With cherish'd gaze, the lambent lightnings fhoot
Across the sky; or horizontal dart
In wondrous shapes: by fearful murmuring crowds
Portentous deem'd. Amid the radiant orbs,
That more than deck, that animate the sky,
The life-infufing funs of other worlds;
Lo from the dread immenfity of space
Returning, with accelerated course,
The rushing comet to the fun descends;
And as he finks below the fhading earth,
With aweful train projected o'er the heavens,
The guilty nations tremble. But, above
Thofe fuperftitious horrors that enslave
The fond fequacious herd, to mystic faith
And blind amazement prone, th' enlighten'd few,
Whofe godlike minds philosophy exalts,
The glorious ftranger hail. They feel a joy 1715 Divinely great; they in their powers exult,
That wondrous force of thought, which mounting fpurns This dusky spot, and measures all the sky;
While, from his far excurfion through the wilds
Of barren æther, faithful to his time,
They fee the blazing wonder rife anew,
In feeming terror clad, but kindly bent
To work the will of all-fuftaining Love:
From his huge vapoury train perhaps to shake
Reviving moisture on the numerous orbs,
Through which his long ellipfis winds; perhaps
To lend new fuel to declining funs,
To light-up worlds, and feed th' eternal fire.
With thee, ferene Philofophy, with thee,
And thy bright garland, let me crown my fong! 1730
Effufive fource of evidence, and truth!
A luftre fhedding o'er th' ennobled mind,
Stronger than fummer-noon; and pure as that,
Whofe mild vibrations foothe the parted foul,
New to the dawning of celestial day.
Hence through her nourish'd powers, enlarg'd by thee, She springs aloft, with elevated pride,
Above the tangling mafs of low defires,
That bind the fluttering crowd: and, angel-wing'd,
The heights of fcience and of virtue gains,
Where all is calm and clear; with Nature round,
Or in the ftarry regions, or th' abyfs,
To Reafon's and to Fancy's eye display'd:
The First up-tracing, from the dreary void,
The chain of caufes and effects to Him,
The world-producing Effence, who alone
Poffeffes being; while the Last receives
The whole magnificence of heaven and earth,
And every beauty, delicate or bold,
Obvious or more remote, with livelier fenfe,
Diffufive painted on the rapid mind.
Tutor'd by thee, hence Poetry exalts
Her voice to ages; and informs the page
With mufic, image, fentiment, and thought,
Never to die! the treasure of mankind!
Their highest honour, and their trueft joy!
Without thee what were unenlighten'd man?
A favage roaming through the woods and wilds,
In queft of prey; and with th' unfafhion'd fur
Rough-clad; devoid of every finer art,
And elegance of life. Nor happiness.
Domeftic, mix'd of tendernefs and care,
Nor moral excellence, nor focial blifs,
Nor guardian law were his; nor various skill
To turn the furrow, or to guide the tool
Mechanic; nor the heaven-conducted prow
Of navigation bold, that fearless braves
The burning line, or dares the wintery pole;
Mother severe of infinite delights!
Nothing, fave rapine, indolence, and guile,
And woes on woes, a ftill-revolving train!
Whofe horrid circle had made human life
That non-existence worfe: but, taught by thee,
Ours are the plans of policy and peace;
To live like brothers, and conjunctive all
Embellish life. While thus laborious crowds
Ply the tough oar, Philofophy directs
The ruling helm; or like the liberal breath
Of potent heaven, invifible, the fail
Swells out, and bears th' inferior world along.
Nor to this evanescent speck of earth
Poorly confin'd, the radiant tracts on high
Are her exalted range; intent to gaze
Creation through; and, from that full complex
Of never-ending wonders, to conceive
Of the Sole Being right, who spoke the Word,
And Nature mov'd complete. With inward view,
Thence on th' ideal kingdom swift she turns
Her eye; and inftant, at her powerful glance,
Th' obedient phantoms vanish or appear;
Compound, divide, and into order shift,
Each to his rank, from plain preception up
To the fair forms of Fancy's fleeting train:
To reason then, deducing truth from truth;
And notion quite abstract; where first begins
The world of spirits, action all, and life
Unfetter'd, and unmixt. But here the cloud,
So wills Eternal Providence, fits deep.
Enough for us to know that this dark state,
In wayward paffions loft, and vain pursuits,
This Infancy of Being, cannot prove
The final iffue of the works of God,
By boundless Love and perfect Wisdom form'd,
And ever rifing with the rifing mind.
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