VANITY OF VANITIES.

XLII.

Man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain.

THEY do but grope in learning's pedant round,
Who on the fantasies of sense bestow

An idol substance, bidding us bow low
Before those shades of being which are found
Stirring or still on man's scant trial-ground;

As if such shapes and moods, which come and go, Had aught of Truth or Life in their poor show, To sway or judge, and skill to sain or wound. Son of immortal Seed, high-destined Man! Know thy dread gift,-a creature, yet a cause. Each mind is its own centre, and it draws Home to itself, and moulds in its thought's span, All outward things, the vassals of its will, Aided by Heaven, by earth unthwarted still.

XLIII.

Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,
Atque metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari!

In childhood, when with eager eyes
The season-measured year I viewed,
All, garbed in fairy guise,

Pledged constancy of good.

Spring sang of heaven; the summer-flowers
Let me gaze on, and did not fade;
Even suns o'er autumn's bowers

Heard my strong wish, and stayed.

They came and went, the short-lived four, Yet, as their varying dance they wove, To my young heart each bore

Its own sure claim of love.

Far different now ;-the whirling year
Vainly my dizzy eyes pursue;

And its fair tints appear

All blent in one dusk hue.

Why dwell on rich autumnal lights,
Spring-time, or winter's social ring ?
Long days are fire-side nights,
Brown autumn is fresh spring.

Then what this world to thee, my heart?
Its gifts nor feed thee nor can bless.
Thou hast no owner's part

In all its fleetingness.

The flame, the storm, the quaking ground, Earth's joy, earth's terror, nought is thine Thou must but hear the sound

Of the still voice divine.

O princely lot! O blissful art!

E'en while by sense of change opprest,

Thus to forecast in heart

Heaven's Age of fearless rest.

F

XLIV.

MELCHIZEDEK.

Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life.

THRICE blest are they who feel their loneliness; To whom nor voice of friend nor pleasant scene Brings that on which the saddened heart can lean; Yea, the rich earth, garbed in its daintiest dress Of light and joy, doth but the more oppress,

Claiming responsive smiles and rapture high : Till, sick at heart, beyond the vail they fly, Seeking His presence, who alone can bless. Such, in strange days, the weapons of Heaven's grace; When passing by the highborn Hebrew line He forms the vessel of his vast design; Fatherless, homeless, reft of age and place, Severed from earth, and careless of its wreck, Born through long woe His rare Melchizedek.

ANCIENT SCENES.

XLV.

ΣΕΙΡΗΝΩΝ ΝΗΣΟΙ

CEASE, Stranger, cease those piercing notes, The craft of Siren choirs;

Hush the seductive voice, that floats

Upon the languid wires.

Music's ethereal fire was given,

Not to dissolve our clay,

But draw Promethean beams from heaven,

And purge the dross away.

Weak self! with thee the mischief lies,

Those throbs a tale disclose;

Nor age nor trial have made wise

The Man of many woes.