Say, why was man so eminently raised Amid the vast creation; why empower'd Through life and death to dart his watchful eye, With thoughts beyond the limit of his frame; But that the Omnipotent might send him forth, In sight of angels and immortal minds, As on an ample theatre to join 200 In contest with his equals, who shall best The task achieve, the course of noble toils, By wisdom and by mercy preordain'd? Might send him forth the sovereign good to learn; To chase each meaner purpose from his breast; And through the mists of passion and of sense, And through the pelting storms of chance and pain, To hold straight on, with constant heart and eye Still fix'd upon his everlasting palm, The approving smile of Heaven? Else wherefore burns 210 In mortal bosoms this unquenched hope, That seeks from day to day sublimer ends, Happy, though restless? Why departs the soul Wide from the track and journey of her times, To grasp the good she knows not? In the field Of things which may be, in the spacious field Of science, potent arts, or dreadful arms, To raise up scenes in which her own desires Contented may repose; when things, which are, Pall on her temper, like a twice-told tale: 220 Her temper, still demanding to be free; Spurning the rude control of wilful might; Proud of her dangers braved, her griefs endured, Her strength severely proved? To these high aims, Which reason and affection prompt in man, Not adverse nor unapt hath Nature framed His bold imagination. For, amid The various forms which this full world presents Like rivals to his choice, what human breast E'er doubts, before the transient and minute, 230 To prize the vast, the stable, the sublime? Who, that from heights aerial sends his eye Around a wild horizon, and surveys Indus or Ganges rolling his broad wave Through mountains, plains, through spacious cities old, And regions dark with woods, will turn away To mark the path of some penurious rill Which murmureth at his feet? Where does the soul Consent her soaring fancy to restrain, Which bears her up, as on an eagle's wings, 240 Destined for highest heaven; or which of fate's Tremendous barriers shall confine her flight To any humbler quarry? The rich earth Cannot detain her; nor the ambient air With all its changes. For a while with joy She hovers o'er the sun, and views the small Attendant orbs, beneath his sacred beam, Emerging from the deep, like cluster'd isles Whose rocky shores to the glad sailor's eye Reflect the gleams of morning; for a while 250 With pride she sees his firm, paternal sway Bend the reluctant planets to move each Round its perpetual year. But soon she quits That prospect; meditating loftier views, She darts adventurous up the long career