on's summit in a vale?
He, whom, while man is man, he can't but seek;
And if he finds, commences more than man?
O for a telescope His throne to reach!
Tell me, ye learn'd on earth! or blest above!
Ye searching, ye Newtonian angels! tell.
Where, your Great Master's orb? His planets, where?
Those conscious satellites, those morning stars,
First-born of Deity! from central love,
By veneration most profound, thrown off; 1840
By sweet attraction, no less strongly drawn;
Awed, and yet raptured; raptured, yet serene; 1842
Past thought illustrious, but with borrow'd beams;
In still approaching circles, still remote,
Revolving round the sun's eternal Sire?
Or sent, in lines direct, on embassies
To nations--in what latitude?--Beyond
Terrestrial thought's horizon!--And on what
High errands sent?--Here human effort ends;
And leaves me still a stranger to His throne. 1850
Full well it might! I quite mistook my road.
Born in an age more curious than devout;
More fond to fix the place of heaven, or hell,
Than studious this to shun, or that secure.
'Tis not the curious, but the pious path,
That leads me to my point: Lorenzo! know,
Without or star, or angel, for their guide,
Who worship God, shall find him. Humble Love,
And not proud Reason, keeps the door of heaven;
Love finds admission, where proud Science fails. 1860
Man's science is the culture of his heart;
And not to lose his plummet in the depths
Of nature, or the more profound of God.
Either to know, is an attempt that sets
The wisest on a level with the fool.
To fathom nature (ill attempted here!)
Past doubt is deep philosophy above;
Higher degrees in bliss archangels take,
As deeper learn'd; the deepest, learning still.
For, what a thunder of omnipotence 1870
(So might I dare to speak) is seen in all!
In man! in earth! in more amazing skies!
Teaching this lesson, Pride is loath to learn--
"Not deeply to discern, not much to know,
Mankind was born to wonder, and adore."
And is there cause for higher wonder still, 1876
Than that which struck us from our past surveys?
Yes; and for deeper adoration too.
From my late airy travel unconfined,
Have I learn'd nothing?--Yes, Lorenzo! this:
Each of these stars is a religious house;
I saw t