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Then to a home, for his repose assigned
Accompanied by the still throng he went
In silence, where, to soothe his rankling mind,
Some likeness of his ancient state was lent;
And, if his heart could have been innocent

As those who pardoned him, he might have ended
His days in peace; but his straight lips were bent,
Men said, into a smile which guile portended, [blended.
A sight with which that child-like hope with fear was

'Twas midnight now, the eve of that great day
Whereon the many nations at whose call
The chains of earth like mist melted away,
Decreed to hold a sacred Festival,

A rite to attest the equality of all

Who live. So to their homes, to dream or wake
All went. The sleepless silence did recal
Laone to my thoughts, with hopes that make

[slake.

The flood recede from which their thirst they seek to

The dawn flowed forth, and from its purple fountains

I drank those hopes which make the spirit quail,
As to the plain between the misty mountains
And the great City, with a countenance pale
I went:-it was a sight which might avail
To make men weep exulting tears, for whom
Now first from human power the reverend veil
Was torn, to see Earth from her general womb
Pour fort ner swarming sons to a fraternal doom:

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 lost,
While the eternal hills, and the sea tost
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:

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

Its pile in 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 !

To hear the restless multitudes for ever
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 thro' floating clouds on waves below,
Falling in pauses from that Altar dim

As silver-sounding tongues breathed an aërial hymn.

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, as 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,

To the great Pyramid I came its stair
With female quires 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 kiss'd
With their cold lips, fled, and the summit shone
Like Athos seen from Samothracia, drest
In earliest light by vintagers, and one

Sate there, a female Shape upon an ivory throne

A form most like the imagined habitant

Of silver exhalations sprung from dawn,

By winds which feed on sunrise woven, to inchant
The faiths of men: all mortals' eyes were drawn,
As famished mariners thro' strange seas gone
Gaze on a burning watch-tower by the light
Of those divinest lineaments-alone

[sight

With thoughts which none could share, from that fair I turned in sickness, for a veil shrouded her countenance

bright.

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

Like music of some minstrel heavenly gifted,
To one whom fiends inthrall, this voice to me;
Scarce did I wish her veil to be uplifted

I was so calm and joyous,-I could see

The platform when 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 past, things sudden shine
To men's astonished eyes most clear and crystalline.

At first Laone spoke most tremulously:
But soon her voice that calmness which it shea
Gathered, and-" thou art whom I sought to see,
And thou art our first votary here," she said,
"I had a dear friend 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 lostin death.

"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 beats
together.

"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;

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 eyes.-The third Image was drest
In white wings, swift as clouds in winter skies.
Beneath his feet, 'mongst ghastliest forms, represt
Lay Faith, an obscene worm, who sought to rise,
While calmly on the Sun he turned his diamond
eyes.

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

Of the great Image as o'er Heaven it glode,

That rite had place; it ceased when sunset's blaze Burned o'er the isles; all stood in joy and deep amaze,

When in the silence of all spirits there
Laone's voice was felt, and thro' the air

Her thrilling gestures spoke, most eloquently fair.

1. "Calm art thou as yon sunset! swift and strong As new-fledged Eagles, beautiful and young, That float among the blinding beams of morning; And underneath thy feet writhe Faith, and Folly, Custom, and Hell, and mortal MelancholyHark! the Earth starts to hear the mighty warning Of thy voice sublime and holy:

Its free spirits, here assembled,

See thee, feel thee, know thee, now :-
To thy voice their hearts have trembled
Like ten thousand clouds which flow
With one wide wind as it flies !-
Wisdom! thy irresistible children rise
To hail thee, and the elements they chain
And their own will to swell the glory of thy train.

2. "O Spirit, vast and deep as Night and Heaven!
Mother and soul of all to which is given
The light of life, the loveliness of being,
Lo! thou dost re-ascend the human heart,
Thy throne of power, almighty as thou wert,
In dreams of Poets old, grown pale by seeing
The shade of thee:-now, millions start
To feel thy lightnings thro' them burning:
Nature, or God, or Love, or Pleasure,
Or Sympathy, the sad tears turning
To mutual smiles, a drainless treasure,
Descends amidst us;-Scorn and Hate,
Revenge and Selfishness, are desolate-

A hundred nations swear that there shall be
Pity, and Peace, and Love, among the good and free:

3. "Eldest of things, divine Equality!
Wisdom and Love are but the slaves of thee,
The angels of thy sway, who pour around thee
Treasures from all the cells of human thought,
And from the Stars, and from the Ocean brought,

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