Page images
PDF
EPUB

SONG OF THE ANGELS IN 'FAUST.'

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF GOETHE.

BY GEORGE W. HAVEN.

RAPHAEL.

THE Sun resounds with ancient wont,
Mid brother spheres in rival song,
And, with appointed journeyment,
Rolls in his thunder movement on.
His vision gives the angels might,
Though none to fathom him essay;
While rest thy lofty works of light,
Lordly, as at their natal day.

GABRIEL.

And, swift incomprehensibly,
Earth speeds in splendor round,
Changing Elysian brilliancy

With shuddering night profound.

Foams on the cliff's deep-sunken basement,
In widening streams, the sea-wave hoarse :

Earth, sea, and cliff, in fearful mazement,
Speed- ceaseless, quick-their spheric course.

MICHAEL.

Fell, rival storms sweep forth amain,
From sea to land, from land to sea,
And form in wrath their potent chain,
That girds, and girds eternally.

Waste, waste and wild the lightning gleams
Before the bolted thunder's way,

Yet, Lord, thy servants praise the beams
That, softly changing, form thy day.

THE THREE TOGETHER.

Thy vision gives the angels might,
Though none thy glories fathom may,

While rest thy lofty works of light,
Lordly, as at their natal day.

THE RIVER MERRIMAC.

BY

HON. WILLIAM MERCHANT

RICHARDSON.

[Born at Pelham, January 4, 1774. Died at Chester, March, 1838.]

SWEET MERRIMAC! thy gentle stream
Is fit for better poet's theme,
For rich thy waves and gentle too,
As Rome's proud Tyber ever knew;
And thy fair current's placid swell
Would flow in classic song as well.
Yet on thy banks, so green, so sweet,
Where wood-nymphs dance and naiads meet,
E'en since creation's earliest dawn,
No son of song was ever born;
No muses' fairy feet e'er trod
Thy modest margin's verdant sod;
And mid Time's silent, feathery flight,
Like some coy maiden, pure as light,
Sequestered in some blest retreat,
Far from the city and the great,
Thy virgin waves the vales among
Have flowed neglected and unsung.
Yet as the sailor, raptured, hails
His native shores, his native vales,
Returning home from many a day
Of tedious absence, far away

From her whose charms alone control
The warm affections of his soul;

Thus, from life's stormy, troubled sea,

My heart returns to visit thee.

Sweet Nymph, whose fairy footsteps press,
And viewless fingers gaily dress,

By moonlight or by Hesper's beam,
The verdant banks of this sweet stream;
Who oft by twilight's doubtful ray,
With wood-nymphs and with naiad gay,
Lead'st up the dance in merry mood,
To the soft murmurs of the flood;
All hail once more! 't is many a year
Since last I came to meet thee here,
And much it glads my heart once more
To meet thee on this pleasant shore;
For here in youth, when hope was high,

[blocks in formation]

My breast a stranger to a sigh,

And my blood danced through every vein,
Amid the jolly, sportive train

Of youths and maids, who gathering round,
Danced to the flute's entrancing sound,
I felt thy powerful influence

The bliss our bosoms felt, dispense;
Delight on all our bosoms pour,

And make our hearts with joy brim o'er.
Thy fingers on each virgin's cheek
Impressed the witching "dimple sleek ;”
Bade magic smiles and blushes meet,
In mixture ravishingly sweet,

And many a face a charm possess,
Which then I felt - but can't express.
Blest days, alas! forever past,
Sunk in the ocean deep and vast
Of years, whose dread profundity
Is pierced by none but Fancy's eye,
Your joys like gems of pearly light,
There hallowed shine in Fancy's sight.
What though beside this gentle flood,
Bedewed with tears and wet with blood,
Profusely shed by iron Mars,
In wild Ambition's cruel wars,
No evergreen of glory waves
Among the fallen warriors' graves?
What though the battle's bloody rage,
Where mad contending chiefs engage,

The nymphs that rule these banks so green
And naiads soft, have never seen?

What though ne'er tinged this crystal wave
The rich blood of the fallen brave?

No deathless deed by hero done,

No battle lost, no victory won;

Here ever waked with praise or blame,
The loud uplifted trump of fame?

Here bounteous Spring profusely showers
A wilderness of sweets and flowers.
The stately oak of royal line,

The spreading elm and towering pine,
Here cast a purer, happier shade,
Than blood-stained laurels ever made.
No wailing ghosts of warriors slain,
Along these peaceful shores complain;
No maniac virgin crazed with care,
The mournful victim of despair;
While pangs unutterable swell
Her heart, to view the spot where fell
The youth who all her soul possessed,
She tears her hair or beats her breast.
Ne'er victor lords, nor conquered slaves,
Disgraced these banks, disgraced these waves;
But freedom, peace, and plenty here,
Perpetual bless the passing year.

9*

101

DANGERS INCIDENT TO A REPUBLIC.

BY REV. WM. S. BALCH.

AGAINST the operation of the great practical doctrine that all men are created free and equal, two powers have been perpetually warring; the domination of physical force and the corruption of wealth. Wordly ambition has seized upon each of these in turn and wielded them against the liberties of the people. Sometimes both have been combined to keep the great mass of men in ignorance and bondage; for when all are equal, these distinctions are destroyed. Hence their struggles have been determined, hot and deathlike. The conflict has been so long and severe, the triumphs of the right so temporary, and the chances so uncertain, that doubters have often given over, by scores and by thousands, to a settled despair for the success of the true, the equal, and the free, over the false, the partial, and the bound.

The first encroachment upon the rights and liberties of man was the work of deception and falsehood, and the first triumph over him was gained by physical power. From that day darkness prevailed and animal strength bore rule. Among all savages he that was mightiest in war, or swiftest in the chase, was installed chief of his tribe: and he that has been shrewdest in management has been the most successful competitor for renown amongst those a few grades elevated above the savage state. As tribes increased in numbers and the social ties were strengthened, these habits were changed from a nomad or wandering to an agricultural or fixed life, and emirs became kings of nations. Physical force, skill and bravery were then employed to conquer and make trib

DANGERS INCIDENT TO A REPUBLIC.

103

utary the surrounding clans or nations, to reduce the people to actual slavery or vassalage, and consolidate authority in the person of the monarch. Hence sprang into being great kingdoms and empires based on brute power, and propped by general ignorance, which spread wide their borders over the dwellers on the earth, the sole management of which was intrusted to kings and their counsellors. Successful in so much, rulers grew giddy in their elevation and idly dreamed of universal dominion, in attempts at which their vision was so dazzled that they could not discern the means of their own safety, and they stumbled and fell. Man, physically, has no limitless powers. Bounds are set which he cannot pass. When he attempts to transcend them he falls, and the huge fabrics of his creation crumble to pieces, and resolve into new and generally improved combinations. So rose and so fell the mightiest empires of the East. rose into greatness and sank into ruin and faded into night, the kingdoms and glory of the kingdoms of the Pharaohs and Ptolemies; of Cyrus, Cambyses, and Xerxes; of Philip and Alexander; of the Cæsars and the Bonapartes. And so shall fall every other kingdom, nation, and state not based on the principles of eternal right and equity. Let

them fall!

So

But the wreck and ruin which follow the overthrow of nations based on false principles, and adopting unequal and unjust practices, is no loss, but a gain; for the world, on the whole, is not made worse but better. When tyrants fall the people rise. And when thrown upon their own resources, they begin to learn that they are men, and have rights as well as kings and rulers; and they begin to task their ingenuity to find out means to defend and render them permanent. A temporary and sometimes tremendous concussion will follow the breaking up of old established orders, the tearing in sunder of party lines which have bounded the ambition of despots; and the greatest consternation will justly fill the bosom of those snugly at ease; safely, as they think, ensconced in power and privilege. The darkest scenes of

« PreviousContinue »