

What first impell'd thee to exert thy might? 

 Goodness* unlimited.— What glorious light 

 Thy power directed? Wisdom without bound. — 

 What proved it first? Oh! guide my fancy right; 

 Oh! raise from cumbrous ground, 

 My soul in rapture drowned, 

 That fearless it may soar on wings of fire; 

 For thou, who only know'st, thou only canst inspire. 



First an all-potent, all-pervading sound 

 Bade flow the waters^- — and the waters flowed, 

 Exulting in their measureless abode, 

 Diffusive, multitudinous, profound, 

 Above, beneath, around. 



J 



Then o'er the vast expanse, primordial wind% 

 Breathed gently till a lucid bubble rose, 

 Which grew in perfect shape an Egg§ refined; 

 Created substance no such lustre shews, 



Earth no such beauty knows. 

 Above the warring waves it danced elate, 

 Till from its bursting shell, with lovely state, 

 A form cerulean fluttered o'er the deep, 

 Brightest of beings, greatest of the great, 



Who not as mortals steep 



Their eyes in dewy sleep, 







* They rose to that sublime conception, God is Love. 



f From chaos the flux of water is the first action or energy. 



+ The next creation by the Deity is the wind. " And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the deep." Moses. 



§ Thus the Greeks, but with less grandeur, represent their Cupid as coming out of the great Egg of Night, which floated in 

 Chaos and was broken by the horns of the celestial Bull. He is represented winged, and by his arms and torch pierced and vivified 

 all things, producing every where life and joy. This Cupid is called Eros, or Divine Love. " At this time," says Aristophanes, 

 " sable-winged Night produced an Egg, from whence sprung up, like a blossom, Eros, the lovely, the desirable, with his glossy 

 golden wings." 



Thus when the Egg of Night, on Chaos hurl'd, 

 Burst, and disclosed the cradle of the world ; 

 First from the gaping shell refulgent sprung 

 Immortal Love, his bow celestial strung; — 

 O'er the wide waste his gaudy wings unfold, 

 Beam his soft smiles, and wave his curls of gold ; — 

 With silver darts he pierced the kindling frame 

 And lit with torch divine the ever-living flame." 



Darwin. 



But, 



