Feels from the heart life's quicken'd currents glide,
Her bosom heaving with the bounding tide-
Though sweet their lips, their features more than fair-
Though curls luxuriant of untortur'd hair
Grow long, and add unutterable charms,
While ev'ry look enraptures and alarms;
Yet something still, beyond th' exterior form,
With goodness fraught, with animation warm,
Inspires their actions, dignifies their mien,
Gilds ev'ry hour, and beautifies each scene.
'Tis those perfections of superior kind,
The moral beauties which adorn the mind;
'Tis those enchanting sounds mellifluous hung,
In words of truth and kindness, on their tongue,
'Tis delicacy gives their charms new worth,
And calls the loveliness of beauty forth:
"Tis the mild influence beaming from their eyes,
Like vernal sun-beams round cœrulian skies;
Bright emanations of the spotless soul,
Which warm, and cheer, and vivify the whole !
Here the fair sex an equal honour claims,
Wakes chaste desire, nor burns with lawless flames:
No eastern manners here consign the charms
While their free hands in plighted faith are giv'n,
Their vows, accordant, reach approving heav'n.
Nor here the wedded fair in splendour vie
To shine the idols of the public eye;
Nor place their happiness, like Europe's dames,
In balls and masquerades, in plays and games;
Each home-felt bliss exchang'd for foreign sports,
A round of pleasures, or th' intrigues of courts ;
Nor seek of government to guide the plan,
And wrest his bold prerogatives from man.
What though not form'd in affectation's school,
Nor taught the wanton eye to roll by rule,
Nor how to prompt the glance, the frown, the smile,
Or practice all the little arts of guile
What though not taught the use of female arms,
Nor cloth'd in panoply of conqu’ring charms,
Like some fine garnish'd heads-th' exterior fair,
In paints, cosmetics, powder, borrow'd hair:
Yet theirs are pleasures of a diff'rent kind,
Delights at home, more useful, more refin'd;
Theirs are th' attentions, theirs the smiles that please,
With hospitable cares and modest ease:
Their youthful taste, improv'd by finer arts,
Their minds embellish'd, and refin'd their hearts
'Tis theirs to act, in still sequester'd life,
The glorious parts of parent, friend, and wife:
What nameless grace, what unknown charm is theirs,
To soothe their partners, and divide their cares,
Calm raging pain, delay the parting breath,
And light a smile on the wan cheek of death!
No feudal ties the rising genius mar, Compel to servile toils or drag to war;
But free each youth, his fav'rite course pursues,
The plough paternal, or the sylvan muse;
For here exists, once more, th' Arcadian scene,
Those simple manners, and that golden mean :
Here holds society its middle stage,
Between too rude and too refin'd an age:
Far from that age, when not a gleam of light
The dismal darkness cheer'd of Gothic night,
From brutal rudeness of that savage state-
As from refinements which o'erwhelm the great,
Those dissipations which their bliss annoy,
And blast and poison each domestic joy.
What though for us, the pageantry of kings,
Crowns, thrones, and sceptres, are superfluous things;
What though we lack the gaudy pomp that waits
On eastern monarchs, or despotic states;
Yet well we spare what realms despotic feel,
Oppression's scourge, and persecution's wheel.
What though no splendid spoils of other time
Invite the curious to these western climes;
No virtuoso, with fantastic aim,
Here hunts the shadow of departed fame:
No piles of rubbish his attention call,
Nor mystic obelisk, or storied wall:
No ruin'd statues claim the long research:
No sliding columns and no crumbling arch;
Inscriptions, half effac'd, and falsely read,
Or cumbrous relics of th' unletter'd dead:
Yet here I rove untrodden scenes among,
Catch inspiration for my rising song;
See nature's grandeur awfully unfold,
And, wrapt in thought, her works sublime behold!
For here vast wilds, which human foot ne'er trod,
Are mark'd with footsteps of a present God:
His forming hand, on nature's broadest scale,
O'er mountains, mountains pil'd, and scoop'd the vale;
Made sea-like streams in deeper channels run,
And roll'd through brighter heav'ns his genial sun.
In vain of day, that rolling lucid eye
Look'd down in mildness from the smiling sky;
In vain, the germe of vegetation lay,
And pin'd in shades, secluded from the day;
In vain, this theatre for man so fair,
Spread all its charms for beasts or birds of air;
Or savage tribes, who, wand'ring through the wood,
From beasts and birds obtain❜d precarious food :
Till great Columbus rose, and, led by heav'n,
Call'd worlds to view, beneath the skirts of ev'n.
Now other scenes in these blest climes prevail:
The sounds of population fill the gale:
The dreary wastes, by mighty toils reclaim'd,
Deep marshes drain'd, wild woods and thickets tam'd:
Now fair Columbia, child of heav'n, is seen
In flow'r of youth, and robes of lovely green,
Than virgin fairer, on her bridal morn,
Whom all the graces, all the loves adorn.
Here planters find a ceaseless source of charms
In clearing fields, and adding farms to farms:
'Tis independence prompts their daily toil,
And calls forth beauties from the desert soil:
What untry'd pleasure fills each raptur'd sense,
When sturdy toil, through darken'd wilds immense,
the day-beams on the op'ning glade,
First
pours
And glebes embrown'd with everlasting shade!
Here equal fortunes, ease, the ground their own,
Augment their numbers with increase unknown.
Here hamlets grow, Here Europe's pilgrims come,
From vassall'd woes to find a quiet home.
The eye no view of waning cities meets,
Of mould'ring domes, of narrow, fetid streets;
Of grey-hair'd wretches, who ne'er own'd a shed,
And beggars dying for the want of bread:
But oft, in transport, round th' horizon roves,
O'er mountains, vallies, towns, and stately groves;
Then dwells, best pleas'd, on cultivated plains,
Steeds, flocks, and herds, commix'd with lab'ring swains.
Hail, agriculture! by whose parent aid
The deep foundations of our states are laid;
The seeds of greatness by thy hand are sown;
These shall mature with thee and time alone ;
But still conduct us on thy sober plan,
Great source of wealth, and earliest friend of man.
Ye rev'rend fathers! props of freedom's cause, Who rear'd an empire by your sapient laws,
With blest example give this lesson weight,
"That toil and virtue make a nation great!"
Then shall your names reach earth's remotest clime,
Rise high as heav'n, and brave the rage of time-
His list'ning sons the sire shall oft remind,
What parent sages first in Congress join'd:
The faithful Hancock grac'd that early scene,
Great Washington appear'd in godlike mien,
Jay, Laurens, Clinton, skill'd in ruling men,
And he who, earlier, held the farmer's pen.
'Twas Lee, illustrious, at the father's head,
The daring way to independence led.
The self-taught Sherman urg'd his reasons clear,
And all the Livingstons to freedom dear:
What countless names in fair procession throng,
With Rutledge, Johnson, Nash, demand the song!
And chiefly ye, of human kind the friends,
On whose high task my humbler toil attends:
Ye who, uniting realms in leagues of peace,
The sum of human happiness increase!
Adams, the sage, a patriot from his youth,
Whose deeds are honour, and whose voice is truth;
Undying Franklin, on the hill of fame,
Who bids the thunders spread his awful name;
And Jefferson, whose mind with space extends,
Each science woos, all knowledge comprehends,
Whose patriot deeds and elevated views
Demand the tribute of a loftier muse:
Though Randolph, Hosmer, Hanson sleep in death,
Still these great patriots draw the vital breath:
And can a nation fail in peace to thrive,
Where such strong talents, such high worth survive?
Rous'd at the thought, by vast ideas fir'd,
His breast enraptur'd, and his tongue inspir'd,
Another bard,* in conscious genius bold,
Sings the new world now happier than the old.
Thou Spirit of the West, assert our fame,
In other bards awake the dormant flame!
Bid vivid colours into being start,
Men grow immortal by the plastic art!
Bid columns swell, stupendous arches bend,
Proud cities rise, and spires sublime ascend!
Bid music's pow'r the pangs of woe assuage!
With nobler views inspire th' enlighten'd age
In freedom's voice pour all thy bolder charms,
Till reason supersede the force of arms,
Till peaceful streamers in each gale shall play,
From orient morning to descending day.
In mortal breasts shall hate immortal last!
Albion! Columbia! soon forget the past!
In friendly intercourse your int'rests blend!
From common sires your gallant sons descend;
From free-born sires in toils of empire brave-
'Tis yours to heal the mutual wounds ye gave;
Let those be friends whom kindred blood allies,
With language, laws', religion's holiest ties!
Yes, mighty Albion! scorning low intrigues,
With
young
Columbia form commercial leagues:
* Mr. Barlow, author of the Vision of Columbus.
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