POLITICAL POEMS.

THE VIEW.

Say, why was man so eminently raised,
Amid the vast creation! Why ordain'd
Through life and death to dart his piercing eye,
With thoughts beyond the limit of his frame;
But that the Omnipotent might send him forth,
In sight of mortal and immortal power,

As in a boundless theatre, to run

The great career of justice; to exalt

His generous aim to all diviner deeds;

To chase each partial purpose from his breast,
And through the tossing tide of chance and pain,

To hold his course unfaltering.—AKENSIDE.

I.

THE world has seen much change; yet here art thou,
Mont Blanc, while generations pass away;
Thy vast heights glistening with untrodden snow,
On which the sun at eve imprints his ray;
There lingers yet the mild farewell of day;
The blue lake sleeps below in tranquil sheen:
Here among Nature's miracles I'll pray

To Nature's Deity, how vast the scene!

The loveliest works of God-the grandest here are seen!

II.

Here from our slumbers light we rise to feel
The consciousness of being; fresh and free
The soul pours forth its orisons with zeal
To the great Spirit of Eternity

That was, that is, and shall for ever be.
The fertile valleys, giant mountains, prove
The Omnipresence of the Deity!

Blest emblems of his wisdom, power, and love, Pervading all things here-around, below, above.

III.

The golden sun has colour'd all the woods! Fresh views succeed; each brighter than the last! There barren rocks are channell❜d by the floods, Here Flora's beauties cannot be surpast. Lausanne, a universe of charms thou hast! There Winter's fetter'd in his icy bed: Steeps rise o'er steeps immeasurably vast; While the rude crags projecting overhead, Strike in the stoutest hearts a momentary dread!

IV.

The ambitious rhododendron climbs the snow;

Pines darken round the mountain's sides; behold!

A thousand rills from icy caverns flow,

Rushing o'er rocks irregularly bold,

Where the tenacious sapling keeps its hold:

Below the dark stream with collected force,
Still rolling on as it has ever roll'd,

Through the wide plains shapes its resistless course, As rude as Ocean's self-as grand as is its source.

V.

Look on these glorious wonders! think of Him,
Lord of a million worlds, that have, perchance,
Greater phenomena !-Mine eyes grow dim,
With gazing on these heights as we advance:
Now all things seem enveloped in a trance,
Save when at times the avalanche doth fall,
Startling the ear; still at a vast distance
The masses of thick-ribbed ice appal

The soul, as if they form'd the world's extremest wall!

VI.

The prospect lengthens: far and far beneath
See cities, mansions, beautifully placed,
While the smoke rises in a frequent wreath

From cottages by greenest arbours graced.
These, like man's proudest works, may be defaced
By War's unsparing hand; but yonder trees,
Self-planted, by thick-woven shrubs embraced,
They with their towering grandeur long will please:
How can the spoiler's axe fell forests such as these?

VII.

The buoyancy of spirits—the wild hope
Of something undefinable-the joy
Of giving thus to all my feelings scope,
Feelings, which man's injustice can't destroy,-
These bring back former years, and I'm a boy,
Joyful as sailor in his bounding bark,

Whose rapid course no sudden squalls annoy,
Wild as the stag that spurns his narrow park,
Light as the young chamois, blithe as the mountain lark!

VIII.

Is not the soul immortal? Whence its thought?
Its constant aspirations after bliss?

Its vast capacity for good, if nought
But a fortuitous element it is?-

Away, nor preach a doctrine such as this!
For, by yon blessed sun-rise, there's a road,
Be but our faith unmoved, we cannot miss,
That leads us to that ever-blest abode

Where Mind perceives all things without a dark'ning cloud.

IX.

At Vevai lies our Ludlow: there he dwelt,
The patriot exile; there he loved to roam;
There to the Father of all Mercies knelt:

There Freedom woo'd him in her own sweet home,