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

“O ye, as distant from my little home, "As swifteft fun-beams in an age can fly ! "Far from my native element I roam,

"In queft of new, and wonderful, to man.

1750

1755

"What province This, of His immense domain, 1760 "Whom all obeys? or mortals here, or gods? "Ye borderers on the coafts of blifs! what are you? "A colony from heaven? Or, only rais'd, "By frequent vifit from heaven's neighbouring realms, To fecondary gods, and half divine?--"Whate'er your nature, this is past dispute, "Far other life you live, far other tongue

1765

"You talk, far other thought, perhaps, you think, How various are the works of God!

"Than man.

"But say, what thought? is reason here inthron'd, 1700 "And absolute? or fenfe in arms against her? "Have you two 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, 1775 "And ask their Adams-" Who would not be wife?" "Or, if your mother fell, are you redeem'd?

2

"And:

*And if redeem'd-is your Redeemer scorn'd? Is This your final residence? if not,

"Change you your scene, tranflated? or by death? 1780 "And if by death; what death ?---Know you disease? "Or horrid war?-With war, this fatal hour, "Europa groans (fo call we a small field,

"Where kings run mad). In Our world, Death deputes "Intemperance to do the work of Age;

"And, hanging up the quiver Nature gave him,
"As flow of execution, for dispatch

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

1785

1790

"With you, can rage for plunder make a god? "And bloodfbed wash out every other stain ?— "But You, perhaps, can't bleed: from matter grofs Your Spirits clean, are delicately clad "In fine-spun Æther, privileg'd to foar, "Unloaded, uninfected; how unlike

1795

1800

"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
"Of hardy conflict o'er? Or, are you fill
"Raw candidates at school? And have you thofe
"Who difaffect Reverfions, as with Us?—
"But what are We? You never heard of Man ;
"Or Earth, the Bedlam of the univerfe!
"Where Reason (un-difeas'd with You) runs mad,
"And nurfes Folly's children as her own;

1805

"Fond

"Fond of the fouleft. In the facred mount
"Of Holiness, where reafon is pronounc'd
"Infallible; and thunders, like a god;

1810

"Ev'n there, by Saints, the Dæmons 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 fmiles."But This, how strange to You, who know not Man! "Has the leaft rumour of our race arriv'd?

"Call'd here Elijah in his flaming car?

"Paft 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 defcent, 1820 "Stain'd your pure crystal Æther, or let fall "A fhort eclipse from his portentous shade? "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 past "To Britain's ifle; too, too, confpicuous There ?" But this is all digreffion: where is He,

That o'er heaven's battlements the felon hurl'd

To groans, and chains, and darknefs? Where is He, 1830
Who fees creation's fummit in a vale?

He, Whom, while man is Man, he can't but seek;
And if he finds, commences more than man?

O for a telescope his throne to reach!

1835

Tell me, ye learn'd on Earth! or blest Above!
Ye fearching, ye Newtonian angels! tell,
Where, your Great Master's orb? His planets, where?

1

Thofe

Those conscious Satellites, those Morning-fiars,
First-born of Deity! from central love,

By veneration most profound, thrown off;

1840

By sweet attraction, no less strongly drawn ;

Aw'd, and yet raptur'd; raptur'd, yet ferene;

1845

Past thought illustrious, 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 !-And on what
High errands fent ?-Here buman effort ends;
And leaves me ftill a ftranger to His throne.

Full well it might! I quite mistook my road.
Born in an age more Curious than Devout;
More fond to fix the place of heaven, or hell,
Than ftudious this to fhun, or that fecure.
'Tis not the curious, but the pious path,
That leads me to my point: Lorenzo! know,
Without or Star, or Angel, for their guide,

1850

1855

Who worship God, fhall find him. Humble Love,
And not proud Reason, keeps the door of heaven;
Love finds admiffion, where proud Science fails. 1860
Man's fcience is the culture of his heart;
And not to lose his plumbet in the depths
Of Nature, or the more profound of God.
Either to know, is an attempt that sets
The wifeft on a level with the fool.
To fathom Nature (ill-attempted Here!)
Past doubt is deep philofophy Above ;

1865

Higher

1870

Higher degrees in blifs archangels take, As deeper learn'd; the deepeft, learning ftill. For, what a thunder of Omnipotence (So might I dare to speak) is seen in All! In Man! in Earth! in more amazing Skies! Teaching this leffon, Pride is loth to learn"Not deeply to difcern, not much to know, "Mankind was born to Wonder, and Adore." 1875 And is there caufe for higher wonder ftill, Than that which ftruck 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 ftars is a religious house;

I faw their altars fmoke, their incense rife;
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 wafte; but fows these fiery fields
With feeds of reafon, which to virtues rife
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 Devotion thought too much on earth,
When beings, fo fuperior, homage boast,
And triumph in proftration to The Throne?

1885

1890

18,5

But wherefore more of planets, or of stars?

Ethereal journeys, and, discover'd there,

Ten