The New era. [volume] ([Portsmouth, Va.]) 1845-1847, 1846-01-08
From tho New York Tribune.
THE AGES.
NY n. HUBBARD.

e who with iron hands and earnest souls
Shape for yourselves future and name;
And ye who with prophetic vision hail
The generations of the free and wise
Beyond us, for a moment pause
The Ages,
With their unceasing round and onward flight,
Destroying and rebuilding, not voiceless.
FROM the dark years where like misty Dream
But differentiated, with its Temples, Thrones
And mighty Eearts and never dying Names,
The venerable Ed sumbers in Clouds
a glorious spirit comes. 1t is the free,
The unbcnding impulse OF n world of souls,
Onward and onward. Kings from their high
thrones
May thundcr,-Pricsts from their dark shripcs i'm.
woke
The blind and haggard Spirit that of old
Poisoned the world but the fre, soul of Man
Like the invisible Hand that stayed the WILL
ana struck the prosecuting Pharisce,
Rider and horse, adown, shall wander forth,
Strong in its godlike arnor, and false Kings
And biasphcmous Men alike shall see
Inc conquering progress of the wise and free.
nc How turns the soul, revolving, from the sight
OF the long years If wo, when human gods
Rode DER the PROSTATE millions of the world
When Kings were knglike only in their wrath
And power of desolaton, and the Priest
Uprising from the Altar where his tongue
Had ranked with deep hypocrisy,
Stood between God and Man, with foul lie
Binding Earth. And so slaves of earth were made
And that most foul of Human Slavery
w hlch let tiers not the limbs, bu, chains the mind
Until the sense of Freedom and high Truth
Ana human Destiny are wrecked and gone,
And he poor Spirit deems itself most free,
And smiles in foolish ignorance of chains
OF old, when War and Ignorance were food
For Tyranny to fattcn and thrive
Who OF the throng of robcd Priests and Kings
Bade the worn Son of Toll, God speed? Or who
OF all the hosts that iattened on the sweat
VI the worlds down crushed millions could behold
Through the dark wreck of unsubstantal thiu0s
The hand that holds the pillow fixed on Throne,
nnd the tough frame, firm by long years of toll,
Bearing Natoa's weight? Chained to the soil
ihe weary Laborer drove his team afield,
And wondered that the Heavens should give the
ground
To those who scorncd the honest hand that titled it,
And who disdaincd its culture The quick soul
Oi the poor AT tisan who wrought for food,
And Tor the worlds necessities and pleasures
win suppllant frame bent by the ordy side
U sS. severe eve, e task master Then shrunE back
For custom, with its train of out useless
Thoughts,
Sat like Dagon crowned mid worahipcrs;
And the pure, Godlikc Thought which sha ped it
Into Human Blessing, was curse
And blasphcmy to them
Free, though unseen,
The Spirit of the Ages dwcIt with mon
And here and there soul prophetic saw
The millions rising from the fertile soil
AND dashing Tyranny below they saw
A new Nobility, whose honors were
The signs of Labor and chainIcss Soul
a mind ambitions To obey rule
As Virtues call dema ndcd the strong chains
Forged IN the centuries of wo, were thrown
Broken and shivet ed by,-and Man, the free
GOD hohorcd, rose and claspcd his Brothers. ha nd
FILLED with noble and impusivc soul
impuisive to all generous deeds of high
And virtuous daring
nm, Thou free Soul Of Man.
Though in the Ages old, the heavy chains
or Tyranny were laid on thee and dccp
In dungeons damp thy lingering years were shut
lhou from thy chains and prisons didst 90 forth
Free as the fires of Heaven. Thy holy truths
Were a religion unto thce-thy faith
Was in thine own sufciency of power
Thy mar tyrs were the noble Thou ghts that died
In the cold cells of dungeons or fell dead
On the cold ears of an inscusiblc world.
The mountain pillowing Hcavc on its high head
The Sea- magng the invisible One
The Sky, throwing the innumcrabe spheres
The inner temples of the invisible world
The Beauty and the Glory of the Earth
With all its multitude of hoy THINGS
Were yet around thee, and thou too in them
And the still years laboring in patience on
And toiling for thy glory and thy power
Brought and still brings for all thy earnest
bright fulfilling hour.
The old world vet
Groans with its many paugs; and hard and lonc,
The Gods OF Zcnd Avesta struggled there
But Courage thou good spirit-f,r the world
Shall yet bobod thee triumph and rejoice
But here, where centre all those Ancient dreams
w hlch giaddened ancient men, the Sons of Toll
They OF the iron hand and earnest soul
GLOW with availing Labor and the true
And high born Dignity of Manhood sta
On patient Labor telling to its end.
All! who shall limit with usurpinr mind
my progress, Human Freedom? Who shall alta y
my winged spirit, high born, toiling Soul?
On TO thy task The Ages from afar
Point with their misty arms, and smile IN GEO
The conqucring progress Of the wise and frccI
THE FIRST FIGHT AROTT'T OpEcON