By such wondrous scenes surrounded,

O'er them all mine eyes I ran,

All bewildered and confounded;

Yet I sought amid that wonder all its mystery to scan,

Till amid the forms of Nature I beheld the face of Man.

I beheld fair cities gleaming

White on many a distant shore,

And the battle banners streaming,

And the pomp of mighty armies in the panoply of War,

And the navies of the nations speeding all the Ocean o'er.