( 175 ) 
I love the air: her dainty sweets refresh 
My drooping soul, and to new sweets invite me; 
Her shrill-mouthed Choir sustains me with their flesh. 
And with their polyhonian notes delight me: 
But what’s the air or all the sweets that she 
Can bless my soul withal, compared to Thee ? 
I love the sea; she is my fellow creature, 
My careful purveyor; she provides me store: 
She walls me round; she makes my diet greater, 
She wafts my treasure from a foreign shore: 
But , Lord of oceans , ivhen compared with Thee , 
What is the ocean or her wealth to me? 
To Heaven’s high city I direct my journey, 
Whose spangled suburbs entertain mine eye; 
Mine eye, by contemplation’s great attorney, 
Transcends the crystal pavement of the sky: 
But what is Heaven , great God, compared to Thee ? 
Without Thy presence, Heaven’s no Heaven to me. 
Without thy presence, earth gives no refection reflection; 
Without Thy presence, sea affords no treasure; 
Without Thy presence , air’s a rank infection; 
Without Thy presence, Heaven itself no pleasure; 
If not possessed , if not enjoyed in Thee , 
What’s earth , or sea , or air , or Heaven , to me? 
The highest honors that the world can boast, 
Are subjects far too low for my desire; 
The brightest beams of glory are— at most — 
But dying sparkles of Thy living fire; 
The loudest flames that earth can kindle, be 
But nightly glow-worms, if compaared to Thee. 
Without Thy presence , wealth is bags of cares; 
Wisdom, but folly; joy, disquiet—sadness; 
Friendship is treason, and delights are snares; 
Pleasures but pain, and mirth but pleasing madness; 
