VISIONS.
And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night.—Genesis, xlvi. 2.
Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.
In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men.—Job, iv. 12, 13.
Our revels now are ended: these our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded
Leave not a rack behind!
Shakspere.
Visions and inspirations some expect
Their course here to direct.
Like senseless chemists, their own wealth destroy,
Imaginary gold to enjoy.
So stars appear to drop to us from the sky,
And gild the passage as they fly;
But when they fall, and meet the opposing ground,
What but a sordid slime is found!
Cowley.
The days of old, in vision,
Bring vanish’d bliss to view,
The years of lost fruition
Their joys in pangs renew:
Remember’d songs of gladness,
Through night’s lone silence brought
Strike notes of deeper sadness
And stir desponding thought.
J. Montgomery.
Such castles we build too, on life’s ocean rising
Frail phantoms of wishes the future disguising—
They meet us at eve when vague fancies are flowing,
But melt in thin air when the daylight is glowing,
Alas! could such visions indeed be our own,
When approached and possessed, they would cease to delight—
But so long as they skirt the horizon’s dim zone,
They e’er seem enticing, empurpled, and bright!
W. H. Leatham.