Will bloffom bere; fpread all her faculties
To thefe bright ardors; ev'ry pow'r unfold,
And rife into fublimities of thought.

Stars teach, as well as shine. At Nature's birth,
Thus their commiffion ran-"Be kind to man."
Where art thou, poor benighted traveller !
The ftars will light thee; though the moon fhould fail.
Where art thou, more benighted! more aftray!
In ways immoral? The stars call thee back;
And, if obey'd their counsel, fet thee right.
This profpect vaft, what is it?-Weigh'd aright,
'Tis Nature's fyftem of divinity,
And ev'ry student of the night infpires.
'Tis elder fcripture, writ by God's own hand
Scripture authentic! uncorrupt by man.
LORENZO with my radius (the rich gift
Of thought nocturnal !) I'll point out to thee
Its various leffons; fome that may furprize
An un-adept in myfteries of Night;
Little, perhaps, expected in ber fchool,
Nor thought to grow on planet, or on star.
Bulls, lions, fcorpions, monfters, here we feign;
Ourselves more monstrous, not to see what here
Exifts indeed a lecture to mankind.

What read we bere ?-Th' exiftence of a GOD?
Yes; and of other beings, man above;
Natives of ather! fons of higher clime!

And, what may move LORENZO's wonder more,
Eternity is written in the skies.

And whofe eternity?-LORENZO ! thine;
Mankind's eternity. Nor Faith alone;

Virtue grows here; bere fprings the fov'reign cure
Of almost ev'ry vice; but chiefly thine;
Wrath, pride, ambition, and impure desire.

LORENZO! thou canft wake at midnight too,
Tho' not on morals bent: Ambition, pleasure,
Those tyrants I for thee * fo lately fought,
A fford their harrafs'd flaves but flender rest.

Night the Eighth.

Thou, to whom midnight is immortal noon,
And the fun's noon-tide blaze, prime dawn of day;
Not by thy climate, but capricious crime,
Commencing one of our Antipodes!

In thy nocturnal rove, one moment halt,
'Twixt stage and stage, of riot, and cabal;
And lift thine eye (if bold an eye to lift.
If bold to meet the face of injur'd Heav'n)
To yonder ftars: For other ends they shine,
Than to light revellers from shame to shame,
And, thus, be made accomplices in guilt.

Why from yon arch, that infinite of space,
With infinite of lucid orbs replete,
Which fet the living firmament on fire,
At the first glance, in fuch an overwhelm
Of wonderful, on man's astonish'd fight
Rushes Omnipotence?-To curb our pride;
Our reason rouse, and lead it to that Pow'r,
Whofe love lets down these filver chains of light,
To draw up man's ambition to Himself,
And bind our chaste affections to His throne.
Thus the three virtues least alive on earth.

And welcom'd on Heav'n's coaft with most applause,
An bumble, pure, and beaven'ly minded heart,
Are bere infpir'd:-And canft thou look too long?
Nor ftands thy wrath depriv'd of its reproof,
Or un-upbraided by this radient choir.
The planets of each fyftem, reprefent
Kind neighbors; mutual amity prevails;
Sweet interchange of rays, receiv'd, return'd;
Enlight'ning, and enlighten'd! all, at once,
Attracting, and attracted! patriot-like.
None fins against the welfare of the whole;
But their reciprocal, unselfish aid,
Affords an emblem of mellennial love.
Nothing in nature, much less conscious being,
Was e'er created folely for itself :
Thus man his sove'reign duty learns in this
Material picture of benevolence.

And know, of all our fupercilious race,
Thou most unflammable ! thou wafp of men!
Man's angry heart, inspected, would be found
As rightly fet, as are the starry spheres:
'Tis Nature's ftructure, broke by stubborn will,
Breeds all that unceleftial difcord there.

Wilt thou not feel the bias Nature gave ?
Can'st thou descend from converse with the Skies,
And feize thy brother's throat ?—For what?-a clod ?
An inch of earth? The planets cry,
"Forbear:"

They chafe our double darkness, Nature's gloom,
And (kinder ftill!) our intellectual night.
And fee, Day's amiable fifter fends

Her invitation, in the foftest rays
Of mitigated luftre; courts thy fight,

Which fuffers from her tyrant-brother's blaze.
Night grants thee the full freedom of the skies,
Nor rudely reprimands thy lifted eye;

With gain, and joy, fhe bribes thee to be wife.
Night opes the noblest scene, and sheds an awe,
Which gives thofe venerable scenes, full weight,
And deep reception, in th' intender'd heart;
While light peeps thro' the darkness, like a spy;
And darknefs fhews its grandeur by the light.
Nor is the profit greater than the joy,
If human hearts at glorious objects glow,
And admiration can infpire delight.

What fpeak I more, than I, this moment feel?
With pleafing ftupor first the foul is struck,
(Stupor ordain'd to make her truly wife !)
Then into tranfport starting from her trance,
With love and admiration how fhe glows!
This gorgeous apparatus! this difplay!
This oftentation of creative pow'r !
This theatre!—what eye can take it in?
By what divine enchantment was it rais'd,
For minds of the firft magnitude to launch
In endless fpeculation, and adore ?

One fun by day, by night ten thousand fhines

And light us deep into the DEITY.
How boundless in magnificence and might!
O what a confluence of ethereal fires,

From urns unnumber'd, down the steep of heav'n,
Streams to a point, and centres in my fight!
Nor tarries there; I feel it at my heart.
My heart at once it humbles, and exalts:
Lays it in duft, and calls it to the skies.
Who fees it unexalted? or unaw'd?
Who fees it, and can stop at what is feen?
Material offspring of Omnipotence!
Inanimate, all-animating birth!

Work worthy Him who made it! worthy praise!
All praife! praife more than human! nor deny'd
Thy praife divine!—But tho' man, drown'd in fleep,
Withholds his homage, not alone I wake;
Bright legions fwarm unfeen, and fing, unheard
By mortal ear, the glorious Architect,
In this his univerfal temple, hung

With luftres, with innumerable lights,
That fhed religion on the foul; at once,
The temple, and the preacher ? O how loud
It calls devotion! genuine growth of Night!
Devotion! daughter of astronomy!

An undevout aftronomer is mad.

True, all things speak a GOD; but in the small,
Men trace out Him; in great, He feizes man!
Seizes, and elevates, and raps, and fills

With new enquiries, 'mid affociates new.
Tell me, ye ftars! ye planets! tell me, all
Ye ftarr'd and planeted inhabitants! what is it?
What are these fons of wonder? Say, proud arch!
(Within whofe azure palaces they dwell),

Built with divine ambition! in difdain

Of limit built! built in the tafte of Heav'n!
Vaft concave! ample dome! wait thou defign'd
A meet apartment for the DEITY!-

Not fo; that thought alone thy ftate impairs,
Thy lofty finks, and shallows thy profound,

And ftraitens thy diffusive; dwarfs the whole,
And makes an univerfe an orrery.

But when I drop mine eye, and look on man, Thy right regain'd, thy grandeur is restor'd, O Nature! wide flies off th' expanding round. As when whole magazines, at once, are fir'd, The fmitten air is hollow'd by the blow; The vaft difplofion diffipates the clouds! Shock'd æthers billows dafh the distant skies; Thus (but far more) th' expanding round flies off, And leaves a mighty void, a spacious womb, Might teem with new creation; re-inflam'd, Thy luminaries triumph, and affume Divinity themselves. Nor was it ftrange, Matter high-wrought, to fuch surprising pomp, Such godlike glory, ftole the style of gods, From ages dark, obtuse, and steep'd in sense; For, fure, to sense, they truly are divine, And half-abfolv'd idolatry from guilt; Nay, turn'd it into virtue. Such it was In thofe, who put forth all they had of man Unloft, to lift their thought, nor mounted higher; But, weak of wing, on planets perch'd; and thought What was their Higheft, must be their Ador'd.

But they, how weak, who could no higher mount?
And are there, then, LORENZO! thofe, to whom
Unfeen, and unexiftent, are the fame?.
And if incomprehenfible is join'd,

Who dare pronounce it madness to believe?
Why has the mighty BUILDER thrown afide
All measure in His work; ftretch'd out His line
So far, and spread amazement o'er the whole?
Then, (as he took delight in wide extremes)
Deep in the bofom of his universe,

Dropp'd down that reas'ning mite, that infect man,
To crawl, and gaze, and wonder at the scene!-
That man might ne'er prefume to plead amazement
For difbelief of wonders in himself.

Shall God be lefs miraculous than what