<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=418515" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Vision Of Columbus - Book 8</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">And now the Angel, from the trembling sight,<br>Veil'd the wide world–when sudden shades of night<br>Move o'er the ethereal vault; the starry train<br>Paint their dim forms beneath the placid main;<br>While earth and heaven, around the hero's eye,<br>Seem arch'd immense, like one surrounding sky.<br>Still, from the Power superior splendors shone,<br>The height emblazing like a radiant throne;<br>To converse sweet the soothing shades invite,<br>And on the guide the hero fix'd his sight.<br>Kind messenger of Heaven, he thus began,<br>Why this progressive labouring search of man?<br>If man by wisdom form'd hath power to reach<br>These opening truths that following ages teach,<br>Step after step, thro' devious mazes, wind,<br>And fill at last the measure of the mind,<br>Why did not Heaven, with one unclouded ray,<br>All human arts and reason's powers display?<br>That mad opinions, sects and party strife<br>Might find no place t'imbitter human life.<br>To whom the Angelic Power; to thee 'tis given,<br>To hold high converse, and enquire of heaven,<br>To mark uncircled ages and to trace<br>The unfolding truths that wait thy kindred race.<br>Know then, the counsels of th'unchanging Mind,<br>Thro' nature's range, progressive paths design'd,<br>Unfinish'd works th'harmonious system grace,<br>Thro' all duration and around all space;<br>Thus beauty, wisdom, power, their parts unroll,<br>Till full perfection joins the accordant whole.<br>So the first week, beheld the progress rise,<br>Which form'd the earth and arch'd th'incumbant skies.<br>Dark and imperfect first, the unbeauteous frame,<br>From vacant night, to crude existence came;<br>Light starr'd the heavens and suns were taught their bound,<br>Winds woke their force, and floods their centre found;<br>Earth's kindred elements, in joyous strife,<br>Warm'd the glad glebe to vegetable life,<br>Till sense and power and action claim'd their place,<br>And godlike reason crown'd the imperial race.<br>Progressive thus, from that great source above,<br>Flows the fair fountain of redeeming love.<br>Dark harbingers of hope, at first bestow'd,<br>Taught early faith to feel her path to God:<br>Down the prophetic, brightening train of years,<br>Consenting voices rose of different seers,<br>In shadowy types display'd the accomplish'd plan,<br>When filial Godhead should assume the man,<br>When the pure Church should stretch her arms abroad,<br>Fair as a bride and liberal as her God;<br>Till warm benevolence and truth refined,<br>Pervade the world and harmonize mankind.<br>And thus fair Science, of celestial birth,<br>With times long circuit, treads the gladsome earth;<br>By gradual steps to mark the extended road,<br>That leads mankind to reason and to God.<br>In elder times, when savage tribes began,<br>A few strong passions sway'd the wayward man;<br>Envy, revenge and sateless lust of power<br>Fired the dark soul and stain'd the fields with gore.<br>By jarring strife, all milder joys supprest,<br>Lost their soft influence on the furious breast<br>No friendly ties the barbarous feuds assuage,<br>And ceaseless carnage, feeds the brutal rage.<br>When different tribes, in social bands combined,<br>Their local views the joyless soul confined,<br>Eternal bickerings brutal strength supply'd,<br>Cities are wall'd and warring hosts divide.<br>When infant arts, in growing nations, rose,<br>They lured the envy of surrounding foes;<br>The savage bands united sieze the prey,<br>Destroy the learning and obstruct the sway.<br>Thus, at the Muse's call, when Thebes arose,<br>And science sway'd where nurt'ring Nilus flows,<br>Rich with the spoils of art, fair structures blazed,<br>And barb'rous nations envy'd as they gazed;<br>The tempting pyramid, the growing store,<br>The charm of conquest and the grasp of power<br>Lured the dark world, with envious pride esate,<br>To whelm fair Science in the wrecks of state.<br>Till Thebes and Memphis nameless ruins lie,<br>And crush'd the power that raised them to the sky.<br>O'er bright Chaldea's plains her vot'ries stray,<br>Described the stars and fix'd their wandering way,<br>The unclouded skies the shepherd learn'd to read,<br>His loves to cherish and his flocks to feed;<br>Till haughty Babel stretch'd an envy'd sway,<br>And furious millions warr'd the arts away,<br>Ilissus' banks display'd a happier seat,<br>Where every Muse and all the graces meet;<br>Parnassian heights she soars; then, steering far,<br>Driven by the close pursuit of vengeful war,<br>She wings her flight, a western region gams,<br>And moves in majesty o'er Latian plains.<br>But pride and conquest follow where she leads,<br>Her eagle flies, the untutor'd savage bleeds,<br>Rome's haughty Genius, taught by her to soar,<br>With pride of learning swells the pride of power;<br>From Brits, from Scythians plucks the laurel crown,<br>And deems, by right, the unletter'd world his own.<br>Till, fired by insult, vengeful myriads rose,<br>And all the north pours forth the swarming foes,<br>Like sweeping tempests in embattled heaven,<br>When fire and blackness streak the sails of even,<br>The dark-red hosts of painted warriors roll,<br>Rome's thoughtless capitol the tempting goal;<br>Nor arts they need nor order points thier way,<br>For arts and order swell the Roman sway;<br>Spain, Latium, Afric feed the furious flame,<br>And hapless Science mourns her buried name.<br>As when the sun moves o'er the flaming zone,<br>Careering clouds attend his servid throne,<br>Superior splendors, in his course display'd,<br>Proclaim the progress of a heavier shade;<br>Thus where the Power her ancient circuit held,<br>Her shining course succeeding darkness veil'd.<br>Fear, interest, envy bound her laurel'd reign,<br>A coast her walk, the Hellespont her main,<br>Ere Goya's trembling steel could point the pole,<br>Or heavens inverted taught thy bark to roll.<br>At length the scene a nobler pomp assumes,<br>A milder beam dispels the Gothic glooms;<br>In sober majesty, and charms of peace,<br>The goddess moves, and cheers her filial race,<br>Lifts bolder wings, with happier flight to soar,<br>No more to rest till heavens illume no more.<br>At once, consenting nations rise to fame;<br>Here Charles's genius wakes the Gallic name,<br>There Alfred aids the universal cause,<br>And opes the source of liberty and laws;<br>Here Greece invites her to her ancient home,<br>There in rough greatness heaves her Gothic dome,<br>Wide spreads her sway o'er blest Arabian plains,<br>Where her own Caliph, liberal Rachid reigns,<br>O'er all the climes extends the rising Power,<br>From farthest Ganges to the Atlantic shore.<br>Even horrid war, that erst her course withstood,<br>And whelm'd, so oft, her peaceful shrines in blood,<br>Now leads thro' paths unseen her glorious way,<br>Extends her limits and confirms her sway.<br>See, from all Europe's bounds, the warriors pour,<br>In crouding millions to the Asian shore;<br>Mankind their prey, the unmeaning Cross their pride,<br>And sacred vengeance their delusive guide.<br>Zeal points their way, thro' famine, toil and blood,<br>To aid with arms the imagin'd cause of God;<br>Till fields of slaughter whelm the broken host,<br>Their pride appall'd, their countless myriads lost,<br>The sad remains to peaceful toils return,<br>Skill'd in the arts, that eastern climes adorn;<br>O'er Europe's changing shores, the charms display<br>And wasted realms with happier fruits repay,<br>The rival barons, whom ambition draws,<br>Their wealth to lavish in the holy cause,<br>In peace retiring, yield the regal crown,<br>And blend their counsels to exalt the throne.<br>While slaves, no longer purchased with the soil,<br>Waked into freemen, ply the cheerful toil,<br>Assert their rights, extend the royal reign,<br>And mutual terrors break the feudal chair.<br>Now growing commerce in firm compact joins<br>Surrounding nations and their force combines;<br>From rich Ausonia, bold advent'rers rise,<br>Trace midland currents tow'rd the northern skies,<br>Enlarge their navies, and with wealthier train,<br>Roll with the Rhine and widen with the main;<br>Then tempt a broader flight, extend the sail,<br>Point the sure compass, call a foreign gale,<br>For spicy fruits the orient surges brave,<br>And load with sparkling gems the liberal wave.<br>See Rome once more the unfolding arts attend,<br>Her groves rewarble and her walls ascend;<br>Bologna's learned towers arise to fame,<br>And thine, fair Paris, nobler honours claim;<br>In rival splendor, bright Oxonia, smiles,<br>And spreads her blessings o'er the British isles;<br>There, like the star that leads the orient day,<br>Chaucer directs his tuneful sons their way.<br>See hapless Gallileo's daring soul<br>Explore the stars and point their orbs to roll;<br>And, happier Faustus, thy inventive mind<br>Awakes the unbounded genius of mankind:<br>O'er wondering climes thy letter'd types display<br>The works of science and extend her sway.<br>Bold chivalry romantic aids her cause;<br>In honour's name the knight his falchion draws;<br>Lured by the charms that grace the guardless fair,<br>To suffering virtue bends his generous care,<br>Thro' toil and pain in quest of glory roves,<br>Braves death and danger for the maid he loves;<br>While fired by gallantry, the generous art,<br>Improves the manners and amends the heart.<br>When pride and rapine held their vengeful sway,<br>And praise pursued where conquest led the way,<br>Fair nature's mildest grace, the female mind,<br>By rough-brow'd power neglected and confined,<br>Unheeded sigh'd, mid empire's rude alarms,<br>Unknown its virtues and enslaved its charms.<br>So the lone wild-rose opes the sweetest bloom,<br>To scent the unconscious thorn, and wither round the tomb.<br>Blest Science then, to rugged toils confined,<br>Rose but to conquer and enslave mankind,<br>O'er gentle passions spread a harsh controul,<br>And waked the glare of grandeur in the soul,<br>She taught the lance to thirst for human gore,<br>She taught pale avarice to swell the store,<br>Taught milder arts the peaceful prize to yield,<br>Her Muse to thunder thro' the embattled field;<br>In ruin'd realms to build the shrine of fame,<br>And call celestial aid to raise a tyrant's name.<br>In chains and darkness mourn'd the hapless fair,<br>The price of gold, the insulted prize of war,<br>While sires, unfeeling, claim'd the sordid dower,<br>And nymphs were sold the slaves of lust and power.<br>A happier morn now brightens in the skies,<br>Superior arts, in peaceful glory, rise;<br>While softer virtues claim their guardian care,<br>And crowns of laurel grace the rising fair.<br>With all the raptures of celestial fire,<br>Each rival sex the rival arts inspire;<br>This bids bold commerce load the labouring main,<br>Or swells the peaceful harvest of the plain,<br>That leads the hours of calm, domestic toil,<br>And cheers the houshold with an evening smile,<br>While states and empires, policies and laws<br>Lure the firm patriot in the bolder cause,<br>To stem the tide of power or guide the war,<br>Like thee to suffer and like thee to dare–<br>With equal honour, as with softer grace,<br>The matron virtues guide the rising race.<br>On this broad base while Science rears her fane,<br>New toils and triumphs fill her glorious train,<br>Thro' fairer fields she leads the expanding mind,<br>Glads every clime and dignifies mankind.<br>Contending kings their views harmonious blend,<br>With temper'd force their arts and arms extend;<br>The opposing hosts beneath their liberal reign,<br>Croud the vast wave and glitter o'er the plain,<br>With thundering engines rend the harmless air,<br>And lose the horrors in the pomp of war.<br>See the glad sage to useful labours soar,<br>Tempt other seas and unknown worlds explore,<br>Bid feeble tribes display their powers abroad,<br>And regions smile without the waste of blood.<br>Then, while the daring Muse, from heavenly quires,<br>With life divine the raptured bard inspires,<br>With bolder hand he strikes the trembling string,<br>Virtues and loves and deeds like thine to sing.<br>No more with vengeful chiefs and furious gods,<br>Old Ocean crimsons and Olympus nods,<br>Nor heavens, convulsive, rend the dark profound,<br>Nor Titans groan beneath the heaving ground;<br>But milder themes shall wake the peaceful song,<br>Life in the soul and rapture on the tongue;<br>To moral beauties bid the world attend,<br>And distant lands their social ties extend,<br>Thro' union'd realms the rage of conquest cease,<br>War sink in night, and nature smile in peace.<br>Then shall he soar sublimer heights, and rove<br>O'er brighter walks, and happier climes of love;<br>Rapt into vision of the blest abode,<br>From Angel-harps to catch the inspiring God;<br>Thro' heavens o'ercanopy'd by heavens behold<br>New suns ascend and other skies unfold,<br>Seraphs and system'd worlds around him shine,<br>And lift his mortal strains to harmony divine.<br>To these superior flights, the chief rejoin'd,<br>If happier years shall raise the roving mind;<br>Progressive arts exalt the soul on high,<br>Peace rule the earth and faith unfold the sky;<br>Say, how shall truths like these to man be given?<br>Or science find the limits mark'd by Heaven?<br>In every age since reasoning pride began,<br>And heaven's dread Sire reveal'd himself to man,<br>What different faiths the changing race inspire!<br>What blind devotions and unhallow'd fire!<br>What gods of human form and savage power<br>Cold fear could fashion or mad zeal adore!<br>These croud their temples, those their names despise,<br>In each dire cause the exulting martyr dies;<br>Till, sense renounced, and virtue driven afar,<br>Rage fires the realms, religion sounds to war;<br>And the first blessing, Heaven for earth design'd,<br>Seems the severest curse that waits mankind.<br>Say then, my guide, if heavenly wisdom gave<br>To erring man a life beyond the grave–<br>If one creative Power, one living soul<br>Produced all beings and preserves the whole;<br>Who, throned in light, with full perfection blest,<br>Mid changing worlds, enjoys eternal rest;<br>While man, still grovling, passionate and blind,<br>Wars with his neighbour and destroys his kind–<br>Say, what connecting chain, in endless line,<br>Links earth to heaven, and mortal with divine?<br>Applies alike to every age and clime,<br>And lifts the soul beyond the bounds of time;<br>And when shall science trace the immortal way,<br>And hail religion in her native day?<br>The Power return'd. Thy race shall soon behold<br>Reason refined, and moral lights unroll'd,<br>While science rises, freed from pedant pride,<br>Of truth the standard and of faith the guide.<br>The passions wild, that sway the changing mind,<br>The reasoning powers, her watchful guides design'd<br>Each, unrestrain'd, alike subvert the plan,<br>Mislead the judgment and betray the man.<br>Hence raging zeal, or sceptic scorn prevails,<br>And arms decide the faith, where wisdom sails.<br>Of human passions, one above the rest,<br>Fear, love, or envy, rules in every breast;<br>And, while it varies with the changing clime,<br>Now stoops to earth, now lifts the soul sublime,<br>Forms local creeds of superstitious lore,<br>Creates the God, and bids the world adore.<br>Lo! at the Lama's feet, as lord of all,<br>Age, following age, in dumb devotion fall!<br>The youthful God, mid suppliant kings inshrined,<br>Dispensing fate and ruling half mankind,<br>Sits, with contorted limbs, a silent slave,<br>An early victim of a secret grave.<br>And, where the mosk's dim arches bend on high,<br>See the dead prophet mount the mimic sky;<br>While pilgrim hosts, o'er trackless deserts come,<br>Croud the deep shrine, and worship round his tomb.<br>See Memphian altars reek with human gore,<br>Gods hiss from caverns, or in cages roar,<br>Nile pours from heaven a tutulary flood,<br>And vales produce the vegetable Gods.<br>Two rival Powers the Magian faith inspire,<br>The sire of darkness and the source of fire:<br>Evil and good, in these contending rise,<br>And each, by turns, the sovereign of the skies.<br>Sun, stars and planets round the earth behold<br>Their fanes of marble and their shrines of gold;<br>The sea, the grove, the harvest and the vine<br>Spring from their Gods, and claim a source divine;<br>While heroes, kings and sages of their times,<br>Those Gods on earth, are Gods in happier climes;<br>Minos in judgment sits, and Jove in power,<br>And Odin's friends are feasted still with gore.<br>Yet wisdom's eye with just contempt descries<br>These rites absurd, and bids the world despise:<br>Then reasoning powers o'er passion gain the sway,<br>And shroud in deeper glooms the mental ray.<br>See the proud sage, with philosophic eye,<br>Rove thro' all climes, and trace the starry sky,<br>The systems mark, their various laws pursue,<br>The God still rising to his raptured view;<br>But what this God? and what the great design,<br>Why creatures live or worlds around him shine?<br>If all perfection dwelt in him alone,<br>If power, he cries, and wisdom were his own,<br>No pain, no guilt, no variance could annoy<br>The realm of peace, the universe of joy.<br>Yet reason here with homeward ken, descries<br>From jarring parts what dark disorders rise;<br>From frost and fire what storms untemper'd rave!<br>What plagues, what earthquakes croud the gaping grave!<br>Pain, toil and torture give the infant breath,<br>His life is misery and his portion death.<br>From moral ills a like destruction reigns,<br>War sounds the trump, and slaughter dyes the plains;<br>While wrath divine proclaims a heavier doom,<br>And guilt, astonish'd, looks beyond the tomb.<br>Whence these unnumber'd causeless ills, he cries,<br>Could wisdom form them? or could love devise?<br>No love, no wisdom, no consistent plan,<br>No God in heaven, nor future life to man!<br>While thus, thro' nature's walks he soars on high,<br>Acquits all guilt, dispeoples all the sky,<br>Denies unseen existence, and believes<br>No form beyond what human sense perceives,<br>An anxious search impels the curious mind,<br>Its own bright essence and its powers to find.<br>From conscious thought his reasoning force he plies,<br>And deep in search the active soul descries;<br>Yet sense and substance no relation claim,<br>That dupes the reason, this exists a name:<br>All matter, mind, sense, knowledge, pleasure, pain,<br>Seem the wild phantoms of the vulgar brain;<br>Reason, collected sits above the scheme,<br>Proves God and nature but an idle dream,<br>In one great learned doubt invelopes all,<br>And whelms it's own existence in the fall,<br>These wide extremes of passion and of pride<br>A while on earth thy changing race divide;<br>That man may find his limits and his laws,<br>Where zeal inflames, or coward caution awes;<br>And learn, by these, the happier course to steer,<br>Nor sink too low, nor mount beyond his sphere.<br>And soon, that happier course thy race shall gain,<br>And zealots rave, and sceptics doubt, in vain;<br>While reason, sense and passion aid the soul,<br>Science her guide and truth the eternal goal.<br>First, his own powers the man, with care, descries,<br>What nature gives, and various art supplies;<br>Rejects the ties of controversial rules,<br>The pride of names, the prejudice of schools;<br>The sure foundation lays, on which to rise,<br>To look thro' earth and meditate the skies:<br>And finds some general laws in every breast,<br>Where ethics, faith and politics may rest.<br>Of human powers, the Senses always chief,<br>Produce instruction or inforce belief;<br>Reason, as next in sway, the balance bears,<br>Receives their tidings, and with skill compares,<br>Restrains wild fancy, calms the impassion'd soul,<br>Illumes the judgment and refines the whole.<br>Sense, the great source of knowledge, ever just,<br>High in command, but faithful to its trust,<br>Aid of this life, and suited to its place,<br>Given to secure, but not exalt the race;<br>Descries no God, nor claims superior birth,<br>And knows no life beyond the bounds of earth.<br>Reason, tho' taught by sense to range on high,<br>To trace the stars and measure all the sky;<br>Tho' fancy, memory, foresight fill her train,<br>And o'er the beast she lifts the pride of man,<br>Yet, still to matter, form and space confined,<br>Or moral truths, or laws that rule mankind,<br>Could ne'er unaided pierce the mental gloom,<br>Explore new scenes beyond the closing tomb,<br>Reach with immortal hope the blest abode,<br>Or raise one thought of spirit, or of God.<br>Yet names of God, and powers of heavenly strain<br>All nations reverence and all tongues contain;<br>Thro' every age the conscious mind perceives,<br>Reason pronounces and the sense believes.<br>What cause mysterious could the thought impart,<br>Not taught by nature nor acquired hy art?<br>It speaks of nature's God–no matter when<br>The name was caught, 'tis never lost by men;<br>From clime to clime, from age to age it flies,<br>Sounds thro' the world and echos to the skies.<br>It proves him, self-reveal'd; and all the plan<br>On this connexion rests of God and man.<br>Observe, in man, desires immortal given,<br>To range o'er earth and climb a happier heaven;<br>Yet fear and conscious guilt his flight restrain,<br>His God offended, and his wishes vain:<br>The wrath divine impending on his breast<br>Precludes the hope of refuge and of rest;<br>He seeks the fane, obtests the avenging skies,<br>Pours the full tear, and yields the sacrifice;<br>Some foreign aid, some mediating grace,<br>He seeks to shield him from his Maker's face.<br>All forms of worship, that engage mankind,<br>In different climes to various Powers confined,<br>Require of suppliants some external aid,<br>Some victim offer'd, or some penance paid,<br>Some middle name, or reconciling plan,<br>To soothe the Godhead and redeem the man.<br>This thought, so wide diffused thro' all mankind,<br>Rose not from earth, or force of human mind;<br>From heaven reveal'd, it shows some sov'reign scheme,<br>To link this nature with the Power supreme.<br>From guilt and pain to lift the soul on high,<br>And ope a happier scene, a world beyond the sky.<br>From clime to clime while rove the sage's eyes,<br>Books croud on Books, and creeds on creeds arise.<br>Reason refined with liberal eye surveys<br>The opposing faiths and various modes of praise;<br>Yet finds in all, what nature might approve,<br>A God of justice reconciled by love;<br>With joy beholds the accordant scheme of heaven,<br>Dire vengeance sooth'd, a mediation given,<br>Man freed from pain, the stains of guilt removed,<br>To angels liken'd and by Heaven approved;<br>Death bound in chains from his old empire hurl'd,<br>And peace and pardon promised to the world.<br>Here ends the toilsome search; in this may rest<br>The doubts and fears that move the labouring breast;<br>These few fair truths, to common feeling plain,<br>The work unfold, and every part sustain.<br>As, on an arch of stone, some temple stands,<br>Raised to the clouds, and shines to distant lands;<br>The firm foundations, open to the sight,<br>Croud, as it grows, and strengthen with the weight;<br>Thus, on the characters of God and man,<br>By Heaven reveal'd in this conformant plan,<br>The beauteous system rests; and tho' awhile,<br>Mad zeal o'erload it, and cold scorn revile,<br>Stands, self-exalted, fill'd with native light,<br>Firm to the faith, and growing on the sight.<br>It speaks one simple, universal cause,<br>Which time and space from one great centre draws;<br>Whence this unfolded, that began its flight,<br>Worlds fill'd the skies, and nature roll'd in light;<br>Whither all beings tend; and where, at last,<br>Their progress, changes, imperfections, past,<br>Matter shall turn to light, to pleasure pain,<br>Strife end in union, angel form in man;<br>From stage to stage, from life to life, refined,<br>All centre, whence they sprang, in one eternal Mind.<br>In this harmonious round, united rise,<br>Power to create, and wisdom to devise;<br>While Love supreme, before all action, stood,<br>The first, the last, the chain of general good;<br>Through nature's range t'extend the sway divine,<br>And heaven and earth in mild accordance join,<br>To one great moral Sense, all sense to draw,<br>Strong as necessity, and fixt as law.<br>This branch of Godhead, thro' the system known,<br>Image and brightness of the Eternal throne;<br>By whom all wisdom shines, all power extends,<br>God stands reveal'd and Heaven with nature blends,<br>Thro' earth and skies proclaim'd the indulgent plan,<br>And spoke the law to Angel and to man;<br>In man's clear view display'd the ethereal road,<br>To love the neighbour and adore the God.<br>Yet, firm in justice as in mercy great,<br>His sovereign power directs the scenes of sate,<br>Wide o'er the world with guardian care extends,<br>Curbs the proud nations and the weak defends;<br>That feeble faith and boasting scorn may prove<br>The frown of vengeance, or the smile of love,<br>Holds, in his own right hand, the dreadful doom<br>Of woes unnumber'd here, and death beyond the tomb<br>Fill'd with his fire, and guided by his hand,<br>See the long train of white-robed prophets stand!<br>Thro' opening heaven, their eyes sublimely roll,<br>Peace on their tongue, and rapture in their soul;<br>The past records, the deeds of unborn time<br>Flame in their page, and shine to every clime:<br>There, nations read their fate, and kings, to come,<br>Find, in the leaves, their glory or their doom.<br>There unborn Cyrus, preordain'd to fame,<br>On Babel's ruins, builds the Persian name;<br>The chief of Macedon, the realm of Greece,<br>The Latian grandeur, and the Prince of peace,<br>In order ranged their song prophetic grace,<br>And time stands pointing to the destined place.<br>When now, with rolling years these deeds of fame<br>Rise into light and faith of nations claim.<br>Behold, on earth the promised Prince bestow'd!<br>The Virgin's offspring and the filial God;<br>The appointed star its rapid course suspends,<br>The skies unfold, the mystic dove descends,<br>Glad songs attend him, heaven and earth combine,<br>To hail the new-born babe, and speak his birth divine.<br>See nature's laws suspended by his power!<br>Unclosing graves their slumbering dead restore,<br>Winds rise to waft him, storms, to lull him, sleep,<br>He walks the wave, and triumphs o'er the deep;<br>He dies, he conquers death, ascends on high,<br>And rising saints attend him thro' the sky.<br>Thus, all the mystic scheme, design'd by heaven,<br>With clearest light to stedfast faith is given;<br>Here the great moral Sense, the God conceal'd,<br>To human sense in earthly form reveal'd,<br>Suffers in open day, to teach mankind<br>His secret sufferings in the opposer's mind;<br>To teach how pain and death and endless woes,<br>From wayward strife, and breach of order, rose;<br>How each discordant wish, the soul that swells,<br>'Gainst human bliss and heavenly power rebels,<br>Weakens the chain of love, subverts the plan,<br>While nature drives the vengeance back on man.<br>Here all religion rests, and soon thy race<br>Her purest lights, by wisdom's eye shall trace.<br>Here the last flights of science shall ascend,<br>To look thro' heaven, and sense with reason blend;<br>View the great source of love, that flows abroad,<br>Spreads to all creatures, centres still in God,<br>Lives thro' the whole, from nature's compact springs,<br>Orders, reverses, fills the sum of things;<br>In law constrains, in gospel reconciles,<br>In judgment frowns, in gentle mercy smiles,<br>Commands all sense to feel, all life to prove<br>The attracting force of universal love.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Joel+Barlow">Joel Barlow</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=418515" data-title="Vision Of Columbus - Book 8 de Joel Barlow" data-description="And now the Angel, from the trembling sight, Veil'd the wide world–when sudden shades of night Move o'er the ethereal vault; the starry train Paint their dim forms beneath the placid main; While earth and heaven, around the hero's eye, Seem 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