A VISION OF THE ALPS.

And closer, as he spoke, he prest
His ermine mantle o'er his breast.
"Say! who art thou, intruder bold,
Who near this lofty throne,

Would with its monarch audience hold,
Unbidden and alone?

Why comest thou thus with footstep free,
Unnamed, unheralded, to me?"
Recoiling from his brilliant cell
Whose breath in freezing tide,
Congealed to sudden ice-drops fell,
The undaunted maid replied:
"I come, on Nature's mission kind,
Oppression's victims to unbind,
To bid the sceptred tyrant bow,
And wake a smile on Misery's brow.
The realm of bliss my care extends,
Man, beast and insect are my friends,
Each nursling of the nested grove,
Each plant, and flower, and leaf I love."
With kindling eye, and front of pride,
The scornful monarch stern replied:
"Nature and thou are wise to give
Wild Freedom's boon to all who live?
The madd'ning flame promiscuous hurled,
Would wrap in anarchy the world.

Go! haste the hour, when none shall view,
The million meekly serve the few,
O'erturn the thrones which, fixed as fate,
By Time's strong oath are consecrate,
Then lift your wonder-working rod,
And Earth enfranchised, war with God!
Bold and puissant must ye be,

To rend this guarded dome from me!"

59

His hand he raised in gesture strong,
And angry blasts shrieked wild and long;
Vindictive Hail, with frozen eye,
Poured forth his keen artillery.

And Snow unlocked, with threatening mien,
A bleak and boundless magazine.
With blanching lip and bloodless cheek
The stricken stranger strove to speak;
Though from her brow the garland fell
Scentless and pale, yet, strange to tell,
Reviving courage warmed her breast,
And firmer tones the might confest
That may with woman dwell.
"If from thy cold, unenvied state,
Thy palace proud as desolate,
Where fetters bind the free,

One glance thy kingly eye would deign
To mark the blessings of my reign,
Disarmed thy rage might be.

The chainless rill, the new-born flower,
The carol from the leafy bower,

The strains that from creation roll,

When on my harp she breathes her soul,
Are emblems of the joy that springs

Deep, measureless, unspoken,
When the dark chain of despot kings
Is from the spirit broken.

Hear'st thou such music in thy hall
When warring blasts hold festival?"

"Thou, who t' annul the law dost seek By which the strong control the weak, Wouldst thou in frantic madness sweep This glorious structure to the deep? Whelm in the dust yon turrets proud

A VISION OF THE ALPS.

Which hurl their gauntlet 'gainst the cloud?
And make these gem-encrusted plains

A vulgar haunt for piping swains,
And brawling brooks, and baby bowers,
And nameless troops of vagrant flowers?
Usurper, hence!" he rudely said,

And trembling from his realm she fled,
For thund'ring o'er the rocky crown,

An avalanche rushed fiercely down,

And in its wide and wrecking storm
Perchance had whelmed her shrinking form.
But a bright cloud its tissued fold
Unclasped, of crimson blent with gold,
And soaring on its wing, she rose
Homeward to heaven, to find repose
Upon her couch of fadeless rose.

The waking hermit, o'er whose head
The lustre of this pageant fled,
Retraced its scenes with wonder new,
And musing, thus the moral drew.

"The genial gifts of Spring to earth,
Methinks, are types of Freedom's birth,
And the dark Winter of my dream,
Oppression's emblem well may seem;
For many a clime that meets our view
Will prove these varying symbols true.

Unhappy Spain! though nature pours
Wide wealth o'er thy enchanting shores,
Though richer fruits, or prouder coast,
Or purer skies, no realm may boast,
Yet moral midnight wraps the mind,
And Winter rules o'er human kind,
Bids his dark storms unpitying roll,
And famine blight the dwindled soul.

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Far hence, where western suns decline,
Behold an infant empire shine,

Where Spring protects with florist's care
Of peace and hope the blossoms fair,
And liberty doth strike her lyre
From rock, and vale, and village spire,
Warning each free and valiant sire,
Nightly to teach his cradled son
The watch-word name of Washington.
Bright Albion! look from Ocean's breast,
In Summer's radiance richly drest,
Anointed land! where monarchs reign
Without the despot's scourge and chain,
Where, sleepless at their mighty helm,
The watchful pilots of thy realm
Allot to all the fair degree,
Not meanly tame, or madly free.

But oh, Italia! marked by fate,
So glorious, yet so desolate !

What vernal warmth can e'er reclaim
The sick'ning Autumn of thy fame?
Thy buried harvest who resume
From the deep garner of the tomb ?"

He ceased, for tears of anguish fell,
And hasting to his inmost cell,
O'er Rome,-of earth the ancient queen,
Who on her ruined throne is seen
With hectic cheek, and withering eye,

In desolated majesty,

He mourned, till Memory's flow'rets sighed, And Hope's last, faint illusion died.

FILIAL DUTY.

63

FILIAL DUTY.

"HONOR thy father and thy mother," is the first commandment with promise. The honor which children are required to give to their parents, includes in it, love, reverence, obedience, and relief, if needed. From them, they have received their very existence, and consequently all the pleasures and enjoyments of life.

The occasion which demands from children the greatest tokens of respect and tenderness in their beha vior to their parents, is when they labor under infirmi ties of body or mind, and in the time of extreme old age.

"Me let the tender office long engage

To rock the cradle of declining age,

With lenient arts extend a parent's breath,

Make languor smile, and smooth the bed of death;
Explore the thought, explain the asking eye,
And keep awhile a parent from the sky."