The shepherds on the lawn,

Or e'er the point of dawn,

Sat simply chatting in a rustic row;

Full little thought they then

That the mighty Pan

83

Was kindly come to live with them below; 90

Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep,

Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep.

When such music sweet

IX.

Their hearts and ears did greet,

As never was by mortal finger strook,

Divinely-warbled voice

Answering the stringed noise,

As all their souls in blissful rapture took :

The air such pleasure loath to lose,

95

[close.

With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly

x.

Nature that heard such sound,

Of Cynthia's seat, the airy region thrilling, Now was almost won

To think her part was done,

105

And that her reign had here its last fulfilling;

She knew such harmony alone

Could hold all heav'n and earth in happier union.

Areseen in glittering ranks with wings display'd,

Harping in loud and solemn quire,

[Heir.

With unexpressive notes to Heaven's new-born

XII.

Such music (as 'tis said)

Before was never made,

But when of old the sons of morning sung,

While the Creator great

His constellations set,

120

And the well-balanc'd world on hinges hung,

And cast the dark foundations deep,

[keep.

And bid the welt'ring waves their oozy channel

XIIN.

Ring out, ye crystal spheres,
Once bless our human ears,

If ye have pow'r to touch our senses so;

And let your silver chime

Move in melodious time,

And let the base of heav'n's deep organ blow;

And with your ninefold harmony

Make up full consort to th' angelic symphony.

For if such holy song

Inwrap our fancy long,

XIV.

131

Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold,

And speckled Vanity

Will sicken soon and die,

And leprous Sin will melt from earthly mould;

And Hell itself will pass away,

And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering

day.

110

125 crystal] Heaven's hard crystal. Marlowe's Hero and Leander, p. 90.

128 silver] Machin's Dumbe Knight, 1608.

'It was as silver as the chime of spheres."

Todd.

134 gold] • See listening Time run back to fetch the age

of gold.' Benlowes's Theophila, st. xcv. p. 248.

140 leave] Virg. Æn. viii. 245.

،

regna recludat

Pallida, dîs invisa; superque immane barathrum

Cernatur, trepidentque immisso lumine Manes.'

Warton.

:

XV

Yea Truth and Justice then

Will down return to men,

Orb'd in a rainbow; and, like glories wearing,

Mercy will sit between,

Thron'd in celestial sheen,

145

With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steer

And heav'n, as at some festival,

[ing:

Will open wide the gates of her high palace hall.

XVI.

But wisest Fate says No,

This must not yet be so,

The babe yet lies in smiling infancy,

That on the bitter cross

Must redeem our loss;

So both himself and us to glorify;

150

160

But now begins; for from this happy day

The old Dragon under ground

In straiter limits bound,

Not half so far casts his usurped sway,

And wroth to see his kingdom fail,
Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail.

The oracles are dumb,

ΧΙΧ.

No voice or hideous hum

165

170

Runs thro' the arched roof in words deceiving.

Apollo from his shrine

Can no more divine,

With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. No nightly trance, or breathed spell

Inspires the pale-ey'd priest from the prophetic cell.

xx.

The lonely mountains o'er,

And the resounding shore,

172 Swinges] See Cowley's Davideis, p. 313

Pectora tum longæ percellit verbere caudæ.'