a parchment scroll, shrunk up by flames,
It folds Lorenzo's lesson from his sight.
Lesson how various! Not the God alone,
I see His ministers; I see, diffused
In radiant orders, essences sublime,
Of various offices, of various plume,
In heavenly liveries, distinctly clad, 880
Azure, green, purple, pearl, or downy gold,
Or all commix'd; they stand, with wings outspread,
Listening to catch the Master's least command,
And fly through nature, ere the moment ends;
Numbers innumerable!--well conceived
By Pagan, and by Christian! O'er each sphere
Presides an angel, to direct its course,
And feed, or fan, its flames; or to discharge
Other high trusts unknown. For who can see
Such pomp of matter, and imagine, Mind, 890
For which alone Inanimate was made,
More sparingly dispensed? 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.
These, as a cloud of witnesses, hang o'er us;
In a throng'd theatre are all our deeds; 898
Perhaps, a thousand demigods descend
On every beam we see, to walk with men.
Awful reflection! Strong restraint from ill!
Yet, here, our virtue finds still stronger aid
From these ethereal glories sense surveys.
Something, like magic, strikes from this blue vault;
With just attention is it view'd? We feel
A sudden succour, unimplored, unthought;
Nature herself does half the work of Man.
Seas, rivers, mountains, forests, deserts, rocks,
The promontory's height, the depth profound
Of subterranean, excavated grots[61], 910
Black brow'd, and vaulted high, and yawning wide
From Nature's structure, or the scoop of Time;
If ample of dimension, vast of size,
Even these an aggrandizing impulse give;
Of solemn thought enthusiastic heights
Even these infuse.--But what of vast in these?
Nothing;--or we must own the skies forgot.
Much less in art.--Vain art! Thou pigmy power!
How dost thou swell and strut, with human pride,
To show thy littleness! What childish toys, 920
Thy watery columns squirted to the clouds!
Thy basin'd rivers, and imprison'd seas!
Thy mountains moulded into forms of men!
Thy hundred-gated capitals! or those
Where three days' tra