Classic Poem

Than one, more dense — than t'other, more refin'd;
If spirit, organiz'd — if matter, mind:
Their essence one, imperishable, bright,
Vital throughout, all heart, ear, sense, and sight.

Thro' various worlds still varying species range,
While order knits, and beautifies by change;
While from the U NCHANGEABLE , the One , the W ISE ,
Still changing endless emanations rise,
Of substance duplicate, or triple, mix'd,
Single, ambiguous, or free, or fix'd;
From those array'd in heaven's resplendent robes,
To the brute essence on terrestrial globes;
Nor such inelegant, nor less demand
The curious texture of the Almighty Hand:
Thrice happy all, and lords of wide domains,
Celestial vales, and elemental plains!
One is the F LOOD which universal flows;
And hence the reptile, hence the Seraph glows:
Still equal, tho' inequal, that and this;
Since fulness bounds, and all are fill'd with bliss.

Now had the E TERNAL A RCHITECT supreme,
In amplitude stretch'd out this wondrous frame,
Equipt magnificent the house of God,
Thro' height, and depth, his boundless, blest abode!
One house, one world, one universe divine,
Where countless orbs thro' countless systems shine;
Systems, which, viewed throughout the circuit wide,
Or lost, or scarce the pointed sight abide,
(Thro' space immense with diminution seen)
Yet boundless to those worlds that roll within;
Each world as boundless to its native race,
That range and wanton thro' its ample space,
Frequent, thro' fields, thro' clouds of fragrance stray,
Or skim the watery or etherial way:
For now, with vivid action, nature swarms,
And life's dear stream the purpling conduit warms;
The continent, blithe air, and floating seas,
The smiling lakes, swift floods, and winding bays,
The nooks, the crannies, nurse a numerous brood,
And aptly yield their alimental food,
Adjusted to the trunk's unwieldy size,
As nice proboscis of luxurious flies,
Or azure tribes that o'er the damson bloom,
And paint the regions of the ripening plum.
From every root, the lavish plenty grows;
In every stream, perpetual pleasure flows;
Each ravish'd sense with endless bounty feast,
The S OUL , and ear, and eye, and smell, and touch, and taste.
Their sweets, the blossoms plants and flowers bequeath;
Elixirs from the steaming vapours breath;
In balm imbosom'd every region lies,
Of ambient aether, and infolding skies;
As the great Mover wrapt each wheeling sphere
In the soft down of elemental air
Transparent, to imbibe the golden beam,
And wide around spun out th' etherial stream,
Where worlds in endless revolutions move,
And swim on the abyss of endless L OVE .

U RANIA ! N ATURE ! from thy heights descend,
And low to earth thy bright irradiance bend;
Dispel the clouds that round our fancy stray,
The mist that damps our intellectual ray;
And shew what power all height of power transcends,
And in one act performs ten thousand ends.
Say, why this globe has its appointed place,
And why not vagrant thro' the boundless space?
Why here preferr'd, sagacious to refuse
What thwarts propriety, convenience, use?
Why not more neighbour to the burning ray,
Or more remote from the declining day?
Or here, not sedentary fixt and still,
Admonish'd by no voice, obsequious to no will?
Or moving, why in circling eddies round,
And not progressive thro' the immense profound?
Or endless while the dizzy drunkard reels,
And round the sun its annual motion wheels,
Whence that innate and delegated power,
Central to spin the swift diurnal tour?
Not self revolv'd, throughout its airy race,
It might expose one constant sultry face,
Damn its antipodes with endless night,
And curse with fire the restless sons of light;
These ne'er to slumber on the dewy lawn,
Nor those to rise and bless the golden dawn.
Or tho' rotation duplicate endears
Sweet change of days, and nights, and rolling years;
What new vicissitudes of motion bring
The seasons, circling, to the vernal spring?
Whether thro' heaven the winding compass steers,
Or pendulous by mutual balance veers,
What S ECRET H AND the trepidation weighs,
Or thro' the zodiac guides the spiral pace?
What magick wand the floating orb confines
With polar circles, and the tropic lines?
Or does some V OICE the potent charm command?
Too potent for unwieldy worlds to stand! —
" Here, nor elsewhere, thou earth, thy station keep;
" Here, roll thy progress thro' the boundless deep!
" My Word's the bias, and my Will's the way,
" That wheels thy circlet round the lord of day;