Thy habitation from eternity. O dread and silent form! I gazed on thee I worshipped the Invisible alone, Entranced in prayer, Yet thou, methinks, wast working on my soul So sweet we know not we are listening to it. And active will, self-conscious, offer now, And passive adoration. Hand and voice Awake, awake! and thou, my heart, awake! Or when they climb the sky, or when they sink, Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy, And who commanded - and the silence came, "Here shall the billows stiffen and have rest"? Ye ice-falls! ye that from yon dizzy heights Adown enormous ravines steeply slope, Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty noise, Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven Beneath the keen full moon? Who bade the Sun The silent snow-mass, loosening, thunders, God! Ye dreadless flowers, that fringe the eternal frost! Ye wild goats, bounding by the eagle's nest ! Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain blast! Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds ! Ye signs and wonders of the elements, Utter forth God! and fill the hills with praise! And thou, O silent form, alone and bare, Whom as I lift again my head, bowed low In silent adoration, I again behold, And to thy summit upward from thy base Sweep slowly, with dim eyes suffused with tears, — Awake thou mountain form! Rise like a cloud, Rise, like a cloud of incense, from the earth! Thou kingly spirit throned among the hills, Thou dread Ambassador from earth to heaven, Great Hierarch, tell thou the silent sky, And tell the stars, and tell the rising sun, Earth with her thousand voices calls on GOD. Ex. X. - ODE ON THE PASSIONS. When Music, heavenly maid, was young, From the supporting myrtles round - Collins. And, as they oft had heard apart First, Fear, his hand, its skill to try, Amid the chords bewildered laid; Next, Anger rushed his eyes on fire With woful measures, wan Despair- A solemn, strange, and mingled air: 'T was sad, by fits; - by starts, 't was wild. But thou, Hope! with eyes so fair, What was thy delighted measure? And from the rocks, the woods, the vale, A soft responsive voice was heard at every close; And Hope, enchanted, smiled, and waved her golden hair: And longer had she sung — but, with a frown, Revenge impatient rose. He threw his blood-stained sword in thunder down; The war-denouncing trumpet took, And blew a blast, so loud and dread, Were ne'er prophetic sounds so full of woe: And, ever and anon, he beat The doubling drum with furious heat. And though, sometimes, each dreary pause between, Her soul-subduing voice applied, Yet still he kept his wild unaltered mien ; While each strained ball of sight seemed bursting from his head. Thy numbers, Jealousy, to nought were fixed; Sad proof of thy distressful state! Of differing themes the veering song was mixed : And, now, it courted Love; now, raving, called on Hate. With eyes upraised, as one inspired, Pale Melancholy sat retired; And, from her wild sequestered seat, In notes by distance made more sweet, Poured through the mellow horn her pensive soul: And, dashing soft from rocks around, Bubbling runnels joined the sound. Through glades and glooms the mingled measure stole, Love of peace and lonely musing,) But, oh! how altered was its sprightlier tone, Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thicket rung, The hunter's call, to Faun and Dryad known! The oak-crowned Sisters, and their chaste-eyed Queen, Peeping from forth their alleys green : Brown Exercise rejoiced to hear, And Sport leaped up, and seized his breechen spear. Last, came Joy's ecstatic trial. He, with viny crown advancing, First to the lively pipe his hand addressed ; But soon he saw the brisk awakening viol, Whose sweet entrancing voice he loved the best. They would have thought, who heard the strain, They saw, in Tempe's vale, her native maids, Amid the festal-sounding shades, To some unwearied minstrel dancing; While, as his flying fingers kissed the strings, As if he would the charming air repay, — Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding? Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line upon it? whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner-stone thereof, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it, and brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther: and here shall thy proud waves be staid. Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee? Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are? Ex. XII. EXTRACTS FROM THE NINTH CHAPTER OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN. And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, "Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents : |