Great Vine! on Thee; on Thee the cluster hangs;
The filial cluster! infinitely spread
In glowing globes, with various being fraught;
And drinks (nectareous draught!) immortal life!“
What an august! what an amazing conception, if human imagination can conceive it, does this give of the works of the Creator! Thousands of thousands of suns, multiplied without end, and ranged all around us, at immense distances from each other, attended by ten thousand times ten thousand worlds, all in rapid motion, yet calm, regular, and harmonious, invariably keeping the paths prescribed them; and these worlds peopled with myriads of intelligent creatures, formed for endless progression in perfection and felicity. If so much power, wisdom, goodness, and magnificence, is displayed in the material creation, which is the least considerable part of the universe, how great, how wise, how good must He be, who made and governs the whole![138]
The persuasion that rational beings inhabit other worlds, has a powerful tendency to excite our curiosity.
“Ye sparkling isles of light that stud the sea
Of empyrean ether! Ye abodes
Of unknown myriads, spirits, or in bands
Held of corporeal frame! Fain would my soul