INTELLECTUAL SUPERIORITY.
THE atmosphere that circleth gifted minds
Is from a deep intensity derived,—
An element of thought, where feelings shape
Themselves to fancies,-an electric world,
Too exquisitely toned for common life,
Which they of coarser metal cannot dream :
And hence, those beautifying powers of soul
That arch the heavens more glorious, and create
An Eden wheresoe'er their magic light,
Upon the rack of quick excitement live;
Their joy, the essence of an agony,
And that, the throbbing of the fires within!
CREATION OF EVE.
MORE lovely than a vision brought
From out the fairy realms of thought;
Serene and silent, with a grace
Divinely breath'd o'er form and face,
In full array of love and light,
That dazzled his adoring sight,
By soul and sense to be revered,—
The Angel of the world appear'd!
Then, what a starry welcome rang!
Each Orb an hymeneal sang,
While shapes unutterably bright
From heaven gazed down with new delight,
When first the ground a woman trod,
Just moulded by the hand of God !—
Around her breast, in wreathy play,
Her locks like braided sunbeams lay;
And limbs unveil'd a radiance cast
Of purity, as on she pass'd
Amid the bloom and balm of flowers,
That cluster'd round elysian bowers;
The bird and breeze together blent
Their notes of mildest languishment;
The sun grew brighter as he shed
His glory round her living head,-
As if no orb of space were free
From one fine spell of sympathy,
When woman rose upon the scene,
Creation's fair and faultless queen!
When Adam's tranced eyelids woke, Thus brightly on his vision broke The living shape for whom he pined, To share his unpartaken mind;Awhile they gaz'd in hush'd delight, Each dazzled with the other's sight, Then saw within their mutual eyes Attracted rays of soul arise,
And heard their lips fond tones repeat,
And heard their hearts in concert beat,
And felt within electric fire
Their spirit, blood, and brain, inspire:
Then woman was adored by man!
The bridal dawn of love began.
Oh! then was born of breathing truth
A feeling in unfaded youth,
That blooms above the vile decay
Of things which time and sense array, And, when the dying world departs, Lives freshly in celestial hearts!
CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION.
Go, child of darkness! see a Christian die!
No horror pales his lip, or dims his eye;
No fiend-shaped phantoms of destruction start
The hope religion pillows on his heart,
When with a falt'ring hand he waves adieu
To all who love so well, and weep so true;
Meek, as an infant to the mother's breast
Turns fondly longing for its wonted rest,
He pants for where congenial spirits stray,
Turns to his God, and sighs his soul away!
COMMERCE OF ENGLAND.
COMMERCE, the spirit of this bulwark isle,
Wherein the attributes supremely dwell
Of all that dignifies, or nurtures power-
Enthrones her on a peerless height, and works
Like inspiration through her mighty heart,
And yet, a poison at the core !
Where avarice hath raised a blinding film
That flatters, while it bounds the view, her scenes
Array'd, and glowing with commercial pomp,
More costly than the sun-enchanted skies
Appear. Triumphantly outspreads the show
Of Trade, of Traffic, and their sumptuous world!
See! from yon ports what merchant vessels spread,
Daunting the winds, and dancing o'er the waves
Rich wares and living burden, while the breeze
Toys with the flag, and fills the panting sail.
Others, from many a tempest-haunted track Return'd, in thunder beat their homeward way, And send their spirit wreathing on the gales!
CHRIST'S AGONY IN THE GARDEN.
VEIL thyself, Imagination! veil,
And worship; put thy shoes from off thy feet,
Thou mortal gazer! for on hallow'd ground,
More consecrate than he of Horeb saw
When the bush burn'd with unconsuming fire,
Thou tread'st, the garden of Gethsemane!
The moon, pale hermitress of heaven, hath found,
With no bright fellowship of starry orb,
Her midway sphere; and now, with conscious
Shrined in a cloudy haze, she disappears, [dread,
While motionless yon patriarchal trees
Of tow'ring olive lift their spectral gloom,
But listen! groan on groan, with awful swell,
Heaves on the air, as though a God bewail'd
His creatures!-Christ is bow'd in agony,
prostrate! while a bloody sweat dissolves
From every pore! insufferably sad,
The human with the God contends,* and cries,
There was present before his eyes in that fearful hour, on side, God's heavy indignation and wrath towards mankind-as yet unappeased, death as yet in full strength, hell as yet never mastered by any that came within the confines and bounds thereof, somewhat also, peradventure, more than is either possi ble or needful for the wit of man to find out: finally, himself, flesh and blood, left alone to enter into conflict with all these,Secondly, on the other side, a world to be saved by One, a pacification of wrath through the dignity of that sacrifice which should be offered, a conquest over death, through the power of
My Father! if it can be, let this cup
Be taken from Me, from this hour removed,
And yet not Mine, but let Thy Will be done !'
CHRIST'S ASCENSION.
BUT, lo! upon Mount Olivet appears,
With hands uplifted in their last farewell,
The parting Saviour: on His godlike brow
A light of immortality begins!
Disciples kneeling for His blessing ask,
And hark! 'tis given;-on their souls He breathes
The breath of sanctity, of love sublime
And endless :-then His hand is lift;
But while it blesseth the beloved of earth,
The air is waiting to upwaft the God:
And see, He riseth! solemnly and slow,
Array'd in brightness, dazzlingly divine!—
Less'ning and less'ning from the blinded gaze
Of His adorers, through the pathless air,
In the full lustre of unclouded day
He riseth !—leaving, like th' Atlantic sun
On ocean when he dies a gorgeous death,
A beaming track, magnificently bright
Behind Him! till a radiant star He seems,
And then, is trackless,-in th' empyrean depth
Evanish'd, mix'd with far immensity !*
that Deity which would not suffer the tabernacle thereof to see corruption, and an utter disappointment of all the forces of infernal powers, through the purity of that soul which they should have in their hands, and not be able to touch.
* Ascension into heaven is a plain local translation of Christ, according to his manhood, from the lower to the higher parts of the world. Session at the right hand of God is the actual exercise of that regency and dominion, wherein the manhood of
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