So, mindful of their spring, one course they keep,
Exploring, till they find the.r native deep!
Exalted Power, invisible, supreme,
Thou sov'reign, sole unutterable name!
As round thy throne thy flaming seraphs stand,
And touch the golden lyre with trembling hand;
Too weak thy pure cffulgence to behold,
With their rich plumes their dazzled eyes infold;
Transported with the ardours of thy praise,
The holy holy! holy! anthem raise!
To them responsive, let creation sing,
Thee, indivisible eternal King!

SPIRITUALITY.

O say, celestial Muse! whose purer birth
Disdains the low material ties of Earth;
By what bright images shall be defin'd
The mystic nature of th' eternal Mind!

Or how shall thought the dazzling height explore,
Where all that reason can-is to adore!

That God 's an immaterial essence pure, Whom figure can't describe, nor parts immure; Incapable of passions, impulse, fear, In good pre-eminent, in truth severe: Unmix'd his nature, and sublim'd his pow'rs From all the gross allay that tempers ours; In whose clear eye the bright angelic train Appear suffus'd with imperfection's stain! Impervious to the man's or seraph's eye, Beyond the ken of cach exalted high. Him would in vain material semblance feign, Or figur'd shrines the boundless God contain; Object of faith! he shuns the view of sense, Lost in the blaze of sightless excellence! Most perfect, most intelligent, most wise, In whom the sanctity of pureness lies; In whose adjusting mind the whole is wrought, Whose form is spirit, and whose essence thought! Are truths inscrib'd by Wisdom's brightest ray, In characters that gild the face of day!

Reason confess'd, (howe'er we may dispute) Fx'd boundary! discovers man from brute; But, dim to us, exerts its fainter ray, Depress'd in matter, and allied to clay! In forms superior kindles less confin'd, Whose dress is ether, and whose substance mind; Yet all from Him, supreme of causes, flow, To Him their pow'rs and their existence owe; From the bright cherub of the noblest birth, To the poor reasoning glow-worm plac'd on Earth; From matter then to spirit still ascend, Through spirit still refining, higher tend; Pursue, on knowledge bent, the pathless road, Pierce through infinitude in quest of God! Still from thy search, the centre still shall fly, Approaching still-thou never shalt come nigh! So its bright orb th' aspiring flame would join, But the vast distance mocks the fond design. If he, Almighty! whose decree is fate, Could, to display his pow'r, subvert his state; Bid from his plastic hand, a greater rise, Produce a master, and resign his skies; Impart his incommunicable flame, The mystic number of th' Eternal Name; Then might revolting reason's feeble ray Aspire to question God's all-perfect day! Vain task! the clay in the directing hand, The reason of its form might so demand,

As man presume to question his dispose
From whom the power he thus abuses flows.

Here point, fair Muse! the worship God requires,
The soul inflam'd with chaste and holy fires !
Where love celestial warms the happy breast,
And from sincerity the thought 's express'd;
Where genuine piety, and truth refin'd,
Re-consecrate the temple of the mind;
With grateful flames the living altars glow,
And God descends to visit man below!

OMNIPRESENCE.

Through th' unmeasurable tracks of space
Go, Muse divine! and present Godhead trace!
See where, by place uncircumscrib'd as time,
He reigns extended; and he shines sublime!
Shouldst thou above the Heav'n of Heav'ns ascend,
Couldst thou below the depth of depths descend,
Could thy fond flight beyond the starry sphere
The radiant Morning's lucid pinions bear!
There should his brighter presence shine confest,
There his almighty arm thy course arrest!
Could'st thou the thickest veil of Night assume,
Or think to hide thee in the central gloom!
Yet there, all patent to his piercing sight,
Darkness itself would kindle into light:
Not the black mansions of the silent grave,
Nor darker Hell, from his perception save;
What pow'r, alas! thy footsteps can convey
Beyond the reach of omnipresent day?

In his wide grasp, and comprehensive eye,
Immediate worlds on worlds unnumber'd lie:
Systems enclos'd in his perception roll,
Whose all-informing mind directs the whole :
Lodg'd in his grasp, their certain ways they know ;
Plac'd in that sight from whence can nothing go.
On Earth his footstool fix'd, in Heav'n his seat:
Enthron'd he dictates, and his word is fate.

Nor want his shining images below,

In streams that murmur, or in winds that blow ;
His spirit broods along the boundless flood,
Smiles in the plain, and whispers in the wood;
Warms in the genial Sun's enliv'ning ray,
Breathes in the air, and beautiues the day!

Should man his great immensity deny,
Man might as well usurp the vacant sky:
For were he limited in date, or view,
Thence were his attributes imperfect too;
His knowledge, power, his goodness all confin'd,
And lost th' idea of a ruling mind!
Feeble the trust, and comfortless the sense
Of a defective partial providence!
Boldly might then his arm injustice brave,
Or innocence in vain his mercy crave;
Dejected virtue lift its hopeless eye:
And heavy sorrow vent the heartless sigh!
An absent God no abler to defend,
Protect, or punish, than an absent friend;
Distant alike our wants or griefs to know,
To ease the anguish, or prevent the blow,
If he, Supreme Director, were not near,
Vain were our hope, and empty were our fear;
Unpunish'd vice would o'er the world prevail,
And unrewarded virtue toil-to fail!
The moral world a second chaos lie,
And Nature sicken to the thoughtful eye!

Even the weak embryo, ere to life it breaks,
From his high pow'r its slender texture takes;

While in his book the various parts enroll'd, Increasing, own eternal Wisdom's mould.

Nor views he only the material whole, But pierces thought, and penetrates the soul! Ere from the lips the vocal accents part, Or the faint purpose dawns within the heart, His steady eye the mental birth perceives, Fre yet to us the new idea lives!

Knows what we say, ere yet the words proceed,
And ere we form th' intention, marks the deed!
But Conscience, fair vicegerent-light within,
Asserts its author, and restores the scene!
Points out the beauty of the govern'd plan,
**And vindicates the ways of God to man."

Then, sacred Muse, by the vast prospect fir'd,
From Heav'n descended, as by Heav'n inspir'd;
His all-enlight'ning omnipresence own, [known;
Whence first thou feel'st thy dwindling presence
His wide omniscience, justly, grateful, sing,
Whence thy weak science prunes its callow wing!
And bless th' Eternal, all-informing Soul,
Whose sight pervades, whose knowledge fills the
whole.

IMMUTABILITY.

As the Eternal and Omniscient Mind,
By laws not limited, nor bounds confin'd,
Is always independent, always free,
Hence shines confess'd Immutability!
Change, whether the spontaneous child of will,
Or birth of force-is imperfection still.
But he, all-perfect, in himself contains
Pow'r self-deriv'd, and from himself he reigns!
If, alter'd by constraint, we could suppose,
That God his fix'd stability should lose;
How startles reason at a thought so strange!
What pow'r can force Omnipotence to change?
If from his own divine productive thought,
Were the yet stranger alteration wrought;
Could excellence supreme new rays acquire?
Or strong perfection raise its glories higher?
Absurd!-his high meridian brightness glows,
Never decreases, never overflows!
Knows no addition, yields to no decay,
The blaze of incommunicable day!

Below through different forms does matter range,
And life subsist from elemental change;
Liquids condensing shapes terrestrial wear,
Earth mounts in fire, and fire dissolves in air;
While we, inquiring phantoms of a day,
Inconstant as the shadows we survey!
With them, along Time's rapid current pass,
And haste to mingle with the parent mass;
But thou, Eternal Lord of life divine!
In youth immortal shalt for ever shine!
No change shall darken thy exalted name;
From everlasting ages still the same!

If God, like man, his purpose could renew, His laws could vary, or his plans undo; Desponding faith would droop its cheerless wing, Religion deaden to a lifeless thing! Where could we, rational, repose our trust, But in a Pow'r immutable as just? How judge of revelation's force divine, If Truth unerring gave not the design? Where, as in Nature's fair according plan, All smiles benevolent and good to man.

Plac'd in this narrow clouded spot below, We darkly see around and darkly know!

Religion lends the salutary beam,

That guides our reason through the dubions gleam;
Till sounds the hour, when he who rules the skies
Shall bid the curtain of Omniscience rise!
Shall dissipate the mists that veil our sight,
And show his creatures-all his ways are right!
Then, when astonish'd Nature feels its fate,
And fetter'd Time shall know his latest date;
When Earth shall in the mighty blaze expire,
Heav'n melt with heat, and worlds dissolve in fire!
The universal system shrink away,

And ceasing orbs confess th' almighty sway!
Immortal he, amidst the wreck secure,
Shall sit exalted, permanently pure!

As in the sacred bush, shall shine the same,
And from the ruin raise a fairer frame!

While Chaos trembled at the voice of God!
Thou saw'st, when o'er th' immense his line he drew,
When Nothing from his word existence knew!
His word, that wak'd to life the vast profound,
While conscious light was kindled at the sound!
Creation fair surpris'd the angelic eyes,
And sov'reign Wisdom saw that all was wise!
Him, sole Almighty, Nature's book displays,
Distinct the page, and legible the rays!
Let the wild sceptic his attention throw
To the broad horizon, or Earth below;
He finds thy soft impression touch his breast,
He feels the God, and owns him unconfest :
Should the stray pilgrim, tir'd of sands and skies,
In Libya's waste behold a palace rise,
Would he believe the charm from atoms wrought?
Go, atheist, hence, and mend thy juster thought!
What hand, Almighty Architect! but thine,
Could give the model of this vast design?
What hand but thine adjust th' amazing whole?
And bid consenting systems beauteous roll!
What hand but thine supply the solar light!
Ever bestowing, yet for ever bright!
What hand but thine the starry train array,
Or give the Moon to shed her borrow'd ray?
What hand but thine the azure convex spread?
What hand but thine compose the ocean's bed?
To the vast main the sandy barrier throw,
And with the feeble curb restrain the foe?
What hand but thine the wint'ry flood assuage,
Or stop the tempest in its wildest rage?

Thee infinite! what finite cau explore?
Imagination sinks beneath thy pow'r;
Thee could the ablest of thy creatures know,
Lost were thy unity, for he were thou!
Yet present to all sense thy pow'r remains,
Reveal'd in nature Nature's Author reigns!
In vain would errour from conviction fly,
Thou ev'ry where art present to the eye.

The sense how stupid, and the sight how blind,
That fails this universal truth to find!

Go! all the sightless realms of space survey,
Returning trace the planetary way!
The Sun that in his central glory shines,
While ev'ry planet round his orb inclines;
Then at our intermediate globe repose,
And view yon lunar satellite that glows!
Or cast along the azure vault thy eye,
When golden day enlightens all the sky;
Around, behold Earth's variegated scene,
The mingling prospects, and th' flow'ry green;
The mountain brow, the long-extended wood,
Or the rude rock that threatens o'er the flood!
And say, are these the wild effects of chance?
Oh, strange effect of reas'ning ignorance!

Nor pow'r alone confess'd in grandeur lies, The glittering planet or the painted skies! Equal, the elephant's or emmet's dress The wisdom of Omnipotence confess; Equal, the cumbrous whale's enormous mass, With the small insects in the crowded grass; The mite that gambols in its acid sea, In shape a porpus, though a speck to thee! Ev'n the blue down the purple plum surrounds, A living world, thy failing sight confounds, To him a peopled habitation shows, Where millions taste the bounty God bestows! Great Lord of life, whose all-controlling might Through wide creation beams divinely bright, Nor only does thy pow'r in forming shine, But to annihilate, dread King! is thine. Shouldst thou withdraw thy still-supporting hand, How languid Nature would astonish'd stand! Thy frown the ancient realm of night restore, And raise a blank-where systems smil'd before! See in corruption, all-surprising state, How struggling life eludes the stroke of Fate; Shock'd at the scene, though sense averts its eye, Nor stops the wondrous process to descry; Yet juster thought the mystic change pursues, And with delight Almighty Wisdom views! The brute, the vegetable world surveys, Sees life subsisting ev'n from life's decays! Mark there, self-taught, the pensive reptile come, Spin his thin shroud, and living build his tomb! With conscious care his former pleasures leave, And dress him for th' bus'ness of the grave!

Obedient ocean to their march divide
The wat❜ry wall distinct on either side;
While through the deep the long procession led,
And saw the wonders of the oozy bed!
Nor long they march'd, till, black'ning in the rear,
The vengeful tyrant and his host appear!
Plunge down the steep, the waves thy nod obey,
And whelm the threat'ning storm beneath the sea!
Nor yet thy pow'r thy chosen train forsook,
When through Arabia's sands their way they took;
By day thy cloud was present to the sight,
Thy fiery pillar led the march by night;
Thy hand amidst the waste their table spread,
With feather'd viands, and with heav'nly bread
When the dry wilderness no streams supplied,
Gush'd from the yielding rock the vital tide!
What limits can Omnipotence confine?
What obstacles oppose thy arm divine?
Since stones and waves their settled laws forego,
Since seas can harden, and since rocks can flow!
On Sinai's top, the Muse with ardent wing
The triumphs of Omnipotence would sing!
When o'er its airy brow thy cloud display'd,
Involv'd the nations in its awful shade;
When shrunk the Earth from thy approaching face,
And the rock trembled to its rooted base:
Yet where thy majesty divine appear'd,
Where shone thy glory, and thy voice was heard;
Ev'n in the blaze of that tremendous day,
Idolatry its impious rites could pay!

Oh shame to thought!—thy sacred throne invade,
And brave the bolt that linger'd round its head!

WISDOM.

springs,

Admires the skies, and tries his silken wings!

With airy flight the insect roves abroad,

An scorns the meaner earth he lately trod !
Thee, potent, let deliver'd Israel praise,
And to thy name their grateful homage raise!
Thee, potent God! let Egypt's land declare,
That felt thy justice awfully severe !

How did thy frown benight the shadow'd land!
Nature revers'd, how own thy high command!
When jarring elements their use forgot,
And the Sun felt thy overcasting blot!
When Earth produc'd the pestilential brood,
And the foul stream was crimson'd into blood!
How deep the horrours of that awful night,
How strong the terrour, and how wild the fright!
When o'er the land thy sword vindictive pass'd,
And men and infants breath'd at once their last,
How did thy arm thy favour'd tribes convey!
Thy light conducting point the patent way!

Hence life acknowledges its glorious cause,
And matter owns its great Disposer's laws;
Hence in a thousand different models wrought,
Now fix'd to quiet, now allied to thought;
Hence flow the forms and properties of things,
Hence rises harmony, and order springs;
Else, had the mass a shapeless chaos lay,
Nor ever felt the dawn of Wisdom's day!

See how, associate, round their central sun
Their faithful rings the circling planets run;
Still equi-distant, never yet too near,

Exactly tracing their appointed sphere.
Mark how the Moon our flying orb pursues,
While from the Sun her monthly light renews,
Breathes her wide influence on the world below,
And bids the tides alternate ebb and flow.
View how in course the constant seasons rise,
Deform the Earth, or beautify the skies:
First, Spring advancing, with her flow'ry train;
Next, Summer's hand, that spreads the sylvan sceng

Then, Autumn, with her yellow harvests crown'd,
And trembling Winter close the annual round.
The vegetable tribes observant trace,
From the tall cedar to the creeping grass:
The chain of animated beings scale,
From the small reptile to th' enormous whale;
From the strong eagle stooping through the skies,
To the low insect that escapes thy eyes!
And see, if see thou canst, in ev'ry frame,
Eternal Wisdom shine confess'd the same:
As proper organs to the least assign'd,
As proper means to propagate the kind,
As just the structure, and as wise the plan,
As in this lord of all-debating man!

Hence, reas'ning creature, thy distinction find,
Nor longer to the ways of Heav'n be blind.
Wisdom in outward beauty strikes the mind,
But outward beauty points a charm behind.
What gives the Earth, the ambient air, or seas,
The plain, the river, or the wood to please?
Oh say, in whom does beauty's self reside,
The beautifier, or the beautified?

There dwells the Godhead in the bright disguise,
Beyond the ken of all created eyes;
His works our love and our attention steal;
His works (surprising thought) the Maker veil;
Too weak our sight to pierce the radiant cloud,
Where Wisdom shines, in all her charms avow'd.
O gracious God, omnipotent and wise,
Unerring Lord, and Ruler of the skies!
All-condescending, to my feeble heart
One beam of thy celestial light impart;
I seek not sordid wealth, or glitt'ring pow'r;
O grant me wisdom-and I ask no more!
PROVIDENCE.

As from some level country's shelter'd ground,
With towns replete, with green enclosures bound,
Where the eye kept within the verdant maze,
But gets a transient vista as it strays;
The pilgrim to some rising summit tends,
Whence opens all the scene as he ascends;
So Providence the friendly heights supplies,
Where all the charms of Deity surprise;
Here Goodness, Power, and Wisdom, all unite,
And dazzling glories whelm the ravish'd sight!
Almighty Cause! 'tis thy preserving care,
That keeps thy works for ever fresh and fair;
The Sun, from thy superior radiance bright,
Eternal sheds his delegated light;
Lends to his sister orb inferior day,
And paints the silver Moon's alternate ray:
Thy hand the waste of eating Time renews:
Thou shedd'st the tepid morning's balmy dews:
When raging winds the blacken'd deep deform,
Thy spirit rides commission'd in the storm;
Bids at thy will the slack'ning tempest cease,
While the calm ocean smooths its ruffled face;
When lightnings through the air tremendous fly,
Or the blue plague is loosen'd to destroy,
Thy hand directs, or turns aside the stroke;
Thy word the fiend's commission can revoke;
When subterraneous fires the surface heave,
And towns are buried in the yawning grave;
Thou suffer'st not the mischief to prevail;
Thy sov'reign touch the recent wound can heal.
To Zembla's rock thou send'st the cheerful gleam;
O'er Libya's sands thou pour'st the cooling stream;
Thy watchful providence o'er all intends;
Thy works obey their great Creator's ends.

When man too long the paths of vice pursued, Thy hand prepar'd the universal flood; Gracious, to Noah gave the timely sign, To save a remnant from the wrath divine! One shining waste the globe terrestrial lay, And the ark heav'd along the troubled sea; Thou bad'st the deep his ancient bed explore, The clouds their wat'ry deluge pour'd no more! The skies were clear'd-the mountain tops were

seen,

The dove pacific brought the olive green.
On Arrarat the happy patriarch tost,
Found the recover'd world his hopes had lost;
There his fond eyes review'd the pleasing scene,
The Earth all verdant, and the air serene!
Its precious freight the guardian ark display'd,
While Noah grateful adoration paid!
Beholding in the many-tinctur'd bow
The promise of a safer world below.

When wild ambition rear'd its impious head,
And rising Babel Heav'n with pride survey'd;
Thy word the mighty labour could confound,
And leave the mass to moulder with the ground.
From thee all human actions take their springs,
The rise of empires, and the fall of kings!
See the vast theatre of time display'd,
While o'er the scene succeeding heroes tread!
With pomp the shining images succeed,

What leaders triumph! and what monarchs bleed!
Perform the parts thy providence assign'd,
Their pride, their passions, to thy ends inclin'd:
A while they glitter in the face of day,
Then at thy nod the phantoms pass away;
No traces left of all the busy scene,

But that remembrance says-The things have been! "But" (questions Doubt) "whence sickly Nature feels

[breast?

The ague-fits her face so oft reveals?
Whence earthquakes heave the Earth's astonish'd
Whence tempests rage? or yellow plagues infest?
Whence draws rank Afric her empoison'd store?
Or liquid fires explosive Ætna pour?"
Go, sceptic mole! demand th' eternal cause,
The secret of his all-preserving laws;
The depths of wisdom infinite explore,
And ask thy Maker-why he knows no more?
Thy errour still in moral things as great,
As vain to cavil at the ways of Fate,
To ask why prosp'rous vice so oft succeeds,
Why suffers innocence, or virtue bleeds?
Why monsters, Nature must with blushes own,
By crimes grow pow'rful, and disgrace a throne?
Why saints and sages, mark'd in every age,
Perish the victims of tyrannic rage;
Why Socrates for truth and freedom fell,
Or Nero reign'd the delegate of Hell?
In vain by reason is the inaze pursued,
Of ill triumphant, and afflicted good,
Fix'd to the hold, so might the sailor aim
To judge the pilot, and the steerage blame,
As we direct to God what should belong,
Or say, that sov'reign wisdom governs wrong、
Nor always vice does uncorrected go,
Nor virtue unrewarded pass below!
Oft sacred Justice lifts her awful head,
And dooms the tyrant and th' usurper dead;
Oft Providence, more friendly than severe,
Arrests the hero in his wild career;
Directs the fever, poniard, or the ball,
By which an Ammon, Charles, or Cæsar fall

The sense how stupid, and the sight how blind,
That fails this universal truth to find!

Go! all the sightless realms of space survey,
Returning trace the planetary way!
The Sun that in his central glory shines,
While ev'ry planet round his orb inclines;
Then at our intermediate globe repose,
And view yon lunar satellite that glows!
Or cast along the azure vault thy eye,
When golden day enlightens all the sky;
Around, behold Earth's variegated scene,
The mingling prospects, and th' flow'ry green;
The mountain brow, the long-extended wood,
Or the rude rock that threatens o'er the flood!
And say, are these the wild effects of chance?
Oh, strange effect of reas'ning ignorance!

Nor pow'r alone confess'd in grandeur lies,
The glittering planet or the painted skies!
Equal, the elephant's or emmet's dress
The wisdom of Omnipotence confess;
Equal, the cumbrous whale's enormous mass,
With the small insects in the crowded grass;
The mite that gambols in its acid sea,
In shape a porpus, though a speck to thee!
Ev'n the blue down the purple plum surrounds,
A living world, thy failing sight confounds,
To him a peopled habitation shows,
Where millions taste the bounty God bestows!
Great Lord of life, whose all-controlling might
Through wide creation beams divinely bright,
Nor only does thy pow'r in forming shine,
But to annihilate, dread King! is thine.
Shouldst thou withdraw thy still-supporting hand,
How languid Nature would astonish'd stand!
Thy frown the ancient realm of night restore,
And raise a blank-where systems smil'd before!
See in corruption, all-surprising state,
How struggling life eludes the stroke of Fate;
Shock'd at the scene, though sense averts its eye,
Nor stops the wondrous process to descry;
Yet juster thought the mystic change pursues,
And with delight Almighty Wisdom views!
The brute, the vegetable world surveys,
Sees life subsisting ev'n from life's decays!
Mark there, self-taught, the pensive reptile come,
Spin his thin shroud, and living build his tomb!
With conscious care his former pleasures leave,
And dress him for th' bus'ness of the grave!
Thence, pass'd the short-liv'd change, renew'd he
springs,

Admires the skies, and tries his silken wings!
With airy flight the insect roves abroad,

An scorns the meaner earth he lately trod !
Thee, potent, let deliver'd Israel praise,
And to thy name their grateful homage raise!
Thee, potent God! let Egypt's land declare,
That felt thy justice awfully severe !
How did thy frown benight the shadow'd land!
Nature revers'd, how own thy high command!
When jarring elements their use forgot,
And the Sun felt thy overcasting blot!
When Earth produc'd the pestilential brood,
And the foul stream was crimson'd into blood!
How deep the horrours of that awful night,
How strong the terrour, and how wild the fright!
When o'er the land thy sword vindictive pass'd,
And men and infants breath'd at once their last,
How did thy arm thy favour'd tribes convey!
Thy light conducting point the patent way!

Obedient ocean to their march divide
The wat'ry wall distinct on either side;
While through the deep the long procession led,
And saw the wonders of the oozy bed!
Nor long they march'd, till, black'ning in the rear,
The vengeful tyrant and his host appear!
Plunge down the steep, the waves thy nod obey,
And whelm the threat'ning storm beneath the sea!
Nor yet thy pow'r thy chosen train forsook,
When through Arabia's sands their way they took;
By day thy cloud was present to the sight,
Thy fiery pillar led the march by night;
Thy hand amidst the waste their table spread,
With feather'd viands, and with heav'nly bread
When the dry wilderness no streams supplied,
Gush'd from the yielding rock the vital tide!
What limits can Omnipotence confine?
What obstacles oppose thy arm divine?
Since stones and waves their settled laws forego,
Since seas can harden, and since rocks can flow!
On Sinai's top, the Muse with ardent wing
The triumphs of Omnipotence would sing!
When o'er its airy brow thy cloud display'd,
Involv'd the nations in its awful shade;
When shrunk the Earth from thy approaching face,
And the rock trembled to its rooted base:
Yet where thy majesty divine appear'd,
Where shone thy glory, and thy voice was heard;
Ev'n in the blaze of that tremendous day,
Idolatry its impious rites could pay!

Oh shame to thought!-thy sacred throne invade,
And brave the bolt that linger'd round its head!

WISDOM.

O thou, who, when th' Almighty form❜d this all,
Upheld the scale, and weigh'd each balanc'd ball;
And as his hand completed each design,
Number'd the work, and fix'd the seal divine!
O Wisdom infinite! creation's soul,

Whose rays diffuse new lustre o'er the whole,
What tongue shall make thy charms celestial-known?
What hand, fair goddess! paint thee but thy own?
What though in Nature's universal store
Appear the wonders of almighty pow'r ;
Pow'r, unattended, terrour would inspire,
Aw'd must we gaze, and comfortless admire.
But when fair Wisdom joins in the design,
The beauty of the whole result, 's divine!

Hence life acknowledges its glorious cause,
And matter owns its great Disposer's laws;
Hence in a thousand different models wrought,
Now fix'd to quiet, now allied to thought;
Hence flow the forms and properties of things,
Hence rises harmony, and order springs;
Else, had the mass a shapeless chaos lay,
Nor ever felt the dawn of Wisdom's day!

See how, associate, round their central sun
Their faithful rings the circling planets run;
Still equi-distant, never yet too near,

Exactly tracing their appointed sphere.
Mark how the Moon our flying orb pursues,
While from the Sun her monthly light renews,
Breathes her wide influence on the world below,
And bids the tides alternate ebb and flow.
View how in course the constant seasons rise,
Deform the Earth, or beautify the skies:
First, Spring advancing, with her flow'ry train;
Next, Summer's hand, that spreads the sylvan scenes