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A SWISS SCENE.

"But sunwards lo you! how it towers sheer up, a world of mountains, the diadem and centre of the mountain region! a hundred and a hundred savage peaks, in the last light of day: all glowing of gold and amethyst, like giant spirits of the wilderness; there in their silence, in their solitude, even as on the night when Noah's deluge first dried."

Sartor Resartus, page 158.

VIEW'D from the terraced walks that round me glow,
How beautiful, Mont Blanc, thy heights of snow
Bathed in rose light, reflecting from the sun
A farewell splendour when his course is run!
They, like the gates sublime of Heaven, divine
Jasper and alabaster seem to shine.

What thought the world-bemocking wit Voltaire
While gazing on the might of beauty there?
Felt not the anti-optimist that hour

The force immense of Love's all-present power
Prevailing 'mid the gorgeousness of noon,
Or when on upland smiles the yellow moon,
Or when mild eve comes on, and gentle hearts
Hold converse as the summer-day departs?

Gaze on yon massive argentry of cloud
Glittering like battlements of opal proud,
Hanging o'er mountain-pyramids,—the mind
Might image worlds of chrysolite behind.
Gaze on the moon, yon globe of mellow light,
Tranquil as woman's virtue and as bright;
Lo! as she rises all harsh colours melt

Away, the harmony of love is felt.

Wide valleys, rich in golden harvests, green
Meadows, blue rivers rolling fast between,
Cities with dark grey walls and swelling domes,
Mountains whose sides the deep pine-forest glooms,
All are intensely hush'd; one hue alone
Prevails, one charm o'er all by silence thrown.

Oh! how magnificent even in repose

Is power at morning's dawn or evening's close;
How grand, when stars through boundless depths of sky
Watch silent!-citadels of light on high.

From the o'er-canopying horizon man

Draws wisdom books teach not, nor ever can:

The Poetry of Nature heaven, earth, air
Express-what solemn imagery there!

The mind, embracing all, in words would fain
To mind convey its flow of thoughts—in vain :
They permeate too subtly, are entwined

Too closely with the sympathies of mind.

Poets may render back in colours true

Objects that their clear spirits brighten through;
If on their pages images imprest

Delight-what are their feelings inexprest?
Fresh as the dew from Heaven or mountain rills,
Brilliant as are at noon-day sun-bright hills
May be the poet's language-yet there live
Within his being thoughts no words can give!
The deepening sense of infinite that is

Analogous to a beheld abyss,

Stability in granite rocks descried,

Eternity in Ocean's endless tide,

These and such like analogies between

Nature and man,-the world unseen and seen,These are heartfelt; and is not man to heaven Allied by such mute intimations given?

And our humanities, are they not found
Mingling with life above, below, around,
From eagle-eyed ambition danger-proof
That stands on glory's pinnacle aloof,

Down to smooth serpent-flattery that charms
With variegated falsehoods those she harms?

The summer trance of loveliest grandest things Semblance of beatific vision brings.

How all on earth is like a silver haze

Of light-it disappears-what scenes amaze!

The gently-moving forest trees appear
To bow unto the sun, God's image here,
(Faint image though he be) cloudless, alone,
As angels bend before the Almighty's throne!
Wing'd beings in his radiance full of glee
Disport like infant souls from sorrow free.
As from the fount of Glory spirits take
Multiplied splendours, wavelets o'er the lake,
The clear, calm, ample lake, appear like lines
Of fire, the whole a sun reflected shines.

--

The Alps, even magnified by distance, view,
Their summits, coloured with carnation hue
Too glorious for this world material, seem
Sky-woven, product of a waking dream.
Gone is the blush of Heaven; Eve's rosy veil
Withdrawn, the mountain-tops as death are pale.

Approach the monuments of time that was
And shall be till away the world must pass:
Emblems sublime of wisdom, they appear
Stable as truth, as contemplation clear,
Reposing 'mid the deep serene, a range
Of Nature's mightiest works, defying change.
Rush by their base wild surges of a river
Like generations of mankind for ever.
Gain eminence o'er eminence,-behold

Vast scenes as of a planet strange unroll❜d,

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