THIS great genius, whose influence upon taste and opinion has perhaps been greater than that of any other author who has written in the nineteenth century, was born at Ottery St. Mary's, Devonshire, in 1773, and died at Highgate in July, 1834. His poetry exhibits a gorgeous and powerful imagination, a perfect command of language, and extraordinary knowledge of human nature.
Who in this fleshly world, the elect of Heaven, Their strong eye darting through the deeds of men,
Adore with steadfast unpresuming gaze
Him, Nature's Essence, Mind, and Energy! And gazing, trembling, patiently ascend, Treading beneath their feet all visible things, As steps, that upward to their Father's throne Lead gradual-else nor glorified nor loved. They nor contempt embosom nor revenge; For they dare know of what may seem deform, The Supreme Fair, sole Operant ; in whose sight All things are pure, his strong controlling love Alike from all educing perfect good.
Their's too celestial courage, inly armed, Dwarfing Earth's giant brood, what time they muse On their great Father, great beyond compare! And marching onwards view high o'er their heads His waving banners of omnipotence.
They cannot dread created might, who love God, the Creator!—fair and lofty thought! It lifts and swells my heart! And as I muse, Behold! a vision gathers in my soul, Voices and shadowy shapes, in human guise. I seem to see the phantom, near, pass by,
Hotly-pursued, and pale! From rock to rock He bounds with bleeding feet, and through the swamp, The quicksand, and the groaning wilderness, Struggles with feebler and yet feebler flight. But lo! an altar in the wilderness, And eagerly yet feebly, lo! he grasps
The altar of the living God! and there,
With wan reverted face, the trembling wretch All wildly listening to his hunter-fiends,
Stands, till the last faint echo of their yell
Dies in the distance. Soon refreshed from Heaven He calms the throb and tempest of his heart.
His countenance settles; a soft solemn bliss Swims in his eyes: his swimming eyes upraised, And Faith's whole armor girds his limbs! And thus, Transfigured, with a meek and dreadless awc,
A solemn hush of spirit, he beholds
All things of terrible seeming: yea, unmoved Views e'en the immitigable ministers,
That shower down vengeance on these latter days.
For even these on wings of healing come,
Yea, kindling with intenser Deity;
From the celestial mercy-seat they speed,
And at the renovating wells of love,
Have filled their vials with salutary wrath;
To sickly Nature more medicinal,
Than what sweet balm the weeping good man pours
Into the lone, despoiled, traveller's wounds!
Thus, from th' Elect, regenerate through faith, Pass the dark passions, and what thirsty cares Drink up the spirit, and the dim regards Self-centre. Lo, they vanish! or acquire New names, new features,-by supernal grace Enrobed with light, and naturalized in Heaven. As when a shepherd on a vernal morn,
Through some thick fog creeps timorous with slow foot, Darkling with earnest eyes he traces out Th' immediate road, all else of fairest kind
Hid or deformed. But lo! the burning sun! Touched by th' enchantment of that sudden beam, Straight the black vapor melteth, and in globes Of dewy glitter gems each plant and tree; On every leaf, on every blâde it hangs; Dance glad the new-born intermingling rays, And wide around the landscape streams with glory! There is one Mind, one omnipresent Mind, Omnific. His most holy name is Love. Truth of subliming import! with the which Who feeds and saturates his constant soul, He from his small particular orbit flies,
With blessed outstarting! From himself he flies, Stands in the sun, and with no partial gaze Views all creation; and he loves it all, And blesses it, and calls it very good! This is indeed to dwell with the Most High! The cherubs, and the trembling seraphim Can press no nearer to th' Almighty's throne. But that we roam unconscious, or with hearts Unfeeling of our Universal Sire,
Haply for this, some younger angel now Looks down on human nature: and, behold!
A sea of blood bestrewed with wrecks, where mad Embattling interests on each other rush
Our noontide majesty, to know ourselves
Parts and proportions of one wondrous whole!
This fraternizes man, this constitutes
Our charities and bearings. But 'tis God
Diffused through all, that doth make all one whole; This the worst superstition, him except
Aught to desire, Supreme reality!
The plenitude and permanence of bliss!
O fiends of superstition! not that oft
The erring priest hath stained with brother's blood Your grisly idols, not for this may wrath
Thunder against you from the Holy One!
But o'er some plain that steameth to the sun, Peopled with death; or, where more hideous trade, Loud laughing, packs his bales of human anguish ;
I will raise up a mourning, O ye fiends!
And curse your spells, that film the eye of faith; Hiding the present God, whose presence lost, The moral world's cohesion, we become An anarchy of spirits, toy-bewitched, Made blind by lusts, disherited of soul, No common centre man, no common sire Knoweth! A sordid solitary thing,
'Mid countless brethren, with a lonely heart, Through courts and cities the smooth savage roams, Feeling himself, his own low self the whole; When he by sacred sympathy might make The whole one self! self that no alien knows! Self, far diffused as Fancy's wing can travel! Self, spreading still oblivious of its own, Yet all of all possessing! this is faith! This the Messiah's destined victory! But first offences needs must come!
(Black Hell laughs horrible-to hear the scoff!) Thee to defend, meek Galilæan! Thee
And thy mild laws of love unutterable, Mistrust and Enmity have burst the bands Of social peace; and list'ning Treachery lurks, With pious fraud to snare a brother's life; And childless widows o'er the groaning land Wail numberless; and orphans weep for bread; Thee to defend, dear Saviour of mankind!
Thee, Lamb of God! Thee, blameless Prince of Peace! From all sides rush the thirsty brood of war; Austria, and that foul woman of the North, The lustful murd'ress of her wedded lord:
And he, connatural mind! whom (in their songs So bards of elder time had haply feigned) Some fury fondled in her hate to man,
Bidding her serpent hair in mazy surge Lick his young face, and at his mouth imbreathe Horrible sympathy! and leagued with these Each petty German princeling, nursed in gore! Soul-hardened barterers of human blood!
Death's prime slave merchants! scorpion whips of fate! Nor least in savagery of holy zeal,
Apt for the yoke, the race degenerate,
Whom Britain erst had blushed to call her sons!
Thee to defend, the Moloch priest prefers
The prayer of hate, and bellows to the herd;
That Deity, accomplice Deity,
In the fierce jealousy of wakened wrath
Will go forth with our armies and our fleets To scatter the red ruin on their foes! O blasphemy! to mingle fiendish deeds With blessedness!
Lord of unsleeping Love, From everlasting Thou! we shall not die. These, even these, in mercy didst thou form, Teachers of good through evil, by brief wrong Making truth lovely, and her future might Magnetic o'er the fixed untrembling heart.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
THE shepherds went their hasty way, And found the lowly stable-shed,
Where the Virgin-Mother lay:
And now they checked their eager tread, For to the Babe, that at her bosom clung, A mother's song the Virgin-Mother sung.
They told her how a glorious light,
Streaming from a heavenly throng, Around them shone, suspending night;
While sweeter than a mother's song, Blessed angels heralded the Saviour's birth, Glory to God on high! and peace on earth.
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