Forgive my doubts and ah remove my fear!
Man is my brother; strong I feel the ties,
From strong solicitude my doubts arise;
My heart, while opening with the boundless scope
That swells before him and expands his hope,
Forebodes another fall; and though at last
Thy world is planted and with light o’ercast,
Though two broad continents their beams combine
Round his whole globe to stream his day divine,
Perchance some folly yet uncured may spread
A storm proportion’d to the lights they shed,
Veil both his continents and leave again
Between them stretcht the impermeable main;
All science buried, sails and cities lost,
Their lands uncultured, as their seas uncrost.
Till on thy coast, some thousand ages hence,
New pilots rise, bold enterprise commence,
Some new Columbus (happier let him be,
More wise and great and virtuous far than me)
Launch on the wave and tow’rd the rising day
Like a strong eaglet steer his untaught way,
Gird half the globe and to his age unfold
A strange new world, the world we call the old.
From Finland’s glade to Calpe’s storm-beat head
He’ll find some tribes of scattering wildmen spread;
But one vast wilderness will shade the soil,
No wreck of art, no sign of ancient toil
Tell where a city stood; nor leave one trace
Of all that honors now and all that shames the race.
If such the round we run, what hope, my friend,
To see our madness and our miseries end?—
Here paused the Patriarch: mild the Saint return’d,
And as he spoke, fresh glories round him burn’d:
My son, I blame not but applaud thy grief;
Inquiries deep should lead to slow belief.
So small the portion of the range of man
His written stories reach or views can span,
That wild confusion seems to clog his march,
And the dull progress made eludes thy search.
But broad beyond compare, with steadier hand
Traced o’er his earth, his present paths expand.
In sober majesty and matron grace
Sage science now conducts her filial race;
And if, while all their arts around them shine,
They culture more the solid than the fine,
’Tis to correct their fatal faults48 of old,
When, caught by tinsel, they forgot the gold;
When their strong brilliant imitative lines
Traced nature only in her gay designs,
Rear’d the proud column, toned her chanting lyre,
Warm’d the full senate with her words of fire,
Pour’d on the canvas every pulse of life
And bade the marble rage with human strife.
These were the arts that nursed unequal sway,
That priests would pamper and that kings would pay,
That spoke to vulgar sense and often stole
The sense of right and freedom from the soul.
While, circumscribed in some concentred clime,
They reacht but one small nation at a time,
Dazzled that nation, pufft her local pride,
Proclaim’d her hatred to the world beside,
Drew back returning hatred from afar
And sunk themselves beneath the storms of war.
As, when the sun moves o’er the flaming zone,
Collecting clouds attend his fervid throne,
Superior splendors, in his morn display’d,
Prepare for noontide but a heavier shade;
Thus where the brilliant arts alone prevail’d,
Their shining course succeeding storms assail’d;
Pride, wrong and insult hemm’d their scanty reign,
A Nile their stream, a Hellespont their main,
Content with Tiber’s narrow shores to wind,
They fledged their Eagle but to fang mankind;
Ere great inventions found a tardy birth,
And with their new creations blest the earth.
Now sober’d man a steadier gait assumes,
Broad is the beam that breaks the Gothic glooms.
At once consenting nations lift their eyes
And hail the holy dawn that streaks the skies;
Arabian caliphs rear the spires of Spain,
The Lombards keel their Adriatic main,
Great Charles, invading and reviving all,
Plants o’er with schools his numerous states of Gaul;
And Alfred opes the mines whence Albion draws
The ore of all her wealth—her liberty and laws.
Ausonian cities interchange and spread
The lights of learning on the wings of trade;
Bologna’s student walls arise to fame,
Germania, thine their rival honors claim;
Halle, Gottinge, Upsal, Kiel and Leyden smile,
Oxonia, Cambridge cheer Britannia’s isle;
Where, like her lark, gay Chaucer leads the lay,
The matin carol of his country’s day.
Blind War himself, that erst opposed all good
And whelm’d meek Science in her votaries’ blood,
Now smooths, by means unseen, her modest way,
Extends her limits and secures her sway.
From Europe’s world his mad crusaders pour
Their banded myriads on the Asian shore;
The mystic Cross, through famine toil and blood,
Leads their long marches to the tomb of God.
Through realms of industry their passage lies,
And labor’d affluence feasts their curious eyes;
Till fields of slaughter whelm the broken host,
Their pride appall’d, their warmest zealots lost,
The wise remains to their own shores return,
Transplant all arts that Hagar’s race adorn,
Learn from long intercourse their mutual ties
And find in commerce where their interest lies.
From Drave’s long course to Biscay’s bending shores,
Where Adria sleeps, to where the Bothnian roars,
In one great Hanse, for earth’s whole trafic known,
Free cities rise and in their golden zone
Bind all the interior states; nor princes dare
Infringe their franchise with voracious war.
All shield them safe and joy to share the gain
That spreads o’er land from each surrounding main,
Makes Indian stuffs, Arabian gums their own,
Plants Persian gems on every Celtic crown,
Pours through their opening woodlands milder day
And gives to genius his expansive play.
This blessed moment, from the towers of Thorn
New splendor rises; there the sage is born!
The sage who starts these planetary spheres,
Deals out their task to wind their own bright years,
Restores his station to the parent sun,
And leads his duteous daughters round his throne.
Each mounts obedient on her wheels of fire,
Whirls round her sisters and salutes the sire,
Guides her new car, her youthful coursers tries,
Curves careful paths along her alter’d skies,
Learns all her mazes through the host of even,
And hails and joins the harmony of heaven.
—Fear not, Copernicus! let loose the rein,
Launch from their goals and mark the moving train;
Fix at their sun thy calculating eye,
Compare and count their courses round their sky.
Fear no disaster from the slanting force
That warps them staggering in elliptic course;
Thy sons with steadier ken shall aid the search
And firm and fashion their majestic march,
Kepler prescribe the laws no stars can shun,
And Newton tie them to the eternal sun.
His optic tube thy Galileo plies
And sends new colonies to stock the skies,
Gives Jove his satellites and first adorns
Effulgent Phosphor with his silver horns.
Herschel ascends himself49 with venturous wain
And joins
