Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1829-05-06

yointed out to us for republication. 1t Will
well repay perusal; but partakes TOO much OF
,he German school of writing, to be rel'shed
by every body.
frrom the Atheneum
THE VISION OF A GODDESS WORLD.
from the German Of John Paul Richter
If my heart should ever become so haplSss
and so withered, that every feeling in II whic
asserts the being Of God should be destroyed, l
would apDal myself by reading over the follow
ing composition of mine; and Il would cure
me and give me back the feelings had lost.
The aim Of this poem is the excuse Tor Its
boldpess. Men deny Gods being with just as
little feeling as mos, acknowledge 1t with
Even in our best systems of philosophy, we go
on, amassing mere words, counters, and me-
dals, as misers collect cabinets Of coins; and it
is late before we convert the words into feel
iiugs-rhe coin into enjoymenrs. A person may
believe in The Immortality Of the soul through
twenty whole years and in the twenty first, on
some great moment, be, for the first time, as
founded at the riches contained in this belief /;
At the warmth of this fountain Of Naptha.
Childhood, with her joys, and still more with
her fears, resumes her wings, and sParkles
anew 10 our dreams, and plays, like glow
worm, in the little night of the soul. Do not
ex ipgush these fitting sparks. Leave Us
even our dismal and painful dreams; they are
half-shadows that set off the realities OF life
And wha; have they TO give Us in the room oil
these dreams, which carry US up out OF The roar
beneath the cataract, TO The quiet hill OF child
hooG, where the stream of life was still flowing
onward in silence along its little grass pla',
bearing the face OF Heaven in lis heart, on lis
way toward the precipice.
was lying once, on summer evening, IN
the sun, upon hill, and fell asleep. Then,
dreamt awoke in church yard. The rolling
wheels of the clock in the tower that was strlk-
ing eleven, had awakened me. l searched
through The dark empty sky tor the sun Tor
imagined shat an eclipse had drawn the veil oil
the moon over il. All the graves were open,
and the iron doors Of the charnel.bouse were
swung to and fro by invisible hands: along the
walls shadows were fiit,ia &, which no one cast ;
s other shadows were walking upright through
the naked air. In the open collins rothing
continued to sleep, save the children. In the
sky there was naught but gray sultry cloud
hanging in massy folds, and huge shadow
kept on drawing it in like net, nearer and
closer and hotter Ablve me, heard the dis
tant falls Of avanches; below me, The FIRST
tread OF an illir,itable earthquake. The church
beaved up and down, shaken by two ceaseless
discords, which were warning against each 9th .
err within, aud vainiy striving to bl nd into a
concord. At times, gray CLEAN lraPt up on
the windows, and al It's touch ne lead and iron
melted aid ran down. The net Of cloud, and
the reeling Of the earth, drove me toward the
porch, before which, two fiery basilsks we're
ha,ching their venomous brooGs. ! passed
along amid unknown shadows that bore the
marks of every century since toe beginning of
things. All the shsdows were standing around
the altar; and in each, there was quivering
aud throboihg of Ihe breast instead OF the
heart. One dead man alone, who had been
newly buried in The church, was s,ill'lying or
his couch, without any quvering Of his breast !;
and his face was smiling beneath the iigh, Of
a happy dream. But, when one Of the living
el,ered, he awoke and smiled no more toll,
somely he drew up his heavy eyeiids, but no
eye was was within and his beating breast,
instead Of heart, contained a wound. He
lifted up his hands, and clasped them for pray
err but the arms heightened and lowered them.
selves from has body, and the casped hands
dropped Off Overhead, in the vault Of the
church, stood the dial-plate Of eternity, on
which no number was to be read, nor any cha
rociers except its own name; only there was
black hand pointing theIeat, on which The
dead said they saw Time
AT this momen-, tall majestic form, with a
countensnce Of imperisnable anguish, sank
down from on high upon the altar; and all the
dead cried, "Christ is there no God :"
He answered: -" There is none !"
The shadow Of every dead man trembled all
over, not his breas, merely; and, one after ano-
ther, their trembling dispersed them.
Christ spake on:-I have gone through the
mids, Of the worlds, mounted into the suns,
and few with the milky way across the wilder,
ness of heaven; but there is no God. plunged
down, as far as Being filings il shadow, and pri-
ed into the abyss, and cried" Father where
art thou % but I heard only the everlasting
tempest which no one sways; and he glitter.
ing rainbow Of beings Was hanging, without
sun that had formed it, over the abyss, and
trickling down into it. And, when looked
up towards the limitless world for the eye of
God, the world stared al me with an empty
bo.tomless eye soeke': and eternity was lying
upon chaos, and gR-Sing i, TO pieces, and chew
ing the cud of what it had devoared. Scream
an We discords scatter these shades with your
rreaming. for he is not 2"