But he, her fears to cease,1

Sent down the meek-eyed Peace;

She, crown'd with olive green, came, softly sliding Down through the turning sphere,

His ready harbinger,

With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing; And, waving wide her myrtle wand,

She strikes a universal peace through sea and land,

No war, or battle's sound

Was heard the world around:

The idle spear and shield were high up hung; The hooked chariot stood

Unstained with hostile blood;

The trumpet spake not to the armèd throng; And kings sat still with awful eye,

As if they surely knew their sov'reign Lord was by.

But peaceful was the night,

Wherein the Prince of Light

His reign of peace upon the earth began: The winds, with wonder whist,5

Smoothly the waters kiss'd,

Whispering new joys to the mild Ocean,

Who now hath quite forgot to rave,

While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.

The stars, with deep amaze,

Stand fix'd in steadfast gaze,

Bending one way their precious influence;

1 Put an end to.

2 The whole world was at peace when Christ was born. The Temple of Janus at Rome, which was only open in time of war, had been closed by Augustus, for the second time since the foundation of the city.

3 i. e.,
with scythe on the wheels.
5 Hushed.

4 Full of awe.

i. e., by the wand of peace.

And will not take their flight,

For all the morning light,

Or Lucifer that often warn'd them thence; But in their glimmering orbs did glow,

Until the Lord himself bespake, and bid them go.

And though the shady gloom

Had given day her room,2

The sun himself withheld his wonted speed, And hid his head for shame,

As his inferior flame

The new-enlighten'd world1 no more should need; He saw a greater Sun appear

Than his bright throne, or burning axletree, could bear.

The shepherds on the lawn,

Or ere the point of dawn,

Sat simply chatting in a rustic row;

Full little thought they then

That the mighty Pan

Was kindly come to live with them below;

Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep,

Was all that did their silly 5 thoughts so busy keep.

When such music sweet

Their hearts and ears did greet,

As never was by mortal finger strook ; Divinely-warbled voice

Answering the stringed noise,

As all their souls in blissful rapture took. The air, such pleasure loth to lose,

With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly

close.

1 The morning star.

3 As if

2 Had given place to the day.

By the sun of righteousness which had now arison,

5

Simple.

Carried away.

Nature that heard such sound,

Beneath the hollow round

Of Cynthia's seat, the airy region thrilling, Now was almost won,

To think her part was done,

And that her reign had here its last fulfilling; She knew such harmony alone

Could hold all Heaven and Earth in happier union.

At last surrounds their sight

A globe of circular light,

That with long beams the shamefaced Night array'd; The helmed Cherubim,

And sworded Seraphim,

Are seen in glittering ranks with wings display'd, Harping in loud and solemn quire,

With unexpressive2 notes, to Heaven's new-born heir.

Such music (as 'tis said)

Before was never made,

But when of old the sons of morning sung,3

While the Creator great

His constellations set,

And the well-balanced world on hinges hung;

And cast the dark foundations deep,

And bid the weltering4 waves their oozy channel keep.

Ring out, ye crystal spheres!

Once bless our human ears,

If ye
have power

to touch our senses so;

And let your silver chime

Move in melodious time;

And let the bass of Heaven's deep organ blow;

And, with your ninefold harmony,

Make up full concert to the angelic symphony.

1 The moon. Just as we sometimes say, this sublunary sphere.

2 i. e., which cannot be expressed.

4 Rolling to and fro.

3 Job. xxxviii. 41.

For, if such holy song

Enwrap our fancy long,

Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold; And speckled Vanity

Will sicken soon and die,

And leprous Sin will melt from earthly mould; And Hell itself will pass away,

And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering1 day.

Yea, Truth and Justice then

Will down return to men,

Orb'd in a rainbow; and, like glories wearing, Mercy will sit between,

Throned in celestial sheen,

With radiant feet the tissued clouds down-steering; And Heaven, as at some festival,

Will open wide the gates of her high palace hall.

But wisest Fate says No,

This must not yet be so,

The Babe lies yet in smiling infancy,

That on the bitter cross

Must redeem our loss,

So both himself and us to glorify:

Yet first, to those ychain'd in sleep,

The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep;

With such a horrid clang

As on Mount Sinai rang,

While the red fire and smould'ring clouds outbrake ;

The aged earth aghast,

With terror of that blast,

Shall from the surface to the centre shake;

When, at the world's last session,

The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread his

throne.

And then at last our bliss,

Full and perfect is,

But now begins; for, from this happy day, The old Dragon, underground

In straiter limits bound,

Not half so far casts his usurped sway : And, wroth to see his kingdom fail, Swinges1 the scaly horror of his folded tail.

The oracles are dumb;2

No voice or hideous hum

Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. Apollo from his shrine

Can no more divine,

With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. No nightly trance, or breathed spell,

Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.

The lonely mountains o'er,

And the resounding shore,

A voice of weeping heard and loud lament; 3 From haunted spring and dale,

Edg'd with poplar pale,

The parting Genius is with sighing sent;

With flower-inwoven tresses torn,

The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets

mourn.

In consecrated earth,

And on the holy hearth,

The Lars and Lemurs 4 moan with midnight plaint;

1 Lashes to and fro.

2 The Christian fathers frequently asserted that the heathen oracles were unable to utter their prophecies at this time.

3 It is said that the master of a vessel bound to Cyprus heard a voice telling him that the great god Pan was dead, and when he came to land and told this, there were loud lamentations and cries.

4 The spirits of the dead.