|
WHEN I survey the bright | |
Celestial sphere; | |
So rich with jewels hung, that Night | |
Doth like an Ethiop bride appear: | |
|
My soul her wings doth spread | 5 |
And heavenward flies, | |
Th Almightys mysteries to read | |
In the large volume of the skies. | |
|
For the bright firmament | |
Shoots forth no flame | 10 |
So silent, but is eloquent | |
In speaking the Creators name. | |
|
No unregarded star | |
Contracts its light | |
Into so small a character, | 15 |
Removed far from our human sight, | |
|
But if we steadfast look | |
We shall discern | |
In it, as in some holy book, | |
Haw man may heavenly knowledge learn. | 20 |
|
It tells the conqueror | |
That far-stretchd power, | |
Which his proud dangers traffic for, | |
Is but the triumph of an hour: | |
|
That from the farthest North, | 25 |
Some nation may, | |
Yet undiscoverd, issue forth, | |
And oer his new-got conquest sway: | |
|
Some nation yet shut in | |
With hills of ice | 30 |
May be let out to scourge his sin, | |
Till, they shall equal him in vice. | |
|
And then they likewise shall | |
Their ruin have; | |
For as yourselves your empires fall, | 35 |
And every kingdom hath a grave. | |
|
Thus those celestial fires, | |
Though seeming mute, | |
The fallacy of our desires | |
And all the pride of life confute: | 40 |
|
For they have watchd since first | |
The World had birth: | |
And found sin in itself accurst, | |
And nothing permanent on Earth. | |
|