Notes and Queries, Issue No. 61, December 28, 1850, page 9 by Various Authors
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er a leaf or two. Else, why did HERMES learn the Dutch language? I ask your subscribers if the following verses are weak, and if they would not have done honour to the English Vondel?
CHORUS OF ANGELS.
(From Lucifer.)
"Who sits above heaven's heights sublime, Yet fills the grave's profoundest place, Beyond eternity, or time, Or the vast round of viewless space: Who on Himself alone depends-- Immortal--glorious--but unseen-- And in his mighty being blends What rolls around or flows within. Of all we know not--all we know-- Prime source and origin--a sea, Whose waters pour'd on earth below Wake blessing's brightest radiancy. 'Tis power, love, wisdom, first exalted And waken'd from oblivion's birth; Yon starry arch--yon palace, vaulted-- Yon heaven of heavens, to smile on earth. From his resplendent majesty We shade us 'neath our sheltering wings, While awe-inspired, and tremblingly We praise the glorious King of Kings, With sight and sense confused and dim; O name--describe the Lord of Lords, The seraph's praise shall hallow Him;-- Or is the theme too vast for words?"
RESPONSE.
"'Tis God! who pours the living glow Of light, creation's fountain-head: Forgive the praise--too mean and low-- Or from the living or the dead. No tongue thy peerless name hath spoken, No space can hold that awful name; The aspiring spirit's wing is broken;-- Thou wilt be, wert, and art the same! Language is dumb. Imagination, Knowledge, and science, helpless fall; They are irreverent profanation, And thou, O God! art all in all. How vain on such a thought to dwell! Who knows Thee--Thee the All-unknown? Can angels be thy oracle, Who art--who art Thyself alone? None, none can trace Thy course sublime, For none can catch a ray from Thee, The splendour and the source of time-- The Eternal of eternity. Thy light of light outpour'd conveys Salvation in its flight elysian, Brighter than e'en Thy mercy's rays; But vainly would our feeble vision Aspire to Thee. From day to day Age steals on us, bu