If better thou belong not to the dawn, Sure pledge of day, that crownest the smiling morn With thy bright circlet, praise him in thy sphere, While day arises, that sweet hour of prime. 5 Thou sun, of this great world both eye and soul, Acknowledge him thy greater; sound his praise In thy eternal course, both when thou climbest, And when high noon hast gained; and when thou fallest, Ye mists and exhalations, that now rise 10 From hill or steaming lake, dusky or gray, Till the sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold, His praise, ye winds that from four quarters blow, Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise. 25 The earth and stately tread or lowly creep; To hill or valley, fountain or fresh shade, Have gathered aught of evil or conccaled, CXXII. SONG OF THE GREEKS. CAMPBELL. [These stirring lines were written while the struggle between the Grecks and Turks was going on, which ended in the establishment of Greece as an independent kingdom.] 1 AGAIN to the battle, Achaians! Our hearts bid the tyrants defiance; Our land, the first garden of Liberty's tree, It hath been, and shall yet be, the land of the free; The pale dying crescent is daunted, And we march that the footprints of Mahomet's slaves And the sword shall to glory restore us. 2 Ah! what though no succor advances, Nor Christendom's chivalrous lances Are stretched in our aid?— Be the combat our own! Or that, dying, our deaths shall be glorious. 3 A breath of submission we breathe not: The sword that we 've drawn we will sheathe not: If they rule, it shall be o'er our ashes and graves: And new triumphs on land are before us :— 4 This day shall ye blush for its story; Or brighten your lives with its glory? Our women-Oh! say, shall they shriek in despair, If a coward there be who would slacken Till we've trampled the turban, and shown ourselves worth As heroes descended from heroes. 5 Old Greece lightens up with emotion! Fanes rebuilt, and fair towns shall with jubilee ring, That were cold, and extinguished in sadness; Whilst our maidens shall dance with their white waving arms, Singing joy to the brave that delivered their charms, —— Shall have crimsoned the beaks of our ravens ! (My love, he 's poking peas into his ear)— Thou merry, laughing sprite! With spirits feather light, 2 3 4 Untouched by sorrow, and unsoiled by sin Thou little tricksy Puck! With antic toys so funnily bestuck, Light as the singing bird that wings the air, (Why, Jane, he'll set his pinafore afire!) Thou imp of mirth and joy! In love's dear chain so strong and bright a link, There goes my ink!) (stop the boy! Thou cherub-but of earth! (The dog will bite him if he pulls his tail!) (He 'll break the mirror with that skipping-rope !) Thou young domestic love! (He 'll have that jug off with another shove !) Dear nursling of the hymeneal nest! (Are those torn clothes his best ?) (He'll climb upon the table- that's his plan !) Touched with the beauteous tints of dawning life, (He's got a knife!) Thou enviable being! 5 No storms, no clouds, in thy blue sky foreseeing, (I knew so many cakes would make him sick!) (He's got the scissors, snipping at your gown!) Thou pretty opening rose! (Go to your mother, child, and wipe your nose!) I cannot write, unless he 's sent above!) CXXIV. THE FIRST PREDICTED ECLIPSE. MITCHEL. To those who have given but little attention to the subject, even in our own day, with all the aids of modern science, the prediction of an eclipse seems sufficiently mysterious and unintelligible. How, then, it was possi5 ble, thousands of years ago, to accomplish the same great object, without any just views of the structure of the system, seems utterly incredible. Follow, in imagination, this bold interrogator of the skies to his solitary mountain summit; — withdrawn from 10 the world, surrounded by his mysterious circles, there to watch and ponder through the long nights of many, many |