Constitutional Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1824-1832, 1827-10-13

And sets his throne upon the floods, rebuked
ne headion9 tempest iD its mid Career
And iurn'd It's horrors TO magnicence
he evening sun broke THROUGH The embotled Glands
anu turew round Sky and sea, as by enchantnent
rsd'ant girdie, binding them TO peace,
In tue tuli rainbov's harmony OF beams;
NO orh!an, fragment, but one sevcnfold circle,
That spann'd the horizon, mcted out the heavens
Aud underarchh the ocean.
Next morn, in snockefy of Storm the breeze
And waters skirmish'd; bubbe,armies fought
millions OF battles on the crested surges,
Ard where they fell all covered with their glory,
Traced IN white foam on the cerulean MAN.
Paths, like the milky way among the stars"
After the elements, life began to appear, and the
birth of the Nautilus is exquisite.
''Light a flake of foam upon the wind
heel upw ard from the deep emerged shell,
Shaped like the IL Il her horn is fill,d;
iraught with young life, il righted as il rose,
And moved al 's'i! along the yielding water.
The native pilot of this little bark
Put out tier of oars either side,
Spread TO the waiting breeze t,vo-foId sail,
And mounted up and glided down the billow
In happy freedom, pleased to feel the air,
And wander in the luxury of light.
Worth all the dead creation, in that hour
To the appeard this lonely Nautilus,
My fellow being, like myself alive.
Entraqccd in contemplation vague yet sweet,
watot'd its vagrant course and ripping wake,
TIL forgot the sun amids; the heavens.
IT closed, sunk dwindled TO poin:, then nothing;
w hie The last bubble crownd the dimpliug eddy,
Through which mine eye still gdliIy pursued it,
Ajoyous creature vaulted through the air
The aspiring fish that fain would be bird.
On long light wings, that flung diamond shower.
OF dew drops round its evanescent form,
Sprang into light, and instantly descended
Ere | could greet the stranger as friend,
Or mourn his quick depariure,-on the surge,
shoal of dolphus, tutnblng in wild glee,
Glow II with such orient tints, they might have been
ne ranbow's offspring, when il met the ocean
In that resplendent vision | had seen"
Other creatures shew themselves, and aas begin to
devour each other; which disturbs the soothing harmony
OF MIR. Mon'gomerys hitherto calm pictures for even
the tempest is sweet and innocuous.
Still the Being feels its soul or essence unsased and
longs for conSenai Being. Withou; this though
peoplcd with millions of animated things the world is
VOID solitude. Time, however, passetli on:-there
is an admirable description of an island gradually form
ed - the coral insects.
"Curious observation caught the cIeyy
To this live labyrinth, where every one,
by instinct taught performd its little task:
10 build its dwelling and lis sepulchre,
From its own essence eXqu,sitey modclrd;
There breed, and die and leave progeny
Still multiplied beyond the reach Of numbers,
10 frame new cells and tcnhs; then breed &c die,
as all their ancestors had done,-and rest,
Dramatically sead, each in lis shrine,
4 statue in this temple OF oblivion.
Millions of millions thus, from age 10 age
with simplest skill, and toll un,vearyable
NO moment and no movement unimproved,
Laid line on line, on terrace terrace spI ead
% swell The frightening, bright eniug gradual mound
Eymarvelious structure climbing tow'rds the dav.
Zach wrought alone, vel all together wrought
Unconscious, not unworthy, Instruments
by which a hand iEvisb e was rearing
q new creation in the secret deer.
Omnipo'ence wrought III them, with them, BY ;lers
Hence what Omnpotence alone could do
Worms did. the living pile ascend
The manso!cum Of its architects
stu dying upwards their abors closed:
Slime the material, but the slime was turuu
10 adamant, by their Peiic 'oucl.;
traIl we're their frames ephemcraI their lies
Their masonry imperishabc. All
Life's need!ul functions, food, exeition, rest
by NICE economy of Providence
Were OYerruled 10 carry on the proress
Which out OF water brought forth solid rock.
sCompared with this amazing edifice.
Raised by the weakest creatures in existence
What are the works OF intellectual man
Towers, temples, palaces and sepulcIres;
Ideal images in scuipura forms,
thoughts hewn IN columns, in domcs expanded
Eancies through every maze of beauty shewn;
Pride, gratitude, affection urn'd to marble
In honor of the living or The dead,
hat are taey?-fine wrought miniatures ofart
Too exquisite 10 bear The weight of dew
Which every morn lets fall in pearls uuon them
Till all their pomP sinks down in Wondering relics
Ell in their rain lovelcr than their prime!
Dust III tie balance, atoms in the gale
Compared with these achievements in the deem
Where all The monuments of olden time.
In days when there were giants on the earth
Babefs SuPendous folly, though ii airn'd
To scale heavens batements, was but toy,
The playthng Of the world in infancy;
The ramparts, towers, and gates of Babylon
Built fer eternity though where they stood
Ruin itself stands still for lack of work
And DesolatiOn keeps unbroken sabbath;
Great Baby Ion, in its full moon OF rnpire
Even when its 'head of gold' was smiiten off,
And from monarch changed into brute
Great Babylon was like q wreath of sand
Left by one tide, and cancerd by the next.
Egypt5 dread wonders, still defying Time,
Where cities hare been crurDbled into sand
Scatter'd by winds beyond The Ly bian desert,
Or melted down into the mud Of Nile
And cast in lage DER the corn sovyp fields,
When Memphis hourishd and the Pharaofs reiend;
Egyprs gray piles of beroglyph;c grandeur,
That have survived the language which they speak,
Preserving its dead emblems 10 the eve
yet hiding from the mind what these reveal;
Her pyramids wonld be mere pinpacles
Tier Giant 9tatue5 wrought from rocks OF granite
But Puny ornaments for such pile
As Iris sIupendou5 mound Of caiacombs