And instant thunder shook the conscious grove
Then melted into air the liquid cloud,
And all the shining vision stood reveal'd.

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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
Æthereal: there in mystic signs engrav'd,
I read his office high and sacred name,
Genius of human kind! Appall'd I gaz'd
The godlike presence; for athwart his brow
Displeasure, temper'd with a mild concern,
Look'd down reluctant on me, and his words
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,
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;

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250

That so thy selfish, unrelenting heart

Might cease to mourn its lot, no longer then
The wretched heir of evils not its own?
O fair benevolence of generous minds!

260

Wan

O man by Nature form'd for all mankind!"
He spoke: abash'd and silent I remain'd, watu, ss.
As conscious of my tongue's offence, and aw'd
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."
I look'd, and lo! the former scene was chang'd;
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,

272

The brown woods wav'd; while ever-trickling
springs

Wash'd from the naked roots of oak and pine
The crumbling soil; and still at every fall
Down the steep windings of the channel'd rock,
Remurmuring rush'd the congregated floods.
With hoarser inundation; till at last

280

They reach'd a grassy plain, which from the skirts
Of that high desert spread her verdant lap,
And drank the gushing moisture, where, confin'd

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
As in a sylvan theatre enclos'd

That flowery level. On the river's brink

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I spied a fair pavilion, which diffus'd
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 aw'd, 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, 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;
Yet, by immense benignity inclin'd
To spread around him that primeval joy
Which fill'd himself, he rais'd his plastic arm,
And sounded through the hollow depths of space
The strong, creative mandate. Straight arose

310

These heavenly orbs, the glad abodes of life,
Effusive kindled by his breath divine

Through endless forms of being.

Each inhal'd
From him its portion of the vital flame,

In measure such, that, from the wide complex 30
Of coexistent orders, one might rise,
One order, 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 dispos'd
To every living soul of every kind

The field of motion and the hour of rest,
That all conspir'd to his supreme design,
To universal good: with full accord
Answering the mighty model he had chose,
The best and fairest of unnumber'd worlds
That lay from everlasting in the store
Of his divine conceptions. Nor content,
By one exertion of creative power

His goodness to reveal; through every age,
Through every moment up the tract of time,
His parent hand with ever new increase
Of happiness and virtue has adorn'd

The vast harmonious frame: his parent hand,
From the mute shell-fish gasping on the shore.
To men, to angels, to celestial minds

830

the best.

дак

possive flie

340

For ever leads the generations on

To higher scenes of being; while, supplied
From day to day with his enlivening breath,
Inferior orders in succession rise

To fill the void below.

As flame ascends,
As bodies to their proper centre move,

As the pois'd ocean to the attracting moon
Obedient swells, and every headlong stream
Devolves its winding waters to the main;
So all things which have life aspire to God,
The sun of being, boundless, unimpair'd,
Centre of souls! Nor does the faithful voice
Of Nature cease to prompt their eager steps
Aright; nor is the care of Heaven withheld
From granting to the task proportion'd aid;
That in their stations all may persevere
To climb the ascent of being, and approach
For ever nearer to the life divine.

950

880

"That rocky pile thou seest, that verdant lawn Fresh-water'd from the mountains.

Paint in thy fancy the primeval seat

Let the scene

Of man, and where the Will Supreme ordain'd
His mansion, that pavilion fair-diffus'd

Along the shady brink; in this recess

To wear the appointed season of his youth,
Till riper hours should open to his toil

The high communion of superior minds,
Of consecrated heroes and of gods.
Nor did the Sire Omnipotent forget

His tender bloom to cherish; nor withheld

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