Sunbury American and Shamokin journal. [volume] (Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa.) 1840-1848, 1843-12-09
From The Whonian.
The Child OF Nature to His Mother.

The Child OF Nature to His Mother.
o Mature on whose s'ar.lA face 7 gaze,
And see in all, above, beneath, around,
A varied beauty, and a mystery,
Tho Night hall veil thee. and tho shadows fling
An indstincncss DER thy lovely scenes.
Silent and wandering. refect upon
Thy laws snging--vastncss infinite
Thine origin that battles mgh,est Thought,
And bids high Reason tremble, ere il dare
To lit its bold imagining to thy source.
Here through the darkness, I behold the stars,
The far-oll hahta:ions, it may he,
Ofhoppv races--migh,ier than we,
Whose shalowy aspirations vanly try
To solve the dread enigma of thy birth
And looking up TO their high Glittering thrones,
| fain would read the purpose of m MS life.
o grand and glorious Nature! d,gn to lift
The veil that wraps thee, and reveal the source
Ofthinc exiscncc--The Almighty Power
Which we must own, but see not, in thee;
Make us to know, with undo, ewing voice,
The doom that waits our helpless race, beyond
That da,k and solitary bourn--lhc grave
Must we, as righteous golly men have taught,
Be Jamn'd or blessed, according 10 the deeds
Of our fraii bodies !-bolie>, which the King
OfHeavcn and Earth created weak or strong,
Or good or evil at his sovereign VII J.
Shall we, the transient beings Of day,
Gay butterflies, disporng for an hour,
In Life's bright sunshine endless pain endure
Because our Ii tie pass!ons--,hy strange gifts,
Fair mother, Nature! govcrn'd hv the tide,
Ofmighy circumstance, have led us on
To petty wanicrings from the leaicn track
Ofmonkish f h, aid doubtful holiness
Shall we be, by euing ielow.creatures,
Mark'd for wo, and !onn.'l to fire eternal,
Because folsooth, we deem not as they deem,
But believe as unbon'd Reason dctatesi-
Has thy sweet voice such Justice ere reveald
To mans amazed enquring, s'artl' j soul =
Tell me, Mature! in thy wdes, moods
When Darkness hroodod, or when Ligh'nss lit
Thy echone mountains or when earthquakes rent
Thy tccmn5 va'Icys--na,ions and their homes,
The time-worn cities Of thousand years,
Palace aud fnc, and tower and batemcnt,
Overwhelmed and buricd:-or when tcmPe,ts swcp
A ross thy face, uprooting in their course,
The monuments OF hy-gone centuries -
Even in these fierce moods, could man have seen,
The semhlanco of the fire, he coujurcs up
To curl forever Ger tn shrieking souls
OF his misguided fellows could he draw
From pa sing earthquakes, or from transient storms
His fearful dream of nevcr.onding Hell J.
Nights shadows vansh, aud the Thundcrs Sc;
The Earthquakes path grows smooth beneath rh
tread
OF the old i.cvelcr and above the graves,
OF hurled nations, later nations dwell -
The Tempest voice is hushed, and the green earth,
Forgr,fu Of he Past is glad again.
But unlike all hesr, (,un.c;ent scourges,
ifman merits wo,) is tina, dark world.
Which his sacred fancy pictures on the walls
OF vast Eternity the awful hons
OF thrice ten million millions Of our race -
A fame lii dungeon, cchoing with the yells,
OF foTcdaom'l, helpless, dcaihlcss, tortured souls.
Tell me, O Nature {! has Thy gIoriou> God
Whose Life is Love aud Mercy, aud whose eye
Conemplscs at glance, all space, all lime,
Foreseeiug through the countless ages past,
Our birth our guilt, our souows and our death,
Such fearful fa'e, Prcjudged to hape.s men
Northumberland, Nov, ls43