University of Virginia Library


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INVOCATION FOR “THE MAP OF THE UNIVERSE”

(Showing how none of the pictures are possible to draw and can only be indicated in diagrams and hieroglyphics)

Would we were blind with Milton, and we sang
With him of uttermost Heaven in a new song,
That men might see again the angel-throng,
And newborn hopes, true to this age, would rise,
Pictures to make men weep for paradise,
All glorious things beyond the defeated grave.
God smite us blind, and give us bolder wings;
God help us to be brave.