LITMIR.BIZ

      Portentous deem'd. Amid the radiant orbs

      That more than deck, that animate the sky,

      The life-infusing suns of other worlds,

      Lo! from the dread immensity of space

      Returning, with accelerated course,

      The rushing cornet to the sun descends;

      And as he sinks below the shading earth,

      With awful train projected o'er the heavens,

      The guilty nations tremble. But, above

      Those superstitious horrors that enslave

      The fond sequacious herd, to mystic faith

      And blind amazement prone, the enliven'd few,

      Whose god-like minds philosophy exalts,

      The glorious stranger hail. They feel a joy

      Divinely great: they in their powers exult,

      That wondrous force of thought which mounting spurns

      This dusky spot and measures all the sky,

      While from his far excursion through the wilds

      Of barren ether, faithful to his time,

      They see the blazing wonder rise anew,

      In seeming terror clad, but kindly bent

      To work the will of all sustaining Love;

      From his huge vapory train perhaps to shake

      Reviving moisture on the numerous orbs

      Through which his long ellipsis winds – perhaps

      To lend new fuel to declining suns,

      To light up worlds, and feed eternal fire.

      With thee, serene philosophy, with thee,

      And thy bright garland, let me crown my song!

      Effusive source of evidence, and truth!

      A lustre shedding o'er the ennobled mind,

      Stronger than summer noon; and pure as that

      Whose mild vibrations soothe the parted soul,

      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 mass of low desires

      That bind the fluttering crowd; and, angel-wing'd.

      The heights of science and of virtue gains,

      Where all is calm and clear; with nature round,

      Or in the starry regions, or the abyss,

      To reason's and to fancy's eye display'd:

      The first up-tracing, from the dreary void,

      The chain of causes and effects to him,

      The world-producing Essence, who alone

      Possesses being; while the last receives

      The whole magnificence of heaven and earth,

      And every beauty, delicate or bold,

      Obvious or more remote, with livelier sense,

      Diffusive painted on the rapid mind.

      Tutor'd by thee, hence poetry exalts

      Her voice to ages; and informs the page

      With music, image, sentiment, and thought,

      Never to die! the treasure of mankind,

      Their highest honor, and their truest joy!

      Without thee, what were unenlighten'd man?

      A savage roaming through the woods and wilds,

      In quest of prey; and with the unfashion'd fur

      Rough-clad; devoid of every finer art,

      And elegance of life. Nor happiness

      Domestic, mix'd of tenderness and care,

      Nor moral excellence, nor social bliss,

      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 wintry pole,

      Mother severe of infinite delights!

      Nothing, save rapine, indolence, and guile,

      And woes on woes, a still revolving train!

      Whose horrid circle had made human life

      Than non-existence worse; 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, philosophy directs

      The ruling helm; or, like the liberal breath

      Of potent heaven, invisible, the sail

      Swells out, and bears the 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 the ideal kingdom swift she turns

      Her eye; and instant, at her powerful glance,

      The obedient phantoms vanish or appear;

      Compound, divide, and into order shift,

      Each to his rank, from plain perception 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 unmix'd. But here the cloud,

      So wills Eternal Providence, sits deep.

      Enough for us to know that this dark state,

      In wayward passions lost, and vain pursuits,

      This infancy of being, can not prove

      The final issue of the works of God,

      By boundless Love and perfect Wisdom form'd,

      And ever rising with the rising mind.