Nor to this evanescent speck of earth Poorly confin'd--the radiant tracts on high Are her exalted range; intent to gaze Creation through; and, from that full complex Of never-ending wonders, to conceive Of the Sole Being right, who _spoke the word_, And nature mov'd complete. With inward view Thence on the ideal kingdom swift she turns Her eye; and instant, at her powerful glance, The obedient phantoms vanish or appear; Compound, divide, and into order shift, Each to his rank, from plain perception up To the fair forms of fancy's fleeting train; To reason then, deducing truth from truth, And notion quite abstract; where first begins The world of spirits, action all, and life Unfetter'd, and unmix'd. But here the cloud, So wills Eternal Providence, sits deep. Enough for us to know that this dark state, In wayward passions lost, and vain pursuits, This infancy of being, can not prove The final issue of the works of God, By boundless Love and perfect Wisdom form'd, And ever rising with the rising mind. [Illustration: Philosophy directs the helm] THE SIGHT OF AN ANGEL. 'Tis to create, and in creating live A being more intense, that we endow With form our fancy, gaining as we give The life we image. The date of the year was--no matter what; the day of the month was--no matter what; when a great general undertook to perform a great victory--a great statesman undertook to pass a great political measure--a great diplomatist undertook a most important mission--a great admiral undertook the command of a great fleet; all which great undertakings were commanded by the very same great monarch of a very great nation. At the same time did a great nobleman give a great entertainment at a great house, and a great beauty made a great many great conquests. On the same day, in the same year, in a very small room, in a very small house, in a very small street, in a very small town in Germany, did a very poor mason commence a very rude carving on a very rough stone. All the public journals of the day told a thousand times over the names of the great general, the great statesman, the great diplomatist, the great admiral, and the great monarch; all the fashionable papers of the day did the same of the great nobleman, the great company, and the great beauty: but none of them spoke of poor Johan Schmit, of the little town of ----, on the Rhine.