80
“Here see the mighty World-machine appear,
ethereal where the fourfold el’ements blend,
made by His deep design, His lofty lere,
who lacks beginning and who has no end.
He who surrounding holds this shapely sphere,
this globe in filèd surface packt and pen’d,
is God: But what God is th’ intelligence
of mortal genius ne’er shall dare pretence.
81
“This primal Orb, that rolling doth enclose
the lesser circles in its lines confin’d;
this Sphere, whose flood of clearest radiance flows
blinding man’s vision and his vulgar mind
is hight th’ Empyrean:231 Here the Blest repose,
here perfect Spirits bliss eternal find,
inèffable joys which He alone may ken
Who hath no likeness in the World of Men.
82
“Only to this Imperial Sphere belong
the Gods of Truth; for Saturn, Janus, I,
Jove and his Juno are a fabled throng,
a mortal figment, a blind fantasy:
Only to deck the Poet’s sprightly song
we servèd; and, if more humanity
we gained of man, ’twas that his wit hath given
our names and natures to the stars of Heaven:
83
“And, eke, because that Holy Providence—
the Jupiter of mythologick strain—
by thousand Spirits wise in perfect sense,
ruleth all mundane things it doth sustain.
Prophetick Science doth this Truth dispense,
a Truth so many instances maintain:
Sprites that be good aye guide and favour man,
the bad his course impede whene’er they can.232
84
“Here willèd Picture, lief with change to play
pleasing and teaching, mixing gay and grave,
to give them titles which your olden lay
to fabled Gods in poet-fables gave:
For even th’ Angels of th’ eternal day
as Gods enrollèd were in sacred stave;
which e’en denies not such exalted name
sometimes to sinner though with falsest claim.
85
“In fine the God Supreme who works His will
by second worldly causes, all commands:
Return we now the works profound to tell
of His divine and venerated Hands.
Beneath this circle, where all blissful dwell
pure godly Sprites, which fixt for ever stands,
another rolleth, and so swift none see
its course: This is the Primum Mobilé:233
86
“And with its rapt234 and rapid whirl it drags
all lesser spherelets which its womb containeth:
By work of this the Sun who never flags
with alien courses Day and Night sustaineth:
’Neath this swift orb another orb slow lags,235
so slow, so hard a curb its ardour reineth,
while Phoebus makes, with ever splendid face,
two hundred rounds, this moves a single pace.
87
“Lower this other view,236 enamel’d gay
with burnisht figures gleaming radiant bright;
which in it too hold constant ordered way,
orbs on their axes scintillant empight:
Thou seest well ’tis dight with brave array
of broad and golden Zone, the Zodiac hight,
wherein twelve starry forms of an’imals shine,
that Phoebus’ mansions limit and define.
88
“Behold in other parts the portraiture,
limned by the Stars that sparkling glances shed:
Behold the Wain, attend the Cynosure,
and, with her fierce Worm-father, Andromed:
See Cassiopeia’s beauty lovely pure,
with turbulent Orion’s gesture dread:
Behold the Swan that doth in song expire,
the Hare and Hounds, the Ship and dulcet Lyre.
89
“Beneath this firmamental canopy
thou seest Saturn’s sky, that Godhead old:
With faster flight doth Jove below him fly,
and Mars yet lower, bellick planet bold:
In the fourth seat shines Heaven’s radiant eye;
then Venus leadeth all her Loves enrol’d;
Mercury wends with eloquence divine;
and ’neath him Dian showeth faces trine.
90
“In all these orbits motion different
shalt see; in these ’tis swift, in those ’tis slow;
now fly they farthest from the firmament,
then sweep they nearest earth that lurks below;
even so willed the Sire Omnipotent,
who made the Fire and Air, the Wind and Snow:
These lie more inward, as thou shalt be shown,
and Earth with Ocean for their centre own.
91
“Within this centre, Inn237 of humankind,
whose reckless spirits not alone defy
suff’erings and ills to stable Earth confine’d,
but e’en the Sea’s fierce instability;
thou shalt see various Continents define’d
by blindly raging tides, where parted lie
the various Realms which various monarchs sway,
whose varied Customs varied laws obey.
92
“See high, haught Europe that adores the Rood,
for pow’er and polity o’er all renown’d:
See Africk grudging ev’ery worldly good,
yon rough, incult and monster-haunted ground;
whose Stormy Cape till now your search withstood,
by Nature ’stablished as her Austral bound:
Behold this quarter where the Blackmoors dwell
sans-loys, sans-foys, whose numbers none can tell.
93
“Behold the Ben’omotápa’s puissant reign
of salvage Negros, nude and noisome race,
where shall for Holy Faith be foully slain
martyr’d Gonçalo,238 suffering sore disgrace:
This hidden Hemisphere to golden vein
gives birth, which man must win by sweat of face
See from yon Lake, whence Nilus rolls his tide,
how springs Cuáma239 from the farther side.
94
“Behold those Blackmoors and their huts that stand
sans doors, each castled in his natal nest,
they trust of Royal Justice the command,
and in the candour of the neighbour’s breast:
Behold how furious flies the bestial band
like flock of dingy stares thick packt and prest;
to fight Sofala’s fortress they pretend
which dext’erous Nhaia’s arm and wits defend:
95
“See there the Lakes that cradle Father Nyle240
whose ultime sources men of old ne’er knew:
See how he waters, ’gend’ering cockadrille,
Abassia-lond whose sons to Christ be true:
Behold how bare of bulwarks (novel style)
they show a better front against the foe:
See Meroe-island whilom known to fame,
which now the wild inhabitants Nobá name.
96
“On distant Africk hills a son of thee
in Turkish wars shall win the fame of Brave;
hight Dom Christóvam shall the hero be,
but flesh from destined Death no skill shall save.
Here view the Coast where shelter from the sea
and glad relief to thee Melinde gave:
Note how yon Rhaptus241-stream, whose wide expanse
natives call Obi, ent’ereth in Quilmance.
97
“The Cape which Ancients ‘Aromatic’ clepe
behold, yclept by Moderns Guardafú;
where opes the Red Sea mouth, so wide and deep,
the
