Thou heav'n of heav'ns, his vast abode;
Ye clouds, proclaim your forming God,

Who call'd yon worlds from night:
"Ye shades, dispel !”—th' Eternal said
At once th' involving darkness fied,
And nature sprung to light.

Whate'er a blooming world contains,
That wings the air, that skims the plains,
United praise bestow :
Ye dragons, sound his awful name
To heav'n aloud; and roar acclaim,
Ye swelling deeps below.

Let ev'ry element rejoice;

Ye thunders burst with awful voice
TO HIM who bids you roll :
His praise in softer notes declare,
Each whisp'ring breeze of yielding air.
And breathe it to the soul.

To him, ye graceful cedars, bow;
Ye tow'ring mountains, bending low,
Your great Creator own;

Tell, when affrighted Nature shook,
How Sinai kindled at his look,

And trembled at his frown.

Ye flocks, that haunt the humble vale,
Ye insects flutt'ring on the gale,
In mutual concourse rise;
Crop the gay rose's vermeil bloom,
And waft its spoils, a sweet perfume,
In incense to the skies.

Wake all ye mounting tribes, and sings
Ye plumy warblers of the spring,
Harmonious anthems raise

TO HIM who shap'd your finer mould,
Who tipp'd your glitt'ring wings with gold,
And tun'd your voice to praise.

Let man, by nobler passions sway'd,
The feeling heart, the judging head,

In heav'nly praise employ ;

Spread his tremendous name abroad,

Till heav'n's broad arch rings back the sound,
The gen'ral burst of joy.

Ye, whom the charms of grandeur please,
Nurs'd on the downy lap of ease,

Fall prostrate at his throne :

Ye princes, rulers, all adore;

Praise him, ye kings, who make your pow'r
An image of his own.

Ye fair, by nature form'd to move,
O praise th' eternal SOURCE OF LOVE,
With youth's enlivening fire:

Let age take up the tuneful lay,
Sigh his bless'd name; then soar away,
And ask an angel's lyre.

SECTION XV.

The Universal Prayer.

FATHER OF ALL! in ev'ry age,

In every clime ador'd,
By saint, by savage, and by sage,

Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!

OGILVIE.

Thou GREAT FIRST CAUSE, least understood,

Who all my sense confin'd

To know but this, that Thou art good,
And that myself am blind;

Yet gave me, in this dark estate,
To see the good from ill;
And binding nature fast in fate,
Left free the human will,

What concience dictates to be done,

Or warns me not to do,

This teach me more than hell to shun,
That more than heav'n pursue.

What blessings thy free bounty gives
Let me not cast away;

Y

For God is paid, when man receives;
T'enjoy is to obey.

Yet not to earth's contracted span
Thy goodness let me bound,
Or think thee Lord alone of man,
When thousand worlds are round.

Let not this weak, unknowing hand
Presume thy bolts to throw;

And deal damnation round the land,
On each I judge thy foe.

If I am right, thy grace impart,
Still in the right to stay;
If I am wrong, Oh teach my heart
To find that better way!

Save me alike from foolish pride,
Or impious discontent,

At aught thy wisdom has denied,
Or aught thy goodness lent.

Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I see;
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.

Mean tho' I am, not wholly so,
Since quicken'd by thy breath;
O lead me wheresoe'er I go,

Thro' this day's life or death!

This day, be bread and peace my lot:
All else beneath the sun

Thou know'st if best bestow'd or not,
And let thy will be done. i og o
To thee, whose temple is all space,
Whose altar, earth, sea, skies !
One chorus let all beings raise !
All Nature's incense rise !

POPE

SECTION XVI.

Conscience.

Otreach'rous conscience! While she seems to sleep
On rose and myrtle, lull'd with siren song ;
While she seems, nodding o'er her charge, to drop
On headlong appetite the slacken'd rein,
And give us up to license, unrecall'd,
Unmark'd; see, from behind her secret stand,
The sly informer minutes ev'ry fault,
And her dread diary with horror fills.
Not the gross act alone employs her pen;
She reconnoitres fancy's airy band,
A watchful foe! the formidable spy,
List'ning, o'erhears the whispers of our camp;
Our dawning purposes of beart explores,
And steals our embryos of iniquity.

As all rapacious usurers conceal

Their doomsday book from all consuming heirs ;
Thus, with indulgence most severe, she treats
Us spendthrifts of inestimable time;
Unnoted, notes each moment misapply'd;
In leaves more durable than leaves of brass,
Writes our whole history; which death shall read
In ev'ry pale delinquent's private ear ;

And judgment publish; publish to more worlds
Than this; and endless age in groans resound.

SECTION. XVII.

The Order of Nature.

YOUNG.

SEE, thro' this air, this ocean, and this earth,
All matter quick, and bursting into birth.
Above, how high progressive life may go!
Around, how wide! how deep extend below !
Vast chain of being! which from God began;
Nature ethereal, human, angel, man,

Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see,
No glass can reach; from infinite to thee,
From thee to nothing. On superior pow'rs
Were we to press, inferior might on ours;

Or in the full creation leave a void,

Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroy'd ;
From nature's chain whatever link you strike,

Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.
And, if each system in gradation roll,
Alike essential to th' amazing whole,
The least confusion but in one, not all
That system only, but the whole must fall.
Let earth, unbalanc'd from her orbit fly,
Planets and suns run lawless tho' the sky;
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurl'd,
Being on being wreck'd, and world on world;
Heaven's whole foundations to their centre nod,
And nature trembles to the throne of God.
All this dread order break-for whom? for thee?
Vile worm! Oh madness! pride! impiety!

What if the foot, ordain'd the dust to tread,
Or hand to toil, aspir'd to be the head ?
What if the head, the eye, or ear, repin'd
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Just as absurd for any part to claim
To be another, in this genʼral frame :
Just as absurd, to mourn the tasks or pains,
The great directing MIND OF ALL ordains.

All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body nature is, and God the soul:
That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the same,
Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame;
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees;
Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent ;
Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,
As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;
As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns,
As the rapt seraph that adores and burns;
To him no high, no low, no great, no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.

Cease then, nor ORDER imperfection name :
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee.