And hence, a beaming Goddess with her Nymphs, Across the lawn and through the darksome grove, Not unaccompanied with tuneful notes
By echo multiplied from rock or cave,
Swept in the storm of chase; as moon and stars Glance rapidly along the clouded heaven,
When winds are blowing strong. The traveller slaked His thirst from rill or gushing fount, and thanked The Naiad. Sunbeams, upon distant hills Gliding apace, with shadows in their train,
Might, with small help from fancy, be transformed Into fleet Oreads sporting visibly.
The Zephyrs fanning, as they passed, their wings, Lacked not, for love, fair objects whom they wooed With gentle whisper. Withered boughs grotesque, Stripped of their leaves and twigs by hoary age, From depth of shaggy covert peeping forth In the low vale, or on steep mountain side; And, sometimes, intermixed with stirring horns Of the live deer, or goat's depending beard,— These were the lurking Satyrs, a wild brood Of gamesome Deities; or Pan himself, The simple shepherd's awe-inspiring God!"
The strain was aptly chosen; and I could mark Its kindly influence, o'er the yielding brow Of our Companion, gradually diffused; While, listening, he had paced the noiseless turf, Like one whose untired ear a murmuring stream
Detains; but tempted now to interpose,
He with a smile exclaimed :
""Tis well you speak
At a safe distance from our native land,
And from the mansions where our youth was taught. The true descendants of those godly men
Who swept from Scotland, in a flame of zeal, Shrine, altar, image, and the massy piles That harboured them,-the souls retaining yet The churlish features of that after-race
Who fled to woods, caverns, and jutting rocks, In deadly scorn of superstitious rites,
Or what their scruples construed to be such- How, think you, would they tolerate this scheme Of fine propensities, that tends, if urged
Far as it might be urged, to sow afresh The weeds of Romish phantasy, in vain Uprooted; would re-consecrate our wells To good Saint Fillan and to fair Saint Anne; And from long banishment recall Saint Giles, To watch again with tutelary love
O'er stately Edinborough throned on crags? A blessed restoration, to behold
The patron, on the shoulders of his priests, Once more parading through her crowded streets Now simply guarded by the sober powers Of science, and philosophy, and sense!"
This answer followed.-"You have turned my thoughts
Upon our brave Progenitors, who rose Against idolatry with warlike mind, And shrunk from vain observances, to lurk In woods, and dwell under impending rocks Ill-sheltered, and oft wanting fire and food; Why?-for this very reason that they felt, And did acknowledge, wheresoe'er they moved, A spiritual presence, oft-times misconceived, But still a high dependence, a divine
Bounty and government, that filled their hearts With joy, and gratitude, and fear, and love; And from their fervent lips drew hymns of praise, That through the desert rang. Though favoured less. Far less, than these, yet such, in their degree, Were those bewildered Pagans of old time. Beyond their own poor natures and above
They looked; were humbly thankful for the good Which the warm sun solicited, and earth Bestowed; were gladsome,—and their moral sense They fortified with reverence for the Gods; And they had hopes that overstepped the Grave.
Now, shall our great Discoverers," he exclaimed, Raising his voice triumphantly, "obtain From sense and reason less than these obtained, Though far misled? Shall men for whom our age Unbaffled powers of vision hath prepared,
To explore the world without and world within, Be joyless as the blind? Ambitious spirits-
Whom earth, at this late season, hath produced To regulate the moving spheres, and weigh The planets in the hollow of their hand; And they who rather dive than soar, whose pains Have solved the elements, or analysed
The thinking principle-shall they in fact Prove a degraded Race? and what avails Renown, if their presumption make them such? Oh! there is laughter at their work in heaven! Inquire of ancient Wisdom; go, demand Of mighty Nature, if 'twas ever meant That we should pry far off yet be unraised; That we should pore, and dwindle as we pore, Viewing all objects unremittingly In disconnexion dead and spiritless; And still dividing, and dividing still, Break down all grandeur, still unsatisfied With the perverse attempt, while littleness May yet become more little; waging thus An impious warfare with the very life Of our own souls !
And if indeed there be
An all-pervading Spirit, upon whom
Our dark foundations rest, could he design That this magnificent effect of power,
The earth we tread, the sky that we behold By day, and all the pomp which night reveals; That these and that superior mystery
Our vital frame, so fearfully devised,
And the dread soul within it should exist Only to be examined, pondered, searched, Probed, vexed, and criticised ?—Accuse me not Of arrogance, unknown Wanderer as I am, If, having walked with Nature threescore years, And offered, far as frailty would allow, My heart a daily sacrifice to Truth,
I now affirm of Nature and of Truth,
Whom I have served, that their DIVINITY Revolts, offended at the ways of men Swayed by such motives, to such ends employed; Philosophers, who, though the human soul Be of a thousand faculties composed, And twice ten thousand interests, do yet prize This soul, and the transcendent universe, No more than as a mirror that reflects To proud Self-love her own intelligence ; That one, poor, finite object, in the abyss Of infinite Being, twinkling restlessly!
Nor higher place can be assigned to him And his compeers—the laughing Sage of France.Crowned was he, if my memory do not err, With laurel planted upon hoary hairs, In sign of conquest by his wit achieved
And benefits his wisdom had conferred;
His stooping body tottered with wreaths of flowers Opprest, far less becoming ornaments
Than Spring oft twines about a mouldering tree;
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