Yet will I love to follow the sweet dream,
Where Susquehannah pours his untamed stream;
And on some hill, whose forest-frowning side.
Waves o'er the murmurs of his calmer tide,
Will raise a solemn Cenotaph to thee,

160

Sweet Harper of time-shrouded Minstrelsy!

And there, sooth'd sadly by the dirgeful wind, Muse on the sore ills I had left behind. 1790-1834.

165

THE DESTINY OF NATIONS1

A VISION

AUSPICIOUS Reverence! Hush all meaner song,
Ere we the deep preluding strain have poured
To the Great Father, only Rightful King,
Eternal Father! King Omnipotent!

To the Will Absolute, the One, the Good!

The I AM, the Word, the Life, the Living God!

5

1 First published, in its entirety, in Sibylline Leaves, 1817: included in 1828, 1829, and 1834. Two hundred and fifty-five lines were included in Book II of Joan of Arc, An Epic Poem, by Robert Southey, Bristol and London, 1796, 4°. The greater part of the remaining 212 lines were written in 1796, and formed part of an unpublished poem entitled The Progress of Liberty or The Vision of the Maid of Orleans, or Visions of the Maid of Orleans, or Visions of the Maid of Arc, or The Vision of the Patriot Maiden. (See letter to Poole, Dec. 13, and letter to J. Thelwall, Dec. 17, 1796, Letters of S. T. C., 1895, i. 192, 206. See, too, Cottle's Early Recollections, 1837, i. 230; and, for Lamb's criticism of a first draft of the poem, his letters to Coleridge, dated Jan. 5 and Feb. 12, 1797.) For a reprint of Joan of Are, Book the Second (Preternatural Agency), see Cottle's Early Recollections, 1837, ii. 241-62.

The texts of 1828, 1829 (almost but not quite identical) vary slightly from that of the Sibylline Leares, 1817, and, again, the text of 1834 varies from that of 1828 and 1829. These variants (on a proof-sheet of the edition of 1828) are in Coleridge's own handwriting, and afford convincing evidence that he did take some part in the preparation of the text of his poems for the last edition issued in his own lifetime.

I No more of Usurpation's doom'd defeat 4°.

5-6 Beneath whose shadowy banners wide unfurl'd Justice leads forth her tyrant-quelling hosts.

4°, Sibylline Leaves.

5 THE WILL, THE WORD, THE BREATH, THE LIVING GOD 1828, 1829. 6 Added in 1834.

Such symphony requires best instrument.

Seize, then, my soul! from Freedom's trophied dome
The Harp which hangeth high between the Shields
Of Brutus and Leonidas! With that

Strong music, that soliciting spell, force back
Man's free and stirring spirit that lies entranced.

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
The substance from its shadow.

Infinite Love,

Whose latence is the plenitude of All,

Thou with retracted beams, and self-eclipse

Veiling, revealest thine eternal Sun.

But some there are who deem themselves most free

When they within this gross and visible sphere
Chain down the wingéd thought, scoffing ascent,

ΤΟ

15

20

25

Proud in their meanness: and themselves they cheat 30 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.

9-12 The Harp which hanging high between the shields Of Brutus and Leonidas oft gives

A fitful music to the breezy touch

Of patriot spirits that demand their fame. 4°.

12 Man's] Earth's Sibylline Leaves, 1828, 1829.

15 But chiefly this with holiest habitude

Of constant Faith, him First, him Last to view 4o.

23-6 Things from their shadows. Know thyself my Soul!
Confirm'd thy strength, thy pinions fledged for flight
Bursting this shell and leaving next thy nest
Soon upward soaring shalt thou fix intense
Thine eaglet eye on Heaven's Eternal Sun! 4°.

The substance from its shadow-Earth's broad shade Revealing by Eclipse, the Eternal Sun. Sibylline Leaves. [The text of lines 23-6 is given in the Errata p. [lxii].]

35

But Properties are God: the naked mass

(If mass there be, fantastic guest or ghost)

Acts only by its inactivity.

Here we pause humbly. Others boldlier think
That as one body seems the aggregate
Of atoms numberless, each organized;
So by a strange and dim similitude
Infinite myriads of self-conscious minds
Are one all-conscious Spirit, which informs
With absolute ubiquity of thought
(His one eternal self-affirming act!)
All his involvéd Monads, that yet seem
With various province and apt agency
Each to pursue its own self-centering end.
Some nurse the infant diamond in the mine;
Some roll the genial juices through the oak;
Some drive the mutinous clouds to clash in air,
And rushing on the storm with whirlwind speed,
Yoke the red lightnings to their volleying car.
Thus these pursue their never-varying course,
No eddy in their stream. Others, more wild,
With complex interests weaving human fates,
Duteous or proud, alike obedient all,
Evolve the process of eternal good.

And what if some rebellious, o'er dark realms
Arrogate power? yet these train up to God,
And on the rude eye, unconfirmed for day,
Flash meteor-lights better than total gloom.
As ere from Lieule-Oaive's vapoury head
The Laplander beholds the far-off Sun
Dart his slant beam on unobeying snows,
While yet the stern and solitary Night
Brooks no alternate sway, the Boreal Morn
With mimic lustre substitutes its gleam,
Guiding his course or by Niemi lake
Or Balda Zhiok,' or the mossy stone
Of Solfar-kapper," while the snowy blast

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

1 Balda-Zhiok, i.e. mons altitudinis, the highest mountain in Lapland. 'Solfar-kapper: capitium Solfar, hic locus omnium, quotquot veterum

1

Drifts arrowy by, or eddies round his sledge,
Making the poor babe at its mother's back
Scream in its scanty cradle: he the while
Wins gentle solace as with upward eye
He marks the streamy banners of the North,
Thinking himself those happy spirits shall join
Who there in floating robes of rosy light
Dance sportively. For Fancy is the power
That first unsensualises the dark mind,
Giving it new delights; and bids it swell
With wild activity; and peopling air,
By obscure fears of Beings invisible,
Emancipates it from the grosser thrall
Of the present impulse, teaching Self-control,
Till Superstition with unconscious hand
Seat Reason on her throne.

Wherefore not vain,
Nor yet without permitted power impressed,
I deem those legends terrible, with which
The polar ancient thrills his uncouth throng:
Whether of pitying Spirits that make their moan
O'er slaughter'd infants, or that Giant Bird
Vuokho, of whose rushing wings the noise
Is Tempest, when the unutterable Shape

Speeds from the mother of Death, and utters once 2
That shriek, which never murderer heard, and lived.

75

80

85

90

95*

Lapponum superstitio sacrificiisque religiosoque cultui dedicavit, celebratissimus erat, in parte sinus australis situs, semimilliaris spatio a mari distans. Ipse locus, quem curiositatis gratia aliquando me invisisse memini, duabus praealtis lapidibus, sibi invicem oppositis, quorum alter musco circumdatus erat, constabat.

1 The Lapland women carry their infants at their backs 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 praesertim tempore quo omnia perpetuis 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 baiulat, in excavato ligno (Gieed'k ipsi vocant) quod pro cunis utuntur, in hoc infans pannis et pellibus convolutus colligatus iacet.-LEEMIUS DE LAPPONIBUS.

2 Jaibme Aibmo.

90 deem] deemed 1829.

96-7 Speeds from the mother of Death his destin'd way To snatch the murderer from his secret cell. 4o.

Or if the Greenland Wizard in strange trance
Pierces the untravelled realms of Ocean's bed
Over the abysm, even to that uttermost cave
By mis-shaped prodigies beleaguered, such
As Earth ne'er bred, nor Air, nor the upper Sea:
Where dwells the Fury Form, whose unheard name
With eager eye, pale cheek, suspended breath,
And lips half-opening with the dread of sound,
Unsleeping Silence guards, worn out with fear
Lest haply 'scaping on some treacherous blast
The fateful word let slip the Elements

And frenzy Nature. Yet the wizard her,

100

105

Arm'd with Torngarsuck's power, the Spirit of Good,1
Forces to unchain the foodful progeny

IIO

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,

115

120

They call the Good Spirit, Torngarsuck. The other great but malignant spirit 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 an 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, History of Greenland, vol. i. 206.

Between lines 99-100

(Where live the innocent as far from cares
As from the storms and overwhelming waves
Dark tumbling on the surface of the deep.)

4°, Sibylline Leaves, 1828, 1829.

107

These lines form part of an addition (lines 111-21) which dates from 1834. 103 Where] There 4o, Sibylline Leaves, 1828, 1829. 105 om. 4o. 'scaping] escaping 4o, Sibylline Leaves, 1828, 1829. 108 fateful word] fatal sound 4°. 112-21 thence thro' Untenanted are not included in 4o, Sibylline Leaves, 1828, or 1829. For lines 113-15 vide ante, variant of line 99 of the text. 112 Ocean] Ocean's 1828, 1829.