Dim through the night of these tempestuous years A Sabbath dawn o'er Africa appears ; Then shall her neck from Europe's yoke be freed, And healing arts to hideous arms succeed ; At home fraternal bonds her tribes shall bind, Nor in the isles and Africa alone Be the Redeemer's cross and triumph known : Seen through thick clouds, by Faith's transpiercing eyes, The New Creation shines in purer skies. —All hail !—the age of crime and suffering ends; The reign of righteousness from heaven descends; Vengeance for ever sheathes the afflicting sword; Death is destroy'd, and Paradise restored; Man, rising from the ruins of his fall, Is one with GOD, and God is All in All. END OF THE FOURTH AND LAST PART. NOTES. PART I. Note. Page 1, line 6.—far as Niger rolls his eastern tide.-Mungo Parke, in his travels, ascertained that" the great river of the Negroes" flows eastward. It is probable, therefore, that this river is either lost among the sands, or empties itself into some inland sea, in the undiscovered regions of Africa.-See also Part II., line 64. Note 2. Page 8, line 6.-Denied to ages, but betroth'd to me.- -When the Author of The West Indies conceived the plan of this introduction of Columbus, he was not aware that he was indebted to any preceding poet for a hint on the subject; but, some time afterwards, on a second perusal of SOUTHEY'S MADOC, it struck him that the idea of Columbus walking on the shore at sunset, which he had hitherto imagined his own, might be only a reflection of the impression made upon his mind long before, by the first reading of the following splendid passage. He therefore gladly makes this acknowledgment, though at his own expence, in justice to the Author of the noblest narrative Poem in the English language, after the FAERIE QUEENE, and Paradise Lost. 'When evening came, toward the echoing shore, 'I and Cadwallon walk'd together forth; 'But brighter lay the ocean flood below, ''The burnish'd silver sea, that heav'd and flash'd 'Its rest ess rays intolerably bright. "Price! quoth Cadwallon, "thou hast rode the waves "In triumph when the Invader felt thine arm. "O, what a nobler conquest might be won "There, upon that wide field !"-" What meanest thou?" "I cried ;-" That yonder waters are not spread "A boundless waste, a bourne impassable; "That thou shouldst rule the elements,-that there "Now speeds to dawn in glory." |