"Hence, thro' her nourish'd Powers, enlarged by Thee, / She soaring, spurns, with elevated Pride, / The tangling Mass of Cares, and low Desires, / That bind the fluttering Crowd; and, Angel-wing'd, / The Heights of Science and of Vertue gains, / Where all is calm and bright! with Nature round, / Or in the starry Regions, or th' Abyss, / To Reason's and to Fancy's eye display'd; / The First up-tracing, from the vast Inane, / The Chain of Causes and Effects to Him, / Who, absolutely, in Himself, alone / Possesses being; while the Last receives / The whole Magnificence of Heaven and Earth, / And every Beauty, delicate or bold, / Obvious or more remote, with livelier Sense, / A World swift-painted, on th' attentive Mind!"
— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
And thy high Praises, let me crown my Song!
Effusive Source of Evidence, and Truth!
A Lustre shedding o'er the ennobled Mind,
Stronger than Summer-Noon, and pure as that,
Which gently vibrates on the Eye of Saint,
New to the Dawning of coelestial Day.
Hence, thro' her nourish'd Powers, enlarged by Thee,
She soaring, spurns, with elevated Pride,
The tangling Mass of Cares, and low Desires,
That bind the fluttering Crowd; and, Angel-wing'd,
The Heights of Science and of Vertue gains,
Where all is calm and bright! with Nature round,
Or in the starry Regions, or th' Abyss,
To Reason's and to Fancy's eye display'd;
The First up-tracing, from the vast Inane,
The Chain of Causes and Effects to Him,
Who, absolutely, in Himself, alone
Possesses being; while the Last receives
The whole Magnificence of Heaven and Earth,
And every Beauty, delicate or bold,
Obvious or more remote, with livelier Sense,
A World swift-painted, on th' attentive Mind!
(p. 84-5 in original, pp. 84-5 in Sambrook ed.)
Poem first published as Summer. A Poem. By James Thomson. (London: Printed for J. Millan, 1727). Second edition in 1728.
Text revised between 1727 and 1746. Searching text from The Poetical Works (1830), checked against earlier editions. Also reading James Sambrook's edition of The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), which reproduces the 1746 edition of Thomson's poem.
Collected in The Seasons, A Hymn, A Poem to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton, and Britannia, a Poem. By Mr. Thomson (1730). <Link to ECCO>
