TO SUPERSTITION. I. 1. HENCE to the realms of Night, dire demon, hence! Thy chain of adamant can bind That little world, the human mind, And sink its noblest powers to impotence. Wake the lion's loudest roar, Clot his shaggy mane with gore, With flashing fury bid his eyeballs shine, Thy touch, thy deadening touch has steel'd the breast* [smiled, Whence, through her rainbow shower, soft Pity Has closed the heart each godlike virtue bless'd To all the silent pleadings of his child. At thy command he plants the dagger deep, At thy command exults, though Nature bids him weep. I. 2. When, with a frown that froze the peopled earth +, Ha! what withering phantoms glare! As blows the blast with many a sudden swell, • An allusion to the sacrifice of Iphigenia. + Lucretius, I. 63. The sheeted spectre, rising from the tomb, That veils its genius from the vulgar eye: And, through the mist, reveals the terrors of his form. I. 3. O'er solid seas, where Winter reigns, Smit by the scorchings of the noontide beam. She hurls the torch! she fans the fire! She clasps her lord to part no more, * When we were ready to set out, our host muttered some words in the ear of our cattle.-See a Voyage to the North of Europe in 1653. + The Bramins expose their bodies to the intense heat of the sun. 1 Ridens moriar. The conclusion of an old Runic Ode. In the Vedas, or sacred writings of the Hindoos, it is written, She who dies with her husband shall live for ever with him in heaven.' O'ershadowing Scotia's desert coast, And, wrapp'd in clouds, in tempests toss'd, While the lone shepherd, near the shipless maint, Sees o'er her hills advance the long-drawn funeral train. II. 1. Thou spakest, and lo! a new creation glow'd. And at its base the trembling nations bow'd. Grasp'd the globe with iron hand. Circled with seats of bliss, the Lord of Light The indignant pyramid sublimely towers, II. 2. Round their rude ark old Egypt's sorcerers rise! *The Fates of the Northern Mythology.-See Mallet's Antiquities. † An allusion to the second sight. See that fine description of the sudden animation of the Palladium, in the second book of the Eneid. The bull, Apis. Clouds of incense woo hy smile, But ah! what myriads claim the bended knee + ! Go, count the busy drops that swell the sea. Proud land! what eye can trace thy mystic lore, Lock'd up in characters as dark as night? What eye those long long labyrinths dare explore §, To which the parted soul oft wings her flight; Again to visit her cold cell of clay, [decay! Charm'd with perennial sweets, and smiling at II. 3. On yon hoar summit, mildly bright || High o'er the world the white-robed Magi gaze Start at each blue portentous blaze, Each flame that flits with adverse spire; The God! The God!' the Sybil cries. The crocodile. + So numerous were the Deities of Egypt, that, according to an ancient proverb, it was in that country less difficult to find a god than a man. The Hieroglyphics. The catacombs, in which the bodies of the earliest generations yet remain without corruption, by virtue of the gums that embalmed them. reject the use of temples, highest mountains are the The elements, and more their religious reverence. The Persians,' says Herodotus, altars, and statues. The tops of the places chosen for sacrifices." I. 131. particularly fire, were the objects of An initation of some wonderful lines in the Iliad. Streams of rapture roll along, Silver notes ascend the skies: Wake, Echo, wake, and catch the song, The Sybil speaks, the dream is o'er, His madding spirit fills her frame, The cavern frowns; its hundred mouths unclose! And, in the thunder's voice, the fate of empire flows. III. 1. Mona, thy Druid rites awake the dead! Even whisper to the idle air; Rites that have chain'd old Ocean on his bed. Shiver'd by thy piercing glance, Pointless falls the hero's lance. Thy magic bids the imperial eagle fly*, roar; Chased by the morn from Snowdon's awful brow, Where late she sat and scowl'd on the black wave below. * See Tacitus, 1. xiv. c. 29. |