r harass'd slaves but slender rest. 670
Thou, to whom midnight is immoral noon,
And the sun's noontide blaze, prime dawn of day;
Not by thy climate, but capricious crime,
Commencing one of our antipodes!
In thy nocturnal rove, one moment halt,
'Twixt stage and stage, of riot, and cabal;
And lift thine eye (if bold an eye to lift,
If bold to meet the face of injured Heaven)
To yonder stars: for other ends they shine,
Than to light revellers from shame to shame, 680
And, thus, be made accomplices in guilt.
Why from yon arch, that infinite of space,
With infinite of lucid orbs replete,
Which set the living firmament on fire,
At the first glance, in such an overwhelm
Of wonderful, on man's astonish'd sight,
Rushes Omnipotence--To curb our pride;
Our reason rouse, and lead it to that Power,
Whose love lets down these silver chains of light;
To draw up man's ambition to Himself, 690
And bind our chaste affections to His throne.
Thus the three virtues, least alive on earth,
And welcomed on heaven's coast with most applause,
An humble, pure, and heavenly-minded heart, 694
Are here inspired:--and canst thou gaze too long?
Nor stands thy wrath deprived of its reproof,
Or un-upbraided by this radiant choir.
The planets of each system represent
Kind neighbours; mutual amity prevails;
Sweet interchange of rays, received, return'd;
Enlightening, and enlighten'd! all, at once,
Attracting, and attracted! Patriot like, 702
None sins against the welfare of the whole;
But their reciprocal, unselfish aid,
Affords an emblem of millennial love.
Nothing in nature, much less conscious being,
Was e'er created solely for itself:
Thus man his sovereign duty learns in this
Material picture of benevolence.
And know, of all our supercilious race, 710
Thou most inflammable! thou wasp of men!
Man's angry heart, inspected, would be found
As rightly set, as are the starry spheres;
'Tis Nature's structure, broke by stubborn will,
Breeds all that uncelestial discord there.
Wilt thou not feel the bias Nature gave?
Canst thou descend from converse with the skies,
And seize thy brother's throat?--For what--a clod,
An inch of earth? The planets cry, "Forbear!"
They chase our double darkness; Nature's