Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

Hark to the music-the drum and the fife,

How they ring with the triumph that follows the

strife!

Farewell, fallen brothers, though this life be o'er, There's another, in which we shall meet you once more !

[ocr errors]

ROUSSEAU.

MONUMENT of Shame to this our time!
Dishonoring record to thy mother clime;

Hail! Grave of Rousseau!-here thy troubles

cease!

Thy life one search for Freedom and for Peace :
Thee, Peace and Freedom life did ne'er allow :
Thy search is ended, and thou find'st them now!
When will the old wounds scar?-In the dark age
Perished the wise;-Light comes-How fares the

sage

The same in darkness or in light his fate,
Time brings no mercy to the Bigot's hate!
Socrates charmed Philosophy to dwell
On Earth-by false philosophers he fell;

In Rousseau, Christians marked their victim-when
Rousseau enlisted Christians into Men!

FRIENDSHIP;

From Letters of Julius to Raphael, an unpublished Novel.

(The Translation does not adhere to the meter in the original, which would be very unmusical in English.)

NEW rules suffice the Mighty Architect,

FEW

O Friend!—So out upon the thinkers small, Forging the dull laws that their pains dissect!

A single wheel impels the springs of All, Matter and spirit—yea, that simple Law Which, called ATTRACTION, here, my Newton saw.

This taught the spheres, slaves to one golden rein,
Their radiant labyrinths to weave around
Creation's mighty heart; this made the chain,
Which, into interwoven systems, bound

All spirits, streaming to the spiritual Sun,-
As brooks that ever into ocean run!

Did not the same strong mainspring urge and guide

Our Hearts to that eternal bond of love? Linked to thine arm, O Raphael, by thy side

Ev'n I would win to that bright goal above; And, through perfection, mine own soul complete For that last light where all perfections meet.

Happy, O happy-I have found thee!—I

Have out of millions found thee, and embraced;

Thee, out of millions, mine!—Let earth and sky

Return to darkness, and the antique waste-
To chaos shocked, let warring atoms be,
Still shall each heart unto the other flee!

Do I not find within thy radiant eyes
Fairer reflections of all joys most fair?
In thee I marvel at myself-the dyes

Of lovely earth seem lovelier painted there;
And in the bright looks of the Friend is given
A heavenlier mirror even of the Heaven!

Sadness casts off its load, and gayly goes

From the intolerant storm, to rest awhile
In Love's true heart, sure haven of repose;

Does not ev'n joy, tormented by its smile,
Impatient seek to merge itself, and die
In Friendship's eloquent and beaming eye?

In all Creation did I stand alone,

Still to the rocks my dreams a soul should find, Mine arms should wreathe themselves around the

stone,

My grief should feel a listener in the wind; My joy-its echo in the caves should be! Fool, if ye will-Fool, for sweet Sympathy!

We are dead groups of matter when we hate;
But when we love we are as Gods!-Unto
The gentle fetters yearning, through each state
And shade of being multiform, and through

All spirits lower than the Sire of all 1
Moves the same impulse to the godlike thrall.

Lo! arm in arm, through every upward grade,
From the rude Mongol to the starry Greek
(Who the fine link between the Mortal made,

And Heaven's last Seraph)—everywhere we seek Union and bond--till in one sea sublime

Of Love be merged all measure and all time!

Friendless, the Maker ruled His lonely sky;
He felt the want,-and thus created SOUL
To glass His bliss: Though never the Most High
Saw mate nor equal in His wondrous whole.
Toward Love, their source, all souls attracted flee;
And from that chalice foams Infinity.2

1 "All spirits one degree lower than the infinite spirit are my peers, since we all obey one principle."-SCHILLER'S Philosophical Letters from Julius to Raphael.

[ocr errors]

2 A literal translation of the last two lines would be unintelligible. and, indeed, their latent meaning and connection with the argument in the preceding verses are not perceptible in the original, and have perplexed most of the commentators. I have therefore resorted to Schiller's own construction of his general intention, as it is found in the Philosophical Letters from Julius to Raphael, in which the poem was first inserted. 'Every perfection in the universe is united in God. The existing form of Nature is an optic glass, and all the activities of spirits are only an infinite color-play of that divine ray. Should it ever please the Almighty to shatter this prism, then the barrier betwixt Himself and the world would fall to ruin; all spirits would disappear into one infinite spirit. The attraction of the elements gave to Nature its material form; the attraction of spirits, multiplied and continued to infinity, must finally lead to the abolition of that separation. Such an attraction is

Love. Love is the ladder on which we climb to a likeness with God."-Philosophical Letters. The reader who would thoroughly comprehend all the various meanings in this poem, must examine with care these Philosophical Letters; especially those upon Love and GOD, in which the poem (with the poet's own commentary)

occurs.

A GROUP IN TARTARUS.

HARK, as hoarse murmurs of a gathering sea

As brooks that howling through black gorges

go,

Groans sullen, hollow, and eternally,

One wailing Woe!

Sharp Anguish shrinks the shadows there;

And blasphemous Despair

Yells its wild curse from jaws that never close;
And ghastly eyes forever

Pine for the bridge athwart the fordless River, Swelling with tears the wave that mourning flows, And ask each other, with parched lips that writhe Into a whisper, "When the end shall be ?"

The end!-Lo, broken in Time's hand the scythe,

And round and round revolves Eternity!

33

« ПредишнаНапред »