WITH holy voice I call the stars on high,
Pure sacred lights and genii of the sky.
Celestial stars, the progeny of Night,
In whirling circles beaming far your light,
Refulgent rays around the heav'ns ye throw, 5
Eternal fires, the source of all below.
With flames significant of Fate ye shine,
And aptly rule for men a path divine.
In seven bright zones ye run with wand'ring flames,
And heaven and earth compose your lucid frames: 10 10
With course unwearied, pure and fiery bright
Forever shining thro' the veil of Night.
Hail twinkling, joyful, ever wakeful fires!
Propitious shine on all my just desires;
These sacred rites regard with conscious rays, 15
And end our works devoted to your praise.
121:10 Ver. 10.] And heaven and earth, &c. It is an Orphic and Pythagoric opinion that the stars are inhabited; on which account they are called in this hymn, earthly. But the greatest geniuses of antiquity were of the same opinion; such as Anaxagoras, Aristarchus, Heraclitus, Plato, &c. and among the Platonists not a few, as Alcinous, Plotinus, and Plutarch. Thales too is said to have called the stars earthly, by which it is probable he was of the same opinion.