'Shall Nature bound to Earth's diurnal span

ر

The fire of God, the immortal soul of man ?*

"Turn, Child of Heav'n, thy rapture-lighten'd

eye

To Wisdom's walks, the sacred Nine are nigh: Hark! from bright spires that gild the Delphian

height,

From streams that wander in eternal light,
Rang'd on their hill, Harmonia's daughters swell
The mingling tones of horn, and harp, and shell;
Deep from his vaults, the Loxian murmurs flow,*
And Pythia's awful organ peals below.

"Belov'd of Heav'n! the smiling muse shall shed

Her moonlight halo on thy beauteous head;
Shall swell thy heart to rapture unconfin'd,
And breathe a holy madness o'er thy mind,

I see thee roam her guardian pow'r beneath,
And talk with spirits on the midnight heath ;
Inquire of guilty wand'rers whence they came,
And ask each blood-stain'd form his earthly name;
Then weave in rapid verse the deeds they tell,
And read the trembling world the tales of hell.

"When Venus, thron'd in clouds of rosy hue, Flings from her golden urn the vesper dew, And bids fond man her glimmering noon employ, Sacred to love, and walks of tender joy ; A milder mood the goddess shall recal, And soft as dew thy tones of music fall; While Beauty's deeply-pictur'd smiles impart A pang more dear than pleasure to the heart.... Warm as thy sighs shall flow the Lesbian strain, And plead in Beauty's ear, nor plead in vain.

"Or wilt thou Orphean hymns more sacred

deem,

And steep thy song in Mercy's mellow stream;
To pensive drops the radiant eye beguile....
For Beauty's tears are lovelier than her smile ;....
On Nature's throbbing anguish pour relief,
And teach impassion'd souls the Joy of Grief?

"Yes; to thy tongue shall seraph words be giv'n, And pow'r on earth to plead the cause of Heav'n ; The proud, the cold untroubled heart of stone, That never mus'd on sorrow but its own,

Unlocks a generous store at thy command,
Like Horeb's rocks beneath the prophet's hand.
The living lumber of his kindred earth,
Charm'd into soul, receives a second birth;
Feels thy dread pow'r another heart afford,
Whose passion-touch'd harmonious strings accord
True as the circling spheres to Nature's plan ;
And man, the brother, lives the friend of man!

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Bright as the pillar rose at Heav'n's command, When Israel march'd along the desert land,

Blaz'd through the night on lonely wilds afar,
And told the path....a never-setting star :

So! heav'nly Genius, in thy course divine,
Hope is thy star, her light is ever thine."

Propitious Pow'r! when rankling cares annoy The sacred home of Hymenean joy; When doom'd to Poverty's sequester'd dell, The wedded pair of love and virtue dwell, Unpitied by the world, unknown to fame,

Their woes, their wishes, and their hearts the

same....

Oh there, prophetic Hope! thy smile bestow,

And chase the pangs that worth should never

know....

There, as the parent deals his scanty store

To friendless babes, and weeps to give no more;

Tell, that his manly race shall yet assuage
Their father's wrongs, and shield his later age.
What though for him no Hybla sweets distil,
Nor bloomy vines wave purple on the hill ;
Tell, that when silent years have pass'd away,
That when his eye grows dim, his tresses gray,
These busy hands a lovelier cot shall build,
And deck with fairer flow'rs his little field,
And call from Heav'n propitious dews to breathe
Arcadian beauty on the barren heath;

Tell, that while Love's spontaneous smile endears
The day of peace, the sabbath of his years,
Health shall prolong to many a festive hour
The social pleasures of his humble bower.

Lo! at the couch where infant beauty sleeps, Her silent watch the mournful mother keeps ; She, while the lovely babe unconscious lies, Smiles on her slumb'ring child with pensive eyes,