Will pay, ere long, and bless me with reposo.
Haste, haste, sweet stranger! from the peasant's cot,
The shipboy's hammock, or the soldier's straw,
Whence sorrow never chas'd 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 tir'd with vain rotations of the day,
Sleep winds us up for the succeeding dawn;
Fresh we spin on, till sickness clogs our wheels,
Or death quite breaks the spring, and motion ends.
When will it end with me ?
"Thou only know'st, Thou, whose broad eye the future, and the past, Joins to the present; making one of three
To moral thought! Thou know'st, and Thou alone,
All-knowing!-all unknown!-and yet well known!
Near. though remote! and, though unfathom'd, felt! 2200
And, though invisible, for ever seen!
And seen in all the great and the minute :
Each globe above, with its gigantic race,
Each flow 'r, 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 gav'st 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 uncaus'd! sole Root
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,
Is appellation higher still, Thy choice?
Father of matter's temporary lords!
Father of spirits! nobler offspring! sparks
Of high paternal glory; rich endow'd
With various measures, and with various modes
Of instinct, reason, intuition; beams
More pale, or bright from day divine, to break
The dark of matter organiz'd (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 e'er bore that name on earth)
Of intellectual beings! beings bless'd
With pow'rs to please Thee; not of passive ply
To laws they know not; beings lodg'd 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
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 lately1 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 pow'r,
Finite in time, but infinite in space,
On more than adamantine basis fix'd,
O'er more, far more, than diadems, 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, roll
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;
''Lately:' Nights Sixth and Seventh.
And (strange to tell!) incorporate with dust!
By condescension, as Thy glory, great,
Enshrin'd in man! Of human hearts, if
Divine inhabitant! The tie divine
Of heav'n with distant earth! by whom, I trust
(If not inspir'd), uncensur'd this address
To Thee, to Them-to whom?-Mysterious Pow'r!
Reveal'd-yet unreveal'd! darkness in light;
Number in unity! our joy! our dread!
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, unconceiv'd,
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 firmament,
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;
Through radiant ranks of essences unknown;
Through hierarchies from hierarchies detach'd
Round various banners of Omnipotence,
With endless change of rapt 'rous duties fir'd;
Through wondrous being's interposing swarms,
All clust'ring 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 unblest!
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 out-preach the preacher; every night
Let it out-cry the boy at Philip's ear;1
That tongue of death! that herald of the tomb!
And when (the shelter of Thy wing implor'd)
My senses, sooth'd, shall sink in soft repose,
Oh, 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 side, can rest on naught but Thee:
Here, in full trust, hereafter, in full joy;
On Thee, the promis'd, 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!
That death of Death! that cordial of despair!
And loud Eternity's triumphant song!
"Of whom, no more :-For, O thou Patron-God!
''Philip's ear:''Remember, Philip, thou art mortal.'
|