III.
Hymenæus, exultant.
Scene:—Newark, N. J.
Welcome hither, happy pair; All my bounties freely share, Welcome to my honoured guild, Founded in the days of old, Ere the human heart grew cold, Ere its native warmth was chilled By mistaken sense of duty;— By sacrifice of youth and beauty To Plutus, with his lure of gold. Fear not any churlish cry; To the Goblin bid good-bye; Enter, children, bravely enter To my circle’s shining centre, Clasping hands; Stronger far than iron bands Be your love, and hope and trust; Equal freedom, fairest speech, Give I lavishly to each. See that neither moth nor rust, Nor cobweb, nor insidious dust Of cold neglect, e’er dim the light That lights you from my torch to-night.
By my crown, unfading, bright— Sweet marjoram and dewy roses— Emblem of the sovereign might Which wedded love to hate opposes;— By this purple vest, symbolic Of the royal rank of marriage, Which the fiends alone disparage, Mocking in their witless frolic;— By this mystic torch, whose glow On your souls I now bestow;— By all these tokens joined, I swear To have you in my constant care, But I warn you, neophytes, Warn you ever to beware How you guard the altar reared In my honour, ages gone: Subtle is the snake that bites; Wintry days will come anon; Evil must be fought, not feared; No fiend can harm, no god subdue The soul that to itself is true. To virtue be your homage paid, And firmly hold the golden clue Of knowledge, whose imperial aid Is truly sought and found by few. These farewell words in memory keep, Or when you laugh or when you weep.
IV.
Salutation from the King of the Beavers.
Scene:—Canadian side of the border.
Happy couple, Bride and Groom, In the flush of life’s fresh bloom, Welcome to the kindly home Where we shape the wattled dome, Cemented o’er with plastic clay, Impervious to the water’s play; Where, in moonlight’s silver calm, My faithful subjects build the dam; The land whose maple leaf conveys A prophecy of sweetened days. Our store of knowledge is but scant, Our culture in the shell, I grant. No prophet of our kith and kin Have we to point the paths of sin; No learned Professor, beaver born, Have we to rend in godly scorn The sophistries our Darwins weave, O’er which our pious pundits grieve. I pray you, therefore, not impeach The rudeness of our rustic speech, But hear the fancies, none the less, An honest beaver may express.
Your wisest men, the lords of thought, Remote and near, have ever sought, Instruction from the humblest things That beat the air on filmy wings, Or creep, or climb, or swim the sea: Behold the little “busy bee;” Go to, thou sluggard, cursed with want, And learn from the industrious ant. “The early bird;” the cooing dove, Exemplar of the art of love. A spider once, at climbing brave, Fresh courage to a chieftain gave, When, after many a sore defeat, His hopes were all in full retreat; But noting how the insect fell Time after time, and naught could quell Its resolution, firm and fast, And how it reached its mark at last, No longer chilled with black despair, His men he rallied, sword in air, And ere another set of sun His last great battle fought and won. And then his tribe—a proper thing— Made him, like me, their lawful king. The nautilus, your sages own, To all mankind have plainly shown The art of how to sail the seas; Such creatures low in life as these Have served to educate and guide; Meet glossary on human pride! The several nations show their bent By what their ruling minds invent To signify the special merit That each assumes, or doth inherit. Their boastful banners proudly bear The savage forms of earth and air, And monstrous shapes in neither seen, Things that were hatched in human spleen, Creatures patched up from beast and bird, Which to a beaver seems absurd. Dragons and griffins, flying fierce, With fiery tongues designed to pierce All alien flesh, wherever found, And claws to clinch the deadly wound. The warlike Briton, while he cheers, The lion’s roar in fancy hears; The Yankee in his happiest dream Is sure he hears the eagle scream.
These truths the higher truth explain That dawned on Darwin’s pregnant brain. Such deference paid to creatures low Man’s wiser instincts clearly show. Unconsciously compelled to grant,— By choosing for his common want, As teachers, elephant and ant, And other poor relations, in Obedience to the law of kin,— He owns his humble origin.
I know not if in any place, Or any age, your lifted race Its sense of equity hath shown To one poor beast—we needs must own Compact of kinship, bone of bone, By making him an emblem fit Of human wisdom, sense, and wit; A patient brother, void of blame, I hesitate to name his name, But—no offence—I dare not pass Our worthy, long-eared friend, the ass.