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This Theatre!-what Eye can take it in?
By what divine Enchantment was it rais'd,
For Minds of the first Magnitude to launch
In endlefs Speculation, and adore?

One Sun by Day; by Night Ten thousand shine;
And light us deep into the DEITY,

How boundless in Magnificence and Might?
O what a Confluence of ethereal Fires,

From Urns un-number'd, down the Steep of Heav'n,
Streams to a Point, and centers in my Sight?

Nor tarries there; I feel it at my Heart;

My Heart, at once, it humbles, and exalts;
Lays it in Duft, and calls it to the Skies.
Who fees it, unexalted, and unaw'd?
Who fees it, and can stop at what is seen }
Material Off-spring of OMNIPOTENCE!
Inanimate, All animating Birth 1

Work worthy Him who made it! Worthy Praise!
All Praife Praife more than human! nor deny'd
Thy Praise Divine !-But tho' Man, drown'd in Sleep,
With-holds his Homage, not alone I wake;
Bright Legions fwarm unfeen, and fing, unheard
By mortal Ear, the glorious Architect,
In This His univerfal Temple, hung
With Luftres, with innumerable Lights,
That shed Religion on the Soul: At once,
The Temple, and the Preacher! O how loud
It calls Devotion? genuine Growth of Night!
Devotion! Daughter of Aftronomy!

An undevout Aftronomer is mad.

True; All Things speak a GOD; but, in the Small,
Men trace out Him; in Great, He feizes Man:
Seizes, and elevates, and raps, and fills

With new Inquiries, 'mid Associates new:
Tell me, ye Stars! ye Planets! tell me, all

Ye Starr'd, and Planeted, Inhabitants! What is it?

What

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What are these Sons of Wonder? Say, proud Arch! (Within whofe azure Palaces they dwell)

Built with Divine Ambition! in Difdain

Of Limit built! built in the Tafte of Heav'n!
Vaft Concave! Ample Dome! Waft thou defign'd
A meet Apartment for the DEITY?

Not fo; That Thought alone thy State impairs,
Thy Lofty finks, and fhallows thy Profound,
And ftreightens thy Diffufive; dwarfs the Whole,
And makes an Universe an Orrery.

But when I drop mine Eye, and look on Man,
Thy Right regain'd, thy Grandeur is reftor'd,
O Nature! wide flies off th' expanding Round:
As when whole Magazines, at once, are fir'd,
The fmitten Air is hollow'd by the Blow;
The vaft Difplofion diffipates the Clouds,
Shock'd Æther's Billows dash the diftant Skies
Thus (but far more) th' expanding Round flies off,
And leaves a mighty Void, a fpacious Womb,
Might teem with new Creation; Re-inflam'd
Thy Luminaries triumph, and affume
Divinity themselves: Nor was it strange,
Matter high wrought to fuch furprizing Pomp,
Such godlike Glory, ftole the Style of Gods,
From Ages dark, obtuse, and steep'd in Sense;
For, fure, to Sense, they truly are divine,
And half abfolv'd Idolatry from Guilt;
Nay, turn'd it into Virtue: Such it was
To thofe, who put forth all they had of Man
Unloft, to lift their Thought, nor mounted higher;
But, weak of Wing, on Planets perch'd; and thought
What was their Higheft, must be their Ador'd.

BUT They how weak, who could no higher mount? And are there, then, LORENZO! Thofe, to whom Unseen, and Unexistent, are the Same ?

And if Incomprehenfible is join'd,

Who

Who dare pronounce it Madnefs, to believe?
Why has the Mighty BUILDER thrown afide
All Measure in His Work; Aretch'd out His Line
So far, and spread Amazement o'er the Whole?
Then (as He took Delight in wide Extremes),
Deep in the Bofom of His Universe,

Dropt down that reafoning Mite, that Infect, Man,
To crawl, and gaze, and wonder at the Scene?
That Man might ne'er prefume to plead Amazement
For Disbelief of Wonders in Himself ;
Shall God be lefs miraculous, than what
His Hand has form'd? Shall Myfteries descend
From Un-myfterious? Things more Elevate,
Be more Familiar? Uncreated lie

More obvious than Created, to the Grafp
Of human Thought? The more of Wonderful
Is heard in Him, the more we fhould affent:
Could we conceive Him, GOD He could not be ;
Or He not GOD, or we could not be Men:

A GOD alone can comprehend a GOD;
Man's Distance how immenfe ?. On fuch a Theme,
Know This, LORENZO! (feem it ne'er fo ftrange,)}
Nothing can fatisfy, but what confounds ;
Nothing, but what aftonishes, is true.

The Scene thou feeft attefts the Truth I fing,
And ev'ry Star fheds Light upon thy Creed:
Thefe Stars, this Furniture, this Coft, of Heav'n,
If but reported, thou hadst ne'er believ'd;
But thine Eye tells thee, the Romance is true:
The Grand of Nature is th' Almighty's Oath,
In Reafon's Court, to filence Unbelief.

How my Mind, op'ning at this Scene, imbibes The moral Emanations of the Skies,

While nought, perhaps, LORENZO lefs admires? Has the Great Sov'reign fent Ten thousand Worlds To tell us, He refides above them All,

In Glory's unapproachable Recefs?
And dare Earth's bold Inhabitants deny
The fumptuous, the magnific Embaffy

A Moment's Audience? Turn we? nor will hear
From whom they come, or what they would impart
For Man's Emolument; fole Cause that stoops

Their Grandeur to Man's Eye? LORENZO! rouzes
Let Thought, awaken'd, take the Lightning's Wing,
And glance from Eaft to Weft, from Pole to Pole;
Who fees, but is confounded, or convinc'd,
Renounces Reafon, or a GOD adores?
Mankind was fent into the World to fee:
Sight gives the Science needful to their Peace;
That obvious Science asks Small Learning's Aid::
Wouldst thou on Metaphyfic Pinions foar ?
Or wound thy Patience amid Logic Thorns?
Or travel History's enormous Round ?
Nature no fuch hard Task injoins: She gave
A Make to Man directive of his Thought;
A Make fet upright, pointing to the Stars,
As who fhould fay, "Read thy chief Leffon there."
Too late to read this Manuscript of Heav'n,
When, like a Parchment-Scroll, fhrunk up by Flames
It folds LORENZO's Leffon from his Sight.

LESSON how various! Not the GoD alone,

I fee His Minifters; I fee, diffus'd

In radiant Orders, Effences fublime,

Of various Offices, of various Plume,
In heav'nly Liveries, diftinctly, clad,
Azure, Green, Purple, Pearl, or downy Gold,
Or all commix'd; they ftand, with Wings outspread,
Lift'ning to catch the Master's leaft Command,
And fly thro' Nature, e'er the Moment ends;
Numbers innumerable !-Well conceiv'd
By Pagan, and by Chriftian! O'er each Sphere
Prefides an Angel, to direct its Course,

And

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And feed, or fan, its Flames; or to discharge
Other high Trust unknown; For who can fee
Such Pomp of Matter, and imagine, Mind,
For which alone Inanimate was made,

More fparingly difpens'd? That nobler Son,
Far liker the great SIRE !—'Tis thus the Skies
Inform us of Superiors numberless,

As much, in Excellence, above Mankind,
As above Earth, in Magnitude, the Spheres:
Thefe, as a Cloud of Witnesses, hang o'er us;
In a throng'd Theatre are all our Deeds;
Perhaps, a Thousand Demi-gods defcend
On ev'ry Beam we fee, to walk with Men;
Awful Reflection! Stròng Restraint from Ill!
Yet, here, our Virtue finds still stronger Aid
From these ethereal Glories Senfe surveys;
Something, like Magick, ftrikes from this blue Vault;
With just Attention is it view'd? We feel
A fudden Succour, un-implor'd, un-thought;
Nature herself does Half the Work of Man:
Seas, Rivers, Mountains, Forefts, Defarts, Rocks,
The Promontory's Height, the Depth profound
Of Subterranean, excavated Grots,

Black-brow'd, and vaulted-high, and yawning wide
From Nature's Structure, or the Scoop of Time;
If ample of Dimenfion, vaft of Size,
Even These an aggrandizing Impulse give;

Of folemn Thoughts enthufiaftic Heights

Even Thefe infufe.-But what of Vaft in These?
Nothing ;-(or we must own the Skies forgot):

Much less in Art.-Vain Art! Thou Pigmy-Pow'r!
How doft thou fwell, and strut, with human Pride,
To fhew thy Littleness? What childish Toys,
Thy watry Columns squirted to the Clouds?
Thy bafon'd Rivers, and imprison'd Seas?
Thy Mountains molded into Forms of Men?

Thy

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