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EUPOLIS' Hymn to the Creator.

1 AUTHOR of Being, Source of Light,
2 With unfading Beauties bright,
3 Fulness, Goodness, rolling round
4 Thy own fair Orb without a Bound:
5 Whether Thee thy Supplicants call
6 Truth, or Good, or One, or All,
7 Ei or Iao; Thee we hail
8 Essence that can never fail,
9 Grecian or Barbaric Name,
10 Thy stedfast Being still the same.
11 Thee, when Morning greets the Skies
12 With rosy Cheeks and humid Eyes;
13 Thee, when sweet-declining Day
14 Sinks in purple Waves away;
15 Thee will I sing, O Parent Jove
16 And teach the World to praise and love.
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17 Yonder azure Vault on high,
18 Yonder blue, low, liquid Sky,
19 Earth on its firm Basis plac'd,
20 And with circling Waves embrac'd,
21 All, Creating Pow'r confess,
22 All their mighty Maker bless.
23 Thou shak'st all Nature with thy Nod,
24 Sea, Earth and Air confess the God:
25 Yet does thy pow'rful Hand sustain
26 Both Earth and Heaven, both Firm and Main.
27 Scarce can our daring Thought arise
28 To thy Pavilion in the Skies;
29 Nor can Plato's self declare
30 The Bliss, the Joy, the Rapture there.
31 Barren above Thou dost not reign,
32 But circled with a glorious Train,
33 The Sons of God, the Sons of Light,
34 Ever joying in thy Sight:
35 (For Thee their silver Harps are strung,)
36 Ever beauteous, ever young,
37 Angelic Forms their Voices raise,
38 And thro' Heav'n's Arch resound thy Praise.
39 The Feather'd Souls that swim the Air,
40 And bathe in liquid Ether there,
41 The Lark, Precentor of their Choir
42 Leading them higher still and higher,
43 Listen and learn; th' angelic Notes
44 Repeating in their warbling Throats:
45 And ere to soft Repose they go,
46 Teach them to their Lords below:
47 On the green Turf, their mossy Nest,
48 The Ev'ning Anthem swells their Breast.
49 Thus like thy Golden Chain from high,
50 Thy Praise unites the Earth and Sky.
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51 Source of Light, Thou bidst the Sun
52 On his burning Axles run;
53 The Stars like Dust around him fly,
54 And shew the Area of the Sky.
55 He drives so swift his Race above,
56 Mortals can't perceive him move:
57 So smooth his Course, oblique or strait,
58 Olympus shakes not with his Weight.
59 As the Queen of solemn Night
60 Fills at his Vase her Orb of Light,
61 Imparted Lustre; Thus we see,
62 The solar Virtue shines by Thee.
63 Eiresione we'll no more,
64 Imaginary Pow'r, adore;
65 Since Oil, and Wool, and chearing Wine,
66 And Life-sustaining Bread is thine.
67 Thy Herbage, O Great Pan, sustains
68 The Flocks that graze our Attic Plains;
69 The Olive, with fresh Verdure crown'd,
70 Rises pregnant from the Ground;
71 At thy Command it shoots and springs,
72 And a thousand Blessings brings.
73 Minerva, only is thy Mind,
74 Wisdom, and Bounty to Mankind.
75 The fragrant Thyme, the bloomy Rose,
76 Herb and Flow'r and Shrub that grows
77 On Thessalian Tempe's Plain,
78 Or where the rich Sabeans reign,
79 That treat the Taste or Smell or Sight,
80 For Food, for Med'cine or Delight;
81 Planted by thy Parent Care,
82 Spring and smile and flourish there.
83 O ye Nurses of soft Dreams,
84 Reedy Brooks and winding Streams,
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85 Or murm'ring o'er the Pebbles sheen,
86 Or sliding thro' the Meadows green,
87 Or where thro' matted Sedge you creep,
88 Travelling to your Parent Deep:
89 Sound his Praise, by whom you rose,
90 That Sea, which neither ebbs nor flows.
91 O ye immortal Woods and Groves,
92 Which the enamour'd Student loves;
93 Beneath whose venerable shade,
94 For Thought and friendly Converse made,
95 Fam'd Hecadem, old Hero, lies,
96 Whose Shrine is shaded from the Skies,
97 And thro' the Gloom of silent Night
98 Projects from far its trembling Light;
99 You, whose Roots descend as low,
100 As high in Air your Branches grow;
101 Your leafy Arms to Heav'n extend,
102 Bend your Heads, in Homage bend:
103 Cedars and Pines that wave above,
104 And the Oak belov'd of Jove.
105 Omen, Monster, Prodigy,
106 Or nothing are, or Jove from Thee!
107 Whether various Nature play,
108 Or re-invers'd thy Will obey,
109 And to Rebel Man declare
110 Famine, Plague or Wasteful War.
111 Laugh, ye Profane, who dare despise
112 The threatning Vengeance of the Skies,
113 Whilst the Pious, on his Guard,
114 Undismay'd is still prepar'd:
115 Life or Death, his Mind's at rest,
116 Since what Thou send'st must needs be best.
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117 No Evil can from Thee proceed:
118 'Tis only Suffer'd, not Decreed.
119 Darkness is not from the Sun,
120 Nor mount the Shades till he is gone:
121 Then does Night obscene arise
122 From Erebus, and fill the Skies,
123 Fantastic Forms the Air invade,
124 Daughters of Nothing and of Shade.
125 Can we forget thy Guardian Care,
126 Slow to punish, prone to spare!
127 Thou brak'st the haughty Persian's Pride,
128 That dar'd old Ocean's Pow'r deride;
129 Their Shipwrecks strew'd th' Eubean Wave,
130 At Marathon they found a Grave.
131 O ye blest Greeks who there expir'd,
132 For Greece with pious Ardor fir'd,
133 What Shrines or Altars shall we raise
134 To secure your Endless Praise?
135 Or need we Monuments supply,
136 To rescue what can never die!
137 And yet a Greater Hero far
138 (Unless Great Socrates could err)
139 Shall rise to bless some future Day,
140 And teach to live, and teach to pray.
141 Come, Unknown Instructor, come!
142 Our leaping Hearts shall make Thee room;
143 Thou with Jove our Vows shalt share,
144 Of Jove and Thee We are the Care.
145 O Father King, whose heav'nly Face
146 Shines serene on All thy Race,
147 We thy Magnificence adore,
148 And thy well-known Aid implore:
149 Nor vainly for thy Help we call;
150 Nor can we want: For thou art All!

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Title (in Source Edition): EUPOLIS' Hymn to the Creator.
Author: Rev. Samuel Wesley
Themes:
Genres: hymn

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Wesley, John, 1703-1791. Wesley, Charles, 1707-1788. Hymns and sacred poems: Published by John Wesley, ... and Charles Wesley, ... London: printed by William Strahan; and sold by James Hutton; and at Mr. Bray's, 1739, pp. 1-5. x,[6],223,[1]p.; 12⁰. (ESTC T31323; OTA K034809.000) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Vet. A4 f. 254].)

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The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.

Other works by Rev. Samuel Wesley