Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.

By William Habington (1605–1654)

Nox Nocti Indicat Scientiam

WHEN 1 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	5
And heavenward flies,
The Almighty’s mysteries to read
In the large volumes of the skies.
For the bright firmament
Shoots forth no flame	10
So silent, but is eloquent
In speaking the Creator’s name.
No unregarded star
Contracts its light
Into so small a character,	15
Removed far from our human sight,
But if we steadfast look,
We shall discern
In it, as in some holy book,
How man may heavenly knowledge learn.	20
It tells the conqueror
That far-stretch’d power,
Which his proud dangers traffic for,
Is but the triumph of an hour.
That from the farthest north	25
Some nation may,
Yet undiscover’d, issue forth,
And o’er his new-got conquest sway;
Some nation yet shut in
With hills of ice	30
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,	35
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.	40
For they have watch’d since first
The world had birth;
And found sin in itself accurst,
And nothing permanent on earth.

Note 1. William Habington wrote a series of poems upon his wife under the style of Castara. His religious poetry is almost entirely upon the grave. The example here given is much above the average of his writing. [back]