ul,
All comfort kills, nor leaves one spark alive. 1983
Though blind of heart, still open is thine eye:
Why such magnificence in all thou seest?
Of matter's grandeur, know, one end is this,
To tell the rational, who gazes on it--
"Though that immensely great, still greater He,
Whose breast, capacious, can embrace, and lodge,
Unburden'd, nature's universal scheme; 1990
Can grasp creation with a single thought;
Creation grasp; and not exclude its Sire"--
To tell him farther--"It behoves him much
To guard th' important, yet depending, fate
Of being, brighter than a thousand suns:
One single ray of thought outshines them all."--
And if man hears obedient, soon he'll soar
Superior heights, and on his purple wing,
His purple wing bedropp'd with eyes of gold,
Rising, where thought is now denied to rise, 2000
Look down triumphant on these dazzling spheres.
Why then persist?--No mortal ever lived
But, dying, he pronounced (when words are true)
The whole that charms thee, absolutely vain;
Vain, and far worse!--Think thou, with dying men;
Oh, condescend to think as angels think!
Oh, tolerate a chance for happiness!
Our nature such, ill choice ensures ill fate;
And hell had been, though there had been no God.
Dost thou not know, my new astronomer! 2010
Earth, turning from the sun, brings night to man?
Man, turning from his God, brings endless night;
Where thou canst read no morals, find no friend,
Amend no manners, and expect no peace.
How deep the darkness! and the groan, how loud!
And far, how far, from lambent are the flames!--
Such is Lorenzo's purchase! such his praise!
The proud, the politic, Lorenzo's praise!
Though in his ear, and levell'd at his heart,
I've half read o'er the volume of the skies. 2020
For think not thou hast heard all this from me;
My song but echoes what great Nature speaks.
What has she spoken? Thus the goddess spoke,
Thus speaks for ever:--"Place, at nature's head,
A sovereign, which o'er all things rolls his eye,
Extends his wing, promulgates his commands,
But, above all, diffuses endless good;
To whom, for sure redress, the wrong'd may fly;
The vile, for mercy; and the pain'd, for peace;
By whom, the various tenants of these spheres, 2030
Diversified in fo