through their wiry harps, below, above,
Nods the fair brow, the twinkling fingers move;
Soft-warbling flutes the ruby lip commands,
And cymbals ring with high uplifted hands.

TO CHAOS next the notes melodious pass,
How suns exploded from the kindling mass, 490
Waved o'er the vast inane their tresses bright,
And charm'd young Nature's opening eyes with light.
Next from each sun how spheres reluctant burst,
And second planets issued from the first.
And then to EARTH descends the moral strain,
How isles, emerging from the shoreless main,
With sparkling streams and fruitful groves began,
And form'd a Paradise for mortal man.

[Footnote: _To Chaos next_, l. 489.

Namque canebat uti magnum per inane coacta
Semina terrarumque, animaeque, marisque fuissent;
Et liquidi simul ignis; ut his exordia primis
Omnia, et ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis.
VIRG. EC. VI. l. 31.]

Sublimer notes record CELESTIAL LOVE,
And high rewards in brighter climes above; 500
How Virtue's beams with mental charm engage
Youth's raptured eye, and warm the frost of age,
Gild with soft lustre Death's tremendous gloom,
And light the dreary chambers of the tomb.
How fell Remorse shall strike with venom'd dart,
Though mail'd in adamant, the guilty heart;
Fierce furies drag to pains and realms unknown
The blood-stain'd tyrant from his tottering throne.

By hands unseen are struck aerial wires,
And Angel-tongues are heard amid the quires; 510
From aile to aile the trembling concord floats,
And the wide roof returns the mingled notes,
Through each fine nerve the keen vibrations dart,
Pierce the charm'd ear, and thrill the echoing heart.--

MUTE the sweet voice, and still the quivering strings,
Now Silence hovers on unmoving wings.--
--Slow to the altar fair URANIA bends
Her graceful march, the sacred steps ascends,
High in the midst with blazing censer stands,
And scatters incense with illumined hands: 520
Thrice to the GODDESS bows with solemn pause,
With trembling awe the mystic veil withdraws,
And, meekly kneeling on the gorgeous shrine,
Lifts her ecstatic eyes to TRUTH DIVINE! 524

END OF CANTO IV.

CONTENTS OF THE NOTES.

CANTO I.

Lin