III. To Heaven

The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE.

GREAT Heav'n, whose mighty frame no respite knows,

Father of all, from whom the world arose:

Hear, bounteous parent, source and end of all,

Forever whirling round this earthly ball;

Abode of Gods, whose guardian pow'r surrounds 5  5

Th' eternal World with ever during bounds;

Whose ample bosom and encircling folds

The dire necessity of nature holds.

Ætherial, earthly, whose all-various frame  9

Azure and full of forms, no power can tame. 10

All-seeing Heav'n, progenitor of Time *,

Forever blessed, deity sublime,

Propitious on a novel mystic shine,

And crown his wishes with a life divine.

Footnotes

116:5 III Ver. 5] Whose guardian power surrounds, &c. and v. ii. All-seeing Heaven. ὁ τυ Ὀρφέος ὐρανὸς ύρος καὶ πάντων φυλὰξ είναι βέλεται· Damascius περὶ αρχῶν, i.e. "according to Orpheus, Heaven is the inspector and guardian of all things."

117:9 III. Ver. 9.] We have already observed in our Dissertation, that according to the Platonists, subordinate natures are contained in the supreme, and such as are supreme in the subordinate: and this doctrine which is originally Egyptian, is mentioned by Proclus in Tim. p. 292. as Orphical. ἔσι γὰρ καὶ ἐν γῆ ὐρανὸς καὶ ἐν ὐρανῷ γῆ, καὶ ἐνταῦθα μὲν ὁ ὐρανὸς χθονίως, εκεῖ δ᾽ε ὐρανίως ἡ γῆ i. e. "heaven is in earth, and earth in heaven; but here heaven subsists in an earthly manner, and there earth in a celestial manner."

117:* Saturn.

IV.