The Columbiad: A Poem Part 21

As thus he spoke, returning tears of joy Suffused the Hero's cheek and pearl'd his eye: Unveil, said he, my friend, and stretch once more Beneath my view that heaven-illumined sh.o.r.e; Let me behold her silver beams expand, To lead all nations, lighten every land, Instruct the total race, and teach at last Their toils to lessen and their chains to cast, Trace and attain the purpose of their birth, And hold in peace this heritage of earth.

The Seraph smiled consent, the Hero's eye Watch'd for the daybeam round the changing sky.

Book X.

Argument

The vision resumed, and extended over the whole earth. Present character of different nations. Future progress of society with respect to commerce; discoveries; inland navigation; philosophical, med and political knowledge. Science of government. a.s.similation and final union of all languages. Its effect on education, and on the advancement of physical and moral science. The physical precedes the moral, as Phosphor precedes the Sun. View of a general Congress from all nations, a.s.sembled to establish the political harmony of mankind. Conclusion.

Hesper again his heavenly power display'd, And shook the yielding canopy of shade.

Sudden the stars their trembling fires withdrew.

Returning splendors burst upon the view, Floods of unfolding light the skies adorn, And more than midday glories grace the morn.

So shone the earth, as if the sideral train, Broad as full suns, had sail'd the ethereal plain; When no distinguisht orb could strike the sight, But one clear blaze of all-surrounding light O'erflow'd the vault of heaven. For now in view Remoter climes and future ages drew; Whose deeds of happier fame, in long array, Call'd into vision, fill the newborn day.

Far as seraphic power could lift the eye, Or earth or ocean bend the yielding sky, Or circling sutis awake the breathing gale, Drake lead the way, or Cook extend the sail; Where Behren sever'd, with adventurous prow, Hesperia's headland from Tartaria's brow; Where sage Vancouvre's patient leads were hurl'd, Where Deimen stretch'd his solitary world; All lands, all seas that boast a present name, And all that unborn time shall give to fame, Around the Pair in bright expansion rise, And earth, in one vast level, bounds the skies.

They saw the nations tread their different sh.o.r.es, Ply their own toils and wield their local powers, Their present state in all its views disclose, Their gleams of happiness, their shades of woes, Plodding in various stages thro the range Of man's unheeded but unceasing change.

Columbus traced them with experienced eye, And cla.s.s'd and counted all the flags that fly; He mark'd what tribes still rove the savage waste, What cultured realms the sweets of plenty taste; Where arts and virtues fix their golden reign, Or peace adorns, or slaughter dyes the plain.

He saw the restless Tartar, proud to roam, Move with his herds and pitch a transient home; Tibet's long tracts and China's fixt domain, Dull as their despots, yield their cultured grain; Cambodia, Siam, Asia's myriad isles And old Indostan, with their wealthy spoils Attract adventures masters, and o'ershade Their sunbright ocean with the wings of trade.

Arabian robbers, Syrian Kurds combined, Create their deserts and infest mankind; The Turk's dim Crescent, like a day-struck star, As Russia's Eagle shades their haunts of war, Shrinks from insulted Europe, who divide The shatter'd empire to the Pontic tide.

He mark'd impervious Afric, where alone She lies encircled with the verdant zone That lines her endless coast, and still sustains Her northern pirates and her eastern swains, Mourns her interior tribes purloined away, And chain'd and sold beyond Atlantic day.

Brazilla's wilds, Mackensie's savage lands With bickering strife inflame their furious bands; Atlantic isles and Europe's cultured sh.o.r.es Heap their vast wealth, exchange their growing stores, All arts inculcate, new discoveries plan, Tease and torment but school the race of man.

While his own federal states, extending far, Calm their brave sons now breathing from the war, Unfold their harbors, spread their genial soil, And welcome freemen to the cheerful toil.

A sight so solemn, as it varied sound, Fill'd his fond heart with reveries profound; He felt the infinitude of thoughts that pa.s.s And guide and govern that enormous ma.s.s.

The cares that agitate, the creeds that blind, The woes that waste the many-master'd kind, The distance great that still remains to trace, Ere sober sense can harmonize the race, Held him suspense, imprest with reverence meek, And choked his utterance as he wish'd to speak: When Hesper thus: The paths they here pursue, Wide as they seem unfolding to thy view, Show but a point in that long circling course Which cures their weakness and confirms their force, Lends that experience which alone can close The scenes of strife, and give the world repose.

Yet here thou seest the same progressive plan That draws for mutual succour man to man, From twain to tribe, from tribe to realm dilates, In federal union groups a hundred states, Thro all their turns with gradual scale ascends, Their powers; their pa.s.sions and their interest blends; While growing arts their social virtues spread, Enlarge their compacts and unlock their trade; Till each remotest clan, by commerce join'd, Links in the chain that binds all humankind, Their b.l.o.o.d.y banners sink in darkness furl'd, And one white flag of peace triumphant walks the world.

As infant streams, from oozing earth at first With feeble force and lonely murmurs burst, From myriad unseen fountains draw the rills And curl contentious round their hundred hills, Meet, froth and foam, their dashing currents swell, O'er crags and rocks their furious course impel, Impetuous plunging plough the mounds of earth, And tear the fostering flanks that gave them birth; Mad with the strength they gain, they thicken deep Their muddy waves and slow and sullen creep, O'erspread whole regions in their lawless pride, Then stagnate long, then shrink and curb their tide; Anon more tranquil grown, with steadier sway, Thro broader banks they shape their seaward way, From different climes converging, join and spread Their mingled waters in one widening bed, Profound, transparent; till the liquid zone Bands half the globe and drinks the golden sun, Sweeps onward still the still expanding plain, And moves majestic to the boundless main.

Tis thus Society's small sources rise; Thro pa.s.sions wild her infant progress lies; Fear, with its host of follies, errors, woes, Creates her obstacles and forms her foes; Misguided interest, local pride withstand, Till long-tried ills her growing views expand, Till tribes and states and empires find their place, Whose mutual wants her widest walks embrace; Enlightened interest, moral sense at length Combine their aids to elevate her strength, Lead o'er the world her peace-commanding sway.

And light her steps with everlasting day.

From that mark'd stage of man we now behold, More rapid strides his coming paths unfold; His continents are traced, his islands found, His well-taught sails on all his billows bound, His varying wants their new discoveries ply, And seek in earth's whole range their sure supply.

First of his future stages, thou shalt see His trade unfetter'd and his ocean free.

From thy young states the code consoling springs, To strip from vulture War his naval wings; In views so just all Europe's powers combine, And earth's full voice approves the vast design.

Tho still her inland realms the combat wage And hold in lingering broils the unsettled age, Yet no rude shocks that shake the crimson plain Shall more disturb the labors of the main; The main that spread so wide his travell'd way, Liberal as air, impartial as the day, That all thy race the common wealth might share, Exchange their fruits and fill their treasures there, Their speech a.s.similate, their counsels blend, Till mutual interest fix the mutual friend.

Now see, my son, the destined hour advance; Safe in their leagues commercial navies dance, Leave their curst cannon on the quay-built strand, And like the stars of heaven a fearless course command.

The Hero look'd; beneath his wondering eyes Gay streamers lengthen round the seas and skies; The countless nations open all their stores, Load every wave and crowd the lively sh.o.r.es; Bright sails in mingling mazes streak the air, And commerce triumphs o'er the rage of war.

From Baltic streams, from Elba's opening side, From Rhine's long course and Texel's laboring tide, From Gaul, from Albion, tired of fruitless fight, From green Hibernia, clothed in recent light, Hispania's strand that two broad oceans lave, From Senegal and Gambia's golden wave, Tago the rich, and Douro's viny sh.o.r.es, The sweet Canaries and the soft Azores, Commingling barks their mutual banners hail, And drink by turns the same distending gale.

Thro Calpe's strait that leads the Midland main, From Adria, Pontus, Nile's resurgent reign, The sails look forth and wave their bandrols high And ask their breezes from a broader sky.

Where Asia's isles and utmost sh.o.r.elands bend, Like rising suns the sheeted masts ascend; Coast after coast their flowing flags unrol, From Deimen's rocks to Zembla's ice-propt pole, Where Behren's pa.s.s collapsing worlds divides, Where California breaks the billowy tides, Peruvian streams their golden margins boast, Or Chili bluffs or Plata flats the coast.

Where, clothed in splendor, his Atlantic way Spreads the blue borders of Hesperian day, From all his havens, with majestic sweep, The swiftest boldest daughters of the deep Swarm forth before him; till the cloudlike train From pole to pole o'ersheet the whitening main.

So some primeval seraph, placed on high, From heaven's sublimest point o'erlooke'd the sky, When s.p.a.ce unfolding heard the voice of G.o.d, And suns and stars and systems roll'd abroad, Caught their first splendors from his beamful eye, Began their years and vaulted round their sky; Their social spheres in bright confusion play, Exchange their beams and fill the newborn day.

Nor seas alone the countless barks behold; Earth's inland realms their naval paths unfold.

Her plains, long portless, now no more complain Of useless rills and fountains nursed in vain; Ca.n.a.ls curve thro them many a liquid line, Prune their wild streams, their lakes and oceans join.

Where Darien hills o'erlook the gulphy tide, Cleft in his view the enormous banks divide; Ascending sails their opening pa.s.s pursue, And waft the sparkling treasures of Peru.

Moxoe resigns his stagnant world of fen, Allures, rewards the cheerful toils of men, Leads their long new-made rivers round his reign, Drives off the stench and waves his golden grain, Feeds a whole nation from his cultured sh.o.r.e, Where not a bird could skim the skies before.

From Mohawk's mouth, far westing with the sun, Thro all the midlands recent channels run, Tap the redundant lakes, the broad hills brave, And Hudson marry with Missouri's wave.

From dim Superior, whose uncounted sails Shade his full seas and bosom all his gales, New paths unfolding seek Mackensie's tide, And towns and empires rise along their side; Slave's crystal highways all his north adorn, Like coruscations from the boreal morn.

Proud Missisippi, tamed and taught his road, Flings forth irriguous from his generous flood Ten thousand watery glades; that, round him curl'd, Vein the broad bosom of the western world.

From the red banks of Arab's odorous tide Their Isthmus opens, and strange waters glide; Europe from all her sh.o.r.es, with crowded sails, Looks thro the pa.s.s and calls the Asian gales.

Volga and Obi distant oceans join.

Delighted Danube weds the wasting Rhine; Elbe, Oder, Neister channel many a plain, Exchange their barks and try each other's main.

All infant streams and every mountain rill Choose their new paths, some useful task to fill, Each acre irrigate, re-road the earth, And serve at last the purpose of their birth.

Earth, garden'd all, a tenfold burden brings; Her fruits, her odors, her salubrious springs Swell, breathe and bubble from the soil they grace, String with strong nerves the renovating race, Their numbers multiply in every land, Their toils diminish and their powers expand; And while she rears them with a statelier frame Their soul she kindles with diviner flame, Leads their bright intellect with fervid glow Thro all the ma.s.s of things that still remains to know.

He saw the aspiring genius of the age Soar in the Bard and strengthen in the Sage: The Bard with bolder hand a.s.sumes the lyre, Warms the glad nations with unwonted fire, Attunes to virtue all the tones that roll Their tides of transport thro the expanding soul.

For him no more, beneath their furious G.o.ds, Old ocean crimsons and Olympus nods, Uprooted mountains sweep the dark profound, Or t.i.tans groan beneath the rending ground, No more his clangor maddens up the mind To crush, to conquer and enslave mankind, To build on ruin'd realms the shrines of fame, And load his numbers with a tyrant's name.

Far n.o.bler objects animate his tongue, And give new energies to epic song; To moral charms he bids the world attend, Fraternal states their mutual ties extend, O'er cultured earth the rage of conquest cease, War sink in night and nature smile in peace.

Soaring with science then he learns to string Her highest harp, and brace her broadest wing, With her own force to fray the paths untrod, With her own glance to ken the total G.o.d, Thro heavens o'ercanopied by heavens behold New suns ascend and other skies unfold, Social and system'd worlds around him shine, And lift his living strains to harmony divine.

The Sage with steadier lights directs his ken, Thro twofold nature leads the walks of men, Remoulds her moral and material frames, Their mutual aids, their sister laws proclaims, Disease before him with its causes flies, And boasts no more of sickly soils and skies; His well-proved codes the healing science aid, Its base establish and its blessing spread, With long-wrought life to teach the race to glow, And vigorous nerves to grace the locks of snow.

From every shape that varying matter gives, That rests or ripens, vegetates or lives, His chymic powers new combinations plan, Yield new creations, finer forms to man, High springs of health for mind and body trace, Add force and beauty to the joyous race, Arm with new engines his adventurous hand, Stretch o'er these elements his wide command, Lay the proud storm submissive at his feet, Change, temper, tame all subterranean heat, Probe laboring earth and drag from her dark side The mute volcano, ere its force be tried; Walk under ocean, ride the buoyant air, Brew the soft shower, the labor'd land repair, A fruitful soil o'er sandy deserts spread, And clothe with culture every mountain's head.

Where system'd realms their mutual glories lend, And well-taught sires the cares of state attend, Thro every maze of man they learn to wind, Note each device that prompts the Proteus mind, What soft restraints the tempered breast requires, To taste new joys and cherish new desires, Expand the selfish to the social flame, And rear the soul to deeds of n.o.bler fame.

They mark, in all the past records of praise, What partial views heroic zeal could raise; What mighty states on others' ruins stood, And built unsafe their haughty seats in blood; How public virtue's ever borrow'd name With proud applauses graced the deeds of shame, Bade each imperial standard wave sublime, And wild ambition havoc every clime; From chief to chief the kindling spirit ran, Heirs of false fame and enemies of man.

Where Grecian states in even balance hung, And warm'd with jealous fires the patriot's tongue, The exclusive ardor cherish'd in the breast Love to one land and hatred to the rest.

And where the flames of civil discord rage, And Roman arms with Roman arms engage, The mime of virtue rises still the same, To build a Cesar's as a Pompey's name.

But now no more the patriotic mind, To narrow views and local laws confined, Gainst neighboring lands directs the public rage.

Plods for a clan or counsels for an age; But soars to loftier thoughts, and reaches far Beyond the power, beyond the wish of war; For realms and ages forms the general aim, Makes patriot views and moral views the same, Works with enlighten'd zeal, to see combined The strength and happiness of humankind.

Long had Columbus with delighted eyes Mark'd all the changes that around him rise, Lived thro descending ages as they roll, And feasted still the still expanding soul; When now the peopled regions swell more near, And a mixt noise tumultuous stuns his ear.

At first, like heavy thunders roll'd in air, Or the rude shock of cannonading war, Or waves resounding on the craggy sh.o.r.e, Hoa.r.s.e roll'd the loud-toned undulating roar.

But soon the sounds like human voices rise, All nations pouring undistinguisht cries; Till more distinct the wide concussion grown Rolls forth at times an accent like his own.

By turns the tongues a.s.similating blend, And smoother idioms over earth ascend; Mingling and softening still in every gale, O'er discord's din harmonious tones prevail.

At last a simple universal sound Winds thro the welkin, sooths the world around, From echoing sh.o.r.es in swelling strain replies, And moves melodious o'er the warbling skies.

Such wild commotions as he heard and view'd, In fixt astonishment the Hero stood, And thus besought the Guide: Celestial friend, What good to man can these dread scenes intend?

Some sore distress attends that boding sound That breathed hoa.r.s.e thunder and convulsed the ground.

War sure hath ceased; or have my erring eyes Misread the glorious visions of the skies?