translated; dead were raised;
Angels, and more than angels, came from heaven;
And, oh! for this, descended lower still; 1040
Guilt was hell's gloom; astonish'd at his guest,
For one short moment Lucifer adored:
Lorenzo! and wilt thou do less?--For this,
That hallow'd page, fools scoff at, was inspired, 1044
Of all these truths thrice venerable code!
Deists! perform your quarantine; and then
Fall prostrate, ere you touch it, lest you die.
Nor less intensely bent infernal powers
To mar, than those of light, this end to gain.
Oh, what a scene is here!--Lorenzo, wake!
Rise to the thought; exert, expand thy soul
To take the vast idea: it denies 1052
All else the name of great. Two warring worlds!
Not Europe against Afric; warring worlds!
Of more than mortal! mounted on the wing!
On ardent wings of energy, and zeal,
High hovering o'er this little brand of strife!
This sublunary ball--but strife, for what?
In their own cause conflicting? No; in thine,
In Man's. His single interest blows the flame; 1060
His the sole stake; his fate the trumpet sounds,
Which kindles war immortal. How it burns!
Tumultuous swarms of deities in arms!
Force, force opposing, till the waves run high,
And tempest nature's universal sphere.
Such opposites eternal, steadfast, stern,
Such foes implacable, are Good, and Ill;
Yet man, vain man, would mediate peace between them.
Think not this fiction, "There was war in heaven."
From heaven's high crystal mountain, where it hung,
Th' Almighty's outstretch'd arm took down his bow, 1071
And shot his indignation at the deep:
Re-thunder'd hell, and darted all her fires.--
And seems the stake of little moment still?
And slumbers man, who singly caused the storm?
He sleeps.--And art thou shock'd at mysteries?
The greatest, thou. How dreadful to reflect,
What ardour, care, and counsel, mortals cause 1078
In breasts divine! how little in their own!
Where'er I turn, how new proofs pour upon me!
How happily this wondrous view supports
My former argument! How strongly strikes
Immortal life's full demonstration, here!
Why this exertion? Why this strange regard
From heaven's Omnipotent indulged to man?--
Because, in man, the glorious dreadful power,
Extremely to be pain'd, or bless'