Page:The Seasons - Thomson (1791).djvu/153

As thus th' effulgence tremulous I drink,
With cherish'd gaze, the lambent lightnings shoot 1995
Across the sky; or horizontal dart,
In wondrous shapes: by fearful murmuring crouds
Portentous deem'd. Amid the radiant orbs,
That more than deck, that animate the sky,
The life-infusing suns of other worlds; 1700
Lo! from the dread immensity of space
Returning, with accelerated course,
The rushing comet to the sun descends;
And as he sinks below the shading earth,
With awful train projected o'er the heavens, 1705
The guilty nations tremble. But, above
Those superstitious horrors that enslave
The fond sequacious herd, to mystic faith
And blind amazement prone, th' englighten'd few,
Whose godlike minds philosophy exalts, 1710
The glorious stranger hail. They feel a joy
Divinely great; they in their powers exult,
That wondrous force of thought, which mounting spurns
This dusky spot, and measures all the sky;
While, from his far excursion thro' the wilds 1715
Of barren ether, faithful to his time,
They see the blazing wonder rise anew,
In seeming terror clad, but kindly bent
To work the will of all-sustaining Love:
From his huge vapoury train perhaps to shake 1720
Reviving moisture on the numerous orbs,
Thro' which his long ellipsis winds; perhaps

To