In golden veins, through all eternity! Ages, and ages, and succeeding still New ages, where the phantom of an hour, Which courts each night, dull slumber, for repair, Shall wake, and wonder, and exult, and praise, And fly through infinite, and all unlock; And (if deserved) by Heaven's redundant love, 433 Made half adorable itself, adore; And find, in adoration, endless joy! Where thou, not master of a moment here, Frail as the flower, and fleeting as the gale, May'st boast a whole eternity, enrich'd With all a kind Omnipotence can pour. Since Adam fell, no mortal, uninspired, 440 Has ever yet conceived, or ever shall, How kind is God, how great (if good) is Man. No man too largely from Heaven's love can hope, If what is hoped he labours to secure. Ills?--there are none: All-gracious! none from thee; From man full many! numerous is the race Of blackest ills, and those immortal too, Begot by Madness, on fair Liberty; Heaven's daughter, hell-debauch'd! her hand alone Unlocks destruction to the sons of men, 450 First barr'd by thine: high-wall'd with adamant, Guarded with terrors reaching to this world, And cover'd with the thunders of thy law; Whose threats are mercies, whose injunctions, guides, Assisting, not restraining, Reason's choice; Whose sanctions, unavoidable results From nature's course, indulgently reveal'd; If unreveal'd, more dangerous, nor less sure. Thus, an indulgent father warns his sons, "Do this; fly that"--nor always tells the cause; 460 Pleased to reward, as duty to his will, A conduct needful to their own repose. Great God of wonders! (if, thy love survey'd, Aught else the name of wonderful retains), What rocks are these, on which to build our trust! Thy ways admit no blemish; none I find; Or this alone--"That none is to be found." Not one, to soften Censure's hardy crime; Not one, to palliate peevish Grief's Complaint, Who, like a demon, murmuring from the dust, 470 Dares into judgment call her Judge.--Supreme! For all I bless thee; most, for the severe; Her[54] death--my own at hand--the fiery gulf, That flaming bound of wrath omnipotent! It thunders;--but it thunders to preserve; It strengthens what it strikes; its wholesome dread Averts the dreaded pain; its hideous groans Join heaven's sweet hallelujahs in thy praise, Great Source of good alone! how kind in all! In vengeance kind! Pain, Death, Gehenna, save. 480 Thus, in thy world material, Mighty Mind! Not that alone which solaces, and shines, The rough and gloomy, challenges our praise. The winter is as needful as the spring; The thunder, as the sun; a stagnate mass Of vapours breeds a pestilential air: Nor more propitious the Favonian[55] breeze To nature's health, than purifying storms;