THE ASCENT OF ELIJAH.*

"Ille, feris caput inviolabile Parcis,

Liquit Jordanios turbine raptus, agros."

MILTONI Lat. Poem,

SERVANT of God, thy fight is fought; Servant of God, thy crown is wrought: Lingerest thou yet upon the joyless earth? Thy place is now in heaven's high bowers, Far from this mournful world of ours, Among the sons of light, that have a different birth.

Go to the calm and cloudless sphere Where doubt, and passion, and dim fear, And black remorse, and anguish have no root; Turn-turn away thy chastened eyes

From sights that make their tears arise, And shake th' unworthy dust from thy departing foot.

Thy human task is ended now;

No more the lightning of thy brow

Shall wake strange terror in the soul of guilt;

This Poem obtained one of the Seatonian prizes at the University of Cambridge, A. D. 1830.

As when thou wentest forth to fling

The curse upon the shuddering King,

Yet reeking with the blood-the sinless blood he spilt.

And all that thou hast braved and borne, The Heathen's hate, the Heathen's scorn, The wasting famine, and the galling chain,— Henceforth these things to thee shall seem The phantoms of a bygone dream;

And rest shall be for toil, and blessedness for pain.

Such visions of deep joy might roll
Through the rapt Prophet's inmost soul,
As, with his fond disciple by his side,
He passed with dry and stainless tread
O'er the submissive river's bed,

And took his onward way from Jordan's refluent tide.

High converse held those gifted Seers
Of the dark fates of after years,
Of coming judgments, terrible and fast;
The father's crime, the children's woe,
The noisome pest, the victor foe,

And mercy sealed, and truth made manifest at

last.

Thus as they reasoned, hark! on high Rolled back the portals of the sky; And from the courts of the empyrean dome Came forth what seemed a fiery car, On rushing wheels, each wheel a star, And bore the Prophet thence,-O whither?-to his home!

With head thrown back, and hand upraised, Long-long that sad disciple gazed,

As his loved teacher passed for aye away;"Alas, my father!" still he cried,

"One look-one word to soothe and guide!Chariot and horse are gone from Israel's tents to-day!"

Earth saw the sign;-Earth saw and smiled, As to her Maker reconciled;

With gladder murmur flowed the streams along; Unstirred by breath of lightest breeze

Trembled the conscious cedar trees,

And all around the birds breathed gratitude in song.

And viewless harpstrings from the skies
Rang forth delicious harmonies;

And strange, sweet voices poured their grateful

hymn;

And radiant eyes were siniling through

The tranquil ether's boundless blue,

The eyes of Heaven's high host, the joyous Seraphim.

And Piety stood musing by,

And Penitence, with downcast eye;

Faith heard with raptured heart the solemn call, And, pointing with her lustrous hand

To the far shores of that blest land,

Sent forth her voice of praise,-" for him, O God, for all!"

Death frowned far off his icy frown,*
The monarch of the iron crown,
First-born of Sin, the universal foe;

Twice had his baffled darts been vain;

Death trembled for his tottering reign,

And poised the harmless shaft, and drew the idle bow.

Sons of the Prophets, do ye still

Look through the wood and o'er the hill, For him, your lord, whom ye may ne'er behold?O dreamers, call not him, when day

Fades in the dewy vale away,

Nor when glad morning crests the lofty rocks with gold!

"Stassi da un lato Morte furibonda,

Che l'arco ha teso, ed a scoccar s'appresta
Ver la rapita a lei salma seconda-"-Salomone.

Peace! call that honoured name no more, By Jordan's olive-girdled shore, By Kedron's brook, or Siloa's holy fount; Nor where the fragrant breezes rove Through Bothel's dim and silent grove, Nor on the rugged top of Carmel's sacred mount.

Henceforth ye never more may meet,
Meek learners, at your master's feet,

To gaze on that high brow, those piercing eyes;
And hear the music of that voice,
Whose lessons bade the sad rejoice,

Said to the weak, "Be strong!" and to the dead, "Arise!"

Go, tell the startled guards that wait

In arms before the palace gate,

"The Seer of Thesbe walks no more on earth :" The king will bid prepare the feast;

And tyrant prince and treacherous priest Will move with haughtier step, and laugh with louder mirth.

And go to Zarephath, and say

What God's right hand hath wrought to-day To the pale widow and her twice-born son: Lo, they will weep, and rend their hair, Upstarting from their broken prayer,— "Our comforter is gone, our friend, our only

one!"