"Of hardy conflict o'er ? or, are you still
"Raw candidates at school? and have you thofe
"Who difaffect reversions, as with us?
"But, what are we? You never heard of man,
"Or earth, the bedlam of the univerfe!
"Where reason (undifeas'd with you) runs mad,
"And nurfes Folly's children, as her own;
"Fond of the fouleft. In the facred mount
"Of Holiness, where Reafon is pronounc'd
"Infallible and thunders, like a god;
"Ev'n, there, by saints, the damons are outdone;
"What these think wrong our saints refine to right
"And kindly teach dull Hell her own black arts;
"Satan inftructed, o'er their morals smiles.————
"But this, how ftrange to you, who know not man
"Has the leaft rumour of our race arriv'd? ..
"Call'd bere Elijah, in his flaming car?
"Pafs'd by you the good Enoch, on his road
"To thofe fair fields, whence Lucifer was hurl'd;
"Who brush'd, perhaps, your sphere, in his descent,
"Stain'd your pure crystal æther, or let fall
"A fhort eclipfe from his portentous fhade ?
"O! that the fiend had lodg'd on fome broad orb
"Athwart his way; nor reach'd his present home,
"Then blacken'd earth, with footsteps foul'd in hell;
"Nor wash'd in ocean, as from Rome he pafs'd
"To Britain's ifle; too, too confpicuous, there !"
But this is all digreffion. Where is He,
That o'er Heav'ns battlements the felon hurld
To groans, and chains, and darkness? where is He,
Who fees creation's fummit in a vale?
He, whom, while man is man, he can't but feek;
And if he finds, commences more than man !
O for a telescope His throne to reach !
Tell me, ye learn'd on earth! or bleft above!
Ye fearching, ye Newtonian angels! tell,
Where's your Great Master's orb? his planets, where ? Thofe conscious fatellites, thofe morning-stars,
Firft-born of DEITY! from central love,
By veneration most profound, thrown off;
By fweet attraction, no less strongly drawn ;
Aw'd, and yet raptur'd; raptur'd, yet serene;
Paft thought, illuftrious, but with borrow'd beams;
In ftill approaching circles, ftill remote,
Revolving round the fun's eternal Sire ?
Or fent, in lines direct, on embassies
To nations-in what latitude ?-Beyond
Terreftrial thought's horizon !-
High errands fent ?—Here, buman effort ends; ;
And leaves me ftill a ftranger to His throne.
Full well it might! I quite miftook my road 9
Born in an age, more curious than devout;
More fond to fix the place of heav'n or hell,
Than ftudious this to fhun, or that secure.
'Tis not the curious, but the pious path,
That leads me to my point. LORENZO! know,
Without or star, or angel, for their guide,
Who worship GoD, fhall find him. Humble Love,
And not proud Reason, keeps the door of Heav'n;.
Love finds admiffion, where proud Science fails.
Man's fcience is the culture of his heart;
And not to lofe his plummet in the depths
Of Nature, or the more profound of GOD.
Either to know, is an attempt that fets
The wifeft on a level with the fool.
To fathom Nature (ill-attempted bere
Paft doubt is deep philofophy above;
Higher degrees in blifs archangels take,
As deeper learn'd; the deepeft, learning ftill.
For, what a thunder of Omnipotence
(So might Idare to fpeak?) is seen in all !
In man! in earth! in more amazing Skies !
Teaching this leffon, Pride is loath to learn-
"Not deeply to discern, not much to know,
"Mankind was born to wonder and adore."
And is there cause for higher wonder ftill,
Than that which struck us from our past furveys
Yes; and for deeper adoration too...
From my late airy travel unconfin'd,
Have I learn'd nothing?Yes, LORENZO! this :
Each of these stars is a religious house ;
I faw their altars fmoke, their incense rise,
And heard bosannas ring through every sphere,
A feminary fraught with future gods.
Nature, all o'er, is consecrated ground,
Teeming with growths immortal and divine.
The Great Proprietor's all-bounteous hand
Leaves nothing wafte; but fows these fiery fields
With feeds of reason, which to virtues rise
Beneath His genial ray; and, if escap'd
The peftilential blafts of ftubborn will,
When grown mature, are gather'd for the Skies.
And is devotion thought too much on earth,
When beings, fo fuperior, homage boast,
And triumph in proftrations to THE THRONE?
But wherefore more of planets, or of stars ?
Ethereal journeys, and, difcover'd there,
Ten thousand worlds, ten thousand ways devout?
All nature fending incenfe to The Throne,
Except the bold LORENZO's of our sphere;
Op'ning 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 landfcape 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-
"O what a root! O what a branch is here!!
"O what a father! what a family!
"Worlds! fyftems! and creations !—and creations, "In one agglomerated cluitre, hung,
“Great VINE, on Thee! On Thee the clufter hangs; "The filial clufter! infinitely fpread
"In glowing globes, with various being fraught
And drinks (nectarious draught !) immortal life
Or fhall I fay (for who can fay enough?) ❝ A conftellation of ten thousand gems,
"(And, O! of what dimenfion! of what weight!)
"Set in one signet, flames on the right hand
"Of Majesty Divine! the blazing seal,
"That deeply ftamps on all-created mind,
"Indelible, His fov'reign attributes,
"Omnipotence and Love! That, paffing bound;
"And this, furpaffing that. Nor stop we bere,
"For want of Pow'r 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;
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
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 descend, when Gods adore!
Have I not, then, accomplish'd my proud boast?
Did I not tell thee, We would mount, LORENZO!!
"And kindle our devotion at the ftars?"
And have I fail'd? and did I flatter thee?
And art all adamant? and doft confute
All urg'd, with one irrefragable fmile?
LORENZO! mirth, how miferable here!
Swear by the stars, by him who made them, fwear,
Thy heart, henceforth, fhall be as pure as they:
Then thou, like them, fhalt shine, like them, fhalt rise
From low to lofty; from obfcure to bright;
By due gradation, Nature's facred law.
The ftars, from whence?-Ask Chaos-be can tell.
Thefe bright temptations to idolatry,
From darkness, and confusion, took their birth,
Sons of deformity! From fluid dregs
Tartarean, first they rose to masses rude;
And then, to spheres opaque; then dimly fhone; Then brighten'd; then blaz'd out in perfect day. Nature delights in progress; in advance
From worse to better: But, when minds afcend,
Progrefs, in part, depends upon themselves.
Heav'n aids exertion; greater makes the great;
The voluntary little, leffens more.
O be a man! and thou fhalt be a god!
And half felf-made !—Ambition, how divine!
O thou, ambitious of difgrace alone!
Still undevout? unkindled?--tho' 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 Heav'n?
Curft 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 glimm'ring tapers, filent fits!
How forrowful, how defolate, fhe weeps
Perpetual dews, and faddens Nature's fcene!
A fcene more fad sin makes the darken'd foul:
All comfort kills, nor leaves one spark alive.
Tho' blind of heart, still open is thine eye:
Why fuch magnificence in all thou feeft?
Of matter's grandeur, know, one end is this,
To tell the rational, who gazes on it—
"Tho' that immenfely great, ftill greater be,
Whofe breast, capacious, can embrace, and lodge
"Unburden'd, Nature's universal scheme;
"Can grafp creation with a single 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 thoufand funs:
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