Of living things, in that new hemisphere,

Gleam'd out of darkness, like the stars at midnight,

When moon nor clouds, with light or shade, obscure

them.

For, as in hollows of the tide-worn reef,

Left at low water glistening in the sun,
Pellucid pools and rocks in miniature,

With their small fry of fishes, crusted shells,
Rich mosses, tree-like sea-weed, sparkling pebbles,
Enchant the eye, and tempt the eager hand
To violate the fairy-paradise,

So to my view the deep disclosed its wonders.

In the free element beneath me swam,

Flounder'd, and dived, in play, in chase, in battle, Fishes of every colour, form, and kind,

(Strange forms, resplendent colours, kinds unnum

ber'd,)

Which language cannot paint, and mariner

Hath never seen; from dread Leviathan

To insect-millions peopling every wave;
And nameless tribes, half-plant, half-animal,

Rooted and slumbering through a dream of life.
The livelier inmates to the surface sprang,

To taste the freshness of heaven's breath, and feel
That light is pleasant, and the sunbeam warm.
Most in the middle region sought their prey,
Safety, or pastime; solitary some,

And some in pairs affectionately join'd;

Others in shoals immense, like floating islands,
Led by mysterious instinct through that waste
And trackless region, though on every side
Assaulted by voracious enemies,

- Whales, sharks, and monsters, arm'd in front or

jaw,

With swords, saws, spiral horns, or hooked fangs.
While ravening Death of slaughter ne'er grew weary,

Life multiplied the immortal meal as fast.
War, reckless, universal war, prevail'd;

All were devourers, all in turn devour'd;

Yet

every unit in the uncounted sum

Of victims had its share of bliss, its pang,
And but a pang, of dissolution; each

Was happy till its moment came, and then
Its first, last suffering, unforeseen, unfear'd,
Closed, with one struggle, pain and life for ever.
So He ordain'd, whose way is in the sea,
His path amidst great waters, and his steps
Unknown;

whose judgments are a mighty deep,

Where plummet of Archangel's intellect
Could never yet find soundings, but from age
To age let down, drawn up, then thrown again,
With lengthen'd line and added weight, still fails;
And still the cry in Heaven is "O the depth!"

Thus, while bewilder'd with delight I gazed On life in every shape it here assumed, Congenial feeling made me follow it,

And try to be whatever I beheld:

By mental transmigration thus I pass'd

Through many a body, and in each assay'd
New instincts, powers, enjoyments, death itself;
Till, weary with the fanciful pursuit,

I started from that idle reverie.

Then grew my heart more desolate than ever;
Here had I found the beings which I sought,
Beings for whom the universe was made,
Yet none of kindred with myself. In vain
I strove to waken sympathy in breasts
Cold as the element in which they moved,
And inaccessible to fellowship

With me, as sun and stars, as winds and vapours:
Sense had they, but no more; mind was not there.
They roam'd, they fed, they slept, they died, and left
Race after race, to roam, feed, sleep, then die,
And leave their like through endless generations;
Incessant change of actors, none of scene,
Through all that boundless theatre of strife!
Shrinking into myself again, I cried,

In bitter disappointment," Is this all?"

I sent a glance at random from the cloud,
In which I then lay floating through mid-heaven,
To ocean's innermost recess; when lo!
Another seal of nature's book was open'd,

Which held transported thought so deep entranced,
That Time, though borne through mightiest revo-

lutions,

Seem'd, like the earth in motion, to stand still.

The works of ages grew beneath mine eye;

As rapid intellect calls up events,

Combines, compresses, moulds them, with such power,
That, in a little page of memory,

An empire's annals lie, a nation's fortunes
Pass in review, as motes through sunbeams pass,
Glistening and vanishing in quick succession,

Yet each distinct as though there were but one;

So thrice a thousand years, with all their issues,

Hurried before me, through a gleam of Time,

Between the clouds of two eternities,

That whence they came, and that to which they tended.