To Heaven

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;

p. 117

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.