for the last time, to visit his friends in Boston. He returned, apparently benefited by the excursion, and no immediate danger was apprehended until the beginning of the following January. On the second of that month his disorder assumed an alarming form, and the next day was passed in intense agony. On Monday, his pain was alleviated; yet his skilful medical attendants beheld in this but the precursor of death; and it became their duty, on the following morning, to impart to him the news that his hours were few and numbered.
"Of the events of this solemn day, when he beheld the sands of life fast running out, and girded up his strength to meet the King of Terrors," says the writer to whom I have before alluded, "I cannot speak. The loss is still too recent to allow us to withdraw the veil and tell of his dying hours. Yet touching was the scene, as the warm affections of that noble heart gathered in close folds around those he was about to leave, or wandered back in remembrance to the opening of life, and the friends of childhood who had already gone. It was also the Christian's death. The mind which had conceived so vividly the scenes of the judgment, must often have looked forward to that hour, which he now could meet in an humble, trusting faith. And thus the day wore on, until, about eight o'clock in the evening, without a struggle, he fell asleep."
As a poet, he possessed qualities seldom found united: a masculine strength of mind, and a most delicate perception of the beautiful. With an imagination of the loftiest order-with "the vision and the faculty divine" in its fullest exercise, the wanderings of his fancy were chastened and controlled by exquisite taste. The grand
characteristic of his writings is their classical beauty. Every passage is polished to the utmost, yet there is no exuberance, no sacrifice to false and meretricious taste. He threw aside the gaudy and affected brilliancy with which too many set forth their poems, and left his to stand, like the doric column, charming by its simplicity. Writing not for present popularity, or to catch the senseless applause of the multitude, he was willing to commit his works-as Lord Bacon did his memory" to the next ages." And the result is proving how wise were his calculations. The "tit audience," which at first hailed his poems with pleasure, from realizing their worth, has been steadily increasing. The scholar studies them as the productions of a kindred spirit, which had drunk deeply at the fountains of ancient lore, until it had itself been moulded into the same form of stern and antique beauty, which marked the old Athenian dramatists. The intellectual and the gifted claim him as one of their own sacred brotherhood; and all who have a sympathy with genius, and are anxious to hold communion with it as they travel on the worn and beaten path of life, turn with ever renewed delight to his pages. They see the evidences of one, who wrote not because he must write, but because he possessed a mind crowded and glowing with images of beauty, and therefore, in the language of poetry, he poured forth its hoarded treasures. Much as we must lament the withdrawal of that bright mind, at an age when it had just ripened into the maturity of its power, and when it seemed ready for greater efforts than it yet had made, we rejoice that the event did not happen until a permanent rank had been gained among the noblest of our poets.
THE rites were past of that auspicious day When white-robed altars wreath'd with living green Adorn the temples;-when unnumber'd tongues Repeat the glorious anthem sung to harps
Of angels while the star o'er Bethlehem stood;- When grateful hearts bow low, and deeper joy Breathes in the Christian than the angel song, On the great birthday of our Priest and King. That night, while musing on his wondrous life, Precepts, and promises to be fulfill'd, A trance-like sleep fell on me, and a dream Of dreadful character appall'd my soul. Wild was the pageant:-face to face with kings, Heroes, and sages of old note, I stood; Patriarchs, and prophets, and apostles saw, And venerable forms, ere round the globe Shoreless and waste a weltering flood was roll'd, With angels, compassing the radiant throne Of MARY'S Son, anew descended, crown'd With glory terrible, to judge the world.
Methought I journey'd o'er a boundless plain, Unbroke by vale or hill, on all sides stretch'd, Like circling ocean, to the low-brow'd sky; Save in the midst a verdant mount, whose sides Flowers of all hues and fragrant breath adorn'd. Lightly I trod, as on some joyous quest, Beneath the azure vault and early sun; But while my pleased eyes ranged the circuit green, New light shone round; a murmur came, confused, Like many voices and the rush of wings. Upward I gazed, and, 'mid the glittering skies, Begirt by flying myriads, saw a throne Whose thousand splendours blazed upon the earth Refulgent as another sun. Through clouds They came, and vapours colour'd by AURORA, Mingling in swell sublime, voices, and harps, And sounding wings, and hallelujahs sweet. Sudden, a seraph that before them flew, Pausing upon his wide-unfolded plumes, Put to his mouth the likeness of a trump, And toward the four winds four times fiercely
Doubling along the arch, the mighty peal
To heaven resounded; hell return'd a groan, And shuddering earth a moment reel'd, confounded, From her fixed pathway as the staggering ship, Stunn'd by some mountain billow, reels. The isles, With heaving ocean, rock'd: the mountains shook Their ancient coronets: the avalanche Thunder'd: silence succeeded through the nations. Earth never listen'd to a sound like this. It struck the general pulse of nature still, And broke, forever, the dull sleep of death.
Now, o'er the mount the radiant legions hung, Like plumy travellers from climes remote On some sequester'd isle about to stoop. Gently its flowery head received the throne; Cherubs and seraphs, by ten thousands, round Skirting it far and wide, like a bright sea, Fair forms and faces, crowns, and coronets, And glistering wings furl'd white and numberless. About their LORD were those seven glorious spirits Who in the ALMIGHTY's presence stand. Four lean'd
On golden wands, with folded wings, and eyes Fix'd on the throne: one bore the dreadful books, The arbiters of life: another waved The blazing ensign terrible, of yore,
To rebel angels in the wars of heaven:
What seem'd a trump the other spirit grasp'd,
Of wondrous size, wreathed multiform and strange.
Illustrious stood the seven, above the rest Towering, like a constellation glowing,
That, like a zodiac, thick with emblems set, Flash'd wondrous beams, of unknown character, From many a burning stone of lustre rare, Stain'd like the bow whose mingling splendour stream'd
Confusion bright upon the dazzled eye. Above him hung a canopy whose skirts The mount o'ershadow'd like an evening cloud. Clouds were his curtains: not like their dim types Of blue and purple round the tabernacle, That waving vision of the lonely wild, By pious Israel wrought with cherubim ; Veiling the mysteries of old renown, Table, and altar, ark, and mercy-seat, Where, 'twixt the shadow of cherubic wings, In lustre visible JEHOVAH shone.
In honour chief, upon the LORD's right hand His station MICHAEL held: the dreadful sword That from a starry baldric hung, proclaim'd The Hierarch. Terrible, on his brow Blazed the archangel crown, and from his eye Thick sparkles flash'd. Like regal banners, waved Back from his giant shoulders his broad vans, Bedropt with gold, and, turning to the sun, Shone gorgeous as the multitudinous stars, Or some illumined city seen by night,
When her wide strects pour noon, and, echoing
Her thronging thousands, mirth and music ring. Opposed to him, I saw an angel stand
What time the sphere-instructed huntsman, taught In sable vesture, with the Books of Life.
By ATLAS, his star-studded belt displays Aloft, bright-glittering, in the winter sky.
Then on the mount, amidst these glorious shapes, Who reverent stood, with looks of sacred awe, I saw EMMANUEL seated on his throne. His robe, methought, was whiter than the light; Upon his breast the heavenly Urim glow'd Bright as the sun, and round such lightnings flash'd, No eye could meet the mystic symbol's blaze. Irradiant the eternal sceptre shone
Which wont to glitter in his Father's hand: Resplendent in his face the Godhead beam'd, Justice and mercy, majesty and grace, Divinely mingling. Celestial glories play'd Around with beamy lustre; from his eye Dominion look'd; upon his brow was stamp'd Creative power. Yet over all the touch
Of gracious pity dwelt, which, erst, amidst Dissolving nature's anguish, breathed a prayer For guilty man. Redundant down his neck His locks roll'd graceful, as they waved, of old, Upon the mournful breeze of Calvary.
His throne of heavenly substance seem'd composed,
Whose pearly essence, like the eastern shell, Or changeful opal, shed a silvery light. Clear as the moon it look'd through ambient clouds Of snowy lustre, waving round its base,
Black was his mantle, and his changeful wings Gloss'd like the raven's; thoughtful seem'd his
Sedate and calm, and deep upon his brow Had Meditation set her seal; his eyes Look'd things unearthly, thoughts unutterable, Or utter'd only with an angel's tongue. Renown'd was he among the seraphim For depth of prescience, and sublimest lore; Skill'd in the mysteries of the ETERNAL, Profoundly versed in those old records where, From everlasting ages, live Gon's deeds; He knew the hour when yonder shining worlds, That roll around us, into being sprang; Their system, laws, connexion; all he knew But the dread moment when they cease to be. None judged like him the ways of GOD to man, Or so had ponder'd; his excursive thoughts Had visited the depths of night and chaos, Gathering the treasures of the hoary deep.
Like ocean billows seem'd, ere this, the plain, Confusedly heaving with a sumless host From earth's and time's remotest bounds: a roar Went up before the multitude, whose course The unfurl'd banner guided, and the bow, Zone of the universe, athwart the zenith Sweeping its arch. In one vast conflux roll'd, Wave following wave, were men of every age, Nation, and tongue; all heard the warning blast, And, led by wondrous impulse, hither came.
Mingled in wild confusion, now, those met In distant ages born. Gray forms, that lived When Time himself was young, whose temples shook
The hoary honours of a thousand years,
Stood side by side with Roman consuls:-here, Mid prophets old, and heaven-inspired bards, Were Grecian heroes seen :-there, from a crowd Of reverend patriarchs, tower'd the nodding plumes,
Tiars, and helms, and sparkling diadems Of Persia's, Egypt's, or Assyria's kings; Clad as when forth the hundred gates of Thebes On sounding cars her hundred princes rush'd; Or, when, at night, from off the terrace top Of his aerial garden, touched to soothe The troubled monarch, came the solemn chime Of sackbut, psaltery, and harp, adown The Euphrates, floating in the moonlight wide O'er sleeping Babylon. For all appear'd As in their days of earthly pride; the clank Of steel announced the warrior, and the robe Of Tyrian lustre spoke the blood of kings. Though on the angels while I gazed, their names Appeared not, yet amongst the mortal throng (Capricious power of dreams!) familiar seem'd Each countenance, and every name well known.
Nearest the mount, of that mix'd phalanx first, Our general parent stood: not as he look'd Wandering, at eve, amid the shady bowers And odorous groves of that delicious garden, Or flowery banks of some soft-rolling stream, Pausing to list its lulling murmur, hand In hand with peerless EvE, the rose too sweet, Fatal to Paradise. Fled from his cheek The bloom of Eden; his hyacinthine locks Were changed to gray; with years and sorrows bow'd
He seem'd, but through his ruined form still shone The majesty of his Creator: round
Upon his sons a grieved and pitying look He cast, and in his vesture hid his face.
Close at his side appear'd a martial form, Of port majestic, clad in massive arms, Cowering above whose helm with outspread wings The Roman eagle flew; around its brim
Was character'd the name at which earth's queen Bow'd from her seven-fold throne and owned her lord.
In his dilated eye amazement stood; Terror, surprise, and blank astonishment Blanch'd his firm cheek, as when, of old, close hemm'd
Within the capitol, amidst the crowd
Of traitors, fearless else, he caught the gleam Of BRUTUS' steel. Daunted, yet on the pomp Of towering seraphim, their wings, their crowns, Their dazzling faces, and upon the LORD He fix'd a steadfast look of anxious note, Like that PHARSALIA's hurtling squadrons drew When all his fortunes hung upon the hour.
Near him, for wisdom famous through the east, ABRAHAM rested on his staff'; in guise
A Chaldee shepherd, simple in his raiment As when at Mamre in his tent he sat, The host of angels. Snow-white were his locks And silvery beard, that to his girdle roll'd. Fondly his meek eye dwelt upon his LORD, Like one, that, after long and troubled dreams, A night of sorrows, dreary, wild, and sad, Beholds, at last, the dawn of promised joys. With kindred looks his great descendant gazed. Not in the poor array of shepherds he, Nor in the many-coloured coat, fond gift Of doating age, and cause of direful hate; But, stately, as his native palm, his form Was, like Egyptian princes', proudly deck'd In tissued purple sweeping to the ground. Plumes from the desert waved above his head, And down his breast the golden collar hung, Bestow'd by PHARAOH, when through Egypt word Went forth to bow the knee as to her king. Graced thus, his chariot with impetuous wheels Bore him toward Goshen, where the fainting heart Of ISRAEL waited for his long-lost son, The son of RACHEL. Ah! had she survived To see him in his glory!-As he rode, His boyhood, and his mother's tent, arose, Link'd with a thousand recollections dear, And JOSEPH's heart was in the tomb by Ephrath.
At hand, a group of sages mark'd the scene. PLATO and SOCRATES together stood, With him who measured by their shades those piles Gigantic, 'mid the desert seen, at eve,
By toiling caravans for Memphis bound, Peering like specks above the horizon's verge, Whose huge foundations vanish in the mist Of earliest time. Transfix'd they seem'd with wonder, Awe-struck,-amazement rapt their inmost souls. Such glance of deep inquiry and suspense They threw around, as, in untutor'd ages, Astronomers upon some dark eclipse, Close counselling amidst the dubious light If it portended Nature's death, or spoke A change in heaven. What thought they, then,
Their idle dreams, their proud philosophy, When on their wilder'd souls redemption, CHRIST, And the ALMIGHTY broke? But, though they err'd When all was dark, they reason'd for the truth. They sought in earth, in ocean, and the stars, Their maker, arguing from his works toward GOD; And from his word had not less nobly argued, Had they beheld the gospel sending forth Its pure effulgence o'er the farthest sea, Lighting the idol mountain-tops, and gilding The banners of salvation there. These men Ne'er slighted a REDEEMER; of his name They never heard. Perchance their late-found harps,
Mixing with angel symphonies, may sound In strains more rapturous things to them so new.
Nearer the mount stood MOSES; in his hand The rod which blasted with strange plagues the
Of Misraim, and from its time-worn channels Upturn'd the Arabian sea. Fair was his broad, High front, and forth from his soul-piercing eye Did legislation took; which full he fix'd Upon the blazing panoply, undazzled. No terrors had the scene for him who, oft, Upon the thunder-shaken hill-top, veil'd With smoke and lightnings, with JEHOVAH talk'd, And from his fiery hand received the law. Beyond the Jewish ruler, banded close, A company full glorious, I saw
The twelve apostles stand. O, with what looks Of ravishment and joy, what rapturous tears, What hearts of ecstasy, they gazed again On their beloved Master! what a tide
Of overwhelming thoughts press'd to their souls, When now, as he so frequent promised, throned, And circled by the hosts of heaven, they traced The well-known lineaments of him who shared Their wants and sufferings here! Full many a day Of fasting spent with him, and night of prayer, Rush'd on their swelling hearts. Before the rest, Close to the angelic spears, had PETER urged, Tears in his eye, love throbbing at his breast, As if to touch his vesture, or to catch The murmur of his voice. On him and them Jasts beam'd down benignant looks of love.
How diverse from the front sublime of PAUL, Or pale and placid dignity of him Who in the lonely Isle saw heaven unveil'd, Was his who in twelve summers won a world! Not such his countenance nor garb, as when He foremost breasted the broad Granicus, Dark-rushing through its steeps from lonely Ida, His double-tufted plume conspicuous mark Of every arrow; cheering his bold steed Through pikes, and spears, and threatening axes, up The slippery bank through all their chivalry, Princes and satraps link'd for CYRUS' throne, With cuirass pierced, cleft helm, and plumeless head,
To youthful conquest: or, when, panic-struck, DARIUS from his plunging chariot sprang, Away the bow and mantle cast, and fled. His robe, all splendid from the silk-worm's loom, Floated effeminate, and from his neck
Hung chains of gold, and gems from eastern mines. Bedight with many-colour'd plumage, flamed His proud tiara, plumage which had spread Its glittering dyes of scarlet, green, and gold, To evening suns by Indus' stream: around Twined careless, glow'd the white and purple band, The imperial, sacred badge of Persia's kings. Thus his triumphal car in Babylon
Display'd him, drawn by snow-white elephants, Whose feet crush'd odours from the flowery wreaths Boy-Cupids scatter'd, while soft music breathed And incense fumed around. But dire his hue, Bloated and bacchanal as on the night
When old Persepolis was wrapp'd in flame! Fear over all had flung a livid tinge. A deeper awe subdued him than amazed PARMENIO and the rest, when they beheld The white-stoled Levites from Jerusalem, Thrown open as on some high festival, With hymns and solemn pomp, come down the hill To meet the incensed king, and wondering saw, As on the pontiff's awful form he gazed, Glistering in purple with his mystic gems, JOVE's vaunted son, at JADDUA's foot, adore.
Turn, now, where stood the spotless Virgin:
Her azure eye, and fair her golden ringlets; But changeful as the hues of infancy
Her face. As on her son, her Gon, she gazed, Fix'd was her look,-earnest, and breathless ;— now,
Suffused her glowing cheek; now, changed to
First, round her lip a smile celestial play'd, Then, fast, fast rain'd the tears.-Who can interpret ?
Perhaps some thought maternal cross'd her heart, That mused on days long past, when on her breast He helpless lay, and of his infant smile;
Or, on those nights of terror, when, from worse Than wolves, she hasted with her babe to Egypt.
Girt by a crowd of monarchs, of whose fame Scarce a memorial lives, who fought and reign'd While the historic lamp shed glimmering light, Above the rest one regal port aspired,
Crown'd like Assyria's princes; not a crest O'ertopp'd him, save the giant seraphim. His countenance, more piercing than the beam Of the sun-gazing eagle, earthward bent Its haught, fierce majesty, temper'd with awe. Seven years with brutish herds had quell'd his pride,
And taught him there's a mightier king in heaven. His powerful arm founded old Babylon, Whose bulwarks like the eternal mountains heaved Their adamantine heads; whose brazen gates Beleaguering nations foil'd, and bolts of war, Unshaken, unanswer'd as the pelting hail. House of the kingdom! glorious Babylon! Earth's marvel, and of unborn time the theme! Say where thou stood'st:-or, can the fisherman Plying his task on the Euphrates, now,
From desert-girdled cities, of whose pomp Some solitary wanderer, by the stars Conducted o'er the burning wilderness, Has told a doubted tale: as Europe's sons Describing Mexic', and, in fair Peru, The gorgeous Temple of the Sun, its priests, Its virgin, and its fire, forever bright, Were fablers deem'd, and, for belief, met scorn. Around while gazing thus, far in the sky Appear'd what look'd, at first, a moving star; But, onward, wheeling through the clouds it came, With brightening splendour and increasing size, Till within ken a fiery chariot rush'd,
By flaming horses drawn, whose heads shot forth A twisted, horn-like beam. O'er its fierce wheels Two shining forms alighted on the mount, Of mortal birth, but deathless rapt to heaven. Adown their breasts their loose beards floated, white As mist by moonbeams silver'd; fair they seem'd, And bright as angels; fellowship with heaven Their mortal grossness so had purified. Lucent their mantles; other than the seer By Jordan caught; and in the prophet's face A mystic lustre, like the Urim's, gleamed.
Now for the dread tribunal all prepared: Before the throne the angel with the books Ascending kneel'd, and, crossing on his breast His sable pinions, there the volumes spread. A second summons echoed from the trump, Thrice sounded, when the mighty work began. Waved onward by a seraph's wand, the sea Of palpitating bosoms toward the mount In silence roll'd. No sooner had the first Pale tremblers its mysterious circle touched Than, instantaneous, swift as fancy's flash, As lightning darting from the summer cloud, Its past existence rose before the soul, With all its deeds, with all its secret store Of embryo works, and dark imaginings. Amidst the chaos, thoughts as numberless As whirling leaves when autumn strips the woods, Light and disjointed as the sibyl's, thoughts Scatter'd upon the waste of long, dim years, Pass'd in a moment through the quicken'd soul. Not with the glozing eye of earth beheld; They saw as with the glance of Deity. Conscience, stern arbiter in every breast, Decided. Self-acquitted or condemned, Through two broad, glittering avenues of spears They cross'd the angelic squadrons, right, or left The judgment-seat; by power supernal led To their allotted stations on the plain. As onward, onward, numberless, they came, And touch'd, appall'd, the verge of destiny, The heavenly spirits inly sympathized :— When youthful saints, or martyrs scarr'd and white, With streaming faces, hands ecstatic clasp'd, Sprang to the right, celestial beaming smiles A ravishing beauty to their radiance gave; But downcast looks of pity chill'd the left. What clench'd hands, and frenzied steps were there! Yet, on my shuddering soul, the stifled groan, Wrung from some proud blasphemer, as he rush'd,
Constrain'd by conscience, down the path of death, Knells horrible.-On all the hurrying throng The unerring pen stamp'd, as they pass'd, their fate. Thus, in a day, amazing thought! were judged The millions, since from the ALMIGHTY's hand, Launch'd on her course, earth roll'd rejoicing. Whose
The doom to penal fires, and whose to joy, From man's presumption mists and darkness veil. So pass'd the day; divided stood the world, An awful line of separation drawn,
And from his labours the MESSIAH ceased.
By this, the sun his westering car drove low; Round his broad wheel full many a lucid cloud Floated, like happy isles, in seas of gold: Along the horizon castled shapes were piled, Turrets and towers, whose fronts embattled gleam'd With yellow light: smit by the slanting ray, A ruddy beam the canopy reflected; With deeper light the ruby blush'd; and thick Upon the seraphs' wings the glowing spots Seem'd drops of fire. Uncoiling from its staff With fainter wave, the gorgeous ensign hung, Or, swelling with the swelling breeze, by fits, Cast off upon the dewy air huge flakes Of golden lustre. Over all the hill, The heavenly legions, the assembled world, Evening her crimson tint forever drew.
But while at gaze, in solemn silence, men And angels stood, and many a quaking heart With expectation throbb'd; about the throne And glittering hill-top slowly wreathed the clouds, Erewhile like curtains for adornment hung, Involving Shiloh and the seraphim Beneath a snowy tent. The bands around, Eyeing the gonfalon that through the smoke Tower'd into air, resembled hosts who watch The king's pavilion where, ere battle hour, A council sits. What their consult might be, Those seven dread spirits and their LORD, I mused, I marvell'd. Was it grace and peace?-or death? Was it of man?-Did pity for the lost His gentle nature wring, who knew, who felt How frail is this poor tenement of clay ?*- Arose there from the misty tabernacle A cry like that upon Gethsemane ?- What pass'd in JESUS' bosom none may know, But close the cloudy dome invested him; And, weary with conjecture, round I gazed Where, in the purple west, no more to dawn, Faded the glories of the dying day.
Mild twinkling through a crimson-skirted cloud, The solitary star of evening shone. While gazing wistful on that peerless light, Thereafter to be seen no more, (as, oft,
In dreams strange images will mix,) sad thoughts Pass'd o'er my soul. Sorrowing, I cried, "Farewell, Pale, beauteous planet, that displayest so soft
*For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.-HEB. iv. 15.
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