Higher degrees in blifs archangels take,
As deeper learn'd; the deepest, learning still.
For, what a thunder of Omnipotence

1870

(So might I dare to speak) is feen in All! In Man! in Earth! in more amazing Skies ! Teaching this lesson, Pride is loth to learn— "Not deeply to discern, not much to know, "Mankind was born to Wonder, and Adore." 1875 And is there caufe for higher wonder still,

Than that which struck us from our past surveys ?

Yes;

and for deeper adoration too.

From my late airy travel unconfin’d,

Have I learn'd nothing?—Yes, Lorenzo! This; 1880
Each of these stars is a religious house;

I faw their altars smoke, their incense rise;
And heard Hofannas ring through every sphere,
A feminary fraught with future gods.
Nature all o'er is confecrated ground,
Teeming with growths immortal and divine.
The Great Proprietor's all-bounteous hand
Leaves nothing waste; but sows these fiery fields
With feeds of reason, which to virtues rise
Beneath His genial ray; and, if escap'd

The peftilential blasts of stubborn will,
When grown mature, are gather'd for the skies.
And is Devation thought too much on earth,
When beings, fo fuperior, homage boast,
And triumph in prostration to The Throne?

1885

1890

1835

But wherefore more of planets, or of stars?

Æthereal journeys, and, discover'd there,

Ten

1900

Ten thousand worlds, ten thousand ways devout,
All Nature sending incenfe to The Throne,
Except the bold Lorenzos of Our sphere ?
Opening the folemn fources of my foul,
Since I have pour'd, like feign'd Eridanus,
My flowing numbers o'er the flaming skies,
Nor fee, of fancy, or of fact, what more
Invites the Mufe-Here turn we, and review
Our paft nocturnal landschape wide:-Then fay,
Say, then, Lorenzo! with what burst of heart,
The whole, at once, revolving in his thought,
Muft man exclaim, adoring, and aghaft?
"Owhat a root! O what a branch, is here!
"O what a Father! What a Family!
"Worlds! fyftems! and creations !—And creations,
"In one agglomerated cluster, hung,

66

1905

1910

* Great Vine! On Thee, on Thee the cluster hangs; "The filial clufter! infinitely spread

1915

"In glowing globes, with various being fraught; "And drinks (nectareous draught !) immortal life. "Or, fhall I fay (for who can say enough?) "A conftellation of ten thousand gems,

" (And, O! of what dimension! of what weight!) 1920 "Set in one Signet, flames on the right hand "Of Majefty Divine! The blazing Seal,

"That deeply stamps, on all created mind, Indelible, His fovereign attributes,

"Omnipotence, and Love! That, paffing bound: 1925 "And This, furpaffing That. Nor ftop we Here,

VOL. III.

F

John xv. 1.

"For

"For want of Power in God, but Thought in Man. "Ev'n This acknowledg'd, leaves us still in debt : "If Greater aught, That Greater all is Thine, "Dread Sire !-Accept this Miniature of Thee; 1930 “And pardon an Attempt from mortal thought, "In which archangels might have fail'd, unblam’d.” How fuch ideas of th' Almighty's Power, And fuch ideas of th' Almighty's Plan, (Ideas not abfurd) diftend the thought

1935

Of feeble mortals! Nor of them alone!

The fulness of the Deity breaks forth
In Inconceivables to men, and gods.

Think, then, O think; nor ever drop the thought; How low muft Man defcend, when Gods adore! 1940

Have I not, then, accomplish'd my proud boast?
Did I not tell thee, "* We would mount, Lorenzo !
"And kindle our devotion at the Stars ?"

And have I fail'd? And did I flatter thee?
And art all adamant? And doft confute
All urg'd, with one irrefragable Smile?
Lorenzo Mirth how miferable here!

1945

Swear by the Stars, by Him who made them, swear,
Thy heart, henceforth, shall be as pure as They:
Then Thou, like Them, shalt shine; like Them, shalt rise
From low to lofty; from obscure to bright;

By due gradation, Nature's facred law.

The Stars, from whence?-Afk Chaos-He can tell. These bright temptations to idolatry,

From Darkness, and Confufion, took their birth; 1955

* Page 22.

Sons

Sons of Deformity! from fluid dregs
Tartarean, first they rofe to maffes rude;
And then, to spheres opaque; Then dimly fhone
Then brighten'd; Then blaz'd out in perfect day.
Nature delights in progrefs; in advance
From worse to better: but, when Minds afcend,
Progrefs, in part, depends upon themselves.
Heaven aids exertion; Greater makes the Great;
The voluntary Little leffens more.

O be a Man! and thou shalt be a God!
And Half Self-made !-Ambition how divine!

1965

O Thou, ambitious of difgrace alone!

Still undevout? Unkindled?-Though high-taught,
School'd by the skies, and pupil of the stars;
Rank coward to the fashionable world!

Art thou asham'd to bend thy knee to heaven?
Curit fume of pride, exhal'd from deepest hell!
Pride in Religion is man's highest praise.
Bent on deftruction! and in love with death!
Not all these luminaries, quench'd at once,
Were half fo fad, as one benighted mind,
Which gropes for happiness, and meets despair.
How, like a widow in her weeds, the Night,
Amid her glimmering tapers, filent fits!
How forrowful, how defolate, fhe weeps
Perpetual dews, and faddens nature's scene!
A fcene more fad Sin makes the darken'd foul,
All comfort kills, nor leaves one fpark alive.
Though blind of heart, ftill open is thine eye:
Why fuch magnificence in all thou seeft?

1970

1975

1980

1985

Of Matter's grandeur, know, one end is This,
To tell the Rational, who gazes on it-

1985

Though That immensely Great, still Greater He, "Whose breast, capacious, can embrace, and lodge, "Unburden'd, nature's universal scheme; "Can grafp Creation with a fingle thought; "Creation grafp; and not exclude its Sire”To tell him farther-" It behoves him much "To guard th' important, yet depending, fate "Of being, brighter than a thousand funs: "One fingle ray of Thought outfhines them all.”. And if man hears obedient, foon he 'Il foar Superior heights, and on his purple wing, His purple wing bedropt with eyes of gold, Rifing, where Thought is now deny'd to rife, Look down triumphant on these dazzling spheres. Why then perfift?-No mortal ever liv'd

But, dying, he pronounc'd (when words are true)
The whole that charms thee, abfolutely vain;

1995

2000

Vain, and far worfe !-Think Thou, with dying men ; O condefcend to think as angels think!

O tolerate a chance for happiness !

Our nature fuch, ill choice enfures ill fate;

2010

And hell had been, though there had been no God.
Doft thou not know, my new astronomer!
Earth, turning from the Sun, brings night to man?
Man, turning from his God, brings endless night;
Where thou canft read no morals, find no friend,
Amend no manners, and expect no peace.

How deep the darkness! and the groan, how loud! 2015

And