VI. Our human hopes, our human fears, VII. What is the haughtiest Despot's power HE And fills his transient throne: THOU Sweep'st the empty pageant by ; A moment-and to mortal eye His place no more is known! And one brief line records his Lot, "He WAS!-and now on Earth IS NOT!" VIII. The works of Man confess, by turns, Tow'rs, temples, pyramids, and urns, Before Thy touch decay :— At Man's command they rose on Earth; And vague Tradition, in despair, T IX. Nor less is Nature's every grace,— By Thee destroyed,-renewed : Leaves bud, and fade; flowers bloom, and die Suns rise, and set ;-by stars on high Their courses are pursued : All seem, indeed, the same to be, X. Even the vast and wondrous Deep, go, Which, whether lulled in dreamless sleep, yore ; This, too, is changing evermore, XI. But what avails it to recal, Or dwell on truths so trite? Vicissitude awaits on all, As day succeeds to night; XII. This annual offering at thy Shrine "Precept on Precept, Line on Line," XIII. Unto her pensive, musing eye Each feast, or fast-appears A fruitless effort to defy The silent lapse of years: And yet some soothing thoughts are blent With such a transient monument ; And noblest hopes and fears By turns elate, and awe the soul, As we thy records thus unrol. XIV. Such fears and hopes may well engage Its annals to explore : There, each succeeding year, we find Whose rich and varied store Fulfilled the purposes of Heaven, b XV. There too, perchance, are found enrolled XVI. And though that respite may be brief ;— XVII. But not to Man ;—his death, or birth, Nor aught by him designed To be his monument on Earth, Thy records are confined:- And, while thy potent spell is shown, See Power more glorious than thine own. XVIII. The Power of HIM, whose mighty one With face all radiant as the Sun, A rainbow round his head ; Pillars of fire—his feet shall gleam; Dark clouds of heaven his vesture seem; XIX. THEN the immutable decree, So long by Heaven deferred,— Shall, in the destined close of Thee, Fulfil its solemn word: Through boundless space, by thought untrod, The DELEGATED VOICE OF GOD Shall awfully be heard, Proclaiming, as foretold of yore, "THE MYST'RY FINISHED! TIME NO MORE!" |