VI.

With noiseless speed the angel charioteers

In dazzling splendour all triumphant rode;

Through seas of ether painfully serene,

That flashed a golden, phosphorescent spray,

As luminous as the sun's intensest beams,

Athwart the wide, interminable space.

Legion on legion of the sons of God;

Vast phalanxes of graceful cherubim;

Innumerable multitudes and ranks

Of all the hosts and hierarchs of heaven,

Moved by one universal impulse, urged

Their steeds of swiftness up the arch of light,

From sphere to sphere increasing as they came,

Till world on world was emptied of its race.

Upward, with unimaginable speed,

The myriads, congregating zenith-ward,

Reached the far confines of the utmost sphere,

The home of Truth, the dwelling-place of Love,

Striking celestial symphonies divine

From the resounding sea of melody,

That heaved in swells of soft, mellifluous sound,

To the blest crowds at whose triumphal tread

Its soul of sweetness waked in thrills sublime,

The sun stood poised upon the western verge;

The moon paused, waiting for the march of earth,

That stayed to watch the advent of the stars;

And ocean hushed its very deepest deeps

In grateful expectation.

Still through the viewless regions

Of the habitable air,

Through the ether ocean,

In unceasing motion,

Pass the multitudinous legions

Of angels everywhere.

Bearing each new-born spirit

Through the interlucent void

To its starry dwelling,

Angel anthems telling

Every earthly deed of merit

To each flashing asteroid.

Through the realms sidereal,

Clothed with the immaterial,

Far as the fields elysian

In starry bloom extend,

The stretch of angel vision

Can see and comprehend.