LITMIR.BIZ

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       The wretched heir of evils not its own?'

      Thus I impatient: when, at once effused, 220

       A flashing torrent of celestial day

       Burst through the shadowy void. With slow descent

       A purple cloud came floating through the sky,

       And, poised at length within the circling trees,

       Hung obvious to my view; till opening wide

       Its lucid orb, a more than human form

       Emerging lean'd majestic o'er my head,

       And instant thunder shook the conscious grove.

       Then melted into air the liquid cloud,

       And all the shining vision stood reveal'd. 230

       A wreath of palm his ample forehead bound,

       And o'er his shoulder, mantling to his knee,

       Flow'd the transparent robe, around his waist

       Collected with a radiant zone of gold

       Aethereal: there in mystic signs engraved,

       I read his office high and sacred name,

       Genius of human kind! Appall'd I gazed

       The godlike presence; for athwart his brow

       Displeasure, temper'd with a mild concern,

       Look'd down reluctant on me, and his words 240

       Like distant thunders broke the murmuring air:

      'Vain are thy thoughts, O child of mortal birth!

       And impotent thy tongue. Is thy short span

       Capacious of this universal frame?—

       Thy wisdom all-sufficient? Thou, alas!

       Dost thou aspire to judge between the Lord

       Of Nature and his works—to lift thy voice

       Against the sovereign order he decreed,

       All good and lovely—to blaspheme the bands

       Of tenderness innate and social love, 250

       Holiest of things! by which the general orb

       Of being, as by adamantine links,

       Was drawn to perfect union, and sustain'd

       From everlasting? Hast thou felt the pangs

       Of softening sorrow, of indignant zeal,

       So grievous to the soul, as thence to wish

       The ties of Nature broken from thy frame,

       That so thy selfish, unrelenting heart

       Might cease to mourn its lot, no longer then

       The wretched heir of evils not its own? 260

       O fair benevolence of generous minds!

       O man by Nature form'd for all mankind!'

      He spoke; abash'd and silent I remain'd,

       As conscious of my tongue's offence, and awed

       Before his presence, though my secret soul

       Disdain'd the imputation. On the ground

       I fix'd my eyes, till from his airy couch

       He stoop'd sublime, and touching with his hand

       My dazzling forehead, 'Raise thy sight,' he cried,

       'And let thy sense convince thy erring tongue.' 270

      I look'd, and lo! the former scene was changed;

       For verdant alleys and surrounding trees,

       A solitary prospect, wide and wild,

       Rush'd on my senses. 'Twas a horrid pile

       Of hills with many a shaggy forest mix'd,

       With many a sable cliff and glittering stream.

       Aloft, recumbent o'er the hanging ridge,

       The brown woods waved; while ever-trickling springs

       Wash'd from the naked roots of oak and pine

       The crumbling soil; and still at every fall 280

       Down the steep windings of the channel'd rock,

       Remurmuring rush'd the congregated floods

       With hoarser inundation; till at last

       They reach'd a grassy plain, which from the skirts

       Of that high desert spread her verdant lap,

       And drank the gushing moisture, where confined

       In one smooth current, o'er the lilied vale

       Clearer than glass it flow'd. Autumnal spoils

       Luxuriant spreading to the rays of morn,

       Blush'd o'er the cliffs, whose half-encircling mound 290

       As in a sylvan theatre enclosed

       That flowery level. On the river's brink

       I spied a fair pavilion, which diffused

       Its floating umbrage 'mid the silver shade

       Of osiers. Now the western sun reveal'd

       Between two parting cliffs his golden orb,

       And pour'd across the shadow of the hills,

       On rocks and floods, a yellow stream of light

       That cheer'd the solemn scene. My listening powers

       Were awed, and every thought in silence hung, 300

       And wondering expectation. Then the voice

       Of that celestial power, the mystic show

       Declaring, thus my deep attention call'd:—

      'Inhabitant of earth, [Endnote S] to whom is given

       The gracious ways of Providence to learn,

       Receive my sayings with a steadfast ear—

       Know then, the Sovereign Spirit of the world,

       Though, self-collected from eternal time,

       Within his own deep essence he beheld

       The bounds of true felicity complete, 310

       Yet by immense benignity inclined

       To spread around him that primeval joy

       Which fill'd himself, he raised his plastic arm,

       And sounded through the hollow depths of space

       The strong, creative mandate. Straight arose

       These heavenly orbs, the glad abodes of life,

       Effusive kindled by his breath divine

       Through endless forms of being. Each inhaled

       From him its portion of the vital flame,

       In measure such, that, from the wide complex 320

       Of coexistent orders, one might rise,

       One order, [Endnote T] all-involving and entire.

       He too, beholding in the sacred light

       Of his essential reason, all the shapes

       Of swift contingence, all successive ties

       Of action propagated through the sum

       Of possible existence, he at once,

       Down the long series of eventful time,

       So fix'd the dates of being, so disposed,

       To every living soul of every kind 330

       The field of motion and the hour of rest,

       That all conspired to his supreme design,

       To universal good: with full accord

       Answering the mighty

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