Rides on the volly'd lightning thro' the heav'ns;
Or yok'd with whirlwinds and the northern blast,
Sweeps the long tract of day. Then high she soars190
The blue profound, and hovering o'er the sun,
Beholds him pouring the redundant stream
Of light; beholds his unrelenting sway
Bend the reluctant Planets to absolve
The fated rounds of time. Thence far effus'd195
She darts her swiftness up the long career
Of devious comets; thro' its burning signs
Exulting measures the perennial wheel
Of nature, and looks back on all the stars,
Whose blended light, as with a milky zone,200
Invests the orient. Now amaz'd she views
Th' empyreal waste[O 1], where happy spirits hold,
Beyond this concave heav'n, their calm abode;
And fields of radiance, whose unfading light[O 2]
Has travell'd the profound six thousand years,205
- ↑ Th' empyreal waste.] Ne se put-il point qu'l y a un grand espace audelà de la region des etoiles? Que ce foit le ciel empyreé, ou non, toûjours, cet espace immense qui environne toute cette regione, pourra étre rempli de bonheur & de gloire. Il pourra étre conçu comme l'ocean, où se rendent les fleuves de toutes les creatures bienheureuses, quand elles seront venues à leur perfection dans le systéme des etoiles. Leibnitz dans la Theodiceé, part. i. Sect. 19.
- ↑ Whose unfading light, &c.] It was a notion of the great M. Huygens, that there may be fixed stars at such a distance from our solar system, as that their light shall not have had time to reach us, even from the creation of the world to this day.
