Tell me, ye learn'd on earth! or blest above! Ye searching, ye Newtonian angels! tell. Where, your Great Master's orb? His planets, where? Those conscious satellites, those morning stars, First-born of Deity! from central love, By veneration most profound, thrown off; 1840 By sweet attraction, no less strongly drawn; Awed, and yet raptured; raptured, yet serene; 1842 Past thought illustrious, but with borrow'd beams; In still approaching circles, still remote, Revolving round the sun's eternal Sire? Or sent, in lines direct, on embassies To nations--in what latitude?--Beyond Terrestrial thought's horizon!--And on what High errands sent?--Here human effort ends; And leaves me still a stranger to His throne. 1850 Full well it might! I quite mistook my road. Born in an age more curious than devout; More fond to fix the place of heaven, or hell, Than studious this to shun, or that secure. 'Tis not the curious, but the pious path, That leads me to my point: Lorenzo! know, Without or star, or angel, for their guide, Who worship God, shall find him. Humble Love, And not proud Reason, keeps the door of heaven; Love finds admission, where proud Science fails. 1860 Man's science is the culture of his heart; And not to lose his plummet in the depths Of nature, or the more profound of God. Either to know, is an attempt that sets The wisest on a level with the fool. To fathom nature (ill attempted here!) Past doubt is deep philosophy above; Higher degrees in bliss archangels take, As deeper learn'd; the deepest, learning still. For, what a thunder of omnipotence 1870 (So might I dare to speak) is seen in all! In man! in earth! in more amazing skies! Teaching this lesson, Pride is loath to learn-- "Not deeply to discern, not much to know, Mankind was born to wonder, and adore." And is there cause for higher wonder still, 1876 Than that which struck us from our past surveys? Yes; and for deeper adoration too. From my late airy travel unconfined, Have I learn'd nothing?--Yes, Lorenzo! this: Each of these stars is a religious house; I saw their altars smoke, their incense rise; And heard hosannas ring through every sphere, 1883 A seminary fraught with future gods. Nature all o'er is consecrated ground, Teeming with growths immortal, and divine. The Great Proprietor's all-bounteous hand Leaves nothing waste; but sows these fiery fields With seeds of reason, which to virtues rise Beneath His genial ray; and, if escaped 1890 The pestilential blasts of stubborn will, When grown mature, are gather'd for the skies. And is devotion thought too much on earth, When beings, so superior, homage boast, And triumph in prostrations to the Throne?