Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, W.T. [i.e. Wis.]) 1843-1844, 1843-06-17
HORRORS OF OPIUM EATING.
NY The REV. WALTER COTTON.

a.se;ousness entire, while visions passed be-
sare me which no. language can convey, and
M symbols of happiness or terror represent.
Ar one time was soaring on the plnlons OF
an ANGEL among the splendors Of the highest
beayap. beholding at glance the beauty OF
their unveiled mysteries, as listening to harps
and coral symphonies over which time, sorrow
and death have no power; and then my pre-
sumption was checked, my cleaving wings,
like The waxen plumes of Icurus, were melted
awav. and fell down, till caught in the DO
som of thunder cloud, from which was a.
rain burled. linked 70 its fercesi bolt upon the
plugging verge of a cataract, that carried me
down. frantic with horror, into the lowest depth
of i.s bowling golph. :,;,u
and power of Neptune over his troubled realm.
and driving my watery team over the excited
bosom Of the ocean, harmonzed its elements
ioto the deep bass i, sustained in the bursting
anthem of the infant world. And then with
the lee,ness of disembodied spirit, seemed
10 Aoa, around Just between the incumbent
circle of the bluesheaven and the sea, discern
ing within upon the surging plain the motion
ofinnumerable ships skimming the waves with
the ligh,ness of the swallow, while without
the circle beheld far down in the twilight
and lurid gloom of an Unreasonable gulph,
the wrecks of worn-out worlds. Still fioated
en- upon The frightful verge of circle. till COM
ing around near the north pole, saw It's stead
fast star fixed in the darkened change of death;
other PLANETS were bending over it; and when
they had sung It's funeral hymn they lowered 1t
into grave so dark, so fathomless and still,
that the agonies and commissions OF expiring
nature could not disturb its sepulchral sleep.
While thinking Of the dismayed Mariner,
rolling his eyes in vain to find his Underwriting
star. an iceberg with its mountain mass of fro.
zen torrents came rolling on, and catching me
in one of its dripping shelves bore me through
seas dashed by the hurricane. convulsed with
the war ofthe whale and sword-fsh, and where
the Serpent, struck by Lightning, lay troughed
between two waves like a huge pine PROSTATE
among the hills.
Being being benumbed. and paralyzed by
the stiffening ice. | fell from my tumbling
Judgment, and descending through the sea,
was carried by the wave of a submarine cur
rent quite within little grotto, reared of coral
and lined with pearls, where mermaid was
gently kndling FIRE, beneath whose reviving
ray soon fell each frozen vein and limb slowly
tingling back to life--- when, as if TO reclaim
my bewildered thoughts and soothe their de-
raising her harp. struck one of those soft strains
whose liquid flow mells into the heart like fra.
grant dew into the bosom of the folding rose.
But scarce had the last note ofthis sweet m in
sirel died away into the listening stiffness OF
peace, when a call, loud as the summon
ing trump of the archangel, sent lis rendiug
thunder Though the hollow caverns of the as
founded ocean, and the rent tomb of the sha-
king earth. starting even deaIh itself from his
sleep. The sheeted dead went up from their
wa,ery graves 10 stand on sea. while the earth,
from precipce TO plain, from shore to noun
tain brow was covered with the shronded
myriads tina, had left their couches Of clay.
The sun. with a changed, responding as
poet disappeared. leaving a huge darkened
chasm in the heavens; the moon spun round
and round and slowly receded from view,
leaving another fearful blank in the blue vault;
the planets fell from their places, and were
quenched as they sunk into the llfeless void
beneath: and darkness in thick palpabe mass
filed all space, save where forked lightning,
arrested in its course, still preserved its terrific
form and brightness, and save the lingering
light of some lohier star that commended with
its doom. The courses and powers Of nature
were suspended still and motionless; the ma
rner heard his relaxed sails fall against the
idle mast, the breaker cease to lif! its warning
voice over the fatal, reef, while the sea-bird,
unable again 10 reach the wave, rested upon
his immovable pinions; the curling wave lay
half beoken on the shore; the torrent ceased 10
plunge from ts wave-worn steep; the war horse
kneeled down and died; the monarch in his ca
p,Ol, discrowned. stood pale and speeches.;
the peasant in his field called aloud on his for.
gotten God, while the imploring shrek of ma.
tons went up like the last wall of ruined
world!
The agony is DER: nature her debt
Has paid; the earth is covered with clay
That once was animate, and even yet
IL warm with an existence reft away
BY him who gave: il were but yesterday
This clay peopled a happy universe,
With beings buoyani, beautiful and CAV,
But now alas.-of all things the reverse,
Earth is their winding sheet, and darness pals
the hearse!
these lines were engraven on my heart al
the time by the departing spirit of my dream;
and woke after having been lost TO all the re.
alities of this world for two days and nights.
But o, the faintnsss, the thirst and delerious
weakness Of that waking moment | look
back TO II as man who has been skating over
the frozen bosom of a lake turns 10 the yawn-
ing chasrn which he has miraculousy escaped.
could not stand or sit; and even in most in
dined posture, desperation itself seemed an ef-
ut oeyoud the gasping exhaustion of my
anne, should have turned on my pillow and
H. ed, but for the kindly efforts of one whom |
yer can love too much, or remember too long.
%no one test, like NE. the dreaming ecsta-
= and terror Of opium; il is only scaling the
y %ements Of heaven to sink into the burning
rs Of hell.