Where the dew falls and the rain;
Every where o'er nature's face,
I thy present footsteps trace.

In lightning and in thunder, I
Thee, thou unseen-present, feel,
When evening soft and cool is nigh,

Thy balmy gales around me steal;

Every low place, every high,
Every rock and every fell,
Earth, air, fire, water, tell
The presence of the Deity;
Every where in every place,
I thy present footsteps trace.

Whither can I fly from thee,

Conscience-struck with guilt and fear?

Thou canst reach and punish me,
E'en beyond this earthly sphere;
Sought I to hide me, vain endeavour!
In the heaven-thou art there,
In the abyss of hell-thou'rt there.
Can death me from thee dissever?
Nought can sever me from thee,
Every where thou art with me.

Thought I, that in the dark deep sea,
I unseen by thee could stay;
There would thy eye discover me,
Thy hand draw me forth to day.
Did the shades of night surround me,
Vain would be the shades of night;
Darkness is to thee as light,

Thy power would be still around me;
Nought could sever me from thee,
Every where thou art with me.

Me could the covering mountains hide,
Still in thy hand should I be found;
Took I the morning's wings, and wide
Could fly, beyond creation's bound,
Into the realms of chaos drear,

Until the dreadful day of doom,

Me out of nought, as from night's gloom
The morn, thy powerful arm could tear ;
Nought could sever me from thee,
Every where thou art with me.

On me, all-present Deity,

Be these eternal truths imprest, Thine arm is power, and to thine eye Man's secret actions stand confest.

By me, to every path preferred

Be virtue's true and safest way;
And to warn me, lest I stray,
Be thy voice in thunder heard;
Nought can sever me from thee,
Every where thou art with me.

CREATION.

Heaven opened wide

MILTON.

Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound
On golden hinges moving, to let forth
The King of Glory, in his powerful Word
And Spirit, coming to create new worlds.
On heavenly ground they stood; and from the shore
They viewed the vast immeasurable abyss
Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,

Up from the bottom turned by furious winds
And surging waves, as mountains, to assault
Heaven's height, and with the centre mix the pole.
'Silence, ye troubled Waves, and thou Deep, peace,'
Said then th' Omnific Word; your discord end!'

Nor staid; but on the wings of Cherubim

Uplifted, in paternal glory rode

Far into Chaos, and the world unborn;

For Chaos heard his voice: Him all his train
Followed in bright procession, to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.
Then staid the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepared
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe
This universe, and all created things:
One foot he centred, and the other turned
Round through the vast profundity obscure;
And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,
This be thy just circumference, O World!'
Thus God the Heaven created, thus the Earth,
Matter unformed and void: darkness profound
Covered the abyss; but on the watery calm
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread,
And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass; but downward purged
The black, tartareous, cold, infernal dregs,
Adverse to life: then founded, then conglobed
Like things to like: the rest to several place
Disparted, and between spun out the air;
And Earth self-balanced on her centre hung.

And God made two great lights, great for their use

To man, the greater to have rule by day,
The less by night, altern; and made the stars,
And set them in the firmament of Heaven,

T'illuminate the Earth, and rule the day

In their vicissitude, and rule the night,

And light from darkness to divide.

First in his east the glorious lamp was seen,
Regent of day, and all the horizon round

Invested with bright rays, jocund to run

His longitude through Heaven's high road; the gray
Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danced
Shedding sweet influence; less bright the Moon,
But opposite in levelled west was set,

His mirror, with full face borrowing her light
From him; for other light she needed none
In that aspect, and still that distance keeps
Till night; then in the east her turn she shines
Revolved on Heaven's great axle, and her reign
With thousand lesser lights dividual holds,
With thousand thousand stars, that then appeared
Spangling the hemisphere.-

Now Heaven in all her glory shone, and rolled
Her motions, as the great first Mover's hand
First wheeled their course: Earth in her rich attire
Consummate lovely, smiled; air, water, earth,

By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walked
Frequent; and of the sixth day yet remained:
There wanted yet the master-work, the end
Of all yet done; a creature, who, not prone
And brute as other creatures, but endued
With sanctity of reason, might erect

His stature, and upright with front serene
Govern the rest, self-knowing; and from thence
Magnanimous to correspond with Heaven,
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Descends, thither with heart, and voice, and eyes
Directed in devotion, to adore

And worship God Supreme, who made him chief

Of all his works: therefore th' Omnipotent

Eternal Father (for where is not He
Present?) thus to his Son audibly spake:

'Let us make now Man in our image, Man In our similitude, and let them rule

Over the fish and fowl of sea and air,

Beast of the field, and over all the Earth,

And every creeping thing that creeps the ground.'
This said, He formed thee, Adam; thee, O Man,
Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breathed
The breath of life; in his own image He
Created thee, in the image of God
Express; and thou becamest a living soul.

BEAUTIES OF CREATION.

BOWRING.

Ours is a lovely world, how fair!
Thy beauties even on the earth appear:
The seasons in their courses fall,
And bring successive joys. The sea,
The earth, the sky, are full of thee,
Benignant, glorious Lord of all.

There's beauty in the heat of day;
There's glory in the noon tide ray;
There's sweetness in the twilight shades;
Magnificence in night. Thy love
Arched the grand heaven of blue above,
And all our smiling earth pervades.