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V.

And when a different breath shall come of thine
Omnipotence to sepulchre the world

In nothingness, in dead and silent harmonies;
When many a Firmament, far, far away,

Though swarming now with hosts of stars, shall yield
Its Being up, and vanish into Nought—

Creator! Thou art, young as now, untouched
By age, to live for ever future days.

VI.

Compared with Thought-time, wind, and sound,
And winged light are tedious and slow;

But Thought-wearied her rapid wing, hung down,
And wearied, too, in vain-Eternal One!
Must bow 'fore Thee and vainly hope to find
The limit of Thy Might. A million times

In thought the monstrous numbers monstrous sum,
I multiply till Sense and Reason fail:

NO. VI.

V.

Und Wenn ein andrer Allmachtshauch
Die Welt in Nichts begräbet auch,
In todte Stille Harmonien;
Wenn mancher ferne Himmel noch,
Obgleich von Sternen wimmelnd, doch
Wird seinem Daseyn einst entfliehen,
Wirst, Schöpfer, du so jung als jetzt,
Von keinem Alter je verletzt,

Im ewig künft'gen Heute blühen.

VI.

Wogegen Zeit und Schall und Wind
Selbst Lichtesflügel langsam sind,

Die schnellen Schwingen der Gedanken,

Ermüdet stehn sie fruchtlos hier,

Und beugen, Ewiger, sich dir,

Und hoffen nur vergebens Schranken.

Ich thürme millionenmal

Der Zahlen ungeheure Zahl,

Und alle meine Sinnen schwanken.

13

VII.

Then age to age I add, and world to world.
But when I've builded up that height sublime,
And turn, Eternal One, my wildered eye
On Thee, the monstrous sight of billion worlds,
Ages, and times, though multiplied by 'tself,
Is all no part, nay not a Now of Thee!
I take them all away, and Thou art still
The same; complete in Thy Eternity!

VIII.

Oh Measure of immeasurable time,
Thy Now is in itself Eternity:

And Thou, Sun of the universe dost stand

Perpetual noon, with ever equal power;

Nor risest Thou- of circling times the Cause,

Nor from Thy midday height shalt Thou descend!
On Thee Eternal and Unchanging God,

On Thee who art, and wert, and art to come, -
On Thee alone doth all Existence hang.

VII.

Ich wälze Zeit auf Zeit hinauf,

Ich thürme Welt auf Welt zu Hauf.
Wenn ich, der grausen Höh' Erbauer,
Dann richte meinen Schwindelblick,
O Ewiger, auf dich zurück,

Ist Billionen-Zahlen-Schauer,

Mit sich vermehrt, kein Theil, kein Nu
Von dir. Ich tilge sie, und du

Liegst ganz vor mir in deiner Dauer.

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IX.

Aye, now, could Nature's firm and solid power,
Which, all sustaining, ever new creates

Sink in some moment back to thee:

In that same hour, with wide and horrid mouth,
Would Nothingness devour the host of Suns,
That transient shine, and drink the wide-spread realm
Of all existing things; yes, Time and e'en
Eternity would sink within that horrid maw,
As Ocean drinks a dropling of the rain,

X.

Thou Ocean-deep of God's Eternity

Thou the Primeval Source of Time and Space;
Sole Ground of refuge from a world of storms
Art Thou: Perpetual Presentness Thou art.
The ashes of the Past are but the Germ
Of vast Futurities to Thee. Then what

Is man, the point we call To-day, the worm
Born yester-night, when with Thy greatness weighed ?

IX.

Ja wenn des Wesens veste Kraft,
Die allerhaltend ewig schafft,

In dir, Gott, jemals könnte sinken:
Dann würde, zu derselben, Stund',
Mit grässlich aufgesperrtem Schlund

Und ob jetzt Sonnenheere blinken,
Das Nichts der Wesen-Heere Reich,
Die Zeit und Ewigkeit zugleich,

So wie das Meer ein Tröpflein, trinken.

X.

O Meer von Gottes Ewigkeit!

Uralter Quell von Welt und Zeit!

Grund alles Fliehns von Welt und Zeiten!

Beständ'ge Gegenwärtigkeit!

Die Asche der Vergangenheit

Ist dir ein Keim von Künftigkeiten.

Was ist der Mensch, der Punkt von heut',
Der Wurm, der sich seit gestern freut,
deine Weiten?

Gemessen gegen

XI.

No! he is more than that brief point-To-day;
More than the worm born yester-night; and may
Himself compare with that Immensity!

For when God founded Earth, and Angel choirs
Proclaimed His praise,-unseen and fondly wrapped
In swaddling garments of primeval Time,

A riddle to myself, I still was there,
Although I could not then therewith rejoice,
Nor see my God establishing the world.

XII.

And when yet many a thousand times
New heavenly hosts appear, and as a robe
Worn out and old are laid aside by Thee;
When other heavenly hosts made by Thy hand,
Come forth in ever new vicissitude,

Yet seem for ever during durance made
Shall I eternal be as Thou, and, robed
In glory, through the eternal Ocean-deep,
Shall celebrate Thine everlasting Praise.

XI.

Nein, er ist mehr als Punkt von heut',
Als Wurm, der sich seit gestern freut;
Darf messen sich mit jenen Weiten.
Als Gott die Erde gründete,
Ihn Engellob verkündete,

Schon in den Windeln grauer Zeiten,
Mir selbst ein Räthsel, war ich da,
Wenn ich gleich noch nicht jauchzend sah
Durch Ihn der Erde Grund bereiten.

XII.

Und wenn auch einst viel tausendmal
Noch neuer Himmel Heere all'

Vor dir wie ein Gewand vergehen;
Wenn andre, Gott, durch deine Hand
Dann treten in den Wechselstand,
Zu scheinbar ewigem Bestehen,
Dann werd' ich, ewig wie du, Herr,
Durch aller Ewigkeiten Meer

Verklärt dein ewig Lob erhöhen.

ART. III.-1. Die Entdeckung von America durch die Isländer im zehnten und eilften Jahrhunderte. Von K. H. HERMES. Braunschweig. 1844. 8vo. pp. 134.

2. Antiquitates Americance sive Scriptores Septentrionales Rerum Ante-Columbianarum in America. Edidit Societas Regia Antiquariorum Septentrionalium. Hafniæ. 1837. 4to. pp.

3. Die Entdeckung Amerikas im zehnten Jahrhundert. Von C. C. RAFN. Aus der dän. Hdschrift von G. Mohnike. Stralsund. 1838. 8vo. pp. 38.

4. The Discovery of America by the Norsemen in the Tenth Century. By N. L. BEAMISH. London. 1841. Svo. pp. 239.

THE term "Anglo-Saxon," which has got into such common use of late, as a comprehensive appellation for the various branches of the English stock, is doubtless a very convenient one, has acquired a definite meaning, and we should hardly know what to substitute in its place. Nevertheless, the assumption which it seems to make, that the "Anglo-Saxon" nations are the descendants of the old Angles and Saxons, or belong physically or morally to that type, is very clearly erroneous. On the contrary, a large admixture from the Norse or Scandinavian branch of the great Germanic stock is both historically certain, and, moreover, very obvious in the present character of these nations. Perhaps it will be safest to confine ourselves to the circle of our own immediate observation. This, at least, we may confidently assert, that the modern New England character has in it much more of the Norse than of the Saxon. Not that in any case we hold to the doctrine that all traits and qualities are derived from one's ancestors, any more than we do to the preformation or pill-box theory in Physiology that all the human race were contained in embryo in Adam. The most important part of the character of individuals or of nations is not what they got from their forefathers, but what in the course of their moral development they have arrived at themselves. Nevertheless, in the foundation of the character, in the instinctive tendencies and predilections of a man or a nation, the influence of blood is not to be denied. Now if we compare the modern Angles and Saxons, namely, the Germans of the neighbourhood of the Elbe, the genuine descendants of the invaders of England under Hengst and

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