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When, from the blind mist issuing, I beheld
Glory - beyond all glory ever seen,

Confusion infinite of heaven and earth,

Dazzling the soul. Meanwhile, prophetic harps
In every grove were ringing, 'War shall cease;
Did ye not hear that conquest is abjured?

Bring garlands, bring forth choicest flowers, to deck
The Tree of Liberty!' My heart rebounded;
My melancholy voice the chorus joined!
-'Be joyful all ye Nations, in all Lands,
Ye that are capable of Joy, be glad!
Henceforth, whate'er is wanting to yourselves,
In others ye shall promptly find; — and all,
Enriched by mutual and reflected wealth,
Shall with one heart honor their common kind

"Thus was I reconverted to the world;

Society became my glittering Bride,

And airy hopes my Children! From the dep.ns
Of natural passion seemingly escaped,

My soul diffused herself in wide embrace
Of institutions, and the forms of things,

As they exist, in mutable array,

Upon life's surface. What, though in my veins
There flowed no Gallic blood, nor had I breathed
The air of France, not less than Gallic zeal
Kindled and burnt among the sapless twigs
Of my exhausted heart. If busy Men
In sober conclave met, to weave a web
Of amity, whose living threads should stretch
Beyond the seas, and to the farthest pole,
There did I sit, assisting. If, with noise
And acclamation, crowds in open air

Expressed the tumult of their minds, my voice

There mingled, heard or not. The powers of song

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I left not uninvoked; and, in still groves,
Where mild enthusiasts tuned a pensive lay
Of thanks and expectation, in accord
With their belief, I sang Saturnian Rule
Returned a progeny of golden years
Permitted to descend, and bless mankind.

With promises the Hebrew Scriptures em:
I felt the invitation; and resumed

A long-suspended office in the House
Of public worship, where, the glowing phrase
Of ancient Inspiration serving me,

I promised also with undaunted trust
Foretold, and added prayer to prophecy;
The admiration winning of the crowd;
The help desiring of the pure devout.

"Scorn and contempt forbid me to proceed!
But History, Time's slavish Scribe, will tell
How rapidly the Zealots of the cause
Disbanded or in hostile ranks appeared;
Some, tired of honest service; these, outdone,
Disgusted, therefore, or appalled, by aims
Of fiercer Zealots so Confusion reigned,
And the more faithful were compelled to exclaim,
As Brutus did to Virtue, 'Liberty,

I worshipped Thee, and find thee but a Shade!'

"Such recantation had for me no charm,

Nor would I bend to it; who should have grieved At aught, however fair, that bore the mien

Of a conclusion, or catastrophe.

Why then conceal, that, when the simply good
In timid selfishness withdrew, I sought
Other support, not scrupulous whence it came,
And, by what compromise it stood, not nice

Enough if notions seemed to be high-pitched,
And qualities determined. Among men

So charactered did I maintain a strife

Hopeless, and still more hopeless every hour;
But, in the process, I began to feel
That, if the emancipation of the world
Were missed, I should at least secure my own,
And be in part compensated. For rights,
Widely inveterately usurped upon,

I spake with vehemence; and promptly seized
Whate'er Abstraction furnished for my needs
Or purposes; nor scrupled to proclaim,
And propagate, by liberty of life,

Those new persuasions. Not that I rejoiced,
Or even found pleasure, in such vagrant course,
For its own sake; but farthest from the walk
Which I had trod, in happiness and peace,
Was most inviting to a troubled mind,
That, in a struggling and distempered world,
Saw a seductive image of herself.

Yet, mark the contradictions of which Man
Is still the sport! Here Nature was my guide,
The Nature of the dissolute; but Thee,
O fostering Nature! I rejected - smiled

At others' tears in pity; and in scorn

At those, which thy soft influence sometimes arew
From my unguarded heart. The tranquil shores
Of Britain circumscribed me; else, perhaps,
I might have been entangled among deeds,
Which, now, as infamous, I should abhor-
Despise, as senseless: for my spirit relished
Strangely the exasperation of that Land,
Which turned an angry beak against the down
Of her own breast; confounded into hope
Of disencumbering thus her frotful wings.

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But all was quieted by iron bonds
Of military sway. The shifting aims,
The moral interests, the creative might,
The varied functions and high attributes
Of civil Action, yielded to a Power
Formal, and odious, and contemptible.

- In Britain, ruled a panic dread of change;
The weak were praised, rewarded, and advanced;
And, from the impulse of a just disdain,
Once more did I retire into myself.
There feeling no contentment, I resolved

To fly, for safeguard, to some foreign shore,
Remote from Europe; from her blasted hopes,
Her fields of carnage, and polluted air.

Fresh blew the wind, when o'er the Atlantic Main
The Ship went gliding with her thoughtless crew;
And who among them but an Exile, freed
From discontent, indifferent, pleased to sit
Among the busily-employed, not more

With obligation charged, with service taxed,
Than the loose pendant, to the idle wind
Upon the tall mast streaming;— but, ye Powers
Of soul and sense mysteriously allied,

O, never let the Wretched, if a choice
Be left him, trust the freight of his distress

To a long voyage on the silent deep!

For, like a Plague, will Memory break out;
And, in the blank and solitude of things,

Upon his Spirit, with a fever's strength,

Will Conscience prey. Feebly must they have felt Who, in old time, attired with snakes and whips

The vengeful Furies. Beautiful regards

Were turned on me -the face of her I loved

The Wife and Mother, pitifully fixing

Tender reproaches, insupportable!

Where now that boasted liberty? No welcome
From unknown Objects I received; and those,
Known and familiar, which the vaulted sky
Did, in the placid clearness of the night,
Disclose, had accusations to prefer
Against my peace. Within the cabin stood
That Volume ―as a compass for the soul
Revered among the Nations. I implored
Its guidance; but the infallible support
Of faith was wanting. Tell me, why refused
To one by storms annoyed and adverse winds ;
Perplexed with currents; of his weakness sick;
Of vain endeavors tired; and by his own,
And by his Nature's, ignorance, dismayed?

"Long-wished-for sight, the Western World appeared And, when the Ship was moored, I leaped ashore Indignantly — resolved to be a Man,.

Who, having o'er the past no power, would live
No longer in subjection to the past,

With abject mind from a tyrannic Lord

Inviting penance, fruitlessly endured.

So, like a Fugitive, whose feet have cleared

Some boundary, which his Followers may not cross
In prosecution of their deadly chase,

Respiring I looked round. How bright the Sun!
How promising the Breeze! Can aught produced.
In the old World compare, thought I, for power,
And majesty with this gigantic Stream,
Sprung from the Desert? And behold a City
Fresh, youthful, and aspiring! What are these
To me, or I to them? As much at least
As He desires that they should be, whom winds
And waves have wafted to this distant shore,

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