LINES.
Man knows he is immortal: there's within
A principle that tells him that his soul,
Which in himself exists, shall never die,
Although his outward tenement becomes,
By the slow-wasting chemistry of death,
Forgotten, undistinguishable dust.
His mind, his heart, his impulses, are all
Subservient to his soul, his noblest part,
That came from God, returns to God again.
If he his passions could o'ercome and sway,
Place Prudence as a wary sentinel
On all his words and purposes, that trip
He might in neither, he were great indeed!
But sense and selfishness his judgment warp,
And so debase his nature, that, having not
Of his own mind the moral mastery,
His thoughts, affections, powers, and faculties,
Are under the dominion of a yoke
More galling than a tyrant's. Slave of Sin!
SONNETS.
Written on viewing the Picture of "The Deluge," painted by F. Danby, Esq., A.R.A.
We gaze in awe upon the solemn scene,
With sense and soul absorbed, as if the sight
Were tranced in that o'erpowering vengeful light
Which shrouds the setting sun; and what has been
A world is now a waste of waters, higher
And darker swells the flood, like one vast pall
Thrown o'er the guilty ones of earth, Heaven's ire
Who braved ere-while.—How fearful, how sublime,
How terrible the sight!—widely they climb,
To rock and mountain top to 'scape their doom,
While rushing torrents, dome and palace hall,
The work of man with man himself, consume;
Nor these alone! Rock, cliff, and mountain grey,
God's handiwork, become with man, their prey!
How vast the guilt that thus could doom a world
So beautiful as ours was ere man sinned,—
The waters sweeping, like a mighty wind,
To whelm the earth, from its foundations hurled;
All nature stood aghast, its course was changed—
A comet threw afar its lurid gleam,
Up-broke the fountains of the ocean stream,
While a fierce earthquake thro' the centre ranged,
Shattering the mountains in its might.—How vain
Was then the strength of man, as poor his pride,
To stem the onsweep of that ceaseless tide,
Which desolation spread o'er mount and plain!
Anguish and terror, madness and despair,
Took hold on all, before they perished there!
A towering rock, whose shadow in past days
Was hailed by weary ones a place of rest,
Affords brief shelter on its shelving breast
To struggling sufferers crowding from all ways,
Trampling their fellows down for life, sweet life!
Alas! the Judgment's on them, they as well
Might build their hopes on sand, as stay the swell
Of the full flood and elemental strife.
Yet has not God forgotten all his love
To sinful men, the Arm they madly brave
"Though strong to smite is also strong to save"—
The ark floats high a buried world above!
While o'er a lifeless pair, to Heaven still dear,
A kneeling Angel drops a pitying tear! [(7)]