NOX NOCTI INDICAT SCIENTIAM.-DAVID.

WHEN I survey the bright

Celestial sphere,

So rich with jewels hung, that night
Doth like an Ethiop bride appear,

My soul her wings doth spread,

And heavenward flies,

Th' Almighty's mysteries to read

In the large volume of the skies.

For the bright firmament

Shoots forth no flame

So silent, but is eloquent

In speaking the Creator's name.

No unregarded star

Contracts its light

Into so small a character,

Removed far from our human sight,

But, if we stedfast look,

We shall discern

In it, as in some holy book,

How man may heavenly knowledge learn.

It tells the conqueror,

That far-stretched power,

Which his proud dangers traffic for,

Is but the triumph of an hour.

That from the farthest north

Some nations may,

Yet undiscovered, issue forth,

And o'er his new-got conquest sway.

Some nation, yet shut in

With hills of ice,

May be let out to scourge his sin,

Till they shall equal him in vice.

And then they likewise shall

Their ruin have;

For, as yourselves, your empires fall,
And every kingdom hath a grave.

Thus those celestial fires,

Though seeming mute,

The fallacy of our desires,

And all the pride of life, confute.

For they have watched since first
The world had birth,

And found sin in itself accursed,

And nothing permanent on earth.

LAUDATE DOMINUM DE CELIS.-DAVID.

You Spirits! who have thrown away

That envious weight of clay,

Which your celestial flight denied ; Who by your glorious troops supply The winged hierarchy,

So broken in the angel's pride!

O you! whom your Creator's sight
Inebriates with delight!

Sing forth the triumphs of his name;

All you enamoured souls, agree

In a loud symphony,

To give expression to your flame!

To Him his own great works relate,

Who deigned to elevate

You 'bove the frailty of your birth, Where you stand safe from that rude war With which we troubled are,

By the rebellion of our earth.

While a corrupted air beneath

Here in this world we breathe,

Each hour some passion us assails. Now lust casts wildfire in the blood,

Or, that it may seem good,

Itself in wit or beauty veils.

Then envy circles us with hate,
And lays a siege so strait,

No heavenly succour enters in:
But if revenge admittance find
For ever hath the mind

Made forfeit of itself to sin.

Assaulted thus, how dare we raise
Our minds to think his praise,

Who is eternal and immense?
How dare we force our feeble wit
To speak him infinite,

So far above the search of sense?

O you! who are immaculate,
His name may celebrate

In your soul's bright expansion:
You, whom your virtues did unite
To his perpetual light,

That ever with Him you now shine one.

While we who to earth contract our hearts, And only study arts

To shorten the sad length of time, In place of joys, bring humble fears, For hymns, repentant tears,

And a new sigh, for every crime.

While a corrupted air beneath

Here in this world we breathe,

Each hour some passion us assaris. Now lust casts wildfire in the blood,

Or, that it may seem good,

Itself in wit or beanty veils.

While we who to earth contract our beats And only study arts

To shorten the sad length of time In nof joys, bring humble fears,