Book II.
of IMAGINATION.
47
From him its portion of the vital flame,
In measure such, that from the wide complex 320
Of coexistent orders, one might rise,
One order,[1] all-involving and intire.
He too beholding in the sacred light
Of his essential reason, all the shapes
Of swift contingence, all successive ties325
Of action propagated thro' the sum
Of possible existence, he at once,
Down the long series of eventful time,
So fix'd the dates of being, so dispos'd,
To every living soul of every kind, 330
The field of motion and the hour of rest,
That all conspir'd to his supreme design,
To universal good; with full accord,
Answ'ring the mighty model he had chose,
The best and fairest of unnumber'd worlds[2] 335
That
- ↑ one might rise,
One order, &c.] See the meditations of Antoninus, and the characteristics, passim. - ↑ The best and fairest, &c.] This opinion is so old, that Timæus Locrus calls the supreme being, δαιμ ργος πδ βελτινος, the artificer of that which is best; and represents him as resolving in the beginning to produce the most excellent work, and as copying the world most exactly from his own intelligible and essential idea; so that it yet remains, as it was at first, perfect in beauty, and, will never stand in need of any correction or improvement. There is no room for a caution here, to understand these expressions, not
of
