THE FIRST SABBATH. Six days the heavenly host, in circle vast, Smiled like a sleeping babe: The voice divine A holy calm breathed o'er the goodly work: Shed mellowly a sloping beam. Peace reigned, Their orisons poured forth; love, concord, reigned. Among the antlered herd, the tyger couched Silence was o'er the deep; the noiseless surge, Was gently rippling on the pebbled shore ; While, on the swell, the sea-bird with her head Wing-veiled, slept tranquilly. The host of heaven, Entranced in new delight, speechless adored; Nor stopped their fleet career, nor changed their form Encircular, till on that hemisphere,— In which the blissful garden sweet exhaled Its incense, odorous clouds,—the Sabbath dawn And soared, in semblance of a mighty rainbow. No harp resounds, mute is each voice; the burst To harmony, that Earth must have received But soon as to the starry altitudes They reached, then what a storm of sound, tremendous, Swelled through the realms of space! The morning stars Together sang, and all the sons of God Shouted for joy! Loud was the peal; so loud, As would have quite o'erwhelmed the human sense; But to the Earth it came a gentle strain, |