THE ORDER OF NATURE

Thou who wouldst read, with an undarkened eye,

The laws by which the Thunderer bears sway,

Look at the stars that keep, in yonder sky,

Unbroken peace from Nature’s earliest day.

The great sun, as he guides his fiery car,

Strikes not the cold moon in his rapid sweep;

The Bear, that sees star setting after star

In the blue brine, descends not to the deep.

The star of eve still leads the hour of dews;

Duly the day-star ushers in the light;

With kindly alternations Love renews

The eternal courses bringing day and night.

Love drives away the brawler War, and keeps

The realm and host of stars beyond his reach;

In one long calm the general concord steeps

The elements, and tempers each to each.

The moist gives place benignly to the dry;

Heat ratifies a faithful league with cold;

The nimble flame springs upward to the sky;

Down sinks by its own weight the sluggish mould.

Still sweet with blossoms is the year’s fresh prime;

Her harvests stir the ripening Summer yields;

Fruit-laden Autumn follows in his time,

And rainy Winter waters still the fields.

The elemental harmony brings forth

And rears all life, and, when life’s term is o’er,

It sweeps the breathing myriads from the earth,

And whelms and hides them to be seen no more:

While the Great Founder, he who gave these laws,

Holds the firm reins and sits amid his skies

Monarch and Master, Origin and Cause,

And Arbiter supremely just and wise.

He guides the force he gave; his hand restrains

And curbs it to the circle it must trace:

Else the fair fabric which his power sustains

Would fall to fragments in the void of space.

Love binds the parts together, gladly still

They court the kind restraint nor would be free;

Unless Love held them subject to the Will

That gave them being, they would cease to be.