ed in man! Of human hearts, if pure,
Divine inhabitant! The tie divine
Of heaven with distant earth! by whom, I trust
(If not inspired), uncensured this address
To Thee, to Them--to whom?--Mysterious Power!
Reveal'd--yet unreveal'd! darkness in light;
Number in unity! our joy! our dread!
The triple bolt that lays all wrong in ruin! 2290
That animates all right, the triple sun!
Sun of the soul! her never-setting sun!
Triune, unutterable, unconceived,
Absconding, yet demonstrable, Great God!
Greater than greatest! better than the best!
Kinder than kindest! with soft pity's eye,
Or (stronger still to speak it) with Thine own,
From Thy bright home, from that high firmament,
Where Thou, from all eternity, hast dwelt;
Beyond archangels' unassisted ken; 2300
From far above what mortals highest call;
From elevation's pinnacle; look down,
Through--what? Confounding interval! through all
And more than labouring Fancy can conceive;
Through radiant ranks of essences unknown;
Through hierarchies from hierarchies detach'd
Round various banners of Omnipotence,
With endless change of rapturous duties fired;
Through wondrous being's interposing swarms,
All clustering at the call, to dwell in Thee; 2310
Through this wide waste of worlds! this vista vast,
All sanded o'er with suns; suns turn'd to night
Before thy feeblest beam--Look down--down--down,
On a poor breathing particle in dust,
Or, lower, an immortal in his crimes. 2315
His crimes forgive! forgive his virtues, too!
Those smaller faults, half converts to the right.
Nor let me close these eyes, which never more
May see the sun (though night's descending scale
Now weighs up morn), unpitied, and unblest!
In Thy displeasure dwells eternal pain;
Pain, our aversion; pain, which strikes me now;
And, since all pain is terrible to man, 2323
Though transient, terrible; at Thy good hour,
Gently, ah, gently, lay me in my bed,
My clay-cold bed! by nature, now, so near;
By nature, near; still nearer by disease!
Till then, be this an emblem of my grave:
Let it out-preach the preacher; every night
Let it out-cry the boy at Philip's ear;[75] 2330
That tongue of death! that herald of the tomb!
And when (the shelter of Thy wing implored)
My s