Then comes a day when institutions turn
And carve the men, or cast them into moulds;
One Era trembles while volcanoes burn,
Another Age beholds
The hardened lava changed to hills and leas,
With blooming glades and orchards intermixed,
Vineyards which look abroad o'er purple seas,
And deep foundations fixed.
So, when fell Chaos like a baleful Fate
What we had won seemed bent to snatch away
Sound thinkers rose who fashioned out the State
As potters fashion clay.
XVI.
HEROES AND STATESMEN.
Of their great names I may record but few;
He who beholds the Ocean white with sails
And copies each confuses all the view,
He paints too much—and fails.
His picture shows no high, emphatic light,
Its shadows in full mass refuse to fall,
And as its broken details meet the light
Men turn it to the wall.
Of those great names but few may pass my lips,
For he who speaks of Salamis then sees
Not men who there commanded Grecian ships—
But grand Themistocles!
Yet some I mark, and these discreetly take
To grace my verse through duty and design,
As one notes barks that leave the broadest wake
Upon the stormy Brine.
These rise before me; and there Mason stands
The Constitution-maker firm and bold,
Like Bernal Diaz, planting with kind hands
Fair trees to blaze in gold.