34 



Or food-full substance ; not the laboring steed ; 

 The herd and flock that feed us ; not the mine 

 That yields us stores of elegance and use ; 

 The sea that loads our tables, and conveys 

 The wanderer man from clime to clime, with all 

 Those rolling spheres, that, from on high, shed down 

 Their kindly influence : — not these alone, 

 Which strike even eyes incurious, but each moss, 

 Each shell, each crawling insect holds a rank, 

 Important in the plan of Him, who form'd 



This scale of beings : 



K « * * 



A blade of silver hair-grass, nodding slowly 

 In the soft wind ; — the thistle's purple crown, 

 The ferns, the rushes tall, and fungus lowly, — 

 A thorn, a weed, an insect, or a stone, 

 Can thrill us with sensations exquisite ; 

 For all is exquisite ; — and every part 

 Points to the mighty hand that fashion'd it. 



Then, as we look aloft with yearning heart. 



The trees and mountains, like conductors, raise 



Our spirits upward on their flight sublime. 



And clouds, and sun, and Heaven's marmorean floor. 



Are but the stepping-stones by which we climb 



Up to the dread Invisible, to pour 



Our grateful feelings out in silent praise. 



