LITMIR.BIZ

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the ponderous structure stand,

       Or pour obedient rivers through the land;

       With cars unnumber'd crowd the living streets,

       Or people oceans with triumphant fleets.

"Thy magic touch imagined forms supplies From colour'd light, the language of the eyes; 320 On Memory's page departed hours inscribes, Sweet scenes of youth, and Pleasure's vanish'd tribes. By thee Antinous leads the dance sublime On wavy step, and moves in measured time; Charm'd round the Youth successive Graces throng, And Ease conducts him, as he moves along; Unbreathing crowds the floating form admire, And Vestal bosoms feel forbidden fire.

"When rapp'd Cecilia breathes her matin vow, And lifts to Heaven her fair adoring brow; 330 From her sweet lips, and rising bosom part Impassion'd notes, that thrill the melting heart; Tuned by thy hand the dulcet harp she rings, And sounds responsive echo from the strings; Bright scenes of bliss in trains suggested move, And charm the world with melody and love.

III. "Soon the fair forms with vital being bless'd, Time's feeble children, lose the boon possess'd; The goaded fibre ceases to obey, And sense deserts the uncontractile clay; 340 While births unnumber'd, ere the parents die, The hourly waste of lovely life supply; And thus, alternating with death, fulfil The silent mandates of the Almighty Will; Whose hand unseen the works of nature dooms By laws unknown—WHO GIVES, AND WHO RESUMES.

"Each pregnant Oak ten thousand acorns forms Profusely scatter'd by autumnal storms; Ten thousand seeds each pregnant poppy sheds Profusely scatter'd from its waving heads; 350 The countless Aphides, prolific tribe, With greedy trunks the honey'd sap imbibe; Swarm on each leaf with eggs or embryons big, And pendent nations tenant every twig. Amorous with double sex, the snail and worm, Scoop'd in the soil, their cradling caverns form; Heap their white eggs, secure from frost and floods, And crowd their nurseries with uncounted broods. Ere yet with wavy tail the tadpole swims, Breathes with new lungs, or tries his nascent limbs; 360 Her countless shoals the amphibious frog forsakes, And living islands float upon the lakes. The migrant herring steers her myriad bands From seas of ice to visit warmer strands; Unfathom'd depths and climes unknown explores, And covers with her spawn unmeasured shores. —All these, increasing by successive birth, Would each o'erpeople ocean, air, and earth.

"So human progenies, if unrestrain'd, By climate friended, and by food sustain'd, 370 O'er seas and soils, prolific hordes! would spread Erelong, and deluge their terraqueous bed; But war, and pestilence, disease, and dearth, Sweep the superfluous myriads from the earth. Thus while new forms reviving tribes acquire Each passing moment, as the old expire; Like insects swarming in the noontide bower, Rise into being, and exist an hour; The births and deaths contend with equal strife, And every pore of Nature teems with Life; 380 Which buds or breathes from Indus to the Poles, And Earth's vast surface kindles, as it rolls!

"Hence when a Monarch or a mushroom dies, Awhile extinct the organic matter lies; But, as a few short hours or years revolve, Alchemic powers the changing mass dissolve; Born to new life unnumber'd insects pant, New buds surround the microscopic plant; Whose embryon senses, and unwearied frames, Feel finer goads, and blush with purer flames; 390 Renascent joys from irritation spring, Stretch the long root, or wave the aurelian wing.

"When thus a squadron or an army yields, And festering carnage loads the waves or fields; When few from famines or from plagues survive, Or earthquakes swallow half a realm alive;— While Nature sinks in Time's destructive storms, The wrecks of Death are but a change of forms; Emerging matter from the grave returns, Feels new desires, with new sensations burns; 400 With youth's first bloom a finer sense acquires, And Loves and Pleasures fan the rising fires.— Thus sainted Paul, 'O Death!' exulting cries, 'Where is thy sting? O Grave! thy victories?'

"Immortal Happiness from realms deceased Wakes, as from sleep, unlessen'd or increased; Calls to the wise in accents loud and clear, Sooths with sweet tones the sympathetic ear; Informs and fires the revivescent clay, And lights the dawn of Life's returning day. 410

"So when Arabia's Bird, by age oppress'd, Consumes delighted on his spicy nest; A filial Phœnix from his ashes springs, Crown'd with a star, on renovated wings; Ascends exulting from his funeral flame, And soars and shines, another and the same.

"So erst the Sage with scientific truth In Grecian temples taught the attentive youth; With ceaseless change how restless atoms pass From life to life, a transmigrating mass; 420 How the same organs, which to day compose The poisonous henbane, or the fragrant rose, May with to morrow's sun new forms compile, Frown in the Hero, in the Beauty smile. Whence drew the enlighten'd Sage the moral plan, That man should ever be the friend of man; Should eye with tenderness all living forms, His brother-emmets, and his sister-worms.

"Hear, O ye Sons of Time! your final doom, And read the characters, that mark your tomb: 430 The marble mountain, and the sparry steep, Were built by myriad nations of the deep— Age after age, who form'd their spiral shells, Their sea-fan gardens and their coral cells; Till central fires with unextinguished sway Raised the primeval islands into day;— The sand-fill'd strata stretch'd from pole to pole; Unmeasured beds of clay, and marl, and coal, Black ore of manganese, the zinky stone, And dusky steel on his magnetic throne, 440 In deep morass, or eminence superb, Rose from the wrecks of animal or herb; These from their elements by Life combined, Form'd by digestion, and in glands refined, Gave by their just excitement of the sense The Bliss of Being to the vital Ens.

"Thus the tall mountains, that emboss the lands, Huge isles of rock, and continents of sands, Whose dim extent eludes the inquiring sight, Are mighty Monuments of past Delight; 450 Shout round the globe, how Reproduction strives With vanquish'd Death—and Happiness survives; How Life increasing peoples every clime, And young renascent Nature conquers Time; —And high in golden characters record The immense munificence of Nature's Lord!—

      "He gives and guides the sun's attractive force,

       And steers the planets in their silver course;

       With heat and light revives the golden day,

       And breathes his spirit on organic clay; 460

       With hand unseen directs the general cause

       By firm immutable immortal laws."

      Charm'd with her words the Muse astonish'd stands,

       The Nymphs enraptured clasp their velvet hands;

       Applausive thunder from the fane recoils,

       And holy echoes peal along the ailes;

       O'er Nature's shrine celestial lustres glow,

       And lambent glories circle round her brow.

IV. Now sinks the golden sun—the vesper song Demands the tribute of Urania's tongue; 470 Onward she steps, her fair associates calls From leaf-wove avenues, and vaulted halls. Fair virgin trains in bright procession move, Trail their long robes, and whiten all the grove; Pair after pair to Nature's temple sweep, Thread the broad arch, ascend the winding steep; Through brazen gates along susurrant ailes Stream round their Goddess the successive files; Curve above curve to golden seats retire, And star with beauty the refulgent quire. 480

And first to Heaven the consecrated throng With chant alternate pour the adoring song, Swell the full hymn, now high, and now profound, With sweet responsive symphony of sound. Seen through their wiry harps, below, above, Nods the fair brow, the twinkling fingers move; Soft-warbling flutes the ruby lip commands, And cymbals ring with high uplifted hands.

To Chaos next the notes melodious pass, How suns exploded from the kindling mass, 490 Waved o'er the vast inane their tresses bright, And charm'd young Nature's opening eyes with light. Next from each sun how spheres reluctant burst, And second planets issued from the first. And then to Earth descends the moral strain, How isles, emerging from the shoreless main, With sparkling streams and fruitful groves began, And form'd a Paradise for mortal man.

Sublimer

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