Page:Poets of John Company.djvu/25

Rh What first impell'd thee to exert thy might?
 * Goodness unlimited. What glorious light
 * Thy pow'r directed? Wisdom without bound.
 * What prov'd it first? Oh! guide my fancy right,
 * Oh raise from cumbrous ground
 * My soul in rapture drown'd,
 * That fearless it may soar on wings of fire;

For thou, who only knowst, Thou only canst inspire.

Wrapt in eternal solitary shade,
 * Th' impenetrable gloom of light intense,
 * Impervious, inaccessible, immense.
 * Ere spirits were infus'd or forms display'd,
 * BREHM his own Mind survey'd,

As mortal eyes (thus finite we compare
 * With infinite) in smoothest mirrors gaze:
 * Swift, at his look, a shape supremely fair
 * Leap'd into being with a boundless blaze.
 * That fifty suns might daze.

Primeval Maya was the Goddess nam'd.
 * Who to her sire, with Love divine inflam'd,
 * A casket gave with rich Ideas fill'd.

From which this gorgeous Universe he fram'd;
 * For, when th' Almighty will'd.
 * Unnumbered worlds to build.
 * From Unity diversified he sprang,

While gay Creation laugh'd, and procreant Nature rang.

First an all-potent all-pervading sound
 * Bade flow the waters—and the waters flow'd,
 * Exulting in their measureless abode.
 * Diffusive, multitudinous, profound,
 * Above, beneath, around;

Then o'er the vast expanse primordial wind
 * Breath'd gently, till a lucid bubble rose,
 * Which grew in perfect shape an Egg refin'd:
 * Created substance no such lustre shows,
 * Earth no such beauty knows.