breath.                           185
       Spirit of Nature! thou
     Imperishable as this glorious scene,
       Here is thy fitting temple.

     If solitude hath ever led thy steps
     To the shore of the immeasurable sea,                       190
       And thou hast lingered there
       Until the sun's broad orb
     Seemed resting on the fiery line of ocean,
       Thou must have marked the braided webs of gold
       That without motion hang                                  195
       Over the sinking sphere:
     Thou must have marked the billowy mountain clouds,
     Edged with intolerable radiancy,
       Towering like rocks of jet
       Above the burning deep:                                   200
       And yet there is a moment
       When the sun's highest point
     Peers like a star o'er ocean's western edge,
     When those far clouds of feathery purple gleam
     Like fairy lands girt by some heavenly sea:                 205
     Then has thy rapt imagination soared
     Where in the midst of all existing things
     The temple of the mightiest Daemon stands.

       Yet not the golden islands
     That gleam amid yon flood of purple light,                  210
       Nor the feathery curtains
     That canopy the sun's resplendent couch,
       Nor the burnished ocean waves
       Paving that gorgeous dome,
       So fair, so wonderful a sight                             215
     As the eternal temple could afford.
     The elements of all that human thought
     Can frame of lovely or sublime, did join
     To rear the fabric of the fane, nor aught
     Of earth may image forth its majesty.                       220
     Yet likest evening's vault that faery hall,
     As heaven low resting on the wave it spread
       Its floors of flashing light,
       Its vast and azure dome;
     And on the verge of that obscure abyss                      225
     Where crystal battlements o'erhang the gulf
     Of the dark world, ten thousand spheres diffuse
     Their lustre through its adamantine gates.

       The magic car no longer moved;
       The Daemon and the Spirit                                 230
       Entered the eternal gates.
       Those clouds of aery gold
       That slept in glittering billows
       Beneath the azure canopy,
     With the ethereal footsteps trembled not;                   235
       While slight and odorous mists
     Floated to strains of thrilling melody
     Through the vast columns and the pearly shrines.

       The Daemon and the Spirit
     Approached the overhanging battlement,                      240
     Below lay stretched the boundless universe!
       There, far as the remotest line
     That limits swift imagination's flight.
     Unending orbs mingled in mazy motion,
       Immutably fulfilling                                      245
       Eternal Nature's law.
       Above, below, around,
       The circling systems formed
       A wilderness of harmony.
       Each with undeviating aim                                 250
     In eloquent silence through the depths of space