"For far beyond the pageantry of power, He lov'd the realms of Nature to explore; With lingering gaze Edenian spring survey'd-- Morn's fairy splendours--Night's gay curtain'd shade-- The heaven-embosom'd sun--the rainbow's dye, Where lucid forms appear to Fancy's eye; The vernal flower, mild Autumn's purpling glow, The Summer's thunder, and the winter's snow." [Timothy Dwight: _The Conquest of Canaan_ (1785), as quoted in A&M: "For far beyond the pride or pomp of power, He lov'd the realms of nature to explore; With lingering gaze Edinian spring survey'd; Morn's fairy splendors; night's gay curtain'd shade, The high hoar cliff, the grove's benighting gloom, The wild rose, widow'd o'er the mouldering tomb; The heaven embosom'd sun; the rainbow's die Where lucid forms disport to fancy's eye; The vernal flower, mild autumn's purpling glow, The summer's thunder and the winter's snow."] [_The Conquest of Canaan_, original text: But far beyond the pride of pomp, and power, He lov'd the realms of nature to explore; With lingering gaze, Edenian spring survey'd; Morn's fairy splendors, night's gay curtain'd shade; The high hoar cliff; the grove's benighting gloom; The wild rose, widow'd, o'er the mouldering tomb; The heaven-embosom'd sun; the rainbow's die, Where lucid forms disport to fancy's eye.] [[The last two lines in the _Alonzo and Melissa_ version ("vernal flower..." and "Summer's thunder...") do not appear to be in Dwight's poem.]] Or, when the evening approached, he would observe the twilight hour, which for a time hangs balanced between darkness and the pale rays of the western sky, communicating a solemn pleasure to every thing around. When evening began to throw her dusky mantle over the face of nature, and the warm glow of the summer sun had departed; when the stars were glistening in the heavens, and the moon had already risen, shedding its pale lustre over the opposite islands "that appeared to float dimly among the waves, the twinkling fire-fly arose from the surrounding verdure, and illumined the meadow below with a thousand transient gems." The rustling breezes played among the trees of the wood, while the air was filled with the fragrance of various flowers, and the sound of melodious music was wafted from the neighbouring village, rendered apparently more soft and sweet by the distance. [_NY Weekly_: On Landscape Painting: how extatic is the twilight hour, which, for a time, hangs balanced between the dispersion of darkness, and the dapplings of the east; and which gives a solemn pleasure to every thing around!] [_A&M_: