Page:The Seasons - Thomson (1791).djvu/153

 As thus th' effulgence tremulous I drink, With cherish'd gaze, the lambent lightnings shoot 1695 [sic] Across the sky; or horizontal dart, In wondrous shapes: by fearful murmuring crouds Portentous deem'd. Amid the radiant orbs, That more than deck, that animate the sky, The life-infusing suns of other worlds; Lo! from the dread immensity of space Returning, with accelerated course, The rushing comet to the sun descends; And as he sinks below the shading earth, With awful train projected o'er the heavens, The guilty nations tremble. But, above Those superstitious horrors that enslave The fond sequacious herd, to mystic faith And blind amazement prone, th' englighten'd few, Whose godlike minds philosophy exalts, The glorious stranger hail. They feel a joy Divinely great; they in their powers exult, That wondrous force of thought, which mounting spurns This dusky spot, and measures all the sky; While, from his far excursion thro' the wilds Of barren ether, faithful to his time, They see the blazing wonder rise anew, In seeming terror clad, but kindly bent To work the will of all-sustaining : From his huge vapoury train perhaps to shake Reviving moisture on the numerous orbs, Thro' which his long ellipsis winds; perhaps To