Let the last gen'ral flame arise,
And melt the arches of the skies:
Calm as the summer's ocean, we
Can all the wreck of nature see;
While grace secures us an abode
Unshaken as the throne of God.
THE FUTILITY OF MAN'S RESOLUTIONS.
VIRTUE for ever frail as fair below,
Her tender nature suffers in the crowd,
Nor touches on the world without a stain:
The world's infectious; few bring back at eve
Immaculate the manners of the morn,
Something we thought, is blotted; we resolv'd,
Is shaken; we renounc'd, returns again.
Each salutation may slide in a sin
Unthought before, or fix a former flaw.
Nor is it strange light, motion, concourse, noise,
All scatter us abroad; thought outward bound,
Neglectful of our home affairs, flies off
In fume and dissipation, quits her charge,
And leaves the breast unguarded to the foe.
CHRIST'S PREDICTION FULFILLED.
ON us and on our children be his blood!”ch was your imprecation, O ye Jews, en in your sight the world's Redeemer stood h'd o'er with wounds, and emptying ev'ry vein, man's redemption; and behold! it flows, whelms upon you in a flood-gate tide; teep'd to the lips ye are in all the blood Of all the righteous shed upon the earth,
From blood of righteous Abel to the blood
Of Zechariah, whom your fathers ston'd
Betwixt the altar and the house of God.
Ye have enough; the mark is on your race;
Ye have drawn down the judgment ye provok'd,
It rests upon you: Yet for you no rest,
No station, no abiding-place is found,
Strangers and weary wand'rers upon earth,
If in the dust of your Jerusalem
With foot proscrib'd ye dare to tread, ye die;
A savage race usurps your sacred mount,
And Jordan echoes an unhallow'd name;
Should ye but stop to shed a filial tear
Upon the soil where your forefathers sleep,
Woe to the circumcis'd that so is found!
Oh! slow of heart, when will ye understand,
That thus afflicted, scatter'd, and dispers'd
Through every clime and kingdom of the world
Ye are sent forth to publish, as ye pass,
How truly CHRIST predicted of your fate;
And though your lips deny, your suff'rings prove
That prophet JESUS, whom your fathers slew,
Was Saviour, Christ, Messias, Son of God.
Well may sleep present us fictions,
Since our waking moments teem
With such fanciful convictions
As make life itself a dream.—
Half our daylight faith 's a fable:
Sleep disports with shadows too,
Seeming in their turn as stable
As the world we wake to view.
Ne'er by day did Reason's mint
Give my thoughts a clearer print
Of assur'd reality,
Than was left by Phantasy
Stamp'd and colour'd on my sprite
In a dream of yesternight.
In a bark, methought, lone steering,
I was cast on Ocean's strife,
This, 'twas whisper'd in my hearing,
Meant the sea of life.
Sad regrets from past existence
Came, like gales of chilling breath;
Shadow'd in the forward distance
Lay the land of death.
Now seeming more, now less remote,
On that dim-seen shore, methought,
I beheld two hands a-pace
Slow unshroud a spectre's face;
And my flesh's hair upstood,-
'Twas mine own similitude.
But my soul reviv'd at seeing
Ocean, like an emerald spark,
Kindle, while an air-dropt being,
Smiling, steer'd my bark.
Heaven-like-yet he look'd as human
As supernal beauty can,
More compassionate than woman,
Lordly more than man.
And as some sweet clarion's breath
Stirs the soldier's scorn of death-
So his accents bade me brook
The spectre's eyes of icy look,
Till it shut them-turn'd its head,
Like a beaten foe, and fled.
"Types not this," I said, "fair Spirit!
That my death-hour is to come?
Say, what days shall I inherit ?—
Tell my soul their sum.'
"No," he said, " yon phantom's aspect,
Trust me, would appal thee worse,
Held in clearly measur'd prospect:-
Ask not for a curse!
Make not, for I overhear
Thine unspoken thoughts as clear
As thy mortal ear could catch
The close-brought tickings of a watch-
Make not the untold request
That's now revolving in thy breast.
"'Tis to live again, remeasuring
Youth's years, like a scene rehears'd,
In thy second life-time treasuring
Knowledge from the first.
Hast thou felt, poor self-deceiver!
Life'e career so void of pain,
As to wish its fitful fever
New begun again?
Could experience, ten times thine,
Pain from Being disentwine-
Threads by fate together spun?
Could thy flight heaven's lightning shun?
No, nor could thy foresight's glance
'Scape the myriad shafts of chance.
"Would'st thou bear again Love's trouble
Friendship's death-dissever'd ties;
Toil to grasp or miss the bubble
Of Ambition's prize?
Say thy life's new-guided action
Flow'd from Virtue's fairest springs
Still would Envy and Detraction
Double not their stings?
Worth itself is but a charter
To be mankind's distinguish'd martyr."
-I caught the moral, and cried, Hail,
Spirit! let us onward sail
Envying, fearing, hating none,
Guardian Spirit, steer me on!'
As the tall ears bow to the sunburnt reaper, Life's joys encounter Time's advancing sickle: As mingled shapes float o'er the fever'd sleeper, Our fortunes glide ;-more varied, and as fickle Yet better far the gale that stirs the soul,
Than calms, however lovely,-that delay us To strive with elements, whose dull control Flatters our lazy pride, but to betray us: But best, the heart which builds its lofty aim Among the stars;—and, in the hand of heaven, Confides its treasures till the day of claim,
Nor fears Life's billows, wheresoe'er 'tis driven: His love cheers ev'n the lazar-house of shame,Who sooth'd the storm, and staid the burning levin!
Behold the moon!-whose heavenly alchymy
Turns waves and clouds to silver. And behold,-
It is the glorious firmament, which of old
hook with its empyrean harmony,-
Then, from his Maker's hands, man first walk'd
mid the sinless universe. The gold,— The fine gold now is dim! Yet he were cold ho fallen though he is, could joyless see
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