SECTION I.
Love of Solitude.
NOW begone, ye noisy powers!
Quit my solitary hours;
Leave my thoughts at my control,
'Tis the season of my soul!
Hallow'd contemplations rise—
Man was made for brighter skies.
When I nature's works explore,
When beyond the stars I soar,
When I seek the Source of Good,
Wrapt in a seraphic mood;
O! I love to be alone
In a sacred haunt unknown!
Oft has some enchanting power
There beguil'd an anxious hour;
Been my soul's congenial friend,
When the world no aid could lend;
Weaning me from love of pelf,
Kindly whispering, “Know thyself.”
Like as if some spirit, nigh,
Bade me seek a world on high.
So I caught a heaven-ward musing,
Inspiration that was soothing;
Caught Devotion's hallow'd flame,
Full of peace, devoid of shame:
And many a blissful mood
To thee I owe, sweet Solitude!
But when duty calls from home,
And the busy world I roam,
O! I love, with great delight,
Men to meet with hearts upright!

But when dispos'd the spacious fields to range;
Where rise rich prospects in continuous change!
Where, stretch'd abroad in scenery ever new,
Beauty and grandeur hail the raptur'd view;
My heart dilates, enchanting thoughts control,
And wisdom holds communion with my soul.
SECTION II.
Invocation to Reason and Revelation—God in the Cloud—Divine Agency in Nature—The Rainbow, a Benevolent Token.
Come Reason, Revelation—O declare!
Who form'd the plan, and fram'd the world so fair?
Who garnish'd heaven's stupendous arch sublime,
Spangled the night, and roll'd the wheels of time?
Impress'd with wisdom nature's ample page,
Or moves with winds the boundless ocean's rage?
Whose skilful hand within its socket laid
The visual orb, to see his works display'd?
Or who inspir'd the human breast with soul,
To feel his passing wonders as they roll?

The Self Existent! Reason's voice replies:
Th' Eternal Just One! Revelation cries.
Grand from the deep he leads the glorious day;
Summer and winter his decrees obey;
The sky his pathway, showers about him blend,
Seed-time and harvest on his steps attend.
Unseen, he guides the countless worlds combin'd,
Unfelt, illumes the vision of the mind;
Excites the genius, wakes the social mood,
And forms the moral taste to relish good.
And who, like him (let guilty mortals dread!)
Brings justice down upon the culprit's head?

Convolv'd in awful gloom, he dwells alone
And speeds the dart, accountable to none.
Look nature through! his operations, there,
His boundless power and wond'rous love declare!

Now passing through the lowering skies,
To execute his judgments just,
How instant his red lightning flies!
The rocks are rent, the mountains burst!
Midst the brewing storms,
Hark! his chariot comes!

The guilt-struck son of Adam quakes;
Loud screams the hern along the shores;
The beast in silence to his den betakes;
In holy dread the heaven-born soul adores.
Rumbling abrupt and loud,
Through the dark mansions of yon sullen cloud,
Tremendously it rolls,
In broken peals,
O'er brazen pavements onward to the poles.
Earth a dreadful shuddering feels;
Heaven's repeated flashes blaze;
Thick'ning darkness broods about;
Trembling the nations gaze;
The skies come down, the winds come out.
Hark! o'er hills and valleys round,
Bursts a deep portentous sound!
Ocean kindred horror hails,
Boundless uproar now prevails!

At length, on clouds of darkness roll'd along,
A flash of glory seen by spells among,
Awful to mortals! moves the Godhead by,
And opens splendour in the western sky;
Recalls the promise which of old he vow'd,
And leaves his brilliant sign upon the cloud.
Skirted with gold, thick vapours hang around;
Earth smiles again, and jocund songs resound.

The pond'rous clouds now having spent their power,
And drench'd creation with a bounteous shower,
How fresh, how cooling is the vital air!
What an enchanting aspect all things wear!
Was ever any spectacle so fine,
As is that bow? so pleasingly divine?
No wonder! there the smile of love we trace—
'Tis a memorial of the God of Grace;
A special manifest, that he will save
Earth from a second deluge of the wave;
And oft as that resplendent arch we see,
It indicates the present Deity.
How beautiful around the sky it bends!
So, far and wide, the promis'd truth extends!
What vivid colouring! can a mortal's art
Paint like the sunbeam? speak so to the heart?
Upon a vapour cast such magic grades,
Or give his canvass such effect, such shades?
Can any less than Heaven himself design
A theme so rich, a moral so divine?

Now his presence soothes our cares,
Breathing softly cooling airs.
Oft he sends enliv'ning beams,
Scatters genial rains and dews,
Scents the flower, and paints its hues,
So that nature lovely seems.
Thus, he quickens seed and root,
Soft unfolds the blade and ear,
Loads the branch with grateful fruit,
Crowns with stores the rolling year.
Rise, O man! in rapture, rise;
Laud the Mighty, Holy, Wise
All the wonders he has done,
Loud proclaim him, Perfect One.
SECTION III.
Natural and Moral Evils, marvellous—Notice of some of their Effects—Instability of Human Affairs, but Nature immutable in her Purpose—A Glance at the Condition of Man—From the Discovery of Deity in the Wisdom of Nature, Moral Truth suggested, and Reason assisted to form harmonious Conclusions.
Yet, in the compass of this goodly frame,
Much transient evil seems to sanction blame.
What bright intelligence, ere sin began,
Had thought of its existence in the plan?
What peer in heaven, first told of such a scheme,
Had deem'd it but the phantom of a dream?
To think that God, who orders all things well,
Should e'er permit his creature to rebel;
When, if restrain'd, he might have stood sublime,
And holy eyes ne'er seen the course of crime!
Yet what distress, what complicated woes,
Deaths in a thousand shapes, the bosom knows!
Yet what disasters, in terrific forms,
Invade the earth, and ride upon the storms!
Lo! in the vegetive creation round,
What noxious vermin give the mortal wound!
The floweret wilts beneath the scorching ray;
Nipt by the frost, the tender herbs decay;
While plodding clouds hold council in the sky,
To bid the winds in horrid uproar fly—
The winds obey, and, through the bladed grain,
Impel with violence the torrent rain.

So, human hopes, in every age and clime,
Fortune oft baffles by the turns of time.
In wiles she comes, with fascinating airs,
Depicts the future, void of anxious cares,
When, lo! her steps she turns, and, gone in haste,
Frustrates vain hope, her visions all laid waste.
But Nature, howe'er mutable she seems,
Howe'er unfix'd, or partial in her schemes,
One constant end pursues, throughout her plan,
Her Author's glory in the view of man;
And that which dark to purblind Reason seems,
In Faith's bright vision glows with golden gleams.
Through that fair medium all things glorious shine—
Good out of evil proves the scheme divine.
Good out of evil! yes, and greater good,
Than had the father of our species stood.
Thence, most astonishing displays unfold,
And Truth Divine illumes the moral world.

Degen'rate man! exalted mortal proud!
'Midst ruins, great! for thee the Heavens have bow'd!
Behold, the God on Calvary appears,
The wonder of all worlds, the God in tears!
Mercy display'd for criminals alone—
None ever guilty, mercy never known!
Wide now I see heaven's golden portals flung,
From death to admit thee to th' immortal throng!
And though on earth, till thy departure hence,
Thy noble soul is held in bonds of sense;
Yet, while the sun his tireless course pursues,
And starry Night her natal song renews,
Thy contemplation finds divine employ,
Perception fills thy conscious soul with joy;
Thy character unfolds, thy powers expand,
By beauty charm'd, exalted by the grand;
Around, above, astonishment impress'd,
In earth and skies, the Deity confess'd.
Hence, Reason learns her moral truths to join,
To trace relations to their Source Divine;
From seeming discord and agreement fair,
To draw conclusions all harmonious there;
While from the scenes in varied prospect thrown,
Emotion catches an immortal tone.
SECTION IV.
Influence of External Nature on the Mind—Invitation to associate with Sublime and Beautiful Objects—Images of Fancy, by Similitude—Power of Imagination to retain, and to retrace her Perceptions.
Lo! through her magazines, from grade to grade,
From rolling systems, to the waving blade,
Nature has power, conferr'd by Heaven above,
The thoughts to captivate, and heart to move!
With instantaneous force arrests the sense,
And opens to perception scope immense;
With vastness, danger, terror, unconfin'd,
Absorbs the thought, and overwhelms the mind!
Or, where her sprightly face shines deck'd in charms,
She with a gentle flame the bosom warms;
Detains the mental passes in control,
Darts light and transport to the conscious soul;
Adapts the taste, and, as her drift inspires,
Forms genius to the relish of her fires.

Lift, then, thy view, O man! thy fancy send,
Rapt through the tracks of distance without end!
Beyond where eye through optic glass can scan,
Far, far beyond where orient light began,
As rapid as the dart of thunder flies,
Myriads of years, go see new worlds arise;
Ponder the stretch'd-out realms of Nature's throne,
Height, depth, expanse—an infinite unknown!
With all thy powers the universe explore,
And, in the boundless, lost, humbly adore!
Make thyself smaller, as thy thoughts diverge,
And in thy conscious nothingness grow large!
The less thou seem'st in viewing infinite,
The greater, in admiring what is great.

But most within the bounds of sense, O man!
Far as the view extends, creation scan;
Associate with the vast of objects bold,
Nor slight the scenes which wear a gentler mould.
From splendid imagery o'er every clime,
From beauty's impulse, to the touch sublime,
Collect the stores, which fancy may command,
To fire the genius, and the soul expand.
All, all appears, by bounteous Heaven design'd,
A magazine of glory for the mind;
To furnish thought, the moral world adorn,
To bring to birth capacities unborn;
While conscious mem'ry's tablature retains
What sense admits, and rumination gains.
Thence in the scope of fancy's thoughtful sight,
Rise images in visions of delight.
So, in the lake's enchanting sky-lights glare,
To sense appears a ground of emblems fair,
The fleeting clouds, the moon, the stars that glow,
Rocks, trees, and landscapes—a reflected show!

What though thick darkness all creation fill!
Imagination holds the world at will;
Recals to mental day the scenes anew,
Which, erst, have been depicted on the view;
And wakes to exercise those nobler powers,
Which caught vibration in departed hours.
Stor'd in the mind, the blank ideas lay,
Till brought to use, and cloth'd in bright array;
Recurring oft, they raise sublime desires,
And wake in Virtue's cause the poet's fires.
Rapt, at his bosom's altar, Genius sings,
While Fancy strikes by spells the trembling strings.
SECTION V.
Survey of Sublime Prospects, with Reflections.
Blest was my youth! in love of nature round,
How I admir'd, o'er rocks, through bosky ground,
To clamber up yon hill, that strikes the skies,
And see abroad unbounded prospect rise!
From east to west, afar, from pole to pole,
Or where, around the sun, the planets roll,
To send my raptur'd view, or thought sublime,
And catch magnificence from every clime!
Or when the sun had plung'd the western zone,
And thousand splendours through the concave shone;
What! (said my soul,) are all these globes that stray,
Circling the solar orb with feeble ray;
And all those suns, remote, of starry light,
Which govern systems, out of human sight;
Made, only made, at man by spells to peep,
And wink his eye-lids to nocturnal sleep;
Then, when earth's monarch shows his morning face,
Retire in paleness, conscious of disgrace?
Or seems it to imagination's eye,
That they were made for candles to the sky,
To light the messengers of heaven, (as elves,)
Who by their own blest beams can light themselves?

Oh, no! for wiser, nobler ends design'd,
Methinks for glory of th' Eternal Mind,
Analogous to fact, th' expanse unfolds,
Fit mansions for probationary souls.
But here I pause, and, with a deep-felt sense
Of scanty knowledge, sink in ignorance:
For, in the proudest march of human mind,
Void of the light, must Science still be blind,
And to the wand'rings of conjecture leave
What she has no sent message to receive;
Yet that exist, above this gorgeous roof,
Mansions for mortals, there is ample proof;
And while I hold the Bible in my hand,
As on a rock, I on that fact will stand,
And lift in faith my eye to Nature's throne,
Though in that faith midst all the world alone.
SECTION VI.
A Glance at Ocean, a high Cliff, Torrent, Cataract, Alps in Switzerland, Mont Blanc—Alexander of Russia, illuminated, and his Fame, by Comparison.
Friends of the grand! ye who, in genius bold,
Aspire to roam where lofty sights unfold;
Go to yon vasty shore, and there see, driven,
Old Ocean's breath along the skirt of heaven!
See where, in tumult of tremendous waves,
Unbounded uproar every region laves!
See Heaven-taught Commerce, with her flag unfurl'd,
In mighty triumph, sail around the world!
Go see the huge, rough cliff's projecting head,
Or, from stupendous heights, the river's bed!
Go view the rain-swoln torrent spreading wide,
With whelming fury its resistless tide!
And, where the pond'rous cataract headlong pours,
Stand all astonish'd, as it foams and roars!
Lost in amaze, so stricken with the sight,
Imbued with such a sense of grand delight;
How would your souls, as 'twere almost divine,
Stretch and expand for some august design;
Some noble purpose, some achievement great,
Resolv'd to rise above a paltry state!

O! had you view'd the grandest scenes on earth,
Or had you gain'd in Switzerland your birth;
Enormous mountains, of prodigious height,
Had rose sublime on your astonish'd sight!
There, piles on piles, disdaining all below,
Dwelling in mansions of eternal snow,
With towering peaks, embolden'd as they rise,
Touch heaven's high arch, and hail surrounding skies!
Some, ranging far, where mildly regions blend,
Wrapt in dark woods, or, shagg'd with rocks, ascend;
Gaps yawn abrupt, and gulfs, of awful depths,
Surprise the trembling pilgrim as he steps.
Meanwhile the vent'rous goat, ('tis wond'rous bow!)
With instinct tread, walks safe on danger's brew.
O'er frightful precipices torrents pour;
The mountains deafen with eternal roar;
Huge cliffs, contiguous, cragg'd with fragments vast,
The sport of thunderbolts for ages past,
Seize the dread view, and mock the fearful eye,
As if inevitable death were nigh.
All round, th' amazing vastness of the clime
Strikes to the soul a terrible sublime.
Midst awful silence, save, perchance, the noise
Of some disruption falling from its poise—
Who could behold, and not devoutly stand,
Speechless, in contemplation of the grand?
Who, while the heavens about his vision roll,
That would not feel a glory of the soul?
“Crown'd with eternal ice,” and distant far,
Aloft and glittering like the morning star,
Mont Blanc appears, adorn'd with earlier ray,
His foot immers'd in night, his head in day;
As if induc'd, for some momentous cause,
He alter'd time, averse from general laws.
Nay, while the sun in seas his visage laves,
By men unseen, so plung'd beneath the waves;
As if, intent upon a glorious name,
He day forestall'd, to gain eternal fame.
For while the lagging rear of sable night,
Broods o'er surrounding Alps, and bars the light,
Mont Blanc, uplifting his stupendous brows,
Beholds the morning and reflects her glows.

Sublimely thus, above his peers around,
The Monarch of the north, with glory crown'd,
While o'er his empire mental darkness reigns,
Raises to heaven his eye, and light obtains;
Looks down in smiles upon his fellow race,
Of humbler rank, but not too low for grace;
Extends abroad his elevated views,
And opes a moral dayspring on the Jews.
On him the nations gaze with wond'ring eyes,
And spread his fame, exalted to the skies.
He turns to all, preserves the general peace;
The desert blossoms, villages increase;
Beneath his fostering care his empire grows;
Fair Science blooms, benignant Arts disclose;
And, by the sanction of his glorious name,
The sacred Scriptures gain extended fame.
Such is the man! who shines where Peter shone;
By noblest virtues he adorns the throne,
Befriends the Conscience, frees the Christian slave,
And sends glad tidings o'er the distant wave!
Joy bless his days! the best which Heaven bestows;
Immortal honours crown his royal brows!
Prosper'd of Heaven, must Gospel Truth unfold,
Till moral beauty renovate the world.
SECTION VII.
Diffusion of Divine Truth—Blessed be the Missionaries!
Lo! since th' immortal Bard, from Israel sprung,
Sublime of Chaos and Creation sung;
Down through the stream of years glides smooth along,
From age to age, the soul-inspiring song;
Far distant nations, still unknown to fame,
And sons unborn, shall catch the glowing flame!
So shall the Gospel, through the bourne of time,
Her voice resound with sacred charm sublime;
From soul to soul her forceful precepts run,
Convict the conscience, melt the heart of stone;
Salvation spread through vasty realms afar,
To darkling worlds, each messenger a star;
The clouds disperse before the morning gold,
In gladly light the moral day unfold;
Till every soul be taught alike to move
To the sweet impulse of celestial love.
Then shall the beauty of the mind, like morn,
Brighten to smiles, and every look adorn;
No more the springs of hateful passions start,
But angel-kindness thrill from heart to heart;
Through every clime new streams of bliss take rise,
Till earth be all a perfect Paradise.

O bless'd be they! whose charitable souls
Unite to send glad tidings to the poles!
O highly bless'd, the Missioners inspir'd,
By truth illumin'd, by benev'lence fir'd,
Who traverse sea and land, with scroll unfurl'd,
To sound the glorious Gospel through the world;
To sow the field, a pleasing, arduous toil,
The Word the seed, the human soul the soil!
Zion! exalt thy head, with joyful ray,
And see the dawn of the millenial day!
Source of all love! O call the Chosen home,
And let the Kingdom of the Saviour come!