THE DAWN OF THE DECADE.

But years on poverty confer the bliss

Of a near close, and guide the weary soul,
Through penitence, to meet the Earth-King's kiss
With an abiding faith, that may control

The dread and awe that o'er all spirits roll;
Wearied by toil uncheered, the child of grief
Resigns his portion of earth's bitter dole,

Wraps his worn thoughts in blest Religion's sheaf,
And lies down to his rest secure of long relief.

Ye hasten on, devoted days! and bear
Change, trial, peril on your awful wings,
Unsuccoured suffering and unwitnessed care,
The wreck of empires and the fall of kings!
Oh, thickly crowd most dread imaginings
Of all that man must bear ere love can link
The amities of life-ere mercy's springs,

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Unsealed, flow forth for passion's slaves to drink, And men, from bondage loosed, may utter what they think.

Weep, vigil stars! be veiled, thou queen of light!
Eye of the universe, great sun! retire!

For War, in hauberk mail, comes up through night
To kindle on GOD's shrine earth's idol fire;

And paynim banner and unholy lyre
Mock the great rites by martyrs offered there;
Heathen and atheist, in hate's fierce desire,
Band their bold legions with the fiends of air,
And Antichrist leads on to trample and to tear.

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THE DAWN OF THE DECADE.

The King of Sabaoth shall meet the foe,-
Wreck and convulsion herald Him along,
And the hills quiver and vast oceans glow
Before His presence! stained and troubled long,
His true adorers shall uplift their song,

And rebel armies mingle with the dust!

Then unbelief, woe, want and sin and wrong
Shall sink to Hades, and the true and just
A thousand years rejoice in their immortal trust!

Beautiful vision! Poesy hath had

Her multitude of dreams-her holy bowers,
Creatures of purity and brightness, clad

With the soul's sunshine, crowned by deathless flowers,
Breathing heaven's joy and leading on the hours;
But none so fair as this-oh, who shall see
The maranatha broken? the dark towers

Of insult and oppression low? or be,

When dawns the day of peace from heaven's eternity?

Patience, meantime, must wait on power, and pride

Hurl back reflected scorn, and wisdom hold

Counsel with prudence; duty hath defied
Ancient authority, and, mild yet bold,

The unanswering tyrant on his throne controuled;
And conscious Virtue in an adverse time

May triumph, and to love all hatred mould,

Endure reproach and bear the charge of crime,

Yet in the elysium dwell of hallowed thought sublime.

RELIGION UNREVEALED.

ANCIENT romance of visionary minds,
Shadow and symbol of a holier creed!
To thee wild voices, wing'd on mountain winds,
And countless hecatombs, predoomed to bleed,
And earth and heaven, submissive to thy reed,
Bore awful witness to surpassing thought;
And many a vast emprise and godlike deed
Rendered its glory to thy fane unsought,

And o'er the soul of man its thrilling magic wrought.

Thy handmaid fable shadowed love and truth,

As sunset waters image summer skies ;

And genius blossomed in perpetual youth, Wielding at will prophetic destinies ; Each gem and pearl, that in dark silence lies, O'er thee its beauty like a sunbow shed, And for the heaven of thought, that never dies, Men toiled and suffered, smiling while they bled, Till heroes, sages, bards, rose gods among the dead.

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RELIGION UNREVEALED.

O'er unlearned hearts, whence gushed translucent rills

Of mind, the floating darkness of their day

Lived with the presence of a Power, which fills
Each dewbell, leaf and raindrop with a ray
Of that divinity, all worlds obey.

Clothed in his terrors, on his mountain throne
The Olympian Thunderer sat, upon the play
Of arrowy lightnings-weapons all his own—
Gazing with that dread eye which ever smiles alone.

Below, that wondrous beauty of the heart,
Dian of Delos, with a seraph brow,

Threw the deep sanctity pure thoughts impart
O'er the green vale of fountains, and the snow
Of high Olympus. With his shaft and bow,
Apollo wandered in his matchless might,
The god of eloquence and song, ev'n now

Invoked to crown the work of minds, whom night,
In time's abyss, then brooded o'er with still delight.

Limpid and laughing waters leapt and sung
Before the nymphs, and summer breezes came,
Hymns of the watching heavens to chaunt among
The old and solemn woods—wild haunts of fame !
The birthbed of full many a deathless name
Was hallowed first by thoughts, whence forms arose
Of virtue, beauty, glory-all that claim

Resolve and wisdom-and each wildwood rose

And oak wreath gave the power which great renown be

stows.

RELIGION UNREVEALED.

Imagination's Eden-Arcady!

Thy spirit triumphs yet o'er waste and death;
Thy hallowed hills, thy pure and glorious sky,

And thy great thoughts, that burned in deeds beneath,
And veiled with awe and beauty rock and heath,
To vast renown thy chosen name have given;
And not less lovely in thy victor wreath

Beam the bland smiles, like tender eyes of even,
Of Oread, Dryad, Muse, robed in the hues of heaven.

The unsearched depth of the soul's mysteries
Was to the men of elder time a home,

A heaven, where dwelt their mightiest deities,
Regents of good or ill-o'er years to come
Scattering their blight or brightness!-Ocean's foam
Gave birth to nature's crown of loveliness,

Hope was their Iris through the sky to roam,

And all their simple faith could not but bless.

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Hearts quick to share all bliss, and soothe unshunn'd distress.

Watchers and warders o'er the changing fate
Of life's brief season-thrones of spirits blest,
Where envy entered not, nor rival hate,

The stars were hope's eternal home of rest.

The o'erwrought brain, the worn and wasted breast
Drank in the nightsong of the Pleiades,

Whose music of the mind, like leaves caressed
By dayspring zephyrs, winged on melodies,
Wafted Elysium's soul on every holy breeze.