Of Majesty divine : refulgent there
Ten thousand suns blaze forth, with each his trai
Of worlds dependent, all beneath the eye
And equal rule of one eternal Lord.
To those bright climes, awakening all her powers
And spreading her unbounded wing; the Muse
Ascending soars, on through the fluid fpace,
The buoyant atmosphere; whose vivid breath,
Soul of all sublunary life, pervades
The realms of Nature, to her inmost depths
Diffus’d with quickening energy. Now ftill,
From pole to pole th' aëreal ocean: sleeps,
One limpid vacancy: now rouz’d to rage
By blustering meteors, wind, hail, rain,' or cloud
With thunderous fury charg'd, its billows risé,
And shake the nether orb. Still as I mount,
A path the vulture's eye hath not observ’d,
Nor foot of eagle trod, th’ ethereal sphere
Receding flies apptoach; its circling arch
Alike remote, translucent, and serene,
Glorious expansion ! by th’Almighty spread,
Whose limits who hath seen! or who with hiin
Hath walk'd the fun-pav’d circuit from old time,
And visited the host of heaven around!

Gleaming a borrow'd light, from whence how small
The fpeck of earth, and dim air eircumfus'd!
Mutable region, vext with hourly change.
But here, unruffled calm her even reign
Maintains external : here the lord of day,
The neighbouring fun, shines out in all his strength,

Noor

Noon without night. Attracted by his beam,
I thither bend my flight, tracing the source
Where.morning springs; whence herinnumerous streams
Flow lucid forth, and roll through trackless ways
Their white waves o'er the sky. The fountain-orb,
Dilating as I rife, beyond the ken
Of mortal eye, to which earth, ocean, air,
Are but a central point, expands immense,
A foreless sea of fluctuating fire,
That deluges all ether with its tide.
What
power

is that, which to its circle bounds
The violence of flame! in rapid whirls
Conflicting, floods with floods, as if to leave
Their place, and, bursting, overwhelm, the world!
Motion incredible! to which the rage
Of oceans, when whole winter blows at once
In hurricane, is peace. But who shall tell
That radiance beyond measure, on the fun
Pour'd out tranfcendent ! those keen-flashing rays
Thrown round his state, and to yon worlds afar
Supplying days and seasons, life and joy!
Such Virtue He, the Majesty of Heaveny
Brightness original, all-bounteous king,
Hath to his creature lent, and crown'd his sphere
With matchless glory. Yet not all alike
Resplendent: in these liquid regions pure,
Thick mifts, condensing; darken into spots,
And dim the day. Whence that malignant light,
When Cæsar bled, which fadden'd all the year,
With long eclipfo. Some at the centre rise

In shady circles, like the moon beheld
From earth, when she her unenlighten'd face
Turns thitherward opaque: a space they brood
In congregated clouds ;. then breaking float
To all sides round. Dilated fome and denie,
Broad as earth's surface each, by flow degrees
Spread from the confines of the light along,
Usurping half the sphere, and fwim obfcure
On to its adverse coast; till there they fet,
Or vanish scatter'd: measuring thus the time,
That round its axle whirls the radiant orb.

Fairest of beings! first-created light!
Prime cause of beauty ! for from thee alone,
The sparkling gem, the vegetable race,
The nobler worlds that live and breathe, their charms,
The lovely hues peculiar to each tribe,
From thy unfailing source of fplendor draw!
In thy pure shine, with transport I survey
This firmament, and these her rolling worlds,
Their magnitudes, and motions: those how valt!
How rapid these! with swiftne's unconceiv'd,
From west to east in solemn pomp revolv'd,
Unerring, undisturb'd; the fun's bright train,
Progressive through the sky's light fiuent borne
Around their centre. Mercury the first,
Near bordering on the day, with speedy wheel
Flies swiftelt on, inflaming where he comes,
With sevenfold fplendor, all his azure road.

Next Venus to the westward of the fun, Full orb’d her face, a golden plain of light,

Circles

.

Circlės her larger round. Fair morning-star!
That leads on dawning day to yonder world,
The seat of man, hung in the heavens remote,
Whose northern hemisphere, descending, sees.
The fun arise ;. as through the zodiac rollid,
Full in the middle path oblique the winds
Her annual orb: and by lier fide the Moon,
Campanion of her flight, whose folemur beams,
Nocturnal, to her darken'd globe supply
A fofter day-light; whose attractive power
Swells all her seas and oceans-into tides,
From the mid-deeps o’erfiowing to their shores,

Beyond the sphere of Mars, in distant skies,
Revolves the mighty magnitude of Jove,
With kingly state, the rival of the fun.
About him round, four planetary moons,
On earth with wonder all night long beheld,'-
Moon above moon, his fair attendants, dance. -
These, in th’ horizon, flow-ascending climb
The steep of heaven, and, mingling in soft flow
Their silver radiance, brighten as they rise.
Those oppofite roll downward from their noon
To where the shade of Jove, outstretch'd in length
A dusky cone immense, darkens the sky
Through many a region. To these bonnds arriv'd,
A gradual pale creeps dim o'er each sad orb,
Fading their lustre ; till they sink involvid
In total night, and disappear eclips'd.
By this, the Sage, who, studious of the skies,
Heedful explores these late-discover'd worlds,

By

By this observ'd, the rapid progress finds
Of light itself: how swift the headlong ray
Shoots from the sun's height through unbounded space,
At once enlightning air, and earth, and heaven.

Last, outmost Saturn walks his frontier-round,
The boundary of worlds ; with his pale moons,
Faint-glimmering through the darkness night has thrown,
Deep-dy'd and dead, o'er this chill globe forlorn :
An endless desert, where extreme of cold.
Eternal fits, as in his native feat,
On wintery hills of never thawing ice !
Such Saturn's earth ;, and yet ev'n here the fighty.
Amid these doleful scenes, new matter finds
Of wonder and delight! a mighty ring,
On each side rising from th' horizon's verge,
Self-pois’d in air, with its bright circle round:
Encompañeth his orb. As night comes on,
Saturn's broad Made, cast on its eastern arch,
Climbs slowly to its height: and at tli? approach
Of morn returning, with like stealthy pace
Draws westward off; till, though the lucid-round,
In distant view th' illumin'd skies are seen.

Beauteous appearance! by th' Almighty's handi
Peculiar fashion'd.-Thine these noble works,
Great, universal Ruler! earth and heaven
Are thine, spontaneous offspring of thy will,
Seen with transcendent ravishment sublime,
That lifts the soul to thee! a holy joy,
By reason prompted, and by reason swellid
Beyond all height-for thou art infinite !

Thy