Chapter XII: Jupiter

Jupiter is before us! Stay, O Time, thy hand,
That we may gaze on an orb superlatively grand!
And we are rapt in astonishment and amaze
At a form so colossal, wrapped in an outward blaze
Of resplendent glory, whose illuminating stress
Penetrates the verges of the known universe.

Hail, Jupiter! of the solar orbs the greatest,
And thou art, perhaps, the grandest and the noblest.
In thy orbit three thousand million miles or more,
By the confines of Saturn’s strange, luminous shore;
Or looking on the unfathomable unknown,
Peering into the nebulæ of systems strewn
In the eternal mystery of solitudes
Unspeakable, where scarce even thought intrudes.
But thou art a glorious sight when thy brilliant moons
Light thy radiant face in the night’s resplendent noons!

And surely untold millions roam thy mighty plains,
Where existence and progression ever reigns
In peace perpetual, and friendship as true as gold--
A higher life and purer, of love and joy untold.
But thou’rt a mystery still, beyond our eager gaze,
Shadowed by clouds, or belts, and red and purple haze.
We believe man ne’er shall see but the outer line
Of worlds only known to celestial sight divine.