He pass'd the flaming bounds of place and time: The living throne, the sapphire blaze, Where angels tremble while they gaze, He saw; but blasted with excess of light, Closed his eyes in endless night.
Thomas Gray
Life
A quote by Thomas Gray
From the source
The Progress of Poesy. III. 2, Line 4.
Recorded in John Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, ninth edition, 1905 printing.