haracters illustrious as the sun,--

"I stand, the plan's proud period; I pronounce
The work accomplish'd; the creation closed: 1530
Shout, all ye gods! nor shout ye gods alone;
Of all that lives, or, if devoid of life,
That rests, or rolls, ye heights, and depths, resound!
Resound! resound! ye depths, and heights, resound!"

Hard are those questions!--answer harder still.
Is this the sole exploit, the single birth,
The solitary son of power divine?
Or has th' Almighty Father, with a breath,
Impregnated the womb of distant space? 1539
Has He not bid, in various provinces,
Brother-creations the dark bowels burst
Of night primeval; barren, now, no more?
And He the central sun, transpiercing all
Those giant generations, which disport
And dance, as motes, in his meridian ray;
That ray withdrawn, benighted, or absorb'd,
In that abyss of horror, whence they sprung;
While Chaos triumphs, repossess'd of all
Rival Creation ravish'd from his throne?
Chaos! of Nature both the womb, and grave! 1550
Think'st thou my scheme, Lorenzo, spreads too wide?
Is this extravagant?--No; this is just;
Just, in conjecture, though 'twere false in fact.
If 'tis an error, 'tis an error sprung
From noble root, high thought of the Most High.
But wherefore error? who can prove it such?--
He that can set Omnipotence a bound.
Can man conceive beyond what God can do?
Nothing, but quite impossible is hard.
He summons into being, with like ease, 1560
A whole creation, and a single grain.
Speaks he the word? a thousand worlds are born!
A thousand worlds? there's space for millions more:
And in what space can his great fiat fail?
Condemn me not, cold critic! but indulge
The warm imagination: why condemn?
Why not indulge such thoughts, as swell our hearts
With fuller admiration of that Power,
Who gives our hearts with such high thoughts to swell?
Why not indulge in His augmented praise? 1570
Darts not His glory a still brighter ray,
The less is left to Chaos, and the realms
Of hideous Night, where Fancy strays aghast; 1573
And, though most talkative, makes no report?
Still seems my thought enormous? Think again;--
Experience' self shall aid thy lame belief.
Glasses (that revelation to the si