As the great Sun, when he his influence Sheds on the frost-bound waters-The glad stream Flows to the ray and warbles as it flows. THE DESTINY OF NATIONS. A VISION. AUSPICIOUS Reverence! Hush all meaner song, To the Will Absolute, the One, the Good! Such symphony requires best instrument. Seize, then, my soul! from Freedom's trophied dome Strong music, that soliciting spell, force back For what is freedom, but the unfettered use Of all the powers which God for use had given? But chiefly this, him first, him last to view Through meaner powers and secondary things Effulgent, as through clouds that veil his blaze. For all that meets the bodily sense I deem Symbolical, one mighty alphabet For infant minds; and we in this low world Placed with our backs to bright reality, That we may learn with young unwounded ken Thou with retracted beams, and self-eclipse But some there are who deem themselves most free When they within this gross and visible sphere Chain down the winged thought, scoffing ascent, Proud in their meanness: and themselves they cheat With noisy emptiness of learned phrase, Their subtle fluids, impacts, essences, Self-working tools, uncaused effects, and all Those blind omniscients, those almighty slaves, Untenanting creation of its God. But properties are God: the naked mass Others boldlier think That as one body seems the aggregate Some drive the mutinous clouds to clash in air, And what if some rebellious o'er dark realms * Balda Zhiok; i. e. mons altitudinis, the highest mountain in Lapland. + Solfar-kapper; capitium Solfar, hic locus omnium quotquot veterum Lapponum superstitio sacrificiis religiosoque cultui dedicavit, celebratissimus erat, in parte sinus australis sicus semimilliaris spatio a mari distans. Ipse locus, quem curiositatis gratia aliquando me invisisse memini, duabus prealtis lapidibus, sibi invicem oppositis, quorum alter musco circumdatus erat, constabat.— Leemius de Lapponibus. The Lapland women carry their infants at their back in a piece of excavated wood, which serves them for a cradle. Opposite to the infant's mouth there is a hole for it to breathe through.-Mirandum prorsus est et vix credibile nisi cui vidisse contigit. Lappones hyeme iter facientes per vastos montes, perque horrida et invia tesqua, eo presertim tempore quo omnia perpetuis Scream in its scanty cradle: he the while Seat Reason on her throne. Wherefore not vain, Or if the Greenland Wizard in strange trance nivibus obtecta sunt et nives ventis agitantur et in gyros aguntur, viam ad destinata loca absque errore invenire posse, lactantem autem infantem si quem habeat, ipsa mater in dorso bajulat, in excavato ligno (Gieed'k ipsi vocant) quod pro cunis utuntur: in hoc infans pannis et pellibus convolutus colligatus jacet. Leemius de Lapponibus. Jaibme Aibmo. Where dwells the Fury Form, whose unheard name Armed with Torngarsuck's* power, the Spirit of Good, Forces to unchain the foodful progeny Of the Ocean stream;-thence thro' the realm of Souls, Where live the Innocent, as far from cares As from the storms and overwhelming waves That tumble on the surface of the Deep, Returns with far-heard pant, hotly pursued By the fierce Warders of the Sea, once more, Ere by the frost foreclosed, to repossess > His fleshly mansion, that had staid the while In the dark tent within a cow'ring group Untenanted.-Wild phantasies! yet wise, On the victorious goodness of high God Teaching reliance, and medicinal hope, Till from Bethabra northward, heavenly Truth. With gradual steps, winning her difficult way, Transfer their rude Faith perfected and pure. If there be beings of higher class than Man, I deem no nobler province they possess, *They call the Good Spirit Torngarsuck. The other great but malignant spirit is a nameless Female; she dwells under the sea in a great house, where she can detain in captivity all the animals of the ocean by her magic power. When a dearth befalls the Greenlanders, an Angekok or magician must undertake a journey thither. He passes through the kingdom of souls, over a horrible abyss into the Palace of this phantom, and by his enchantments causes the captive creatures to ascend directly to the surface of the ocean.-See Crantz's History of Greenland, vol. i. 206. |