God its Identity: God all in all!

We and our Father one!

And blest are they,

Who in this fleshly World, the elect of Heaven,
Their strong eye darting through the deeds of men,
Adore with steadfast unpresuming gaze

Him Nature's essence, mind, and energy!
And gazing, trembling, patiently ascend
Treading beneath their feet all visible things
As steps, that upward to their Father's throne
Lead gradual-else nor glorified nor loved.
They nor contempt embosom nor revenge:
For they dare know of what may seem deform
The Supreme Fair sole operant: in whose sight
All things are pure, his strong controlling love
Alike from all educing perfect good.
Their's too celestial courage, inly armed-

Dwarfing Earth's giant brood, what time they muse
On their great Father, great beyond compare!

45

50

55

60

And marching onwards view high o'er their heads
His waving banners of Omnipotence.

Who the Creator love, created Might

Dread not within their tents no Terrors walk.

65

For they are holy things before the Lord

Aye unprofaned, though Earth should league with Hell;
God's altar grasping with an eager hand

Fear, the wild-visag'd, pale, eye-starting wretch,
Sure-refug'd hears his hot pursuing fiends.

54 embosom] imbosom 1796, 1797, 1803.

64-71

70

Letworkild

They cannot dread created might, who love
God the Creator! fair and lofty thought!
It lifts and swells my heart! and as I muse,
Behold a VISION gathers in my soul,
Voices and shadowy shapes! In human guise
I seem to see the phantom, FEAR, pass by,
Hotly-pursued, and pale! From rock to rock
He bounds with bleeding feet, and thro' the swamp,
The quicksand and the groaning wilderness,
Struggles with feebler and yet feebler flight.
But lo! an altar in the wilderness,
And eagerly yet feebly lo! he grasps
The altar of the living God! and there
With wan reverted face the trembling wretch
All wildly list'ning to his Hunter-fiends
Stands, till the last faint echo of their yell

Dies in the distance. Soon refresh'd from Heaven &c. 1803.

Yell at vain distance. Soon refresh'd from Heaven
He calms the throb and tempest of his heart.
His countenance settles; a soft solemn bliss
Swims in his eye-his swimming eye uprais'd:
And Faith's whole armour glitters on his limbs !
And thus transfigured with a dreadless awe,
A sclemn hush of soul, meek he beholds
All things of terrible seeming: yea, unmoved
Views e'en the immitigable ministers

75

That shower down vengeance on these latter days.
For kindling with intenser Deity

80

From the celestial Mercy-seat they come,

Have fill'd their vials with salutary wrath,'
To sickly Nature more medicinal

85

And at the renovating wells of Love

Than what soft balm the weeping good man pours
Into the lone despoiléd traveller's wounds!

Thus from the Elect, regenerate through faith,
Pass the dark Passions and what thirsty cares

2

1 And I heard a great voice out of the Temple saying to the seven Angels, pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. Revelation, xvi. 1. Note to line 91, Notes, 1796, p. 90.

2 Our evil Passions, under the influence of Religion, become innocent, and may be made to animate our virtue-in the same manner as the thick mist melted by the Sun, increases the light which it had before excluded. In the preceding paragraph, agreeably to this truth, we had allegorically narrated the transfiguration of Fear into holy Awe. Footnote to line 91, 1797 to line 101, 1803.

74-7

78-84

81-3

Swims in his eyes: his swimming eyes uprais'd:

And Faith's whole armour girds his limbs! And thus
Transfigur'd, with a meek and dreadless awe,

A solemn hush of spirit he beholds 1803.

Yea, and there,

Unshudder'd unaghasted, he shall view
E'en the SEVEN SPIRITS, who in the latter day
Will shower hot pestilence on the sons of men,
For he shall know, his heart shall understand,
That kindling with intenser Deity

They from the MERCY-SEAT like rosy flames,
From God's celestial MERCY-SEAT will flash,
And at the wells of renovating Love

Fill their Seven Vials with salutary wrath. 1796.
For even these on wings of healing come,
Yea, kindling with intenser Deity

From the Celestial MERCY SEAT they speed,
And at the renovating &c. 1803.

86 soft] sweet 1803.

Drink up the spirit, and the dim regards
Self-centre. Lo they vanish! or acquire
New names, new features-by supernal grace

Enrobed with Light, and naturalised in Heaven.

As when a shepherd on a vernal morn

Through some thick fog creeps timorous with slow foot,
Darkling he fixes on the immediate road

His downward eye: all else of fairest kind

90

95

Hid or deformed. But lo! the bursting Sun!
Touched by the enchantment of that sudden beam
Straight the black vapour melteth, and in globes
Of dewy glitter gems each plant and tree;
On every leaf, on every blade it hangs!
Dance glad the new-born intermingling rays,

And wide around the landscape streams with glory!

There is one Mind, one omnipresent Mind,
Omnific. His most holy name is Love.
Truth of subliming import! with the which
Who feeds and saturates his constant soul,
He from his small particular orbit flies

With blest outstarting! From himself he flies,
Stands in the sun, and with no partial gaze
Views all creation; and he loves it all,
And blesses it, and calls it very good!
This is indeed to dwell with the Most High!
Cherubs and rapture-trembling Seraphim
Can press no nearer to the Almighty's throne.
But that we roam unconscious, or with hearts
Unfeeling of our universal Sire,

And that in His vast family no Cain
Injures uninjured (in her best-aimed blow
Victorious Murder a blind Suicide)

Haply for this some younger Angel now

Looks down on Human Nature: and, behold!

A sea of blood bestrewed with wrecks, where mad

Embattling Interests on each other rush

With unhelmed rage!

'Tis the sublime of man,

Our noontide Majesty, to know ourselves

96-7

Darkling with earnest eyes he traces out
Th' immediate road, all else of fairest kind 1803.
98 the burning Sun 1803
Seraphim 1803.

119-21 om. 1803.

100

105

ΠΙΟ

115

120

125

115 The Cherubs and the trembling

Parts and proportions of one wondrous whole!

This fraternises man, this constitutes

Our charities and bearings. But 'tis God

130

Diffused through all, that doth make all one whole;
This the worst superstition, him except

Aught to desire, Supreme Reality!1

The plenitude and permanence of bliss!
O Fiends of Superstition! not that oft

135

The erring Priest hath stained with brother's blood
Your grisly idols, not for this may wrath
Thunder against you from the Holy One!
But o'er some plain that steameth to the sun,
Peopled with Death; or where more hideous Trade
Loud-laughing packs his bales of human anguish ;
I will raise up a mourning, O ye Fiends!
And curse your spells, that film the eye of Faith,
Hiding the present God; whose presence lost,
The moral world's cohesion, we become
An Anarchy of Spirits! Toy-bewitched,
Made blind by lusts, disherited of soul,
No common centre Man, no common sire
Knoweth! A sordid solitary thing,

Mid countless brethren with a lonely heart
Through courts and cities the smooth savage roams
Feeling himself, his own low self the whole;

140

145

150

1 If to make aught but the Supreme Reality the object of final pursuit, be Superstition; if the attributing of sublime properties to things or persons, which those things or persons neither do or can possess, be Superstition; then Avarice and Ambition are Superstitions: and he who wishes to estimate the evils of Superstition, should transport himself, not to the temple of the Mexican Deities, but to the plains of Flanders, or the coast of Africa.-Such is the sentiment convey'd in this and the subsequent lines. Footnote to line 135, 1797 : to line 143, 1803.

135-41 O Fiends of SUPERSTITION! not that oft

Your pitiless rites have floated with man's blood
The skull-pil'd Temple, not for this shall wrath
Thunder against you from the Holy One!
But (whether ye th' unclimbing Bigot mock
With secondary Gods, or if more pleas'd
Ye petrify th' imbrothell'd Atheist's heart,
The Atheist your worst slave) I o'er some plain
Peopled with Death, and to the silent Sun
Steaming with tyrant-murder'd multitudes;

Or where mid groans and shrieks loud-laughing TRADE
More hideous packs his bales of living anguish 1796.

When he by sacred sympathy might make

The whole one Self! Self, that no alien knows!
Self, far diffused as Fancy's wing can travel!
Self, spreading still! Oblivious of its own,
Yet all of all possessing! This is Faith!
This the Messiah's destined victory!

155

But first offences needs must come! Even now1

160

(Black Hell laughs horrible-to hear the scoff!)
Thee to defend, meek Galilaean! Thee
And thy mild laws of Love unutterable,
Mistrust and Enmity have burst the bands
Of social peace: and listening Treachery lurks
With pious fraud to snare a brother's life;
And childless widows o'er the groaning land
Wail numberless; and orphans weep for bread!
Thee to defend, dear Saviour of Mankind!

165

Thee, Lamb of God! Thee, blameless Prince of Peace!
From all sides rush the thirsty brood of War!-

170

Austria, and that foul Woman of the North,
The lustful murderess of her wedded lord!

And he, connatural Mind! whom (in their songs
So bards of elder time had haply feigned)
Some Fury fondled in her hate to man,
Bidding her serpent hair in mazy surge

Lick his young face, and at his mouth imbreathe

175

1 January 21st, 1794, in the debate on the Address to his Majesty, on the speech from the Throne, the Earl of Guildford (sic) moved an Amendment to the following effect:-'That the House hoped his Majesty would seize the earliest opportunity to conclude a peace with France,' &c. This motion was opposed by the Duke of Portland, who considered the war to be merely grounded on one principle-the preservation of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION'. May 30th, 1794, the Duke of Bedford moved a number of Resolutions, with a view to the Establishment of a Peace with France. He was opposed (among others) by Lord Abingdon in these remarkable words: The best road to Peace, my Lords, is WAR! and WAR carried on in the same manner in which we are taught to worship our CREATOR, namely, with all our souls, and with all our minds, and with all our hearts, and with all our strength.' [Footnote to line 159, 1797, 1803, 1828, 1829, and 1834.]

2 That Despot who received the wages of an hireling that he might act the part of a swindler, and who skulked from his impotent attacks on the liberties of France to perpetrate more successful iniquity in the plains of Poland. Note to line 193. Notes, 1796, p. 170.

165 pious] pious 1796-1829. 176 mazy surge] tortuous folds 1796. 177 imbreathe] inbreathe 1797, 1803, 1828, 1829.