And then, to spheres opaque; then dimly shone; Then brighten'd; then blazed out in perfect day. Nature delights in progress; in advance 1960 From worse to better: but, when minds ascend, Progress, in part, depends upon themselves. Heaven aids exertion; greater makes the great; The voluntary little lessens more. Oh, be a man! and thou shalt be a god! And half self-made!--Ambition how divine! O thou, ambitious of disgrace alone! Still undevout? unkindled?--Though high-taught, School'd by the skies, and pupil of the stars; Rank coward to the fashionable world! 1970 Art thou ashamed to bend thy knee to heaven? Cursed fume of pride, exhaled from deepest hell! Pride in religion is man's highest praise. Bent on destruction! and in love with death! Not all these luminaries, quench'd at once, Were half so sad, as one benighted mind, 1976 Which gropes for happiness, and meets despair. How, like a widow in her weeds, the Night, Amid her glimmering tapers, silent sits! How sorrowful, how desolate, she weeps Perpetual dews, and saddens nature's scene! A scene more sad sin makes the darken'd soul, All comfort kills, nor leaves one spark alive. 1983 Though blind of heart, still open is thine eye: Why such magnificence in all thou seest? Of matter's grandeur, know, one end is this, To tell the rational, who gazes on it-- "Though that immensely great, still greater He, Whose breast, capacious, can embrace, and lodge, Unburden'd, nature's universal scheme; 1990 Can grasp creation with a single thought; Creation grasp; and not exclude its Sire"-- To tell him farther--"It behoves him much To guard th' important, yet depending, fate Of being, brighter than a thousand suns: One single ray of thought outshines them all."-- And if man hears obedient, soon he'll soar Superior heights, and on his purple wing, His purple wing bedropp'd with eyes of gold, Rising, where thought is now denied to rise, 2000 Look down triumphant on these dazzling spheres. Why then persist?--No mortal ever lived But, dying, he pronounced (when words are true) The whole that charms thee, absolutely vain; Vain, and far worse!--Think thou, with dying men; Oh, condescend to think as angels think! Oh, tolerate a chance for happiness! Our nature such, ill choice ensures ill fate; And hell had been, though there had been no God. Dost thou not know, my new astronomer! 2010 Earth, turning from the sun, brings night to man? Man, turning from his God, brings endless night; Where thou canst read no morals, find no friend, Amend no manners, and expect no peace. How deep the darkness! and the groan, how loud! And far, how far, from lambent are the flames!-- Such is Lorenzo's purchase! such his praise!