Celestial joys prepare us to sustain ?
The soul of man, his face design'd to see
Who gave these wonders to be seen by man,
Has here a previous scene of objects great,
On which to dwell; to stretch to that expanse
Of thought, to rise to that exalted height
Of admiration, to contract that awe,
And give her whole capacities that strength,
Which best may qualify for final joy.
The more our spirits are enlarg'd on Earth,
The deeper draught shall they receive of Heaven.
Heaven's King! whose face unveil'd consume
mates bliss ;
Redundant bliss! which fills that mighty void,
The whole creation leaves in human hearts!
Thou, who didst touch the lip of Jesse's son,
Rapt in sweet contemplation of these fires,
And set his harp in concert with the spheres ;
While of thy works material the
supreme
I dare attempt, assist my daring song:
Loose me from Earth's enclosure, from the Sun's Contracted circle set my heart at large;
Eliminate my spirit, give it range
Through provinces of thought yet unexplor'd;
Teach me by this stupendous scaffolding,
Creation's golden steps, to climb to thee.
Teach me with art great Nature to controul,
And spread a lustre o'er the shades of night.
Feel I thy kind assent? and shall the Sun
Be seen at midnight, rising in my song?
Lorenzo! come, and warm thee: thou, whose heart, Whose little heart, is moor'd within a nook
Of this obscure terrestrial, anchor weigh.
Another ocean calls, a nobler port;
I am thy pilot, I thy prosperous gale.
Gainful thy voyage through yon azure main;
Main, without tempest, pirate, rock, or shore;
And whence thou mayst import eternal wealth;
And leave to beggar'd minds the pearl and gold.
Thy travels dost thou boast o'er foreign realms?
Thou stranger to the world! thy tour begin ;
Thy tour through Nature's universal orb.
Nature delineates her whole chart at large,
On soaring souls, that sail among the spheres ;
And man how purblind, if unknown the whole!
Who circles spacious Earth, then travels here,
Shall own, he never was from home before!
Come, my Prometheus *, from thy pointed rock
Of false ambition if unchain'd, we 'll mount;
We 'll, innocently, steal celestial fire,
And kindle our devotion at the stars;
A theft, that shall not chain, but set thee free.
Above our atmosphere's intestine wars,
Rain's fountain-head, the magazine of hail
Above the northern nests of feather'd snows,
The brew of thunders, and the flaming forge
That forms the crooked lightning; above the caves
Where infant tempests wait their growing wings,
And tune their tender voices to that roar,
Which soon, perhaps, shall shake a guilty world;
Above misconstrued omens of the sky,
Far-travell'd comets' calculated blaze;
Elance thy thought, and think of more than man.
Thy soul, till now, contracted, wither'd, shrunk,
Blighted by blasts of Earth's unwholesome air,
Will blossom here; spread all her faculties
To these bright ardours; every power unfold,
And rise into sublimities of thought.
Stars teach, as well as shine.
Thus their commission ran➡"Be kind to man.” Where art thou, poor benighted traveller!
The stars will light thee, though the Moon should
Where art thou, more benighted! more astray !
In ways immoral? The stars call thee back;
And, if obey'd their counsel, set thee right.
This prospect vast, what is it? — Weigh'd aright, 'Tis Nature's system of divinity,
And every student of the night inspires.
'T is elder scripture, writ by God's own hand:
Scripture authentic! uncorrupt by man.
Lorenzo! with my radius (the rich gift
Of thought nocturnal!) I'll point out to thee
Its various lessons; some that may surprise
An un-adept in mysteries of night;
Little, perhaps, expected in her school,
Nor thought to grow on planet, or on star.
Bulls, lions, scorpions, monsters here we feign;
Ourselves more monstrous, not to see what here
Exists indeed; -a lecture to mankind.
What read we here? - Th' existence of a God?
Yes; and of other beings, man above;
Natives of ether! Sons of higher climes!
And, what may move Lorenzo's wonder more,
Eternity is written in the skies.
And whose eternity? Lorenzo! thine;
Mankind's eternity. Nor faith alone,
Virtue grows here; here springs the sovereign cure
Of almost every vice; but chiefly thine;
Wrath, pride, ambition, and impure desire.
Lorenzo! thou canst wake at midnight too,
Though not on morals bent: ambition, pleasure !
Those tyrants I for thee so lately * fought,
Afford their harass'd slaves but slender rest.
Thou, to whom midnight is immoral noon,
And the Sun's noon-tide blaze, prime dawn of day;
Not by thy climate, but capricious crime,
Commencing one of our Antipodes !
In thy nocturnal rove one moment halt,
'Twixt stage and stage, of riot, and cabal;
And lift thine eye (if bold an eye to lift,
If bold to meet the face of injur❜d Heaven)
To yonder stars: for other ends they shine,
Than to light revellers from shame to shame,
And, thus, be made accomplices in guilt.
Why from yon arch, that infinite of space,
With infinite of lucid orbs replete,
Which set the living firmament on fire,
At the first glance, in such an overwhelm
Of wonderful, on man's astonish'd sight,
Rushes Omnipotence? To curb our pride;
Our reason rouse, and lead it to that power, Whose love lets down these silver chains of light;
To draw up man's ambition to himself,
And bind our chaste affections to his throne.
Thus the three virtues, least alive on Earth,
And welcom'd on Heaven's coast with most ap-
An humble, pure, and heavenly-minded heart,
Are here inspir'd: - And canst thou gaze too long?
Nor stands thy wrath, depriv'd of its reproof,
Or un-upbraided by this radiant choir.
The planets of each system represent
Kind neighbours; mutual amity prevails;
Sweet interchange of rays, receiv'd, return'd;
Enlightening, and enlighten'd! All, at once
Attracting, and attracted! Patriot-like,
None sins against the welfare of the whole;
But their reciprocal, unselfish aid,
Affords an emblem of millennial love.
Nothing in Nature, much less conscious being,
Was e'er created solely for itself:
Thus man his sovereign duty learns in this
Material picture of benevolence.
And know, of all our supercilious race,
Thou most inflammable! thou wasp of men!
Man's angry heart, inspected, would be found
As rightly set, as are the starry spheres ;
'Tis Nature's structure, broke by stubborn will,
Breeds all that un-celestial discord there.
Wilt thou not feel the bias Nature gave?
Canst thou descend from converse with the skies,
And seize thy brother's throat? - For what-a
An inch of earth? The planets cry, " Forbear!" They chase our double darkness; Nature's gloom, And (kinder still!) our intellectual night.
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