Bears, wolves, and sea-monsters, they rush'd from their den; We taught them, we tamed them, we turn'd them to men. "Love led the wild hordes in his flower-woven bands, The tenderest, strongest of chains! Love married our hearts, he united our hands, One race we became :-on the mountains and plains, The Ark of Religion reposed, The unquenchable Altar of Liberty blazed, And the Temple of Justice in Mercy was raised. “Ark, Altar, and Temple, we left with our breath To our children, a sacred bequest! O guard them, O keep them, in life and in death; So the shades of your fathers shall rest, And your spirits with ours be in Paradise blest : -Let ambition, the sin of the brave, And Avarice, the soul of a slave, No longer seduce your affections to roam From Liberty, Justice, Religion, AT HOME!" THE COMMON LOT. ONCE in the flight of ages past, There lived a man :—and WHO was HE? -Mortal! howe'er thy lot be cast, That Man resembled Thee. Unknown the region of his birth, His name has perish'd from the earth, That joy and grief, and hope and fear, His bliss and woe,—a smile, a tear! * The bounding pulse, the languid limb, He suffer'd, but his pangs are o'er; Enjoy'd, but his delights are fled ; Had friends, his friends are now no more; And foes, his foes are dead. He loved, but whom he loved, the grave Hath lost in its unconscious womb : O she was fair but nought could save He saw whatever thou hast seen; Encounter'd all that troubles thee: He was whatever thou hast been He is what thou shalt be. The rolling seasons, day and night, Sun, moon, and stars, the earth and main, To him exist in vain. The clouds and sunbeams, o'er his eye No vestige where they flew. The annals of the human race, Their ruins, since the world began, Of HIM afford no other trace Than this,-THERE LIVED A MAN! THE END. EDINBURGH: |