Though million leagues, and million still remote, Shall yet survive that day: ye must submit Sharers, not bright spectators of the scene.
But though the earth shall to the centre perish, Nor leave behind e'en Chaos; though the air With all the elements must pass away,
Vain as an ideot's dream; though the huge rocks, That brandish the tall cedars on their tops, With humbler vales must to perdition yield; Though the gilt sun, and silver-tressed moon With all her bright retinue, must be lost; Yet thou, great Father of the world, surviv'st Eternal, as thou wert! Yet still survives The soul of man immortal, perfect now, And candidate for unexpiring joys.
He comes! he comes! the awful trump I hear; The flaming sword's intolerable blaze
I see; he comes! the' archangel from above :- "Arise, ye tenants of the silent grave, Awake incorruptible, and arise;
From east to west, from the antarctic pole To regions hyperborean, all ye sons,
Ye sons of Adam, and ye heirs of Heaven Arise, ye tenants of the silent grave, Awake incorruptible, and arise!"
'Tis then, nor sooner, that the restless mind Shall find itself at home; and, like the ark Fix'd on the mountain-top, shall look aloft O'er the vague passage of precarious life ; And winds, and waves, and rocks, and tempests Enjoy the everlasting calm of Heaven:
'Tis then, nor sooner, that the deathless soul
Shall justly know its nature and its rise :
'Tis then the human tongue new-tun'd shall give
Praises more worthy the eternal ear.
Yet what we can we ought; and therefore, thou, Purge thou my heart, Omnipotent and good! Purge thou my heart with hyssop, lest like Cain 1 offer fruitless sacrifice, with gifts
Offend, and not propitiate the ador'd.
Though gratitude were bless'd with all the pow'rs Her bursting heart could long for, though the swift, The fiery-wing'd imagination soar'd
Beyond ambition's wish-yet all were vain To speak him as he is, who is ineffable. Yet still let reason through the eye of faith View him with fearful love; let truth pronounce, And adoration on her bended knee
With heaven-directed hands, confess his reign. And let the' angelic, archangelic band, With all the hosts of heaven, cherubic forms, And forms seraphic, with their silver trumps And golden lyres attend :-" For thou art holy, For thou art one, the' Eternal, who alone Exerts all goodness, and transcends all praise."
IMMENSITY OF THE SUPREME BEING.
ONCE more I dare to rouse the sounding string, The poet of my God! Awake my glory, Awake my lute and harp-myself shall wake, Soon as the stately night-exploding bird, In lively lay, sings welcome to the dawn.
List ye! how nature with ten thousand tongues Begins the grand thanksgiving, Hail, all hail,
Ye tenants of the forest and the field! My fellow subjects of the' Eternal King, I gladly join your matins, and with you Confess his presence, and report his praise. O thou, who or the lambkin, or the dove, When offer'd by the lowly, meek, and poor, Prefer'st to pride's whole hecatomb, accept This mean essay, nor from thy treasure-house Of glory immense, the orphan's mite exclude. What though the' Almighty's regal throne be rais'd High o'er yon azure heaven's exalted dome, By mortal eye unken'd-where east nor west, Nor south, nor blustering north has breath to blow; Albeit, he there with angels and with saints Holds conference, and to his radiant host Ev'n face to face stand visibly confess'd: Yet know that nor in presence or in power Shines he less perfect here; 'tis man's dim eye That makes the obscurity. He is the same, Alike in all his universe the same.
Whether the mind along the spangled sky Measure her pathless walk, studious to view Thy works of vaster fabric, where the planets Weave their harmonious rounds, their march di- Still faithful, still inconstant to the sun; [recting
Or where the comet through space infinite (Though whirling worlds oppose, and globes of fire) Darts, like a javelin, to his destin'd goal.
Or where in heaven above the Heaven of heav'ns Burn brighter suns, and goodlier planets roll With satellites more glorious-Thou art there! Or whether on the ocean's boist'rous back Thou ride triumphant, and with outstretch'd arm Curb the wild winds, and discipline the billows,
The suppliant sailor finds thee there, his chief, His only help-When thou rebuk'st the stormIt ceases and the vessel gently glides
Along the glassy level of the calm.
Oh! could I search the bosom of the sea, Down the great depth descending; there thy works Would also speak thy residence; and there Would I thy servant, like the still profound, Astonish'd into silence, muse thy praise ! Behold! behold! the' implanted garden round Of vegetable coral, sea-flowers gay,
And shrubs, with amber, from the pearl-pav'd Rise richly varied, where the finny race In blithe security their gambols play: While high above their heads leviathan, The terror and the glory of the main, His pastime takes with transport, proud to see The ocean's vast dominion all his own.
Hence through the genial bowels of the earth Easy may fancy pass; till at thy mines, Gani, or Raolconda, she arrive, And from the adamant's imperial blaze Form weak ideas of her Maker's glory. Next to Pegu or Ceylon let me rove, Where the rich ruby (deem'd by sages old Of sovereign virtue) sparkles e'en like Sirius, And blushes into flames. Thence will I go To undermine the treasure-fertile womb Of the huge Pyrenean, to detect
The agate and the deep-entrenched gem Of kindred jasper--Nature in them both Delights to play the mimic on herself; And in their veins she oft portrays the forms Of leaping hills, of trees erect, and streams
Now stealing softly on, now thundering down In desperate cascade, with flowers and beasts, And all the living landscape of the vale. In vain thy pencil, Claudio, or Poussin, Or thine, immortal Guido, would essay Such skill to imitate-it is the hand
Of God himself-for God himself is there!
Hence with the' ascending springs let me advance, Through beds of magnets, minerals, and spar, Up to the mountain's summit, there to' indulge The' ambition of the comprehensive eye, That dares to call the' horizon all her own. Behold the forest, and the' expansive verdure Of yonder level lawn, whose smooth shorn sod No object interrupts unless the oak
His lordly head uprears, and branching arms Extends-Behold in regal solitude
And pastoral magnificence he stands. So simple! and so great! the under-woods Of meaner rank, an awful distance keep. Yet thou art there, and God himself is there Ev'n in the bush (though not as when to Moses He shone in burning majesty reveal'd,) Nathless conspicuous in the linnet's throat Is his unbounded goodness-Thee, her Maker, Thee, her Preserver, chaunts she in her song ; While all the emulative vocal tribe
The grateful lesson learn-no other voice Is heard, no other sound-for in attention Buried, ev'n babbling echo holds her peace. Now from the plains, where the' unbounded
Gives liberty her utmost scope to range,
Turn we to yon enclosures, where appears
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