Nature, that heard such sound

Beneath the hollow round

Of Cynthia's seat the aery region thrilling,

Now was almost won

To think her part was done,

And that her reign had here its last fulfilling:
She knew such harmony alone

Could hold all Heaven and Earth in happier1 union.

At last surrounds their sight

A globe 2 of circular light,

3

That with long beams the shamefast night

arrayed;

The helmèd Cherubim

And sworded Seraphim

Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displayed, Harping in loud and solemn quire

With unexpressive notes, to Heaven's new-born Heir.

Such music (as 'tis said)

Before was never made

4

But when of old the Sons of Morning sung,
While the Creator great

His constellations set,

And the well-balanced world on hinges hung;

And cast the dark foundations deep,

And bid the weltering waves their oozy channel keep.

Ring out, ye crystal spheres!
Once bless our human ears,

1 i.e. Happier than that effected by Nature's harmony.

See No. 40.

3 The right spelling; 4 See Job, xxxviii. 7.`

2 Mass.

like steadfast, etc.
Also Par. Lost, vii. 253-259.

If ye have power to touch our senses so;
And let your silver chime

Move in melodious time;

And let the bass of heaven's deep organ blow;
And with your ninefold harmony 1

Make up full consort 2 to the angelic symphony.

For if such holy song

Enwrap our fancy long,

Time will run back, and fetch the Age of Gold; And speckled Vanity

Will sicken soon and die,

And leprous Sin will melt from earthly mould;3 And Hell itself will pass away,

And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day.

Yea, Truth and Justice then
Will down return to men,4

Orbed in a rainbow; and, like glories wearing,
Mercy will sit between

Throned in celestial sheen,

With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering; And Heaven, as at some festival,

Will open wide the gates of her high palace hall.

But wisest Fate says No;

This must not yet be so :

The Babe yet lies in smiling infancy

That on the bitter cross

1 The "music of the spheres." See note 1, p. 114. A ninth sphere, the primum mobile, which set the rest in motion, was added later.

3 The Earth.

2 See note 1, p. 54.
4 In allusion to the story of Astræa (see Class. Dict.)

Must redeem our loss,

So both Himself and us to glorify :

Yet first, to those ychained in sleep

The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep;

With such a horrid clang

As on Mount Sinai rang

While the red fire and smouldering clouds outbrake:

The agèd Earth agast

With terror of that blast

Shall from the surface to the centre shake,

When, at the world's last sessión,

The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread His throne.

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,
Swinges1 the scaly horror of his folded tail.

The oracles are dumb; 2

No voice or hideous hum

Runs through the archèd roof in words deceiving : Apollo from his shrine

Can no more divine,

With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving;

1 Lashes.

2 It was a common belief that oracles ceased with the birth of Christ.

No nightly trance or breathèd spell

Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.1

The lonely mountains o'er
And the resounding shore

A voice of weeping heard and loud lament;
From haunted spring and dale

Edged with poplar pale

The parting Genius is with sighing sent;

With flower-inwoven tresses torn

The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets

mourn.

In consecrated earth

And on the holy hearth

The Lars and Lemures 2 moan with midnight plaint;

In urns and altars round

A drear and dying sound

Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint;
And the chill marble seems to sweat,

While each peculiar Power forgoes his wonted seat.

Peor 3 and Baalim 4

Forsake their temples dim,

With that twice-battered god 5 of Palestine ;

1 Lat. cella: the inner part of a temple, whence the oracle was given.

2 The Lares haunted the "hearth"; the Lemures, or Manes, the consecrated earth.”

3 For this and other divinities, see Class. or Bible Dict. Also Par. Lost, i. 381-489.

4 Plural of Baal.

5 Dagon.

And moonèd Ashtaroth 1

Heaven's queen and mother both,

Now sits not girt with tapers' holy shine;
The Libyc2 Hammon shrinks his horn;

In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz

mourn.

And sullen Moloch, fled,

Hath left in shadows dread
His burning idol all of blackest hue;
In vain with cymbal's ring
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.

Nor is Osiris 3 seen

In Memphian grove, or green,

Trampling the unshowered 4 grass with lowings loud; Nor can he be at rest

Within his sacred chest:

Nought but profoundest Hell can be his shroud :
In vain with timbrelled anthems dark
The sable-stolèd sorcerers bear his worshipt ark.

He feels from Juda's land
The dreaded infant's hand;

The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn ;
Nor all the gods beside
Longer dare abide,

1 Here, Astoreth (Astarte), the Phoenician moon-goddess. Elsewhere the two names are distinguished. See Par. Lost, i. 422, 438.

2 Lat. Libycus, Libyan.

3 Used for Apis.

4 In allusion to the little rain in Egypt.