Chaming a borrow'd light, whence how fmall The fpeck of earth, and dim air circumfus'd! Mutable region, vext with hourly change. But here, unruffled calm her even reign Maintains external: here the lord of day,

The neighbouring fun, fhines out in all its ftrength, Noen without night. Attracted by his beam, thither bend my flight, tracing the fource Where morning fprings; whence her innumerous ftreams

low lucid forth, and roll through tracklefs ways Their white waves o'er the fky. The fountain-orb, Dilating as I rife, beyond the ken

Of mortal eye, to which earth, ocean, air,
Are but a central point, expands immenfe,
4fhoreless fea 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, burfting, overwhelm the world!
Motion incredible! to which the rage
Of oceans, when whole winter blows at once
In hurricane, is peace. But who fhall tell
That radiance beyond meafure, on the fun
Pour'd out tranfcendant! thofe keen-flashing rays
Thrown round his ftate, and to you worlds afar
Supplying days, and feafons, life and joy!
Such virtue he, the majety of heaven,
Brightnefs original, all-bounteous king,
Hath to his creature lent, and crown'd his fphere
With matchlefs glory Yet not all alike
Refplendent: in thefe liquid regions pure,
Thick mifts, condenfing, darken into spots,
And dim the day. Whence that malignant light,
When Cæfar bled, which fadden'd all the year
With long eclipfe. Some at the centre rife
In fhady circles, like the moon beheld
From earth, when the her unenlighten'd face
Turns thitherward opaque: a fpace they brood
In congregated clouds; then breaking float
To all fides round. Dilated fome and denfe,
Broad as earth's furface cach, by flow degrees
Spread from the confines of the light along,
Ulurping half the fphere, and fwim obfcure
On to its adverfe coaft; till there they fet,
Or vanifh fcatter'd: meafuring thus the time,
That round its axle whirls the radiant orb.

Fairest of beings! firft-created light!
Prime caufe of beauty! for from thee alone,
The fparkling gem, the vegetable race, [charms,
The nobler worlds that live and breathe, their
The lovely hues pecular to each tribe,
From thy unfailing fource of splendour draw!
In thy pure fhine, with tranfport I furvey
This firmament, and thefe her rolling worlds,
Their magnitudes, and motions: thofe how vast!
How rapid thefe! with fwiftnefs unconceiv'd,
From weft to eaft in folemn pomp revolv'd,
Unerring, undisturb'd; the fun's bright train,
Progreffive through the fky's light fluent borne
Around their centre. Mercury the firit,
Near bordering on the day, with fpeedy wheel
Flies fwifteft on, inflaming where he comes,
With fevenfold fplendour, all his azure road.
Next Venus to the weftward of the fun,
Full orb'd her face, a golden plain of light,
Circles her larger round. Fair morning-ftar!

:

That leads on dawning day to yonder world,
The feat of man hung in the heavens remote,
Whofe northern hemifphere, defcending, fees
The fun arife; as through the zodiac roll'd,
Full in the middle path oblique the winds
Her annual orb and by her fide the moon,
Companion of her flight, whofe folemn beams,
Nocturnal, to her darken'd globe supply
A fofter day-light; whofe attractive power
Swells all her feas and oceans into tides,
From the mid-deeps o'erflowing to their fhores.
Beyond the sphere of Mars, in diftant skies,
Revolves the mighty magnitude of jove,
With kingly fate, 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,
Thefe, in th' horizon, flow-afcending climb
The fteep of heaven, and mingling in foft flow
Their filver radiance, brigh en as they tife:
Thofe oppofite roll downward from their noon
To where the fhade of Jove, outstretch'd in length
A dufky cone immenfe, darkens the fky
Through many a region. To thefe bounds arriv'd,
A gradual pale creeps dim o'c each fad orb,
Fading their luftre; till they link involv'd
In total night, and difappear eclips'd.
By this, the fage, who, ftudious of the flies;
Heedful explores thefe late-difcover'd worlds,
By this obferv'd the rapid progrefs finds
Of light itfelf: how fwift the headlong ray
Shoots from the fun's height through unbounded
fpace,

At once enlightening air, and earth, and heaven.

Laft, outmoft 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 defert, where extreme of cold
Eternal fits, as in his native feat,

On wintry hills of never-thawing ice!
Such Saturn's earth; and yet even here the fight,
Amid these doleful fcenes, new matter finds
Of wonder and delight! a mighty ring,
On each fide rifing from th' horizon's verge
Self-pois'd in air, with its bright circle round
Encompaffeth his orb. As night comes on,
Saturn's broad fhade, caft on its eastern arch,
Climbs flowly to its height: and at th' approach
Of morn returning, with like ftealthy pace
Draws weftward off; till through the lucid round,
In diftant view th' illumin'd skies are seen.

Beauteous appearance! by th' Almighty's hand
Peculiar fafaion'd.-Thine thefe roble works,
Great, univerfal ruler! earth and heaven
Are thine, fpontaneous offspring of thy will,
Seen with tranfcendent ravifhment fublime,
That lifts the foul to thee! a holy joy,
By reafon prompted and by reafon fwell'd
Beyond all height-for thou art infinite!
Thy virtual energy the frame of things
Pervading actuates: as at firft thy hand
Diffus'd through endless space this limpid fky,
Vaft ocean without form, where thefe huge
globes

Sail undisturb d, a rounding voyage each;
Obfervant all of one unchanging law.

ich on his pale horse rides; the minifters angry heaven, to fcourge offending worlds! But lo! where one, from fome far world return'd,

ines out with fudden glare through yonder fky, egion of darkness, where a fun's loft globe, sep overwhelm'd with night, extinguish'd lies. fome hid power attracted from his path, carful commotion ! into that dusk tract, he devious comet, steep descending, falls ith all his flames, rekindling into life h' exhausted orb: and swift a flood of light reaks forth diffufive through the gloom, and fpreads

Lorient streams to his fair train afar

f moving fires, from night's dominion won,
nd wondering at the morn's unhop'd return.
In ftill amazement lost, th' awaken'd mind
ontemplates this great view, a fun restor'd
With all his worlds while thus at large her flight
anges thefe untrac'd scenes, progreffive borne
ar through ethereal ground, the boundless walk
fipirits, daily travellers from heaven;
Vho país the mystic gulf to journey here,
earching th' Almighty maker in his works
rom worlds to worlds, and, in triumphant quire
f voice and harp, extolling his high praife.
Immortal natures! cloth'd with brightnefs
round,

Empyreal, from the fource of light effus'd,
More orient than the noon-day's stainless beam.
Their will unerring; their affections pure,
And glowing fervent warmth of love divine,
Whofe object God alone: for all things else,
Created beauty, and created good,
Illufive all, can charm the foul no more.
Sublime their intellect, and without fpot,
Enlarg'd to draw truth's endless prospect in,
Ineffable, eternity and time;

The train of beings, all by gradual scale
Defcending, fumleis orders and degrees;
Th' unfounded depth, which mortals dare not try,

Of God's perfections; how these heavens first fprung

From unprolific night; how mov'd and rul'd
In number, weight and measure; what hid laws
Inexplicable, guide the moral world.

Active as flame, with prompt obedience all
The will of heaven fulfil: fome his fierce wrath
Bear through the nations, peftilence, and war :
His copious goodness fome, life, light, and bliss,
To thoufands. Some the fate of empires rule,
Commiffion'd, fheltering with their guardian wings
The pious monarch, and the legal throne.

Nor is the fovereign nor th' illuftrious great, Alone their care. To every leffening rank Of worth propitious, these bleft minds embrace With univerfal love, the juft and good, Wherever found; unpriz'd, perhaps unknown, Depreft by fortune, and with hate pursued, Or infult from the proud oppreffor's brow. Yet dear to heaven, and meriting the watch Of angels o'er his unambitious walk, At morn or eve, when nature's fairest face, Calmly magnificent, infpires the foul With virtuous raptures, prompting to forfake The fin-born vanities, and low purfuits, That bufy human kind; to view their ways With pity; to repay, for numerous wrongs, Meekness and charity. Or, rais'd aloft, Fir'd with ethereal ardour, to furvey The circuit of creation, all these funs With all their worlds: and ftill from height to height,

By things created rifing, laft afcend

To that firft caufe, who made, who governs ail,
Fountain of being, felf-existent power,
All-wife, all-good, who from eternal age
Endures, and fills th' immenfity of space;
That infinite diffufion, where the mind
Conceives no limits; undistinguish'd void,
Invariable, where no land-marks are,
No paths to guide imagination's flight.

CANTO I.

FAR in the watery wafte, where his broad wave
from world to world the vaft Atlantic rolls,
On from the piny fhores of Labrador
To frozen Thule east, her airy height
Aloft to heaven remotest Kilda lifts;
Laft of the sea-girt Hebrides, that guard,
in filial train, Britannia's parent-coaft.

Thrice happy land! though freezing on the verge
Of arctic fkies; yet, blameleis ftill of arts
That polish to deprave, each fofter clime,
With fimple nature, fimple virtue bleft!
Beyond Ambition's walk: where never War
Uprear'd his fanguine ftandard; nor unsheath'd,
For wealth or power, the defolating sword.
Where luxury, foft fyren, who around
To thousand nations deals her nectar'd cup
Of pleasing bane, that soothes at once and kills,
Is yet a name unknown. But calm content
That lives to reafon; ancient faith that binds
The plain community of guilele's hearts
In love and union; innocence of ill

Their guardian genius: these, the powers that rule
This little world, to all its fons fecure
Man's happiest life; the foul ferene and found
From paflion's rage, the body from disease.
Red on cach cheek behold the rose of health;
Firm in each finew vigour's pliant spring,
By temperance brac'd to peril and to pain,
Amid the floods they ftem, or on the steep
Of upright rocks their ftraining steps furmount,
For food or paftime. Thefe light up their morn,
And clofe their eve in flumbers fweetly deep,
Beneath the north, within the circling (well
Of ocean's raging found. But laft and best,
What avarice, what ambition fhall not know,
True liberty is theirs, the heaven-fent guest,
Who in the cave, or on th' uncultur'd wild,
With independence dwells; and peace of mind,
In youth, in age, their fun that never sets.
Daughter of heaven and nature, deign thy aid,
Spontaneous mufe! O whether from the depth
Of evening forest, brown with broadest shade';
Or from the brow fublime of vernal Alp
As morning dawns; or from the vale at noon,
By fome foft ftream that flides with liquid foot;
Through bowery groves, where infpiration fits
And liftens to thy lore, aufpicious come!
O'er thefe wild waves, o'er this unharbour'd shore,
Thy wing high-hovering fpread; and to the gale,
The boreal fpirit breathing liberal round
From echoing hill to hill, the lyre attune
With answering cadence free, as beft beseems
The tragic theme my plaintive verfe unfolds.
Here, good Aurelius---and a fcene more wild
The world around, or deeper folitude,
Affliction could not find---Aurelius here,
By fate unequal and the crime of war
Expell'd his native home, the facred vale
That faw him bleft, now wretched and unknown,
Wore out the flow remains of fetting life
In bitterness of thought: and with the furge,
And with the founding ftorm, his murmur`d moan,
Would often mix---Oft as remembrance fad
Th' unhappy paft recall'd; a faithful wife,

Whom love first chofe, whom reafon long endear'd,
His foul's companion and his fofter friend;
With one fair daughter, in her rofy prime,
Her dawn of opening charms, defenceless left
Within a tyrant's grafp! his foe profefs'd,
By civil madness, by intemperate zeal
For differing rites, embitter'd into hate,
And cruelty remorfelefs!--Thus he liv'd:
If this was life, to load the blast with fighs;
Hung o'er its edge, to fwell the flood with tears!
At midnight hour; for midnight frequent heard
The lonely mourner, defolate of heart,
Pour all the husband, all the father forth
In unavailing arguifh; ftretch'd along
The naked beach; or fhivering on the clift,
Smote with the wintery pole in bitter ftorm,
Hail, fnow, and shower, dark-drifting round his
[friend,

head.

Such were his hours; till time, the wretch's Life's great physician, skill'd alone to close, Where forrow long has wak'd, the weeping eye, And from the brain, with baleful vapours black, Each fullen fpectre chafe, his balm at length, Lenient of pain, through every fever'd pulle With gentleft hand infus'd. A penfive calm Arofe, but unaffur'd: as, after winds Of ruffling wing, the fea fubfiding flow Still trembles from the ftorm. Now Keafon first, Her throne refuming, bid Devotion raise To heaven his eye; and through the turbid mist, By fenfe dark-drawn between, adoring own, Sole arbiter of fate, one caufe fupreme, All-juft, all-wife, who bids what still is beft, In cloud or funfhine; whofe fevereft hand Wounds but to heal, and chaftens to amend.

Thus, in his bolom, every weak excefs, The rage of grief, the fellnefs of revenge, To healthful measure temper'd and reduc'd By Virtue's hand; and in her brightening beam Each error clear'd away, as fen-born fogs Before th' afcending fun; through faith he lives Beyond Time's bounded continent, the walks Of Sin and Death. Anticipating heaven In pious hope, he feems already there, Safe on her facred fhore; and fees beyond, In radiant view, the world of light and love, Where Peace delights to dwell; where one fair

morn

Still orient fmiles, and one diffufive spring,
That fears no storm and shall no winter know,
Th' immortal year empurples. If a figh
Yet murmurs from his breaft; 'tis for the pangs
Thofe deareft names, a wife, a child muft feel,
Still fuffering in his fate: 'tis for a foe,
Who, deaf himself to mercy, may of heaven
That mercy, when moft wanted, afk in vain.

The fun, now ftation'd with the lucid Twins,
O'er every fouthern clime had pour'd profuse
The rofy year; and in each pleating hue,
That greens the leaf, or through the bioffom glows
With florid light, his faireit month array'd:
While Zephyre, while the filver-footed dews,
Her foft attendants, wide o'er field and grove
Fresh ipirit breathe, and thed perfuming balm.
Nor here, in this chill region, on the brow
Of winter's wafte dominion, is untelt
The ray ethereal, or unhail'd the rife