Now first from human power the reverend veil

Was torn, to see Earth from her general womb Pour forth her swarming sons to a fraternal doom:

XXXIX.

To see, far glancing in the misty morning, The signs of that innumerable host,

To hear one sound of many made, the warning Of Earth to Heaven from its free children

tossed,

While the eternal hills, and the sea lost
In wavering light, and, starring the blue sky,
The city's myriad spires of gold, almost
With human joy made mute society

Its witnesses with men who must hereafter be.

XL.

To see like some vast island from the Ocean, The Altar of the Federation rear

Its pile i'the midst; a work which the devotion Of millions in one night created there,

Sudden as when the moonrise makes appear Strange clouds in the east ; a marble pyramid Distinct with steps: that mighty shape did

wear

The light of genius; its still shadow hid Far ships to know its height the morning mists forbid!

XLI.

To hear the restless multitudes forever
Around the base of that great Altar flow,
As on some mountain islet burst and shiver
Atlantic waves; and solemnly and slow
As the wind bore that tumult to and fro,

To feel the dreamlike music, which did swim Like beams through floating clouds on waves below

Falling in pauses, from that Altar dim As silver sounding tongues breathed an aërial hymn;

XLII.

To hear, to see, to live, was on that morn Lethean joy! so that all those assembled Cast off their memories of the past outworn; Two only bosoms with their own life trembled, And mine was one, and we had both dissembled ;

So with a beating heart I went, and one Who, having much, covets yet more, resembled ;

A lost and dear possession, which not won, He walks in lonely gloom beneath the noonday

sun.

XLIII.

To the great Pyramid I came: its stair
With female choirs was thronged: the loveliest
Among the free, grouped with its sculptures

rare;

As I approached, the morning's golden mist, Which now the wonder-stricken breezes kissed

With their cold lips, fled, and the summit shone

Like Athos seen from Samothracia, dressed In earliest light by vintagers, and one Sate there, a female Shape upon an ivory throne.

XLIV.

A Form most like the imagined habitant

Of silver exhalations sprung from dawn, By winds which feed on sunrise woven, to enchant

The faiths of men: all mortal eyes were

drawn,

As famished mariners through strange seas

gone

Gaze on a burning watch-tower, by the light Of those divinest lineaments-alone

With thoughts which none could share, from that fair sight

I turned in sickness, for a veil shrouded her countenance bright.

XLV.

And, neither did I hear the acclamations Which, from brief silence bursting, filled the air

With her strange name and mine, from all the nations

Which we, they said, in strength had gathered there

From the sleep of bondage; nor the vision fair Of that bright pageantry beheld,—but blind And silent, as a breathing corpse did fare, Leaning upon my friend, till, like a wind To fevered cheeks, a voice flowed o'er my troubled mind.

XLVI.

Like music of some minstrel heavenly gifted
To one whom fiends enthrall, this voice to me;
Scarce did I wish her veil to be uplifted,
I was so calm and joyous.—I could see
The platform where we stood, the statues three
Which kept their marble watch on that high
shrine,

The multitudes, the mountains, and the sea; As when eclipse hath passed, things sudden shine

To men's astonished eyes most clear and crystalline.

XLVII.

At first Laone spoke most tremulously;
But soon her voice the calmness which it shed
Gathered, and-" thou art whom I sought to

see,

And thou art our first votary here," she said: "I had a brother once, but he is dead!And of all those on the wide earth who breathe, Thou dost resemble him alone-I spread This veil between us two, that thou beneath Shouldst image one who may have been long lost in death.

XLVIII.

"For this wilt thou not henceforth pardon me?

Yes, but those joys which silence well requite
Forbid reply ;-why men have chosen me
To be the Priestess of this holiest rite

I scarcely know, but that the floods of light Which flow over the world have borne me hither

To meet thee, long most dear; and now unite Thine hand with mine, and may all comfort wither

From both the hearts whose pulse in joy now beat together.

66

XLIX.

If our own will as others' law we bind, If the foul worship trampled here we fear;

If as ourselves we cease to love our kind!". She paused, and pointed upwards-sculptured there

Three shapes around her ivory throne appear; One was a Giant, like a child asleep

On a loose rock, whose grasp crushed, as it

were

In dream, sceptres and crowns; and one did

keep

Its watchful eyes in doubt whether to smile or

weep;

L.

A Woman sitting on the sculptured disk Of the broad earth, and feeding from one breast

A human babe and a young basilisk;

Her looks were sweet as Heaven's when

loveliest

In Autumn eves.-The third Image was dressed

In white wings swift as clouds in winter skies; Beneath his feet, 'mongst ghastliest forms, repressed

Lay Faith, an obscene worm, who sought to

rise,

While calmly on the sun he turned his diamond

eyes.

LI.

Beside that Image then I sate, while she Stood, 'mid the throngs which ever ebbed and flowed

Like light amid the shadows of the sea

Cast from one cloudless star, and on the crowd That touch which none who feels forgets, bestowed;

And whilst the sun returned the steadfast gaze