Page:Nollekens and His Times, Volume 2.djvu/497

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fine specimen of art, and approaches almost to the sublimity of Raffaelle or Michel Angelo. It represents "The Ancient of Days," in an orb of light surrounded by dark clouds, as referred to in Proverbs viii. 27, stooping down with an enormous pair of compasses to describe the destined orb of the world, "when he set a compass upon the face of the earth."

"───in His hand He took the golden compasses, prepar'd In God's eternal store, to circumscribe This universe and all created things: One foot he center'd, and the other turn'd Round through the vast profundity obscure; And said, "Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds, This be thy just circumference, O World!" Paradise Lost, Book vii. line 236.