And poesy’s immortal gems were there, Heroic, pastoral, and descriptive verse, Elegiac and the lyric, moving tear, Eclogue and lofty ode, I could rehearse, As Petrarch’s sonnet, Laura’s heart to pierce; All witching words, all thoughts of burning glow, The soul’s rich mine extracted from its source, Whose treasured heaps like golden ore did show What hidden stores were there, th’ unquench’d spirit’s flow. CLXVI. Oh! poesy divine, enchanting maid, What spell is thine, what ardour kindling soul! What piercing sight, tho’ dark as owlet’s shade, Can stay thy glance, thy pinion’s flight control? The past and future o’er thy vista roll, The mind’s creative pageantry sublime, That forms th’ ideal shape and living whole, Thy wizard wand can raise with charmed rhyme, O’ersweep the bounds of space, and outstrip panting Time. CLXVII. No seat of learning gave a goodlier show, Or Gottingen, or Upsall’s city famed, Or Newton’s college, where bright Cam doth flow, Or library famous Radcliffe’s donor named, That oft th’ aspiring breast of student flamed, Where Isis’ silvery stream doth murm’ring play, And genius’ sons her studious cloister claimed, So like in this academy might stray All who for knowledge thirst, or marvels pleasant way. CLXVIII. And longer had they gazed, the wistful throng, That studious nook and bookworm’s dormit’ry, Where lone in thought his life did glide along, In loop-hole sweet of marvellous story, Nor cared in this retreat for aught to sigh Save chronicle of what the great have writ, Revered works of sage to glorify, Repast that fed on gave new appetite, Delectable when found, increasing man’s delight. CLXIX. And they no cared to quit its classic shade, Had not their guide and beck’ning cicerone First led the way to seek that sylvan glade, Where four ways branched forth, the last unknown; Nature, and art, and learning, he had shown, It only now remained that science porch (For man’s regard the loftiest, I must own) Should straight engage their inmost souls’ research, Upward to light the mind, as with a burning torch. CANTO V. ARGUMENT. The Bard leads the way to the Entrance Porch of Science--Discourses by the way--The Porch, and its Description--The Entrance and Prospect--Sunrise--The Eagle, Falcon, and Vulture--Noon--Sunset--The Nightly Tower--Its Ascent--Astronomers, Galileo, &c.--Heathen Philosophers, Plato, &c.--A View of the Starry Heavens--The Moon--A Moonlight Scene--The Vault of Night--Planets--Milky Way--Harmony of the Earth’s Evolution, and her attendant Planet--Reflections on the Immensity of the Universe. CANTO V. CLXX.