V.

All that night visions show to bards of heaven,
All they imagine from the lovely things
They see of things unseen, (to few are given
Vain gift to man sublime imaginings,)

Are but the colours bright that fancy flings
O'er life: to beautify our days awhile

She hovers near with many-coloured wings; Hence, in the charms that win us without guile,

When heighten'd by devotion's glow we see the seraph's

smile.

VI.

Yet these resemblances from earth are drawn ;
And shall we beings sprung from dust compare
With star-like sanctities, that ere the dawn

Of light burst on the world with lustre rare
Circled the glory-throne of the First Fair?
What are the songs of earth to heaven's rich tide

Of melody, interminable there?

What are analogous to powers that glide

Through glittering orbs succeeding orbs, in circuit wide?

VII.

The sun is sinking, the horizon round
Deepens into a radiance more intense.
Again the bells are heard, a cheerful sound,

Gladdening the heart of youthful innocence.

What is this love of harmony, and whence? Even in our childhood rapture-breathing strains

Of music to sublime our souls commence;

Effluent from beautiful realms where concord reigns, They come to promise bliss that God for man ordains.

VIII.

Mysteriously with feelings deep accord
The tones of music, be they gay or sad.
When at the will of the creative Word

Light was, the morning stars in concert glad
Together sang, in luminous glory clad :
All was harmonious through the universe,

Till man ungrateful did what Heaven forbade.

Then Discord rush'd upon this earth, the curse

Of sin; and Passion came, of dissonant thoughts the

nurse.

September 23, 1832.

NOTE.

P. 344, 1. 1.

What is this love of harmony, and whence?
"While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things."

WORDSWORTH.

THE SAURI.

Multaque nunc etiam existunt animalia terris,
Imbribus et calido solis concreta vapore.
Quo minus est mirum, si tum sunt plura coorta,
Et majora nova tellure, atque æthere adulto.

LUCRETIUS, lib. v. v. 795.

ERE as it is the world its course begun,

The earth o'erteem'd with children of the sun,

Goliah lizards of a former age,

When a hot temperature was all the rage;

What were the ladies of the temperate zone

Then? Warm as central fire-now cold as stone! And man, if man existed then I ween,

Had all the fiery particles of Kean,

Or Byron, when a boy, whose name would spread,
Like Talbot's, among "clods" or cockneys, dread.
But all is now comparatively cool;

Thank Heaven! we have no Camelfords at school.
Though heat-begotten monsters we encase
In our museums, perish'd have the race.
Whether they were herbivorous, or ate
Dirt like an Otomac, I cannot state.

They thirsted not like monsters since the flood
Begot the taste is ancient too-for blood!
Perchance, as Waterton a crocodile

Rode, they were ridden, though in length a mile!
Conjecture here-geologists advance

But sober truths-loves somewhat to romance.
The freeborn Sauri scorn'd a reigning lord,
Half-monkey and half-tiger, beast-abhorr'd
That rides, like tailors on their fluttering geese,
A many-headed hydra not with ease.
The steed will throw his rider if press'd sore,
As Spenser's dragon threw the gorgeous w
The Lithuanian fretting at the curb
Imperial may his master's seat disturb.
Proud of their igneous origin the tribe
Were self-important as a titled scribe;
Shallow as Trinculo deem'd Caliban,

;

Whether through fens they paddled, crept or ran;
Singing in chorus marshy songs, devouring
Fern salads, like our idlers bored and boring,
They lived-chronologists may guess the time-
And then returned to what they came from-slime.
Ere Alorus they lived; or, to go higher,

Ere lived forefathers of a Cambrian 'squire.
They may, sublimed into another sort

Of beings, through ethereal space transport
Themselves with a rapidity intense;

With tubes provided, every tube a sense.

Such Davy saw, or dream'd he saw, at Rome.
Philosophers have sober views at home;
At Rome sublimed their spirits now on fire
Be-luned to Ariosto's flights aspire.

Oh were these high-bred monsters now alive
In those famed gardens, where on Sunday drive
Ladies high-born as to a morning rout,
To laugh at apes with tails, and apes without,
Fashion might then revive Egyptian rites,
And in these non-descripts discern "new lights;
Though some plebeian peer, whose pedigree
Would puzzle Heard, might not their merit see:
Pendent from gorgeous ceilings to amaze

The world, their forms in or-molu might blaze
Through grand saloons, where taste capricious links,
Alliance strange,—a griffin with a sphinx!
While pretty women lisp, "You have not seen
The plesiosauri! Where could you have been?"
Far more in fashion they than Namick Pasha-
A Brahmin-comet-or Lord Dudley's bashaw;
Or novel, of the season latest, best,

Yet so severe, it ought to be supprest.

Would they were now alive, consuming wheat,
And kept by rich zoologists, to eat!

They, like Napoleon, prices might exalt,
More than remission of the tax on malt;

And landowners would cease to grieve that they
With crippled means increased rent-charges pay.