Of higher life, where nobler natives dwell;
Lefs northern, lefs remote from DEITY,
Glowing beneath the line of the SUPREME ;
Where fouls in excellence make haste, put forth
Luxuriant growths; nor the late autumn wait
Of human worth, but ripen foon to gods?

Yet why drown fancy in fuch depths as thefe ? Return, prefumptuous rover! and confefs

The bounds of man; nor blame them, as too fmall.
Enjoy we not full scope in what is feen?
Full ample the dominions of the Sun!

Full glorious to behold! how far, how wide!
The matchlefs monarch from his flaming throne,
Lavish of lustre, throws his beams about him,
Farther, and fafter, than a thought can fly,
And feeds his planets with eternal fires !
This Heliopolis, by greater far

Than the proud tyrant of the Nile, was built;
And He alone, who built it, can destroy.
Beyond this city, why ftrays human thought?
One Wonderful, enough for man to know!
One Infinite, enough for man to range!
One Firmament, enough for man to read !
O what voluminous inftruction here!
What page of wisdom is deny'd him? None;
If learning his chief leffon makes him wife.
Nor is inftruction, here, our only gain;
There dwells a noble pathos in the fkies,
Which warms our paffions, profelytes our hearts.
How eloquently fhines the glowing pole !
With what authority it gives its charge,
Remonftrating great truths in ftyle fublime,
Tho' filent, loud! heard earth around! above
The planets heard; and not unheard in hell!
Hell has her wonder, tho' too proud to praise.
Is earth, then, more infernal ? has fhe thofe
Who neither praise (LORENZO !) nor admire ?
LORENZO's admiration, pre-engag'd,
Ne'er afk'd the Moon one queftion; never held

Leaft correfpondence with a single star;
Ne'er rear'd an altar to the queen of Heaven
Walking in brightnefs; or her train ador'd.
Their sublunary rivals have long fince

Engrofs'd his whole devotion; stars malign,
Which make the fond aftronomer run mad;
Darken his intellect, corrupt
his heart;

Cause him to facrifice his fame and peace
To momentary madness, call'd Delight..
Idolater, more grofs than ever kiss'd
The lifted hand to Luna, or pour'd out

The blood to Jove !—O THOU, to whom belong's
All facrifice! O Thou, Great Jove unfeign'd!
Divine Instructor! Thy first volume this,
For man's perufal; all in capitals!

In moon and stars (Heav'ns golden alphabet!)
Emblaz'd to fee the fight; who runs, may read;
Who reads, can understand.. 'Tis unconfin'd
To Christian land, or Jewry; fairly writ,
In language univerfal to mankind :
A language, lofty, to the learn'd yet plain,.
To thofe that feed the flock, or guide the plough,
Or, from its bufk, ftrike out the bounding grain;
A language, worthy the Great mind that speaks!
Preface, and comment, to the sacred page!
Which oft refers its reader to the Skies,
As pre-fuppofing his firft leffon there;
And fcripture 'felf a fragment, that unread,
Stupendous book of wisdom, to the wife !
Stupendous book! and open'd Night! by thee.
By thee much open'd, I confefs, O Night !
Yet more I wifh; but how fhall I prevail?
Say, gentle Night! whofe modeft maiden beams
Give us a new creation, and prefent

The world's great picture, foften'd to the fight;
Nay, kinder far, far more indulgent ftill,
Say, Thou, whofe mild dominion's filver key
Unlocks our hemifphere, and fets to view
Worlds beyond number; worlds conceal'd by day..

Behind the proud and envious ftar of noon!"
Canft thou not draw a deeper fcene?—and fhew
The mighty Potentate, to whom belong
Thefe rich regalia, pompously difplay'd,
To kindle that high hope? Like him of Uz,
gaze around; I fearch on ev'ry fide-

I

O for a glimpse of Him my foul adores!
As the chas'd hart, amid the defart waste,
Pants for the living ftream, for Him who made her ;
So pants the thirsty foul, amid the blank

Of fublunary joys, Say, Goddefs where?

Where blazes His bright court? where burns His throne?

Thou know'ft: for thou art near him; by thee, round
His grand pavilion, facred Fame reports

The fable curtain drawn. If not, can none
Of thy fair daughter-train, fo fwift of wing,
Who travel far, difcover where He dwells?
A star His dwelling pointed out below.
Ye PLEIADES! ARCTURUS! MAZAROTH!
And thou ORION! of still keener eye!
Say ye, who guide the wilder'd in the waves,
And bring them out of tempeft into port!
On which hand muft I bend my courfe to find Him?
Thefe courtiers keep the fecret of their KING;
I wake whole nights, in vain, to steal it from them.
I wake: and, waking, climb Night's radient scale,
From fphere to sphere; the fteps by Nature fet
For man's afcent; at once to tempt, and aid;
To tempt his eye, and aid his tow'ring thought;
'Till it arrives at the great goal of all.

In ardent contemplation's rapid car,
From earth, as from my barrier, I fet out,
How fwift I mount! Diminish'd earth recedes ;
I pass the moon: and, from her farther fide;
Pierce Heav'n's blue curtain; ftrike into remote;
Where, with his lifted tube, the fubtle fage
His artificial, airy journey, takes,

And to celestial lengthens buman fight.

I paufe at ev'ry planet on my road,

And ask for HIM, who gives their orbs to roll,
Their foreheads fair to fhine. From Saturn's ring,

;

In which, of earths, an army might be loft,
With the bold comet, take my bolder flight,"
Amid thofe sov'reign glories of the skies,
Of independent, native luftre, proud;
The fouls of fyftems! and the lords of life,
Thro' their wide empires!-What behold I now?
A wilderness of wonder burning round
Where larger funs inhabit higher fpheres ;
Perhaps the villas of defcending gods;
Nor halt I here; my toil is but begun
'Tis but the threshold of the DEITY;
Or, far beneath it, I am grov'ling ftill.
Nor is it ftrange; I built on a mistake!
The grandeur of His works, whence folly fought
For aid, to reason fets His glory higher;

Who built thus high for worms, (mere worms to Him);
O where, LORENZO! must the Builder dwell?

Paufe, then; and, for a moment, here refpire-
If human thought can keep its ftation here.
Where am I?-where is earth?-nay, where art thou,
O fun?Is the fun turn'd reclufe?-and are
His boafted expeditions fhort to mine?

To mine, how fhort! On Nature's Alps I ftand,
And fee a thoufand firmaments beneath!
A thousand fyftems, as a thousand grains!
So much a stranger, and fo late arriv'd,
How can man's curious fpirit not inquire,
What are the natives of this world fublime,
Of this fo foreign, un-terrestrial sphere,
Where mortal, untranslated, never ftray'd?

"Oye, as diftant from my little home,
"As fwifteft fun-beams in an age can fly!
"Far from my native element I roam,
"In queft of new, and wonderful, to man!
"What province this, of His immenfe demain,
"Whom all obey ? or mortals here, or gods

Ye bord'rers on the coaft of blifs! what are you "A colony from Heav'n? or, only rais'd,

?

"By frequent vifit from Heav'n's neighb'ring realms, "To fecondary gods, and half-divine!"Whate'er your nature, this is past dispute, "Far other life you live; far other tongue "You talk; far other thought, perhaps, you think, "Than man. How various are the works of God! "But fay, what thought? Is Reason here enthron'd, "And abfolute? or Sense in arms against her? "Have you too lights? or need you no reveal'd! "Enjoy your happy realms their golden age "And had your Eden an abftemious EVE? "Our Eve's fair daughters prove their pedigree, "And ask their ADAMS—“ who would not be wise; "Or, if your mother fell, are you redeem'd? "And if redeem'd-is your REDEEMER scorn'd? "Is this your final refidence? If not,

?

you

"Change you your feene, tranflated? or by death "And if, by death; what death? Know difeafe! "Or horrid war?With war, this fatal hour, "Europa groans, (fo call we a fmall field,

"Where kings run mad). In our world, Death de"Intemperance to do the work of age;

"And, hanging up the quiver Nature gave him,

"As flow of execution, for dispatch

[putes

"Sends forth imperial butchers; bids them flay
Their fheep, (the filly fheep they fleec'd before),
"And tofs him twice ten thousand at a meal.
"Sit all your executioners on thrones ?

"With you, can rage for plunder make a god ?
"And bloodshed wash out ev'ry other stain ?
"But you, perhaps, can't bleed: From matter grofs
"Your spirits clean, are delicately clad
"In fine-fpun æther; privileg'd to foar,
"Unloaded, uninfected; How unlike

"The lot of man! How few of human race
"By their own mud unmurder'd! how we wage
Self-war eternal !-Is your painful day