The Spacious Firmament on High
by Joseph Addison
The Spacious Firmament on high
With all the blue Etherial Sky,
And spangled Heav'ns, a Shining Frame,
Their great Original proclaim:
Th' unwearied Sun, from Day to Day,
Does his Creator's Pow'r display,
And publishes to every Land
The Work of an Almighty Hand.
Soon as the Evening Shades prevail,
The Moon takes up the wondrous Tale,
And nightly to the listning Earth
Repeats the Story of her Birth:
Whilst all the Stars that round her burn,
And all the Planets in their turn,
Confirm the Tidings as they rowl,
And spread the Truth from Pole to Pole.
What though, in solemn Silence, all
Move round the dark terrestrial Ball?
What tho' nor real Voice nor Sound
Amid their radiant Orbs be found?
In Reason's Ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious Voice,
For ever singing, as they shine,
'The Hand that made us is Divine?'
This popular hymn, which is usually sung to some variation on Haydn's "The Heavens Are Telling" was first published by Addison in The Spectator, no. 465 (1712). It's based on the first couple of verses of Psalm 19, of course. What is perhaps even more interesting is the context. Spectator 465 is devoted to looking at ways in which faith can be strengthened in the human mind. And one of Addison's suggestions is retreat into the country. In the city, he says, we are much taken with works of art and artifice; but in the country we are faced with works of nature. And, says Addison,
Faith and Devotion naturally grow in the Mind of every reasonable Man, who sees the Impressions of Divine Power and Wisdom in every Object on which he casts his Eye. The Supream Being has made the best Arguments for his own Existence, in the Formation of the Heavens and the Earth, and these are Arguments which a Man of Sense cannot forbear attending to, who is out of the Noise and Hurry of Human Affairs. Aristotle says, that should a Man live under Ground, and there converse with Works of Art and Mechanism, and should afterwards be brought up into the open Day, and see the several Glories of the Heaven and Earth, he would immediately pronounce them the Works of such a Being as we define God to be.He then quotes the beginning of the Psalm as a poetic expression of this and then reworks it in early eighteenth century style into the poem above. The hymn is intended to express what we get when we get away from "the Noise and Hurry of Human Affairs" and spend time in the sublimity of the starlit countryside.
