IX.
When such musick sweet
Their hearts and ears did greet
As never was by mortall finger strook,[24]
Divinely warbled voice
Answering the stringed noise[25]
As all their souls in blissfull rapture took;
The air, such pleasure loth to lose,
With thousand echo's still prolongs each heav'nly close.[26]
X.
Nature that heard such sound
Beneath the hollow round[27]
Of Cynthia's seat the airy region thrilling,
Now was almost won
To think her part was don,
And that her raign had here its[28] last fulfilling;
She knew such harmony alone
Could hold all Heav'n and Earth in happier union.
XI.
At last surrounds their sight
A globe of circular light,
That with long beams the shame-fac't Night array'd;
The helmed Cherubim,[29]
The sworded Seraphim
Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displaied,
Harping in loud and solemn quire
With unexpressive[30] notes to Heav'n's new-born Heir.
XII.
Such musick (as 'tis said)
Before was never made
But when of old the sons of Morning sung,[31]
While the Creator great
His constellation set,
And the well-ballanc't world on hinges[32] hung,
And cast the dark foundations deep,
And bid the weltring[33] waves their oozy channel keep.