Lo! from the dread immensity of space
Returning with accelerated course,
The rushing Comet to the sun descends;
And, as he sinks below the shading earth,
With awful train projected o’er the heavens,
The guilty nations tremble. But, above
Those superstitious horrors that enslave
The fond sequacious herd, to mystic faith
And blind amazement prone, th’ enlighten’d few,
Whose godlike minds Philosophy exalts,