit too.
These doctors ne'er were pension'd to deceive thee; 1000
And Pagan tutors are thy taste.-They taught,
That, narrow views betray to mifery :
That, wife it is to comprehend the whole :That, Virtue, rofe from Nature, ponder'd well, The fingle base of Virtue built to heaven: That God, and Nature, our attention claim: That, Natúre is the glass reflecting God, As, by the Sea, reflected is the Sun, Too glorious to be gaz'd on in his sphere : That, Mind immortal loves immortal aims: That, boundless Mind affects a boundless Space: That vaft furveys, and the fublime of things, The foul affimilate, and make her great: That, therefore, heaven her glories, as a fund Of infpiration, thus spreads out to man. Such are their doctrines; fuch the Night infpir'd. And what more true? What truth of greater weight? The foul of man was made to walk the fkies; Delightful outlet of her prifon Here! There, difincumber'd from her chains, the ties Of toys terreftrial, fhe can rove at large, There, freely can refpire, dilate, extend, In full proportion let loofe all her powers ; And, undeluded, grafp at fomething great. Nor, as a stranger, does the wander there; But, wonderful herfsif, through wonder ftrays; Contemplating their grandeur, finds her own; Dives deep in their economy divine,
Sits high in judgment on their various laws,
And, like a master, judges not amiss.
Hence greatly pleas'd, and justly proud, the foul
Grows confcious of her birth celeftial; breathes
More life, more vigour, in her native air;
And feels herself at home amongst the stars;
And, feeling, emulates her country's praife.
What call we, then, the firmament, Lorenzo?-
As Earth the body, fince, the Skies sustain
The foul with food, that gives inmortal life,
Call it, The noble pafture of the Mind;
Which there expatiates, ftrengthens, and exults, 1040 And riots through the luxuries of thought.
Call it, The Garden of the Deity,
Bloffom'd with stars, redundant in the growth
Of fruit ambrofial; moral fruit to man.
Call it, The breast-plate of the true High-priest, 1045
Ardent with gems oracular, that give,
In points of highest moment, right refponfe;
And ill neglected, if we prize our peace.
Thus, have we found a true astrology ;
Thus, have we found a new, and noble sense,
In which alone stars govern human fates.
O that the Stars (as fome have feign'd) let fall
Bloodshed, and havock, on embattled realms,
And refcued Monarchs from fo black a guilt!
Bourbon! this with how generous in a foe!
Wouldst thou be great, wouldst thou become a God,
And stick thy deathlefs name among the stars,
For mighty conquests on a needle's point?
Inftead of forging chains for foreigners,
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