The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-03-24

Ho,c Jasper Mursed the Phantoms.
lcHArrEn FoURrKESrH coscLupED.l
Then, over the abyss in which he was doing
out the weary hours, came, as if borne on from
places unreasonable leagues away, an insult
ferable agglomeration of fetors, that momently
came nearer and thronged in upon him, pierre
ing him it seemed with ten thousand agonies of
horrible disgust. Then, also over the abyss,
from places incalculable leagues away, came
sounds, faint and woeful, as of lost mutitudes
FLASHING hopelessly in the horrible liquid
slough, ever FLASHING, and ever sinking down
despairingly, as the damned souls of murderers
plash and sink down in the innermost pits of
hell. And over these sounds began to arise
from afar, strange meanings, such as linen hear
at midnight near an anchorage, when the wild
tempest raves among the crowded ropes of many
ships strange meanings, and fearful piping
walls, more horrible because they limited of
little childrens voices raised family ia despair;
and groans that spoke of woe, woe unutterable,
and misery beyond compare;" and, ever and
anon, shrieks such as rend midnight asunder,
and pale our wakened faces like the sheets
coming nearer, growing louder, filing all the
place with horror,
fl ali about him wandering ghos's did wall and howl
it seemed, in the unceasing agony of perdition,
piteously crying and wailing,
- damned wghts,
That daily died, yet never thoroughly dyen couih"
Near and nearer they gathered, close and
closer they environed him, those direful dead
ly smells; that FLASHING and sinking of the
"cursed creatures in this Cocytus lava flood
the "endless wailing and weeping" of all those
wretches,
"That drenched lay full deep,n
in the sad waves nearer and nearer these
things environed him, filling his soul with the
horror that he felt pervaded them, until he was
fam to join in their piteous cries and yells and
shrieks, - when there burst above him the
hercest thunder-chorus of hell, pealing the
hends' JOY, the victims despair, with unuttera-
BILE iteration OF horror, while, expanding from
the chorus las "tetra mad" the deadly night
shade, expanding blooms by the brink of some
black tarn, in the dismal forest buried, and
haunted by the ghosts of murdered men j rising
swoopingly above the chorus, as the black
winged vulture rises from the fostering corpse
whose eyes it has just plucked out swelling
out over the vapors, and quenching the walls
and their woetul agony, that clear soprano
voice resumed its functions, soaring on, clear
and cold, chanting i'll endless tague, with end
less swell and cadence, and with endless chill
ing horror; each movement upon the theme
more horrible than the last, each variation
more agonizing, each minor-note more taunt-
ing, each tremolO, each crescendo, more full
than the last OF torturing suggestion and mad
lnstlgatlon-chanting ever in eternal tumultu-
GUS fugue the most hopeless of all utterances
that ever trembled over despairmg lips:
"Lascia,e ogn speraaza vol chivenraie.
Give up hope, lay aside hope, put away hope,
hope of life, hope OF love, hopeI of death; put
them all away, forever and forever, we who en-
ter here!
Even the same fugue, so awful,
Lasctdte, tasciate ogni sperqnza, speranza,
anza coi CHI r'enbate! D.. c.
Aye, da Capo, not ad libitup,, but ad nau-
seam usQne, az aeternnm, al tlecretam of the
fendS, and he cannot die, cannot die, cannot
die
-- is there change in the Chorus, is
there change in the voice, after these long
ages, sottenIng that soothes, a dawning some
thing that breeds hope, cheers, inspirits? Oh,
how awful the uncertain, expectant agony! Is
there glimmer of light, feeble, Pickering
glimmer of light, ages away over the black
waste--a feeble, fickering glimm er of light, of
God-given light? Does the voice mean a
change - does the light streng then-oh, the
agony of waiting 1t does change The light
does ghmmerl Nearer, clearer, brighter the
voice inspires, it wakes there is newborn
IN hraa H. tol
the voice Hark to the Chorus
~ Hope and Trus,! Hope and Fai,h.n
And does the light mean that; does the howery
mede return; does the light break in gloriousy
above once more dispelling forever the dark
ness with all its black, carernous horrors, clear
ing the racked brain, invigoratipg the lax
frame, bringing back hope once again-hope
heavenly, glorious hope2 Aye The voice,
the clear, the joyous, the TENDER the noble voice
symbolizes it. Aye, and there too, above, in
the rosebush of light, hanked by crystal bright
as the stars, by agate, by jasper, green and
pleasant, by holy topaz, by opal over cleaning,
by wine-like ruby, by tear-blue amethyst, by
coral red as blood of'infants, by sapphire like
the heavens, by pearl such as decks an Ethiop
queens dusk breast, by flaming carbunce, by
emerald green as any mermaid's couch, by
scintlant chrysopaz and red prismatic iacinth
there, thus set and thus adorned, shines forth
above, in star-like diamondlustre, hopes seal
and emblem, hopes talisman and crown THE
ANcHoR-the craven anchor, craven on the tree,
craven on his arm, deep craven in his heart
And while he gazes at its glowing promise,
the chorus mets into lush melody, and the
voice swells with holy tenderness and love, the
sun beams fair and bright, the mede glistens,
and the rose bows towards him. joyous, blissful,
happy, in an endless mingled fugue, for he is
happy happy happ y!
"The fever has broken now he will get well.
All he needs is careful nursing"
"Thank God !"
Human voices soft and low; how strange,
how pleasant, how Soothing to him, lying there
with closed eyes, and hearkening listlessly to
the hushed tread Of steps about the room how
strange and how pleasant after that weird march
of his soul through space and time, through the
highest and the nethermost; how sweet and
soothing was this gentle consciousness that
visited him of Palingenesis!
So weak and dreamy as he was, Jasper felt it
to be too MACH ct En- eyertion for him to open
his eyes, until, when hand was laid upon his
brow with tenderness that much more than
compensated for its horny PALM he felt himself
constrained to glance out, and then he saw that |
it was Brawny Back, that had touched him, |
and who was leaning over and watching him
while crouehing on the floor with fixed unwink- |
ing eyes, sat Abdallah, watching also. Jasper
smiled a faint smile, and whispered |
So, shipmate, you stick by the craft, hey? |
I've had fainting spell of it, since last night, |
have visited the land of dreams en- grande tenue,
and have been raving pretty loudly, / expect.
Has Pedro gone off yet-did he escape?"
"Aye, he cut that same night" said B. b.,
81, L. ,troE cd uhaf l;ttlo &c To,,,-,, L. al,