PROMETHEUS On his rock, in agony immortal, the Vulture eyeing, with talons ever crimsoned in his blood:-ACHILLES here, the deadly arrow quivering in his vulnerable heel : Yonder, a WOUNDED INDIAN: suffering pair! strangely assorted! VIRGINIUS here, who wrote his daughter's honor in her blood. Here dauntless AMAZON: and there quaint PAN. Stern HAMPDEN here: and there great FALKLAND, slain in his youthful prime: brave, learned, loyal, virtuous, incomparable.* Glorious DE BOUILLON here! Famed Warrior of the Cross! Conqueror of Ascalon! Captor of Jerusalem! Hero of dazzling darkened Tasso's song! O, pious Prince! Who meekly wouldst not wear a Crown of Gold, *Thus fell, says the noble historian of the Rebellion, in that battle (Newbery), this incomparable young man, in the four-and-thirtieth year of his age; having so much dispatched the business of life, that the oldest rarely attain to that immense knowledge, and the youngest enter not into the world with more innocence. Whosoever leads such a life, needs not care upon how short warning it be taken from him. Where thy loved Lord had worn a crown of thorns !* Immortal SHAKSPEARE! -0 Homer! Eschylus! Dante! Tasso! Shakspeare! Milton! O, ye, enchanting Time into forgetfulness! Ye Lords of Song! Creators of imagined worlds, peopled with glorious ones: Heroes! Gods! Demigods! Angels! Archangels! Imaged all round !— But chiefly thee I call-the warrior Poet thou-hero of Marathon and Salamis, telling of Prometheus's fate, the Impious one, stealing down fire from Heavent O ye! your brows with chaplets wreathed, * Godfrey de Bouillon would not suffer himself to be proclaimed and crowned King of Jerusalem, even in the moment of triumph, saying that he would not be crowned with gold in the city where his Savior had been crowned with thorns: a saying entitling him to immortality. t Τὸ σὸν γὰρ ἄνθος, ΠΑΝΤΕΧΝΟΥ πυρὸς σέλας Any one may find his account in reading, or re-reading, this sublime composition, The Prometheus Bound, by the light of the Crystal Palace. of lustrous bloom undying! while your lyres! Hushed be a -Gaze ye upon a mortal, Erewhile a denizen of this Our Isle See him, on bended knee, With a majestic reverence, With thought profound, far-stretching- Behold!The glorious sight at length Vouchsafed! Key of the Universe,* First placed in mortal hands By dread Omnipotence. -How that hand trembled† to receive the gift! *The law of gravitation, says one entitled and competent to make such a declaration (Sir John Herschel), is the most universal truth at which human reason has yet arrived. + When Newton began to perceive that his calculations were establishing the truth of his prodigious discovery; he became so agitated that he was unable to continue them, and intrusted the completion to one of his friends. Probably no other human breast ever vibrated with such emotions as those. Sir David Brewster justly observes, that the publica Had sunk The Soul, nigh awe-dissolved! ens outspread -The Heav Suns! Planets! Satellites! Comets! Stars! Endlessly! resplendently! stupendously! Ever circling in the void immense, Infinitude, Obedient to the mystic Law, Then first revealed! See him gaze · with pious Wonder gazing -Yet silent, bards! And thou, grand Eschylus! thy lyre hath fallen from thy hand! Even thou, great Milton, stand'st transfixed with awe Immortal harmonies thou hearest While sing the Morning Stars together, and shout the Sons of God for joy -Lead me, thou gentle Presence tion of the Principia will form an epoch in the history of the world, and will ever be regarded as the brightest page in the records of human reason. My spirit faints -and endless Glitter blinds the exhausted eye ens From the silent shining Heavens. Descending again I tread the earthThis earth, itself small Tenant of the Heav And given to Man, to be a while his little home Appointed scene of hopes, and fears, and trials His little hopes, anxieties, and fears- Yes-still flows on the humming, living the still sad music of human stream -A WORKMAN! working!-working HERE! Unmoved and undisturbed by myriads' scrutiny -O, Artificer consummate! exquisite ! On his own fixed purposes intent! One of a State, a busy state, completely organized! |