Has stroked my drooping lids, and promises
My long arrear of rest: the downy god
(Wont to return with our returning peace)
Will pay, ere long, and bless me with repose.
Haste, haste, sweet stranger! from the peasant's cot,
The shipboy's hammock, or the soldier's straw, 2180
Whence Sorrow never chased thee; with thee bring
Not hideous visions, as of late, but draughts
Delicious of well tasted cordial rest,
Man's rich restorative; his balmy bath,
That supples, lubricates, and keeps in play
The various movements of this nice machine,
Which asks such frequent periods of repair.
When tired with vain rotations of the day,
Sleep winds us up for the succeeding dawn;
Fresh we spin on, till sickness clogs our wheels, 2190
Or death quite breaks the spring, and motion eads:
When will it end with me?
Thou, whose broad eye the future and the past
Joins to the present, making one of three
To mortal thought! Thou know'st, and Thou alone,
All knowing!-all unknown !—and yet well known!
Near, though remote ! and, though unfathom'd, felt!
And, though invisible, for ever seen!
And seen in all! the great and the minute.
Each globe above, with its gigantic race,
Each flower, each leaf, with its small people swarm'd,
(Those puny vouchers of Omnipotence !)
To the first thought that asks 'From whence?' declare
Their common source: thou fountain, running o'er
In rivers of communicated joy!
Who gavest us speech for far, far humbler themes!
Say by what name shall I presume to call
Him I see burning in these countless suns,
As Moses in the bush? Illustrious Mind!
The whole creation less, far less, to Thee,
Than that to the creation's ample round,
How shall I name Thee ?-How my labouring soul
Heaves underneath the thought, too big for birth!
'Great System of perfections! mighty Cause
Of causes mighty! Cause uncaused! sole root 2215
Of Nature, that luxuriant growth of God'
First Father of effects! that progeny
Of endless series; where the golden chain's
Last link admits a period, who can tell?
Father of all that is or heard or hears!
Father of all that is or seen or sees!
Father of all that is or shall arise!
Father of this immeasurable mass
Of matter multiform, or dense or rare,
Opaque or lucid, rapid or at rest,
Minute or passing bound! in each extreme
Of like amaze and mystery to man.
Father of these bright millions of the night!
Of which the least, full Godhead had proclaim'd,
And thrown the gazer on his knee-Or, say,
Father of spirits! nobler offspring! sparks
Is appellation higher still thy choice?
Father of matter's temporary lords!
Of high paternal glory, rich endow'd
With various measures, and with various modes 2235
Of instinct, reason, intuition; beams
More pale or bright from day divine, to break
The dark of matter organized (the ware
Of all created spirit) beams that rise
Each over other in superior light,
Till the last ripens into lustre strong,
Of next approach to Godhead. Father fond
(Far fonder than ere bore that name on earth)
Of intellectual beings! beings bless'd
With powers to please thee, not of passive ply
To laws they know not; beings lodged in seats
Of well adapted joys, in different domes
Of this imperial palace for thy sons;
Of this proud, populous, well policied,
Though boundless habitation, plann'd by Thee; 2250
Whose several clans their several climates suit,
And transposition, doubtless, would destroy.
Or, oh! indulge, immortal King! indulge
A title less august, indeed, but more
Endearing; ah' how sweet in human ears!
Sweet in our ears, and triumph in our hearts!
Father of immortality to man!
A theme that latcly* set my soul on fire-
And Thou the next! yet equal! thou by whom
That blessing was convey'd, far more! was bought,
Ineffable the price! by whom all worlds
Were made, and one redeem'd! illustrious Light
From Light illustrious! thou, whose regal power
Finite in time, but infinite in space,
On more than adamantine basis fix'd,
O'er more, far more, than diademns and thrones
Inviolably reigns, the dread of gods!
And, oh! the friend of man! beneath whose foot,
And by the mandate of whose awful nod,
All regions, revolutions, fortunes, fates,
Of high, of low, of mind, and matter, roli
Through the short channels of expiring time,
Or shoreless ocean of eternity,
Calm or tempestuous (as thy Spirit breathes)
In absolute subjection !—And, O Thou!
The glorious Third' distinct, not separate!
Beaming from both! with both incorporate,
And (strange to tell!) incorporate with dust!
By condescension, as thy glory, great,
Enshrined in man! of human hearts, if pure,
Divine inhabitant! the tie divine
Of heaven with distant earth! by whom, I trust, (If not inspired) uncensured this address
To Thee, to Them-to whom?-mysterious power! Reveal'd-yet unreveald'd! darkness in light!
Number in unity! our joy! our dread!
*See Nights the Sixth and Seventh,
The triple bolt that lays all wrong in ruin.
That animates all right, the triple Sun!
Sun of the soul! her never setting Sun!
Triune, unutterable, unconceived,
Absconding, yet demonstrable, Great God!
Greater than greatest' better than the best!
Kinder than kindest! with soft Pity's eye,
Or (stronger still to speak it) with thine own,
From thy bright home, from that high frmament 2295
Where thou, from all eternity, hast dwelt;
Beyond archangels' unassisted ken,
From far above what mortals highest call,
From Elevation's pinnacle, look down,
Through-what? confounding interval! through all,
And more, than labouring Fancy can conceive; 2301
Through radiant ranks of essences unknown?
Through hierarchies from hierarchies detach'd
Round various banners of Omnipotence,
With endless change of rapturous duties fired; 2305
Through wondrous beings' interposing swarms,
All clustering at the call, to dwell in thee;
Through this wide waste of worlds! this vista vast,
All sanded o'er with suns, suns turn'd to night
Before thy feeblest beam-look down--down-down,
On a poor breathing particle in dust,
Or, lower, an immortal in his crimes:
His crimes forgive! forgive his virtues too!
Those smaller faults, half converts to the right:
Nor let me close these eyes, which never more
May see the Sun (though Night's descending scale
Now weighs up Morn) unpitied and unbless'd!
in thy displeasure dwells eternal pain;
Pain, our aversion; pain, which strikes me now;
And, since all pain is terrible to man,
Though transient, terrible; at thy good hour,
Gently, ah, gently, lay me in my bed,
My clay-cold bed! by nature, now, so near;
By nature near, still nearer by disease!
Till then be this an emblem of my grave,
Let it outpreach the preacher; every night
Let it outcry the boy at Philip's ear,
That tongue of death! that herald of the tomb.
And when (the shelter of thy wing implored)
My senses, sooth'd, shall sink in soft repose,
O sink this truth still deeper in my soul,
Suggested by my pillow, sign'd by Fate,
First in Fate's volume, at the page of Man-
"Man's sickly soul, though turn'd and toss'd for ever
From side to s.de, can rest on Lought but Thee; 2335
Here in full trust, hereafter in full joy :"
On Thee, the promised, sure, eternal down
Of spirits, toil'd in travel through this vale :
Nor of that pillow shall my soul despond;
For-Love almighty! Love almighty! (sing,
Exult, Creation!) Love almighty reigns!
The death of death! that cordial of despair!
And loud Eternity's triumphant song!
'Of whom no more :-for, O thou Patron God!
Thou God and mortal! thence more God to man!
Man's theme eternal! man's eternal theme!
Thou canst not scape uninjured from our praise:
Uninjured from our praise can he escape
Who, disembosom'd from the Father, bows
The heaven of heavens to kiss the distant earth! 2350
Breathes out in agonies a sinless soul!
Against the cross Death's iron sceptre breaks !
From famish'd Ruin plucks her hunan prey !
Throws wide the gates celestial to his foes'
Their gratitude, for such a boundless debt,
Deputes their suffering brothers to receive!
And if deep human guilt in payment fails,
As deeper guilt, prohibits our despair!
Enjoins it, as our duty. to rejoice!
And (to close all) omnipotently kind,
Takes his delights among the sons of men."
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