Nothing can satisfy, but what confounds;
Nothing, but what astonishes, is true.
The scene thou seest, attests the truth I sing,
And ev'ry star sheds light upon thy creed. 146
These stars, this furniture, this cost of heav'n,
If but reported, thou hadst ne'er believ'd;
But thine eye tells thee, the romance is true.
The grand of nature is th' Almighty's oath,
In Reason's court, to silence Unbelief.
Yet here our virtue finds still stronger aid
From those ethereal glories, sense surveys.
Something, like magic, strikes from this blue
With just attention is it view'd? We feel 25
A sudden succor, unimplor'd, unthought;
Nature herself does half the work of man.
Enter a temple, it will strike an awe.
What awe from this the Deity has built!
A good man seen, though silent, counsel
gives.
200
The touch'd spectator wishes to be wise.
In a bright mirror his own hands have made,
Here we see something like the face of God.
Seems it not then enough, to say, Lorenzo,
To man abandon'd, Hast thou seen the
skies ?"
And yet, so thwarted Nature's kind design
By daring man, he makes her sacred awe
(That guard from ill) his shelter, his tempta-
Of toys terrestrial, she can rove at large;
There, freely can respire, dilate, extend,
In full proportion, let loose all her pow'rs ; 295
And, undeluded, grasp at something great.
Nor, as a stranger, does she wander there;
But, wonderful herself, through wonder
strays;
ontemplating their grandeur, finds her own;
Dives deep in their economy divine,
300
Sits high in judgment on their various laws,
And like a master, judges not amiss.
Hence greatly pleas'd, and justly proud, the
Grows conscious of her birth celestial; breathes
More life, more vigor, in her native air;
And feels herself at home among the stars;
And, feeling, emulates her country's praise.
What call we then, the firmament, Loren-
zo?-
As earth the body, since, the skies sustain
The soul with food, that gives immortal life,
Call it the noble pasture of the mind;
Which there expatiates, strengthens and ex-
ults,
And riots through the luxuries of thought.
Call it the garden of the Deity,
Blossom'd with stars, redundant in the
growth
Of fruit ambrosial, moral fruit to man. Call it the breast-plate of the true High Priest, To more than common guilt, and quite inverts Ardent with gems oracular, that give, Celestial art's intent. The trembling stars 270 In points of highest moment, right response; See crimes gigantic, stalking thro' the gloom, And ill neglected, if we prize our peace. With front erect, that hide their head by day,How glorious, then, appears the mind of man, And making night still darker by their deeds. When in it, all the stars and planets roll! Slumb'ring in covert, till the shades descend, And what it seems, it is. Great objects make Rapine and Murder, link'd, now prowl for Great minds, enlarging as their views enlarge; 275 Those still more godlike, as these more di
The miser earths his treasure ;and the thief,
Watching the mole, half-beggars him
Now plots, and foul conspiracies, awake;
And, muffling up their horrors from the
Havoc and devastation they prepare,
And kingdoms tott'ring in the field of blood.
Now sons of riot in mid-revel rage.
Prepost'rous madmen, void of fear or shame.
Lay their crimes bare to these chaste eyes o
heav'n;
Yet shrink and shudder at a mortal's sight.2
Were moon and stars for villians only made:
To guide, yet screen them with tenebrio
light?
No; they were made to fashion the sublime
Of human hearts, and wiser makes the wise.
The soul of man was made to walk the
skies;
Delightful outlet of her prison here!
There, disencumber'd from her chains, the ties'
And set the seeming married planets free!
They rove for ever; without error rove!
Confusion unconfus'd. Nor less admire
This tumult untumultuous; all on wing!
In motion, all! yet what profound repose!
What fervid action, yet no noise! as aw'd 335
To silence, by the presence of their Lord;
Or hush'd by his command, in love to man,
And bid let fall soft beams on human rest,
Restless themselves. On yon cerulean plain,
In exultation to their god, and thine,
They dance, they sing eternal jubilee,
Eternal celebration of his praise.
Leaves so much wonder greater wonder
still?
And roll forever. Who can satiate sight In such a scene! in such an ocean wide Of deep astonishment? where depth, height, breadth, 395 Are lost in their extremes; and, where to count The thick-sown glories in this field of fire, Perhaps a seraph's computation fails. Now, go, Ambition! boast thy boundless might
In conquest o'er the tenth part of a grain. 399 Who turns his eye on nature's midnight face, But what must inquire-" What hand behind the scene,
What arm almighty, put these wheeling globes In motion, and wound up the vast machine? Who rounded in his palm these spacious orbs! Who bowl'd them flaming thio' the dark pro. found, 405
Num'rous as glitt'ring gems of morning-dew, Or sparks from pop'lous cities in a blaze, And set the bosom of old Night on fire? Peopled her desert, and made horror smile?" Or, if the military style delights thee, 410 (For stars have fought their battles, leagu'd with man,)
Where are the pillars that support the skies?
What more than Atlantean shoulder props 365" Who marshals this bright host? enrolls their
Th' incumbent load! What magic, what
In fluid air these pond'rous orbs sustains? Who would not think them hung in golden chains?
And so they are, in the high will of Heav'n,
Which fixes all; makes adamant of air,
Or air of adamant ; makes all of nought,
Or nought of all, if such the dread decree.
Ye citizens of air! what ardent thanks, What full effusion of the grateful heart, Is due from man, indulg'd in such a sight! A sight so noble ! and a sight so kind! It drops new truths at every new survey! Of higher scenes be, then, the call obey'd. O let me gaze!-Of gazing there's no end. O let me think!-Thought too is wilder'd here; In mid-way flight, imagination tires; Yet soon re-prunes her wings, to soar anew, Her point unable to forbear or gain; So great the pleasure, so profound the plan! A banquet this, where men and angels meet, Eat the same manna, mingle earth and heav'n. How distant some of these nocturnal suns !385 So distant (says the sage,t) 'twere not absurd To doubt, if beams, set out at nature's birth, Are yet arriv'd at this so foreign world; Though nothing half so rapid as their flight. An eye of awe and wonder let me roll,
Appoints their posts, their marches and returns,
Punctual as stated periods? Who disbands
These vet'ran troops, their final duty done,
If e'er disbanded ?"-He, whose potent word,
Like the loud trumpet, levy'd first their pow'rs
In Night's inglorious empire, where they slept
In beds of darkness, arm'd them with fierce
flames,
Arrang'd and disciplin'd, and cloth'd in gold;
And call'd them out of chaos to the field, 241
Where now they war with vice and unbelief.
Olet us join this army! Joining these,
Will give us hearts intrepid, at that hour,
When brighter flames shall cut a darker
night;
NO. 187. IMAGINARY JOURNEY TO THE NO. 188. ADDRESS TO THE INHABIT
For man's ascent; at once to tempt and aid; To tempt hise ye, and aid his tow'ring thought; Till it arrives at the great goal of all.
In ardent Contemplation's rapid car, From earth, as from my barrier, I set out. How swift I mount ! diminish'd earth recedes! I pass the moon; and from her farther side, Pierce heav'n's blue curtain; strike into mote; Where with his lifted tube, the subtle sage His artificial, airy journey takes, And to celestial, lengthens human sight. I pause at every planet on my road, And ask for Him who gives their orbs to roll,15 Their foreheads fair to shine. From Saturn's ring,
In which, of earths an army might be lost,
With the bold comet, take my bolder flight,
Amid those sov'reign glories of the skies,
Of independent, native lustre, proud!
The souls of systems, and the lords of life;
Through their wide empires !-What behold
I now?
A wilderness of wonders burning round;
Where larger suns inhabit higher spheres;
Perhaps the villas of descending gods!
Nor halt I here; my toil is but begun ;
'Tis but the threshold of the Deity;
Or far beneath it, I am grov'ling still.
Nor is it strange; I built on a mistake.
The grandeur of his works, whence folly
sought
For aid, to reason sets his glory higher; Who built thus high for worms; (mere worms to Him ;)
O where, Lorenzo! must the Builder dwell? Pause, then; and for a moment, here respire
If human thought can keep its station here. 35 Where am I? Where is earth?-Nay, where art thou,
O Sun? Is the sun turn'd recluse ?-and are
His boasted expeditions short to mine?
To mine, how short! On nature's Alps
stand,
And see a thousand firmaments beneath!
A thousand systems! as a thousand grains!
So much a stranger, and so late arriv'd,
How can man's curious spirit not inquire,
What are the natives of this world sublime,
Of this so foreign, un-terrestrial sphere,
Where, mortal, untranslated, never stray'd?
ANTS OF THE STARS.
"OYE, as distant from my little home,
As swiftest sun beams in an age can
fly!
Far from my native element I roam,
In quest of new and wonderful to man.
What province this, of his immense domain, 5
Vhom all obey? or mortals here, or gods?
Ye bord'rers on the coasts of bliss! what are
you?
colony from heav'n? or only rais'd, By frequent visit from heav'n's neighb'ring realms,
To secondary gods, and half-divine ?—
WWhate'er your nature, this is past dispute,
Far other life you live, far other tongue
You talk, far other thought, perhaps, you think
Than man. How various are the works of God!
But say, what thought? Is reason here en-
Intemperance to do the work of Age!
And, hanging up the quiver Nature gave him,
As slow of execution, for dispatch,
Sends forth imperial butchers; bids them slay
Their sheep (the silly sheep they fleec'd be-
fore,)
And toss him twice ten thousand at a meal.35
Sit all your executioners on thrones ?
With you, can rage for plunder make a god?
And bloodshed wash out ev'ry other stain?
IBut you, perhaps, can't bleed; from matter
gross
Your spirits clean, are delicately clad
In fine-spun ether, privileg'd to soar,
Unloaded, uninfected! How unlike
The lot of man! How few of human race,
By their own mud unmurder'd! How we wage
45 Self-war eternal!-Is your painful day
Of hardy conflict o'er? Or are you still
Raw candidates at school? And have you Ye searching, ye Newtonian angels! tell,
And nurses Folly's children as her own;
Fond of the foulest. In the sacred mount
Of holiness, where reason is pronounc'd
Infallible, and thunders, like a god;
Ev'n there, by saints, the demons are outdone.
What these think wrong, our saints refine to
right;
In still approaching circles, still remote, Revolving round the sun's eternal Sire? Or sent, in lines direct, on embassies And kindly teach dull hell her own black arts; To nations--in what latitude?-Beyond Satan, instructed, o'er their morals smiles.-Terrestrial thought's horizon !--And on what
But this how strange to you, who know not man !
Has the least rumor of our race arriv'd?
Call'd here Elijah, in this flaming car?
Past by you the good Enoch, on his road
To those fair fields, whence Lucifer was hurl'd;
Who brush'd, perhaps, your sphere, in his
scent;
High errands sent ?--Here human effort ends; And leaves me still a stranger to his throne. Full well it might! I quite mistook my road; Born in an age more curious than devout; More fond to fix the place of heav'n, or hell, Than studious this to shun, or that secure. de-'Tis not the curious, but the pious path, 65 That leads me to point. Lorenzo! know, Without or star or angel, for their guide, Who worship God, shall find him. Humble love,
Stain'd your pure crystal ether; or let fall
A short eclipse from his portentous shade,
O that the fier.d had lodg'd on some broad
orb
Athwart his way; nor reach'd his present home;
Then blacken'd earth, with footsteps foul'd in
hell;
Nor wash'd in ocean, as from Rome he past
To Britain's isle, too, too conspicuous there!"
NO. 189. CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS,
UT this is all digression. Where is he,
That o'er heav'n's battlements the felon
hurl'd
[is He,
To groans and chains and darkness? where
Who sees creation's summit in a vale?
He, whom, while man is man, he can't but
seek;
And not proud reason, keeps the door of heav'n; Love finds admission, where proud science fails.
70 Man's science is the culture of his heart;
And not to lose his plummet in the depths 35
Of nature, or the more profound of God.
Either to know, is an attempt that sets
The wisest on a level with the fool.
To fathom Nature (ill-attempted here!)
Past doubt is deep philosophy above.
Higher degrees in bliss archangels take,
As deeper learn'd! the deepest, learning still;
For, what a thunder of Omnipotence
(So might I dare to speak) is seen in all!
In man! in earth! in more amazıng skies! 45
Teaching this lesson, pride is loth to learn-
"Not deeply to discern, not much to know;
Mankind was born to wonder, and adore."
And if he finds, commences more than man?
O for a telescope, his throne to reach !
Tell me, ye learn'd on Earth, or bless'd above!
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