Though boundless habitation, plann'd by Thee; 2250
Whose several clans their several climates suit,
And transposition, doubtless, would destroy.
Or, oh! indulge, immortal King! indulge
A title less august, indeed, but more
Endearing; ah' how sweet in human ears!
Sweet in our ears, and triumph in our hearts!
Father of immortality to man!
A theme that latcly* set my soul on fire-
And Thou the next! yet equal! thou by whom
That blessing was convey'd, far more! was bought,
Ineffable the price! by whom all worlds
Were made, and one redeem'd! illustrious Light
From Light illustrious! thou, whose regal power
Finite in time, but infinite in space,
On more than adamantine basis fix'd,
far more, than diadems and thrones
Inviolably reigns, the dread of gods!
And, oh! the friend of man! beneath whose foot,
And by the mandate of whose awful nod,
All regions, revolutions, fortunes, fates,
Of high, of low, of mind, and matter, rol!
Through the short channels of expiring time,
Or shoreless ocean of eternity,
Calm or tempestuous (as thy Spirit breathes)
In absolute subjection !-And, O Thou!
The glorious Third' distinct, not separate!
Beaming from both! with both incorporate,
And (strange to tell!) incorporate with dust!
By condescension, as thy glory, great,
Enshrined in man! of human hearts, if pure,
Divine inhabitant! the tie divine
Of heaven with distant earth! by whom, I trust, (If not inspired) uncensured this address
To Thee, to Them-to whom?-mysterious power!
Reveal'd-yet unreveald'd! darkness in light!
Number in unity! our joy! our dread!
*See Nights the Sixth and Seventh.
The triple bolt that lays all wrong in ruin.
That animates all right, the triple Sun!
Sun of the soul! her never setting Sun!
Triune, unutterable, unconceived,
Absconding, yet demonstrable, Great God!
Greater than greatest' better than the best!
Kinder than kindest! with soft Pity's eye,
Or (stronger still to speak it) with thine own,
From thy bright home, from that high rmament 2295 Where thou, from all eternity, hast dwelt;
Beyond archangels' unassisted ken,
From far above what mortals highest call,
From Elevation's pinnacle, look down,
Through-what? confounding interval! through all,
And more, than labouring Fancy can conceive; 2301
Through radiant ranks of essences unknown?
Through hierarchies from hierarchies detach'd
Round various banners of Omnipotence,
With endless change of rapturous duties fired; 2305
Through wondrous beings' interposing swarms,
All clustering at the call, to dwell in thee;
Through this wide waste of worlds! this vista vast,
All sanded o'er with suns, suns turn'd to night Before thy feeblest beam-look down--down-down, On a poor breathing particle in dust,
Or, lower, an immortal in his crimes:
His crimes forgive! forgive his virtues too!
Those smaller faults, half converts to the right:
Nor let me close these eyes, which never more
May see the Sun (though Night's descending scale
Now weighs up Morn) unpitied and unbless'd!
In thy displeasure dwells eternal pain;
Pain, our aversion; pain, which strikes me now;
And, since all pain is terrible to man,
Though transient, terrible; at thy good hour,
Gently, ah, gently, lay me in my bed,
My clay-cold bed! by nature, now, so near;
By nature near, still nearer by disease!
Till then be this an emblem of my grave,
Let it outpreach the preacher; every night
Let it outcry the boy at Philip's ear,
That tongue of death! that herald of the tomb.
And when (the shelter of thy wing implored)
My senses, sooth'd, shall sink in soft repose,
Csink this truth still deeper in my soul,
Suggested by iny pillow, sign'd by Fate,
First in Fate's volume, at the page of Man
"Man's sickly soul, though turn'd and toss'd for ever
From side to s.de, can rest on nought but Thee; 2335
Here in full trust, hereafter in full joy :"
On Thee, the promised, sure, eternal down
Of spirits, toil'd in travel through this vale :
Nor of that pillow shall my soul despond;
For-Love almighty! Love almighty! (sing,
Exult, Creation!) Love almighty reigns!
The death of death! that cordial of despair!
And loud Eternity's triumphant song!
'Of whom no more :--for, O thou Patron God! Thou God and mortal! thence more God to man! Man's theme eternal! man's eternal theme!
Thou canst not scape uninjured from our praise:
Uninjured from our praise can he escape
Who, disembosom'd from the Father, bows
The heaven of heavens to kiss the distant earth! 2350
Breathes out in agonies a sinless soul!
Against the cross Death's iron sceptre breaks !
From famish'd Ruin plucks her huinan prey!
Throws wide the gates celestial to his foes'
Their gratitude, for such a boundless debt,
Deputes their suffering brothers to receive!
And if deep human guilt in payment fails,
As deeper guilt, prohibits our despair!
Enjoins it, as our duty. to rejoice!
And (to close all) omnipotently kind,
Takes his delights among the sons of men.'
Prov. chap. viii.
What words are these-and did they come from
And were they spoke to man? to guilty man›
What are all mysteries to love like this?
The songs of angels, all the melodies
Of choral gods, are wafted in the sound;
Heal and exhilarate the broken heart,
Though plunged, before, in horrors daik as night:
Rich prelibation of consummate joy!
Nor wait we dissolution to be bless'd.
This final effort of the moral Muse,
How justly titled !* nor for me alone;
For all that read. What spirit of support,
What heights of Consolation crown my song!
Then farewell Night! of darkness, now, no more;
Joy breaks, shines, triumphs; 'tis eternal day!
Shall that which rises out of nought complain
Of a few evils, paid with endless joys?
My soul! henceforth, in sweetest union join
The two supports of human happiness,
Which some, erroneous, think can never meet,
True taste of life, and constant thought of death!
The thought of death, sole victor of its dread!
Hope be thy joy, and probity thy skill;
Thy patron He whose diadem has dropp'd
Yon gems of heaven, eternity thy prize;
And leaves the racers of the world their own,
Their feather and their froth, for endless toils:
They part with all, for that which is not bread,
They mortify, they starve, on weaith, fame, power,
And laugh to scorn the fools that aim at more.
How must a spirit, late escaped from earth,
Suppose Philander's, Lucia's, or Narcissa's,
The truth of things new-blazing in its eye,
Look back, astonish'd on the ways of men,
Whose lives' whole drift is to forget their graves!
And when our present privilege is pass'd,
To scourge us with due sense of its abuse,
The same astonishment will seize us all.
What then must pain us would preserve us now. 2400
Lorenzo! 'tis not yet too late. Lorenzo!
Seize wisdom, ere 'tis torment to be wise;
That is, seize Wisdom ere she seizes thee.
For what, my small philosopher! is hell?
"Tis nothing but full knowledge of the truth,
When Truth, resisted long, is sworn our foe,
And calls Eternity to do ner right.
Thus darkness aiding intellectual light,
And sacred Silence whispering truths divine,
And truths divine converting pain to peace,
My song the midnight raven has outwing'd,
And shot, ambitious of unbounded scenes,
Beyond the flaming limits of the world
Her gloomy flight. But what avails the flight
Of Fancy, when our hearts remain below?
Virtue abounds in flatterers and foes;
"Tis pride to praise her, penance to perform.
To more than words, to more than worth of tongue, Lorenzo! rise, at this auspicious hour,
An hour when Heaven's most intimate with man;
When, like a falling star, the ray divine
Glides swift into the bosom of the just;
And just are all, determined to reclaim ;
Which sets that title high within thy reach.
Awake, then; thy Philander calls awake!
Thou, who shalt wake when the Creation sleeps;
When, like a taper, all these suns expire;
When Time, like him of Gaza in his wrath,
Plucking the pillars that support the world,
In Nature's ample ruins lies entomb'd,
And midnight, universal midnight! reigns.
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