Dwelt from eternity; dwelt then in Thee,
Bright Effluence of bright Essence increate!
—Or hear'st thou rather, pure ethereal Stream!
Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the Sun,
Before the heavens, Thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle didst invest
The rising world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinite.”[117]
How pathetic is the very beauty of this invocation, when we consider the feelings with which it must have been written by him, who,
“Like the wakeful bird,