Page images
PDF
EPUB

Rough Industry-Activity untir'd,

With copious life inform'd, and all awakeWhile in the radiant front, superior shines That first paternal virtue, Public ZealWho throws o'er all an equal wide survey, And, ever musing on the common weal, Still labors glorious with some great design. XII.—Hymn to the Deity, on the Seasons of the Year.IB.

THESE, as they change, ALMIGHTY FATHER, these Are but the varied God. The rolling year Is full of thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring Thy beauty walks, thy tenderness and love. Wide flush the fields the softening air is balmEcho the mountains round-the forest smiles, And every sense, and every heart is joy. Then comes thy glory in the summer months, With light and heat refulgent. Then thy sun Shoots full perfection through the swelling year. And oft thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks; And oft at dawn, deep noon or falling eve. By brooks and groves, and hollow whispering gales, Thy bounty shines in Autumn unconfin'd, And spreads a common feast for all that live. In winter awful thou! with clouds and storms Around thee thrown-tempest o'er tempest roll'd : Majestic darkness! on the whirlwind's wing Riding sublime, thou bid'st the world adore, And humblest nature with thy northern blast. Mysterious round! what skill, what force divine, Deep felt in these appear! a simple trainYet so delightful mix'd, with such kind art, Such beauty and beneficence combindShade, unperceiv'd, so softening into shadeAnd all so forming an harmonious wholeThat, as they still succeed, they ravish still. But wandering cft with brute unconscious gaze, Man Marks not thee, marks not the mighty hand, That, ever busy, wheels the silent spheresWorks in secret deep-shoots, streaming, thence The fair profusion that o'erspreads the springFlings from the sun direct the flaming day: Feeds every creature-hurls the tempest forth: And as on earth this grateful change revolves, With transport touches all the springs of life. Nature, attend! join every living soul, Beneath the spacious temple of the sky, In adoration join—and ardent, raise One general song! To him, ye vocal gales,

Breathe soft, whose Spirit in your freshness breathes :
O talk of him in solitary glooms!

Where, o'er the rock, the scarcely waving pine
Fills the brown shade with a religious awe.
And ye, whose bolder note is heard afar,

Who shake th' astonish'd world, lift hight to heaven
Th' impetuous song, and say from whom you rage
His praise, ye brooks attune, ye trembling rills-
And let me catch it as I muse along.

Ye headlong torrents, rapid and profound-
Ye softer floods, that lead the humid maze
Along the vale-and thou majestic main,
A secret world of wonders in thyself-
Sounds his stupendous praise, whose greater voice
Or bids you roar, or bids your roarings fall.

Soft roll your incense, herbs, and fruits, and flowers,
In mingled clouds to him, whose sun exalts,
Whose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil paints.
Ye forests bend, ye harvests wave to him-
Breathe your still song into the reaper's heart,
As home he goes beneath the joyous moon.
Ye that keep watch in heaven, as earth asleep
Unconscious lies, effuse your mildest beams
Ye constellations, while your angels strike,
Amid the spangled sky, the silver lyre.
Great source of day! blest image here below,
Of thy Creator, ever pouring wide.

From world to world, the vital ocean round,
On Nature write with every beam his praise.
Ye thunders roll; be hush'd the prostrate world,
While cloud to cloud returns the solemn hymn.
Bleat out afresh, ye hills; ye mossy rocks
Retain the sound; the broad responsive low,
Ye vallies raise; for the great Shepherd reigns,
And his unsuffering kingdom yet will come.
Ye woodlands all, awake; a boundless song
Burst from the groves; and when the restless day,
Expiring, lays the warbling world asleep,
Sweetest of birds, sweet Philomela, charm
The listening shades, and teach the night his praise.
Ye chief, for whom the whole creation smiles:
At once the head, the heart, the tongue of all;
Crown the great hymn! In swarming cities vast,
Assembled men to the deep organ join
The long resounding voice, oft breaking clear,
At solemn pauses, through the swelling base-
And, as each mingling flame increases each,
In one united ardor rise to heaven-
Or if you rather choose the rural shade,
And find, a fane in every sacred grove→

There let the shepherd's flute, the virgin's lay,
The prompting seraph, and the poet's lyre,
Still sing the God of seasons as they roll.
For me, when I forget the darling theme,
Whether the blossom blows, the summer ray
Russets the plain, inspiring Autumn gleams,
Or winter rises in the blackening east-
Be my tongue mute my fancy paint no more,
And, dead to joy, forget my heart to beat!

Should fate command me to the farthest verge Of the green earth, to distant barb'rous climes, Rivers unknown to song; where first the sun Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beam Flames on the Atlantic isles; 'tis nought to meSince God is ever present, ever felt,

In the void waste as in the city full

And where HE vital spreads, there must be joy.
When even at last the solemn hour shall come,
And wing my mystic flight to future worlds.
I Cheerful will obey there with new powers,
Will rising wonders sing-I cannot go,
Where UNIVERSAL LOVE smiles not around.
Sustaining all yon orbs, and all their suns—
From seeming evil still educing good,
And better thence again, and better still,
In infinite progression-but I lose

Myself in HIM, IN LIGHT INEFFABLE!

Come then, expressive Silence, muse His praise.

I-The Camelion-MERRICK,

FT has it been my lot to mark

OFA proud, conceited, talking spark,

Returning from his finish'd tour,
Grown ten times perter than before;
Whatever word you chance to drop,
The travell'd fool your mouth will stop-
"Sir, if my judgment you'll allow-
I've seen and sure I ought to know."-
So begs you'd pay a due submission,
And acquiesce in his decision.

Two travellers of such a cast, As o'er Arabia's wilds they pass'd; And on their way in friendly chat, Now talk'd of this and then of thatDiscours'd a while 'mongst other matter, Of the camelion's form and nature. "A stranger animal," cries one, "Sure never liv'd beneath the sun : A lizard's body, lean and long, A fish's head, a serpent's tongue, Its tooth with tripple claw disjoin'dAnd what a length of tail behind! How slow its pace! and then its hueWho ever saw so fine a blue ?" "Hold there," the other quick replies, ""Tis green-I saw it with these eyes, As late with open mouth it lay, And warm'd it in the sunny ray: Stretch'd at its ease the beast I view'd, And saw it eat the air for food." "I've seen it, sir, as well as you, And must again affirm it blue. At leisure I the beast survey'd, Extended in the cooling shade." "'Tis green, 'tis green, sir, I assure ye," "Green!" cries the other in a fury"Why sir, d'ye think I've lost my eyes?" ""Twere no great loss," the friend replies"For if they always serve you thus, You'll find them but of little use."

So high at last the contest rose,

From words they almost came to blows-
When luckily, came by a third;
To him the question they referr'd,

And begg'd he'd tell them if he knew,
Whether the thing was green or blue.
"Sirs," cries the umpire," cease your pother,
The creature's neither one nor t'other.
I caught the animal last night,
And view'd it o'er by candle light:
I mark'd it well-'twas black as jet-
You stare-but sirs, I've got it yet,
And can produce it," Pray sir do:
I'll lay my life the thing is blue.

"And I'll be sworn that when you've seen
The reptile, you'll pronounce it green."
"Well then, at once to end the doubt,"
Replies the man, "I'll turn him out :
And when before your eyes I've set him,
If you don't find him black, I'll eat him."
He said then full before their sight
Produce'd the beast-and lo, 'twas white.

II. On the Order of Nature-POPE.
SEE, through this air, this ocean and this earth,
All matter quick, and bursting into birth.
Above, how high progressive life may go,
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vast chain of being, which from God began:
Natures etherial, human; angel, man:
Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see,
No glass can reach; from Infinite to thee.
From thee to nothing. On superior powers
Were we to press, inferior might on ours;
Or in the fall creation leave a void,

Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroy'd:
From Nature's chain whatever link you strike,
Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.
What if the foot, ordain'd the dust to tread,
Or hand, to toil, aspir'd to be the head?

What if the head, the eye, or ear repin'd
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Just as absurd for any part to claim
To be another, in this gen'ral frame.
Just as absurd to mourn the tasks or pains,
The great directing MIND of ALL ordains.
All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul:
That, chang'd through all, and yet in all the same,
Great in the earth, as in th' etherial frame,
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees,
Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent,

« PreviousContinue »