English

GOODNESS .

Y E seraphs, who God's throne encircling still,
With holy zeal your golden censors fill:
Ye flaming ministers, to distant lands
Who bear, obsequious, his divine commands;
Ye cherubs, who compose the sacred choir,
Attuning to the voice the' angelic lyre!
Or ye, fair natives of the heavenly plain,
Who once were mortal, — now a happier train!
Who spend in peaceful love your joyful hours,
In blissful meads and amaranthine bow'rs.
Oh, lend one spark of your celestial fire,

PROVIDENCE .

A S from some level country's shelter'd ground,
With towns replete, with green enclosures bound,
Where the eye kept within the verdant maze,
But gets a transient vista as it strays;
The pilgrim to some rising summit tends,
Whence opens all the scene as he ascends;
So Providence the friendly height supplies,
Where all the charms of Deity surprise;
Here Goodness, Power, and Widom, all unite,
And dazzling glories whelm the ravish'd sight!

WISDOM .

O THOU , who, when the' Almighty form'd this all,
Upheld the scale, and weigh'd each balanc'd ball;
And as his hand completed each design,
Number'd the work, and fix'd the seal divine!
O Wisdom infinite! creation's soul,
Whose rays diffuse new lustre o'er the whole,
What tongues shall make thy charms celestial known?
What hand, fair goddess! paint thee but thy own?
What though in nature's universal store
Appear the wonders of almighty pow'r;

OMNIPOTENCE .

Far hence, ye visionary charming maids,
Ye fancied nymphs that haunt the Grecian shades!
Your birth who from conceiving fiction drew,
Yourselves producing phantoms as untrue:
But come, superior Muse! divinely bright,
Daughter of Heav'n, whose offspring still are light;
Oh condescend, celestial sacred guest!
To purge my sight, and animate my breast,
While I presume Omnipotence to trace,
And sing that Pow'r who peopled boundless space!

IMMUTABILITY .

As the Eternal and Omniscient Mind,
By laws not limited, nor bounds confin'd,
Is always independent, always free,
Hence shines confess'd Immutability!
Change, whether the spontaneous child of will,
Or birth of force — is imperfection still.
But he, all-perfect, in himself contains
Power self-deriv'd, and from himself he reigns!
If, alter'd by constraint, we could suppose,
That God his fix'd stability should lose;
How startles reason at a thought so strange!

OMNIPRESENCE .

Through th' unmeasurable tracks of space
Go, Muse divine! and present Godhead trace!
See where, by place uncircumscrib'd as time,
He reigns extended; and he shines sublime!
Shouldst thou above the Heav'n of Heav'ns ascend,
Couldst thou below the depth of depths descend,
Could thy fond flight beyond the starry sphere
The radiant Morning's lucid pinions bear!
There should his brighter presence shine confest,
There his almighty arm thy course arrest!

SPIRITUALITY .

O SAY , celestial Muse! whose purer birth
Disdains the low material ties of earth;
By what bright images shall be defin'd
The mystic nature of the' eternal Mind!
Or how shall thought the dazzling height explore,
Where all that reason can — is to adore!
That God's an immaterial essence pure,
Whom figure can't describe, nor parts immure;
Incapable of passions, impulse, fear,
In good pre-eminent, in truth severe;

UNITY .

Thus recognis'd, the spring of life and thought!
Eternal, self-deriv'd, and unbegot!
Approach, celestial Muse, the' empyreal throne,
And awfully adore the' exalted One!
In nature pure, in place supremely free,
And happy in essential unity!
Bless'd in himself, had from his forming hand
No creature sprung to hail his wide command;
Bless'd, had the sacred fountain ne'er run o'er,
A boundless sea of bliss that knows no shore!

ETERNITY .

Whence sprung this glorious frame? or whence arose
The various forms the universe compose?
From what Almighty Cause, what mystic springs
Shall we derive the origin of things?
Sing, heav'nly Guide! whose all-efficient light
Drew dawning planets from the womb of Night!
Since reason, by thy sacred dictates taught,
Adores a pow'r beyond the reach of thought.
First Cause of causes! Sire supreme of birth!
Sole light of Heav'n! acknowleg'd life of Earth;

PART VII

And they that went from Babel were a host
Of mighty men. And with them they bore forth
Monsters of bronze and grotesque images
Cast from the walls, and wandering in the plains
They worshiped these false gods and unto them
Were terror and disaster. For since God's hand
Cast down the vessels of their lying tongue,
Men dwelt no more in brotherhood, but built
Cities against each other, breeders of war,
And spoke with differing and hostile speech.
And they were scattered westward on the plains