How mean the order and perfection fought
In the best product of the human thought,
Compar'd to the great harmony that reigns
In what the Spirit of the world ordains!

Now if the fun to earth transmits his ray,
• Yet does not fcorch us with too fierce a day,
How fmall a portion of his pow'r is giv'n
To orbs more diftant, and remoter heav'n?
• And of those stars which our imperfect eye
• Has doom'd and fix'd to one eternal sky,
Each by a native stock of honour great,
May dart ftrong influence, and diffuse kind heat,
Itself a fun, and with tranfmiffive light
• Enliven worlds deny'd to human fight;
Around the circles of their ambient skies

• New moons may grow or wane, may set or rise,
And other stars may to those funs be earths,
• Give their own elements their proper births,
Divide their climes, or elevate their pole,

• See their lands flourish, and their oceans roll:
• Yet these great orbs, thus radically bright,

• Primitive founts and origins of light,

May each to other (as their diff'rent sphere

• Makes or their distance or their height appear) • Be feen a nobler or inferior star;

• And in that space which we call air and sky,

Myriads of earths, and moons, and funs, may lie
Unmeafur'd and unknown by human eye.

In vain we measure this amazing sphere,
And find and fix it's centre here or there,
Whilft it's circumference, fcorning to be brought
' E'en into fancy'd space, illudes our vanquish'd thought.
• Where, then, are all the radiant monsters driv'n,
'With which your gueffes fill'd the frighten'd heav'n?
• Where will their fictious images remain ?

In paper schemes, and the Chaldean's brain !

This problem yet, this offspring of a guess,
Let us for once a child of Truth confefs;
That thefe fair ftars, these objects of delight,

And terror to our fearching dazzled fight,
Are worlds immenfe, unnumber'd, infinite!
But do thefe worlds difplay their beams, or guide
Their orbs to ferve thy ufe, to pleafe thy pride?

Thyfelf but duft, thy ftature but a fpan,

A moment thy duration, foolish man!

As well may the minuteft emmet fay
That Caucafus was rais'd to pave his way;
The fnail, that Lebanon's extended wood
Was deftin'd only for his walk and food :
The vileft cockle, gaping on the coaft,
That rounds the ample feas, as well may boast
The craggy rock projects above the sky,

That he in fafety at it's foot may lie ;

And the whole ocean's confluent waters fwell,
Only to quench his thirft, or move and blanch his fhell.
A higher flight the vent'rous goddess tries,

Leaving material worlds and local skies;

Inquires what are the beings, where the space,
That form'd and held the angels ancient race:
For rebel Lucifer with Michael fought,
(I offer only what tradition taught)

Embattl'd cherub against cherub rose,

Did fhield to fhield, and pow'r to pow'r oppofe; Heav'n rung with triumphs, hell was fill'd with woes. • What were these forms, of which your volumes tell, How fome fought great, and others recreant fell? These bound to bear an everlasting load,

• Durance of chain, and banishment of God;

By fatal turns their wretched ftrength to tire,

To fwim in fulph'rous lakes, or land on solid fire:

While thofe, exalted to primæval light,

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Excefs of bleffing, and fupreme delight,

Only

• Only perceive fome little pause of joys,

• In those great moments when their God employs
Their ministry, to pour his threaten'd hate
'On the proud king, or the rebellious ftate;
Or to reverse Jehovah's high command,

And speak the thunder falling from his hand,
• When to his duty the proud king returns,
• And the rebellious ftate in afhes mourns?
How can good angels be in heav'n confin'd,
• Or view that Prefence which no space can bind ?
Is God above, beneath, or yon', or here?
He who made all, is he not ev'ry where ?
Oh! how can wicked angels find a night

So dark to hide 'em from that piercing light

• Which form'd the eye, and gave the pow'r of fight? • What mean I now of angel, when I hear

Firm body, fpirit pure, or fluid air?

Spirits, to action spiritual confin'd,

• Friends to our thought, and kindred to our mind,

• Should only act and prompt us from within, • Nor by external eye be ever seen.

Was it not therefore to our fathers known,

• That these had appetite, and limb, and bone? • Elfe how could Abram wash their weary'd feet,

Or Sarah please their taste with fav'ry meat?

• Whence should they fear? or why did Lot engage To fave their bodies from abufive rage?

And how could Jacob, in a real fight, • Feel or refift the wrestling angel's might? How could a form it's ftrength with matter try?

• Or how a spirit touch a mortal's thigh?

Now are they air condens'd, or gather'd rays;

• How guide they then our pray'r, or keep our ways?

By stronger blasts still subject to be toss'd,

By tempefts scatter'd, and in whirlwinds loft?

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• Have

• Have they again, (as facred fong proclaims)
• Substances real, and existing frames ?

How comes it, fince with them we jointly share
The great effect of one Creator's care,

• That whilft our bodies ficken and decay,
Theirs are for ever healthy, young, and gay?
Why, whilst we ftruggle, in this vale beneath,
• With want and forrow, with disease and death,
Do they, more blefs'd, perpetual life employ,,
• On fongs of pleasure, and in scenes of joy?
Now, when my mind has all this world furvey'd',
And found that nothing by itself was made;
When thought has rais'd itself by juft degrees,

• From vallies crown'd with flow'rs, and hills with trees;
From smoking min'rals, and from rising streams,
From fatt'ning Nilus, or victorious Thames;
• From all the living, that four-footed move
Along the fhore, the meadow, or the grove ;
From all that can with fins or feathers fly
• Thro' the aërial or the wat'ry sky;

From the poor reptile with a reas'ning soul,
That miferable mafter of the whole;
From this great object of the body's eye,
This fair half-round, this ample azure sky,
Terribly large, and wonderfully bright,

• With ftars unnumber'd, and unmeasur'd light;
• From effences unfeen, celeftial names,

• Enlight'ning fpirits, and minifterial flames,

Angels, dominions, potentates, and thrones,

• All that in each degree the name of creature owns ;

• Lift we our reason to that Sov'reign Cause

Who blefs'd the whole with life, and bounded it with laws;

• Who forth from nothing call'd this comely frame,

• His will and act, his word and work the fame : To whom a thousand years are but a day;

• Who bade the light her genial beams display,

And fet the moon, and taught the fun his way;

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‹ Who,

• Who, waking Time, his creature, from the fource Primæval, order'd his predeftin'd courfe;

• Himself, as in the hollow of his hand, Holding, obedient to his high command,

• The deep abyss, the long continu'd store;

• Where months, and days, and hours, and minutes, pour

• Their floating parts, and thenceforth are no more.

This Alpha and Omega, First and Laft,

Who, like the potter, in a mould has caft

• The world's great frame, commanding it to be
Such as the eyes of Senfe and Reason see;
'Yet, if he wills, may change or spoil the whole;
• May take yon beauteous, myftick, ftarry roll,

And burn it like an useless parchment fcroll;

May from it's bafis in one moment pour

• This melted earth

• Like liquid metal, and like burning ore;

Who, fole in pow'r, at the beginning faid,

"Let fea, and air, and earth, and heav'n, be made," And it was fo.-And when he fhall ordain

In other fort, has but to fpeak again,

And they shall be no more of this great theme,
This glorious, hallow'd, everlasting Name,

• This God, I would discourse—→→→→›

The learned elders fat appall'd, amaz'd,
And each with mutual look on other gaz'd;
Nor fpeech they meditate, nor answer frame:
Too plain, alas! their filence spake their shame;
Till one, in whom an outward mien appear'd,
And turn fuperior to the vulgar herd,
Began

that human learning's farthest reach Was but to note the doctrines I could teach;

That mine to speak, and theirs was to obey,
For I in knowledge more than pow'r did fway;
And the astonish'd world in me beheld

Mofes eclips'd, and Jeffe's fon excell❜d,

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Humble

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