The Press.
London, England, 1853-10-01 00:00:00

524

No more
At his departure shall the good Man feel
Corroded with deep sadness, as he sees
Setting on him the still of this bright world!
No more shall Nature's lover at the grave
Ills everlasting farewell take of her.
Sine.. Christ hue visited Humanity,
A flood of glory has dew tilled down,
And given to the universe entire
A character awl me g spiritual:
It's all-surpassing loveliness no more.
As to the Pagan eye. is clouded now
Irtth a dark 'were,: i'trum I 'motion's face
the veil of mystery has been torn away
'flat madden'd all its beauty, and now man
I 'an trace in Nature's everlasting smile
love
Throovh all her features manifold he aces
The slitulow Owl's l'onnnillint!t• revealed
In all the magic voices that alsmial
In this liantioniiiiis, ever•ts ttttt ding world.
He hears re-eelioetl eloquently on
The tly t • calvary gave lOrth ;
In all the clouds' magnificence he find.
A pagettut far more wonderful—a typc
Of heaven's bright reality ; and all
'rite starry population unto him
In their eternal revolutions tell
A history far sublimer than their own—
The fair of Bethlehem! and thus indeed,
Whereas the dark and speculative mind
Of old inquirers, long since laid to dust,
Drinking at Nature's fountain, could but find
A vague foundation for a vague surmise,
And felt the draught more hitter as it gave
Swertio•ss to hide most vain,—the Christian nom-,
Though drinking chiefly at the well of life,
And truth's receptacle, discovers still
In this stunt, fountain confirmation strong
Of Scripture promise.
Some other lint's, in it like spirit, on the
glory which springs from the desolating march
of Time, are admirable in thought and elo
(went in expression :

th. weep no more !
Oh never mourn that all things chimp and change,
Since grand as martial funeral of those
Who the victorious is the onward march
Of Life and Time to their completion.
The Calory of the NVorld is its decay ;
The Grave itself is its chief Poetry ;
I tka ments most beautiful are those
Which tell with voiceless eloquence of that
SuWimest of all human mysteries—
Man's everlasting farewell from the world
The Pyramidal Sepulchres of Kings
And satitto'erwhelmeil Sphinxes which remain
Alone of Egypt's history ; the green mounds
Which raise for desert Babylon a %nice ;
The Cromlechs of the old Pli.enician race ;
'the porticoes of past Philosophy ;
The shattered marbles and the gramfostrewn stones
Of Attic temples. where the spirit dwelt
Of old religion, and which still appear,
m tiid their desolation, to reelaim
Continual worship : Home's Colisenm :
Pompeii's grave, and the dark Catacombs;
The moss•grown Palace, and the ruined Tower
Through whose grey chinks peers holily the Moon ;
'Tombs, statues, paintings. obelisk and vase—
All these, the sail mementoes of the past.
Who with their hoar survivorship appear
To mock their tOunder's dust, and stump the World
With the vain seal of M utability ,-
T 11, are the very sources from which rise
The thoughts that must eternalise the heart !
These are the fountains fine of poetry'
These the very decorut buts whiles.
Springs chiefly the World's glory. and which shed
ktorie rainbows o'er the arch of Time!
These are the inns maguithent which hold
TreaSIIIVII a profoundest inetlitathoi !
I,tol these the saerisl Meeeog to which come
ill :4ft er. told beholding tlwre,
flow even this e‘istence mutable
ilia% crown itself with grandeur. therefrom draw

The beantiful that Life
In its 4..odpictimi must hp most gliblinle.
ThOre is also merit in the lines on " Prayer."
and in the Song of the Angels " sufficient
to deserve encouraging plaudits, though
more elm, might have been bestowed on them
with advantage.

Thu auth►►r's philosophy is contradictory.
n one place he intimates that life is but child's
play—the greatest actors in this mortal stage
fretting their hour to as little purpose as

" The ehikl that flings a pebble from the bank."
While in another place we read that our litl is
a battle.

•• sublimer far than Ow Titanic war.
pun a 111V.ita. miemitirent.-
Storni. confusion, however, may he pardoned in
a mind which shows both strength and sensi-
Wilt). There is so much promise and Intel-
leetnal energy in his verse, that it is likely age
will correct his crudities of sentiment, gig o.
him
.itister views of the aims of being, and
mature Ins powers.