Break Superstition's magic spell, REV. H. MOORE. RELIGIO LOCI. As musing slow the seabeat shore I tread, sway; While all is dark, and on the white wave's head The lightning pours a momentary day; Then through the heavens, methinks, Eternal Sire! Thy justice walks,impels the whirlwind's breath, Swells the deep thunder, barbs the lightning's fire, And shakes o'er guilty worlds the balanced death. Then in the roarings of the blast I hear Thy chariot wheels: O! who can hear and live? Convicted Nature dreads the vengeance near, And Guilt uplifts her hands, and cries, Forgive! VOL. I. U But when more tranquil scenes my steps invite, Inspiring all beneath, around, above; A voice divine proclaims that Thou art Love! Then, stormy shores and surging waves, adieu! And welcome brook, and vale, and peaceful grove. [view But whence this thought? Shall Reason's eagle In none but tranquil scenes trace heavenly love? No! place me where, on Zembla's widow'd coast, Dark Winter heaps eternal snows on high, And bids his towering battlements of frost Float on mid seas, and pillar half the sky; Or place me on Bahouda's thirsty sand, Where the parch'd pilgrim longs for dewy night, Where whirling pyramids of fiery sand O'erwhelm the panting Arab in his flight; Still heavenly mercy o'er the sullen hours Bid storms be still, and amaranthine flowers New worlds, new seasons at her beck shall rise, shroud, A sudden fragrance flow through tropic skies, G. O. BUSH. AN ANGEL'S SURVEY OF THE WORLD. AMONG the tribes that float in air around, Or cleave the curling wave, or graze the ground, Is there no being of superior frame? No master work of Heaven, To whom more awful powers, a purer flame, By the First Father form'd sublime to sway I see the graceful form, the meaning face, Erect, and towering to yon bright abode, Where, with majestic beauty stamp'd, I trace The' inspiring soul that fills the lovely shrine, Reason's keen piercing beam, and Virtue's air divine.' So spake a spirit of ethereal flame, When first to earth a visitant he came; Awhile the purple-pinion'd stranger stood, And with an angel's ken, that wide and far Glanced like the lightning's instantaneous glare, Our idle, busy, bustling race he view'd. He saw with sorrow there His Maker's image, stamp'd divinely fair, Profaned by Folly, or by Vice defaced; All quench'd the sacred Soul's ethereal flame; Forgot her being's nobler end and aim; Her reason slave to sense, and bending to the beast. Unchain'd the fiercer passions madden round; Pride, Envy, Lust, Ambition, Rage, confound The world's fair order,—and, like hellhounds driven By scourging furies, waste the works of Heaven. Her shining fane command, Rush on her glittering spoils with rapine bold, And share at will her honours and her gold. Now strike his startled ear from far The din and deafening clamours of the bar. There with arch leer and ever pliant tongue, Stands Sophistry, confounding right and wrong; With Impudence, nor man nor God can awe, And stern Oppression, sanctified by law; While Perjury, without remorse or dread, Her rightful seat and sacred temple flies; There sees he blazing in imperial pride But now the martial clarion's shrill alarms Call all the furies-rouse the rage of war. He hears the prancing steed, the clattering car, And vales and rocks rebellow loud- to arms!' In shining pomp, and awful beauty gay, Fierce for the bloody business of the day, See front to front two kindred armies stand! Discord, with serpents hissing round her head, Bids to the sky the purple banners spread, Her torch of flame high waving in her hand; With frantic mien she runs from band to band, Tries every beating breast, and sows the seed Of rancour, rage, and death, and every dreadful deed. Now meet the charging legions-hate and ire Edge their keen swords and sparkle in their eyes: The glowing field appears a moving fire: Loud and more loud the mingling clangors rise. |