Page:The works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld volume 1.djvu/211

Rh Of habitable nature, far remote, To the dread confines of eternal night, To solitudes of vast unpeopled space, The deserts of creation, wide and wild; Where embryo systems and unkindled suns Sleep in the womb of chaos? fancy droops, And thought astonished stops her bold career. But thou mighty mind ! whose powerful word Said, thus let all things be, and thus they were, Where shall I seek thy presence? how unblamed Invoke thy dread perfection? Have the broad eyelids of the morn beheld thee? Or does the beamy shoulder of Orion Support thy throne? O look with pity down On erring, guilty man ! not in thy names Of terror clad; not with those thunders armed That conscious Sinai felt, when fear appalled The scattered tribes;—thou hast a gentler voice, That whispers comfort to the swelling heart, Abashed, yet longing to behold her Maker.