’Tis thine by heat apparent to exalt
Corporeal natures from the sluggish earth,
Inspiring vivid, vegetative power;
And by a nature secretly divine,
And from the base alloy of matter free,
Inherent in thy all-productive rays,
Thou draw’st to union with thy wond’rous form,
Exalted souls, that in dark Hyle’s realms
Indignant struggle for the courts of light:
All beauteous, seven-rayed, supermundane god! p. 352
Whose mystic essence secretly emits
The splendid fountains of celestial light.
All-bounteous god, by whom the soul is freed
From Generation’s dark corporeal bands,
Assist THY OFFSPRING borne on mental wings,
Beyond the reach of guileful Nature’s hands
Swift to ascend, and gain thy beauteous world.
The subtle vestment of my soul refine,
Etherial, firm, and full of sacred light,
Her ancient vehicle by thee assign’d
In which invelop’d, thro’ the starry orbs,
Urg’d by the impulse of insane desire,
She fail’d precipitate, till Lethe’s shore,
Involv’d in night, unhappily she touch’d,
And lost all knowledge of her pristine state.
’Tis thine, from multitude exempt, t’ inspire
In forms subordinate, prophetic truth;
For truth and pure simplicity are one:
And of preserving unpolluted power,
Thy liberated essence is the source."
EXTRACTS FROM THE EMPEROR JULIAN'S ORATION TO THE SOVEREIGN SUN.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaXGeqPfeeQ&feature=related