Edward Young (1681–1765)

NIGHT is fair Virtue’s immemorial friend.

The conscious moon through every distant age

Has held a lamp to Wisdom, and let fall

On Contemplation’s eye her purging ray.

The famed Athenian, he who wooed from heaven

Philosophy the fair, to dwell with men,

And form their manners, not inflame their pride;

While o’er his head, as fearful to molest

His laboring mind, the stars in silence slide,

And seem all gazing on their future guest,

See him soliciting his ardent suit,

In private audience; all the livelong night

Rigid in thought and motionless he stands,

Nor quits his theme or posture, till the sun

Disturbs his nobler intellectual beam,

And gives him to the tumult of the world.