Thou art-All-glorious, All-beneficent,
All Wisdom and Omnipotence Thou art.
But is the æra of Creation fix'd

At when these worlds began? Could aught retard
Goodness, that knows no bounds, from blessing
Or keep th' immense Artificer in sloth? [ever,
Avaunt the dust-directed crawling thought,
That Puissance immeasurably vast,
And Bounty inconceivable, could rest
Content, exhausted with one week of action!
No-in th' exertion of thy righteous pow'r,
Ten thousand times more active than the Sun,
Thou reign'd, and with a mighty hand compos'd
Systems innumerable, matchless all,
All stampt with thine uncounterfeited seal.

But yet (if still to more stupendous heights
The Muse unblam'd her aching sense may strain)
Perhaps wrapt up in contemplation deep,
The best of Beings on the noblest theme
Might ruminate at leisure, scope immense !
Th Eternal Pow'r and Godhead to explore,
And with itself th' Omniscient Mind replete.
This were enough to fill the boundless All,
This were a Sabbath worthy the Supreme!
Perhaps enthron'd amidst a choicer few
Of spirits inferior, he might greatly plan
The two prime Pillars of the Universe,
Creation and Redemption-and a while
Pause-with the grand presentiments of glory,
Perhaps but all's conjecture here below,
All ignorance, and self-plum'd vanity—
O Thou, whose ways to wonder at 's distrust,
Whom to describe's presumption (all we can,
And all we may), be glorified, be prais'd.

A day shall come when all this earth shall
perish,

Nor leave behind ev'n Chaos; it shall come,
When all the armies of the elements
Shall war against themselves, and mutual rage,
To make Perdition triumph; it shall come,
When the capacious atmosphere above
Shall in sulphureous thunders groan, and die,
And vanish into void; the earth beneath
Shall sever to the centre, and devour

Th' enormous blaze of the destructive flames.
Ye rocks that mock the ravings of the floods,
And proudly frown upon th' impatient deep,
Where is your grandeur now? Ye foaming

waves,

That all along th' immense Atlantic roar,
In vain ye swell; will a few drops suffice
To quench the inextinguishable fire?
Ye mountains, on whose cloud-crown'd tops the
cedars,

Are lessen'd into shrubs, magnific piles,
That prop the painted chamber of the heavens,
And fix the earth continual: Athos, where!
Where, Tenerif,'s thy stateliness to-day?
What, Ætna, are thy flames to these? No more
Than the poor glow-worm to the golden sun.
Nor shall the verdant valleys then remain
Safe in their meek submission; they the debt
Of nature and of justice too must pay.
Yet I must weep for you, ye rival fair,

Arno and Andalusia; but for thee
More largely, and with filial tears must weep,
O Albion! O my country! Thou must join,
In vain dissever'd from the rest, must join
The terrors of th' inevitable ruin.

Nor thou, illustrious monarch of the day; Nor thou, fair queen of night; nor you, ye stars, Tho' million leagues and million still remote, Shall yet survive that day; ye must submit, Sharers, not bright spectators of the scene.

But tho' the Earth shall to the centre perish, Nor leave behind ev'n Chaos; tho' the air With all the elements must pass away, Vain as an idiot's dream; tho' the huge rocks, That brandish the tall cedars on their tops, With humbler vales must to perdition yield; Tho' the gilt sun, and silver-tressed moon, With all her bright retinue, must be lost: Yet thou, Great Father of the world, surviv'st Eternal, as thou wert. Yet still survives The soul of man immortal, perfect now, And candidate for unexpiring joys.

He comes! he comes! the awful trump I hear; The flaming sword's intolerable blaze

I see! He comes! th' Archangel from above. "Arise, ye tenants of the silent grave, "Awake incorruptible, and arise: "From east to west, from the Antarctic pole "To regions Hyperborean, all ye sons, "Ye sons of Adam, and ye heirs of heaven"Arise, ye tenants of the silent grave, "Awake incorruptible, and arise."

"Tis then, nor sooner, that the restless mind Shall find itself at home; and like the ark, Fix'd on the mountain top, shall look aloft O'er the vague passage of precarious life; And winds and waves, and rocks and tempests, Enjoy the everlasting calm of Heaven: [past, Tis then, nor sooner, that the deathless soul, Shall justly know its nature and its rise: "Tis then the human tongue,new-tun'd,shall give Praises more worthy the Eternal Ear. Yet what we can, we ought;-and therefore Thou,

Purge Thou my heart, Omnipotent and good!
Purge Thou my heart with hyssop, lest, like
Cain,

I offer fruitless sacrifice, and with gifts
Offend, and not propitiate the Ador'd.
Tho' Gratitude were blest with all the powers
Her bursting heart could long for; tho' the swift,
The fiery wing'd Imagination soar'd
Beyond Ambition's wish-yet all were vain
To speak him as he is, who is ineffable.
Yet still let reason thro' the eye of Faith
View him with fearful love; let Truth pronounce,
And Adoration on her bended knee,
With heav'n-directed hands, confess his reign,
And let the angelic, archangelic band,
With all the hosts of Heaven, cherubic forms,
And forms seraphic, with their silver trump
And golden lyres attend :-" For thou art holy,
"For thou art one, th' Eternal, who alone
"Exerts all goodness, and transcends all praise!"

§ 29. On the Immensity of the Supreme Being. Smart.

ONCE more I dare to rouse the sounding string, The Poet of my God-Awake, my glory, Awake, my lute and harp-myself shall wake, Soon as the stately night-exploding bird In lively lay sings welcome to the dawn.

List ye! how nature with ten thousand tongues Begins the grand thanksgiving, Hail, all hail; Ye tenants of the forest and the field! My fellow-subjects of th' Eternal King, I gladly join your matins, and with you Confess his presence, and report his praise.

O Thou, who or the lambkin or the dove,
When offer'd by the lowly, meek, and poor,
Prefer'st to pride's whole hecatomb, accept
This mean Essay, nor from thy treasure-house
Of glory immense the orphan's mite exclude,
What tho' the Almighty's regal throne be rais'd
High o'er yon azure Heaven's exalted dome,
By mortal eye unkenn'd-where East nor West,
Nor South nor blustering North has breath to
blow;

Albeit He there with angels and with saints
Hold conference, and to his radiant host
Ev'n face to face stands visibly confest;
Yet know, that nor in presence or in power
Shines he less perfect here; 'tis man's dim eye
That makes th' obscurity. He is the same;
Alike in all his universe the same.

Whether the mind along the spangled sky Measures her pathless walk, studious to view The works of vaster fabric, where the planets Weave their harmonious rounds, their march directing

Still faithful, still inconstant, to the sun;
Or where the comet, thro' space infinite
(Tho' whirling worlds oppose in globes of fire)
Darts, like a javelin, to his distant goal; [vens,
Or where in Heaven above, the Heaven of Hea-
Burn brighter suns, and goodlier planets roll
With satellites more glorious-Thou art there.
Or whether on the ocean's boisterous back
Thou ride triumphant, and with outstretch'd arm
Curb the wild winds and discipline the billows,
The suppliant sailor finds Thee there, his chief,
His only help-When Thou rebuk'st the storm,
It ceases, and the vessel gently glides
Along the glossy level of the calm.

O! could I search the bosom of the sea, Down the great depth descending, there thy works

Would also speak thy residence! and there
Would I, thy servant, like the still profound,
Astonish'd into silence muse thy praise!
Behold! behold! th' unplanted garden round
Of vegetable coral, sea-flowers gay, [tom,
And shrubs of amber from the pearl-pav'd bot-
Rise richly varied, where the finny race
In blithe security their gambols play:
While high upon their heads, Leviathan,
The terror and the glory of the main,
His pastime takes with transport, proud to see
The ocean's vast dominion all his own.

Hence thro' the genial bowels of the earth Easy may fancy pass; till at thy mines, Gani or Raolconda, she arrive, And from the adamant's imperial blaze Form weak ideas of her Maker's glory. Next to Pegu or Ceylon let me rove, Where the rich ruby (deem'd by sages old Of sov'reign virtue) sparkles ev'n like Sirius, And blushes into flames. Thence will I go To undermine the treasure-fertile womb Of the huge Pyrenean, to detect The agate and the deep-intrenched gem Of kindred jasper-Nature in them both Delights to play the mimic on herself: And in their veins she oft pourtrays the forms Of leaning hills, of trees erect, and streams Now stealing softly on, now thundering down In desperate cascades with flowers and beasts, And all the living landskip of the vale : In vain thy pencil, Claudio or Poussin, Or thine, immortal Guido, would essay Such skill to imitate-it is the hand Of God himself-for God himself is there. Hence with th' ascending springs let me ad

vance

Thro' beds of magnets, minerals, and spar,
Up to the mountain's summit, there t'indulge
Th' ambition of the comprehensive eye,
That dares to call th' horizon all her own.
Behold the forest, and th' expansive verdure
Of yonder level lawn, whose smooth-shorn sod
No object interrupts, unless the oak
His lordly head uprears, and branching arms
Extends-Behold in regal solitude,
And pastoral magnificence, he stands
So simple, and so great, the under-wood
Of meaner rank an awful distance keep.
Yet Thou art there, y'God himself is there,
Ev'n on the bush (tho' not as when to Moses
He shone in burning majesty reveal'd).
Nathless conspicuous in the linnet's throat
Is his unbounded goodness-Thee ber Maker,
Thee her Preserver chants she in her song;
While all the emulative vocal tribe
The grateful lesson learn-no other voice
Is heard, no other sound-for, in attention
Buried, ev'n babbling Echo holds her peace.
Now from the plains, where the unbounded
prospect

Gives liberty her utmost scope to range,
Turn we to yon inclosures, where appears
Chequer'd variety in all her forms,

Which the vague mind attract, and still suspend
With sweet perplexity. What are yon towers,
The work of laboring men and clumsy art,
Seen with the ringdove's nest? On that tall
beech

Her pensile house the feather'd artist builds-
The rocking winds molest her not; for see
With such due poise the wond'rous fabric's hung,
That, like the compass in the bark, it keeps
True to itself and stedfast ev'n in storms.
Thou idiot, that asserts there is no God,
View, and be dumb for ever-

Th' exulting ocean, and the highest heavens
He comprehended with a span, and weigh'd
The mighty mountains in his golden scales;
Who shone supreme, who was himself the light,
Ere yet Refraction learn'd her skill to paint,
And bend athwart the clouds her beauteous

bow.

When Knowledge at her father's dread comResign'd to Israel's king her golden key, [mand O! to have join'd the frequent auditors In wonder and delight, that whilom heard Great Solomon descanting on the brutes. O! how sublimely glorious to apply To God's own honor, and good-will to man, That wisdom he alone of men possess'd In plenitude so rich, and scope so rare. How did he rouse the pamper'd silken sons Of bloated Ease, by placing to their view The sage industrious Ant, the wisest insect, And best œconomist of all the field! Tho' she presumes not by the solar orb To measure times and seasons, nor consults Chaldean calculations, for a guide;

Yet, conscious that December's on the march,
Pointing with icy hand to Want and Woe,
She waits his dire approach, and undismay'd
Receives him as a welcome guest, prepar'd
Against the churlish Winter's fiercest blow.
For when as yet the favorable Sun

Gives to the genial earth th' enliv'ning ray,
Not the poor suffering slave, that hourly toils
To rive the groaning earth for ill-sought gold,
Endures such trouble, such fatigue, as she;
While all her subterraneous avenues, [meet
And storm-proof cells, with management most
And unexampled housewifery, she forms:
Then to the field she hies, and on her back,
Burden immense! she bears the cumbrous corn.
Then many a weary step, and many a strain,
And many a grievous groan subdu'd, at length
Up the huge hill she hardly heaves it home,
Nor rests she here her providence, but nips
With subtle tooth the grain, lest from her garner
In mischievous fertility it steal,

And back to day-light vegetate its way.
Go to the Ant, thou sluggard, learn to live,
And by her wary ways reform thine own.
But if thy deaden'd sense, and listless thought,
More glaring evidence demand; behold,
Where yon pellucid populous hive presents
A yet uncopied model to the world!
There Machiavel in the reflecting glass
May read himself a fool. The chemist there
May with astonishment invidious view
His toils outdone by each plebeian bee,
Who, at the royal mandate, on the wing,
From various herbs, and from discordant flowers,
A perfect harmony of sweets compounds.
Avaunt, Conceit! Ambition! take thy flight
Back to the prince of vanity and air!
O! 'tis a thought of energy most piercing; [force
Form'd to make pride grow humble; form'd to
Its weight on the reluctant mind, and give her
A true but irksome image of herself.
Woeful vicissitude! when man, fallen man,

Who first from Heaven, from gracious God himself

Learn'd knowledge of the brutes, must know, by brutes

Instructed and reproach'd, the scale of being;
By slow degrees from lowly steps ascend,
And trace Omniscience upwards to its spring!
Yet murmur not, but praise for tho' we stand
Of many a godlike privilege amerc'd
By Adam's dire transgression; tho' no more
Is Paradise our home, but o'er the portal
Hangs in terrific pomp the burning blade;
Still with ten thousand beauties bloom the earth,
With pleasures populous, and with riches
crown'd.

Still is there scope for wonder and for love
Ev'n to their last exertion-showers of blessings
Far more than human virtue can deserve,
Or hope expect, or gratitude return.
Then, O ye people, O ye sons of men,
Whatever be the color of your lives,
Whatever portion of itself his wisdom
Shall deign t'allow, still patiently abide,
And praise him more and more; nor cease to

chant

"All glory to th' Omniscient, and praise, "And pow'r, and domination in the height! "And thou, cherubic Gratitude, whose voice "To pious ears sounds silverly so sweet, "Come with thy precious incense, bring thy gifts,

"And with thy choicest stores the altar crown."

ΤΩ ΘΕΩ ΔΟΞΑ.

$31. On the Power of the Supreme Being. Smart.

"TREMBLE, thou Earth!" th' anointed poet [mountains!

said, "At God's bright presence; tremble all ye "And all ye hillocks on the surface bound!" Then once again, ye glorious thunders, roll! The Muse with transport hears ye; once again Convulse the solid continent! and shake, Grand music of Omnipotence, the isles! 'Tis thy terrific voice, thou God of power, 'Tis thy terrific voice; all nature hears it, Awaken'd and alarm'd; she feels its force; In every spring she feels it, every wheel, And every movement of her vast machine. Behold! quakes Apennine; behold! recoils Athos; and all the hoary headed Alps Leap from their bases at the god-like sound. But what is this, celestial tho' the note, And proclamation of the reign supreme, Compar'd with such as, for a mortal ear Too great, amaze the incorporeal worlds? Should Ocean to his congregated waves Call in each river, cataract, and lake, And with the wat'ry world down a huge rock Fall headlong in one horrible cascade, 'Twere but the echo of the parting breeze, When zephyr faints upon the lily's breast; Twere but the ceasing of some instrument, When the last lingering undulation

So mighty! so stupendous! so divine!

But not alone in the aërial vault
Does He the dread theocracy maintain;
For oft, enrag'd with his intestine thunders,
He harrows up the bowels of the earth,
And shocks the central magnet-Cities then
Totter on their foundations, stately columns,
Magnific walls, and heaven-assaulting spires.
What tho' in haughty eminence erect
Stands the strong citadel, and frowns defiance
On adverse hosts; tho' many a bastion jut
Forth from the rampart's elevated mound;
Vain the poor providence of human art,
And mortal strength how vain! while under-
neath

Triumphs his mining vengeance in th' uproar
Of shatter'd towers, riven rocks, and mountains,
With clamor inconceivable uptorn,
And hurl'd adown th' abyss. Sulphureous pyrites
Bursting abrupt from darkness into day,
With din outrageous and destructive ire,
Augment the hideous tumult, while it wounds
The afflictive ear, and terrifies the eye, [felt,
And rends the heart in twain. Twice have we
Within Augusta's walls, twice have we felt
Thy threaten'd indignation: but even Thou,
Incens'd Omnipotent, art gracious ever;
Thy goodness infinite but mildly warn'd us,
With mercy-blended wrath; O spare us still,
Nor send more dire conviction! We confess
That thou art He th' Almighty: we believe.
For at thy righteous power whole systems quake;
For at thy nod tremble ten thousand worlds.
Hark! on the winged whirlwind's rapid rage,
Which is and is not in a moment-hark!
On th' hurricane's tempestuous sweep he rides
Invincible, and oaks, and pines, and cedars,
And forests are no more. For, conflict dreadful!
The West encounters East, and Notus meets
In his career the Hyperborean blast.
The lordly lions shuddering seek their dens,
And fly like timorous deer; the king of birds,
Who dar'd the solar ray, is weak of wing,
And faints, and falls, and dies ;-while He su-

preme

Stands stedfast in the centre of the storm.
Wherefore ye objects terrible and great,
Ye thunders, earthquakes, and ye fire-fraught
wombs

Of fell volcanos, whirlwinds, hurricanes,
And boiling billows, hail! in chorus join
To celebrate and magnify your Maker,
Who yet in works of a minuter mould
Is not less manifest, is not less mighty.

Like heavy Saturn in th' ethereal space, [her, Begirt with an inexplicable ring.

If such the operations of his power, Which at all seasons and in every place (Rul'd by establish'd laws and current nature) Arrest th' attention; who, oh who shall tell His acts miraculous? when his own decrees Repeals he, or suspends; when by the hand Of Moses or of Joshua, or the mouths Of his prophetic seers, such deeds be wrought, Before th' astonish'd sun's all-seeing eye, That faith was scarce a virtue. Need I sing The fate of Pharoah and his numerous band Lost in the reflux of the wat'ry walls, That melted to their fluid state again? Need I recount how Samson's warlike arm, With more than mortal nerves was strung, Idolatrous Philistia? Shall I tell [t' o'erthrow How David triumph'd, and what Job sustain'd? -But, O supreme, unutterable mercy! O love unequall'd, mystery immense, [tion Which angels long t' unfold! 'tis man's redempThat crowns thy glory, and thy power confirms; Confirms the great, th' uncontroverted claim. When from the Virgin's unpolluted womb Shone forth the Sun of Righteousness reveal'd, And on benighted reason pour'd the day; "Let there be peace!" he said, and all was calm Amongst the warring world-calm as the sea When, "O bestill, ye boisterous winds!" he cried, And not a breath was blown, nor murmur heard. His was a life of miracles and might, And charity and love, ere yet he taste The bitter draught of death, ere yet he rise Victorious o'er the universal foe, And death, and sin, and hell in triumph lead. His by the right of conquest is mankind, And in sweet servitude and golden bonds Were tied to him for ever.-O how easy Is his ungalling yoke, and all his burdens Tis ecstasy to bear. Him, blessed Shepherd! His flocks shall follow thro' the maze of life, And shades that tend to day-spring from on high; And as the radiant roses, after fading, In fuller foliage, and more fragrant breath Revive in smiling spring, so shall it fare With those that love him-for sweet is their saAnd all Eternity shall be their spring. Then shall the gates and everlasting doors, At which the King of Glory enters in, Be to the saints unbarr'd: and there, where pleaBoasts an undying bloom, where dubious hope Is certainty, and grief-attended love Is freed from passion-there we'll celebrate, With worthier numbers, Him who is, and was, And, in immortal prowess King of kings, Shall be the monarch of all worlds for ever.

[vor,

[sure

Smart.