As all their souls in blissful rapture Move in melodious time,

took ;

The air such pleasure loath to lose,

And let the base of heav'n's deep or

gan blow;

With thousand echoes still prolongs each And with your ninefold harmony

Of Cynthia's seat, the airy region thrill- Inwrap our fancy long,

ing,

Now was almost won

To think her part was done,

Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold; And speckled Vanity

And that her reign had here its last Will sicken soon and die,

fulfilling;

She knew such harmony alone

And leprous Sin will melt from earthly mould;

Could hold all heav'n and earth in happier And Hell itself will pass away,

union.

And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day.

XI.

At last surrounds their sight

A globe of circular light,

XV.

That with long beams the shamefaced Yea Truth and Justice then

night array'd;

The helmed Cherubim,

And sworded Seraphim,

Will down return to men,

Orb'd in a rainbow; and, like glories wearing,

Are seen in glittering ranks with wings Mercy will sit between,

display'd,

Harping in loud and solemn quire,

With unexpressive notes to Heaven's new

born Heir.

Throned in celestial sheen,

With radiant feet the tissued clouds

down steering:

And heav'n, as at some festival,

Will open wide the gates of her high palace hall.

XII.

Such music (as 'tis said)

XVI.

Before was never made,

But when of old the sons of morning But wisest Fate says, no,

sung,

While the Creator great

His constellations set,

This must not yet be so,

The Babe lies yet in smiling infancy, That on the bitter cross

And the well-balanced world on hinges Must redeem our loss;

hung;

And cast the dark foundations deep,

And bid the welt'ring waves their oozy

channel keep.

So both Himself and us to glorify;
Yet first to those ychain'd in sleep,
The wakeful trump of doom must thunder
through the deep,

The dreadful Judge in middle air shall While each peculiar Pow'r foregoes his

spread His throne.

XVIII.

wonted seat.

XXII.

And then at last our bliss

Full and perfect is,

But now begins; for from this happy day

The old Dragon under ground

In straiter limits bound,

Not half so far casts his usurped sway,

And wroth to see his kingdom fail,

Peor and Baälim

Forsake their temples dim,

With that twice-batter'd god of Palestine;

And moonèd Ashtaroth,

Heav'n's queen and mother both,

Now sits not girt with tapers' holy shine;

Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail. The Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn,

In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded
Thammuz mourn.

XIX.

The oracles are dumb,

No voice or hideous hum

XXIII.

Runs thro' the archèd roof in words And sullen Moloch fled,

deceiving.

Apollo from his shrine

Can no more divine,

Hath left in shadows dread

His burning idol all of blackest hue; In vain with cymbals' ring

With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos They call the grisly king,

In dismal dance about the furnace

blue:

The brutish gods of Nile as fast,

Isis and Orus, and the dog Anubis haste.

Oh spring to light, auspicious Babe, be born!

Time is our tedious song should here See, Nature hastes her earliest wreaths to

Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp See lofty Lebanon his head advance;

The Saviour comes! by ancient bards fore- The swain in barren deserts with surprise toldSees lilies spring and sudden verdure rise; Hear Him, ye deaf; and all ye blind, be- And starts, amidst the thirsty wilds, to hold! hear

He from thick films shall purge the visual New falls of water murmuring in his ear.
ray,
On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,
And on the sightless eyeball pour the The green reed trembles, and the bulrush
day:
nods;
"Tis He th' obstructed paths of sound shall Waste sandy valleys, once perplex'd with
clear,
thorn,

And bid new music charm th' unfolding The spiry fir and shapely box adorn;
To leafless shrubs the flow'ring palms suc-

ear;

The dumb shall sing; the lame his crutch forego,

And leap exulting like the bounding roe. No sigh, no murmur, the wide world shall hear

From every face He wipes off every tear. In adamantine claims shall Death be bound,

ceed,

And od'rous myrtle to the noisome weed;
The lambs with wolves shall graze the ver-
dant mead,

And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead;
The steer and lion at one crib shall meet,
And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's
feet.

And Hell's grim tyrant feel the eternal The smiling infant in his hand shall take wound. The crested basilisk and speckled snake

As the good shepherd tends his fleecy Pleased, the green lustre of the scales

O'erflow thy courts; the Light Himself | How calm a moment may precede