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Where the vast snake Eternity
In charmed sleep doth ever lie.
"All that inspires thy voice of love,
Or speaks in thy unclosing eyes,

Or through thy frame doth burn and move,
Or think or feel, awake, arise!
Spirit, leave, for mine and me,

Earth's unsubstantial mimicry!"

It ceased and from the mute and moveless frame A radiant Spirit rose,

All beautiful in naked purity.

Instinct with inexpressible beauty and grace,
Each stain of earthliness

Had passed away; it reassumed
Its native dignity, and stood
Immortal amid ruin.

Upon the couch the body lay,

Wrapped in the depth of slumber :
Its features were fixed and meaningless;
Yet animal life was there,

And every organ yet performed
Its natural functions. 'Twas a sight
Of wonder to behold the body and Soul.
The self-same lineaments, the same
Marks of identity, were there;

Yet oh how different! One aspires to heaven,
Pants for its sempiternal heritage,
And, ever-changing, ever-rising still,

Wantons in endless being.

The other, for a time the unwilling sport
Of circumstance and passion, struggles on;
Fleets through its sad duration rapidly;
Then, like a useless and worn-out machine,
Rots, perishes, and passes.

Fairy. Spirit who hast dived so deep,
Spirit who hast soared so high,
Thou the fearless, thou the mild,

Accept the boon thy worth hath earned,—
Ascend the car with me.

Spirit. Do I dream? Is this new feeling
But a visioned ghost of slumber?

If indeed I am a Soul,

A free, a disembodied Soul,

Speak again to me.

Fairy. I am the Fairy Mab. To me 'tis given
The wonders of the human world to keep.
The secrets of the immeasurable past
In the unfailing consciences of men,
Those stern unflattering chroniclers, I find.

The future, from the causes which arise
In each event, I gather. Not the sting
Which retributive memory implants
In the hard bosom of the selfish man,
Nor that ecstatic and exulting throb

Which virtue's votary feels when he sums up
The thoughts and actions of a well-spent day,
Are unforeseen, unregistered by me :
And it is yet permitted me to rend

The veil of mortal frailty, that the spirit,
Clothed in its changeless purity, may know
How soonest to accomplish the great end
For which it hath its being, and may taste
That peace which in the end all life will share.
This is the meed of virtue; happy Soul,
Ascend the car with me!

The chains of earth's immurement
Fell from Ianthe's Spirit;

They shrank and brake like bandages of straw
Beneath a wakened giant's strength.

She knew her glorious change,
And felt in apprehension uncontrolled
New raptures opening round:
Each day-dream of her mortal life,
Each frenzied vision of the slumbers
That closed each well-spent day,
Seemed now to meet reality.

The Fairy and the Soul proceeded;
The silver clouds disparted;

And, as the car of magic they ascended,
Again the speechless music swelled,
Again the coursers of the air

Unfurled their azure pennons, and the Queen,

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Shaking the beamy reins,

Bade them pursue their way.

The magic car moved on.

The night was fair, and countless stars
Studded heaven's dark-blue vault,—

The eastern wave grew pale
With the first smile of morn.
The magic car moved on.
From the celestial hoofs

The atmosphere in flaming sparkles flew ;
And, where the burning wheels
Eddied above the mountain's loftiest peak,
Was traced a line of lightning.

Now far above a rock, the utmost verge
Of the wide earth, it flew-

The rival of the Andes, whose dark brow
Loured o'er the silver sea.

Far far below the chariot's path,
Calm as a slumbering babe,
Tremendous Ocean lay.

The mirror of its stillness showed
The pale and waning stars,
The chariot's fiery track,
And the grey light of morn
Tinging those fleecy clouds

That cradled in their folds the infant dawn.
The chariot seemed to fly

Through the abyss of an immense concave,
Radiant with million constellations, tinged
With shades of infinite colour,

And semicircled with a belt
Flashing incessant meteors.

The magic car moved on.

As they approached their goal,
The coursers seemed to gather speed.
The sea no longer was distinguished; earth
Appeared a vast and shadowy sphere;
The sun's unclouded orb

Rolled through the black concave;
Its rays of rapid light

Parted around the chariot's swifter course,
And fell like ocean's feathery spray
Dashed from the boiling surge

Before a vessel's prow.

The magic car moved on.

Earth's distant orb appeared

The smallest light that twinkles in the heavens ;

Whilst round the chariot's way
Innumerable systems rolled,

And countless spheres diffused
An ever-varying glory.

It was a sight of wonder: some

Were horned like the crescent moon;

Some shed a mild and silver beam

Like Hesperus o'er the western sea;

Some dashed athwart with trains of flame,

Like worlds to death and ruin driven;

Some shone like stars, and, as the chariot passed, Bedimmed all other light.

Spirit of Nature! here,

In this interminable wilderness
Of worlds at whose immensity
Even soaring fancy staggers,
Here is thy fitting temple.
Yet not the lightest leaf
That quivers to the passing breeze
Is less instinct with thee:

Yet not the meanest worm

That lurks in graves and fattens on the dead
Less shares thy eternal breath.
Spirit of Nature! thou
Imperishable as this glorious scene!
Here is thy fitting temple!

2. IF solitude hath ever led thy steps
To the wild ocean's echoing shore,
And thou hast lingered there
Until the sun's broad orb

Seemed resting on the burnished wave,-
Thou must have marked the braided webs of gold
That without motion hang

Over the sinking sphere:

Thou must have marked the billowy mountain-clouds
Edged with intolerable radiancy,

Towering like rocks of jet
Above the burning deep.

And yet there is a moment-
When the sun's highest point

Peeps like a star o'er ocean's western edge-
When those far clouds of feathery purple gleam
Like islands on a dark blue sea;

Then has thy fancy soared above the earth,
And furled its wearied wing

Within the Fairy's fane.

Yet not the golden islands

That gleam amid yon flood of purple light
Nor the feathery curtains

That canopy the sun's resplendent couch,
Nor the burnished ocean-waves

Paving that gorgeous dome,
So fair, so wonderful a sight

As Mab's etherial palace could afford.
Yet likest evening's vault, that fairy hall.
As heaven low resting on the wave, it spread
Its floors of flashing light,

Its vast and azure dome ;

And, on the verge of that obscure abyss
Where crystal battlements o'erhang the gulf
Of the dark world, ten thousand spheres diffuse
Their lustre through its adamantine gates.

The magic car no longer moved.

The Fairy and the Spirit

Entered the hall of spells.

Those golden clouds

That rolled in glittering billows

Beneath the azure canopy

With the etherial footsteps trembled not:

The light and crimson mists

Floated to strains of thrilling melody

Through the vast columns and the pearly shrines.

"Spirit," the Fairy said,

And pointed to the gorgeous dome,
"This is a wondrous sight,

And mocks all human grandeur;
But, were it virtue's only meed to dwell
In a celestial palace, all resigned
To pleasurable impulses, immured
Within the prison of itself, the will

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Of changeless Nature would be unfulfilled.
Learn to make others happy. Spirit, come!
This is thine high reward:-the past shall rise;
Thou shalt behold the present; I will teach
The secrets of the future."

The Fairy and the Spirit
Approached the overhanging battlement.—
Below lay stretched the universe.
There, far as the remotest line
That bounds imagination's flight,
Countless and unending orbs
In mazy motion intermingled,
Yet still fulfilled immutably
Eternal Nature's law.
Above, below, around,
The circling systems formed
A wilderness of harmony;
Each with undeviating aim,

In eloquent silence, through the depths of space
Pursued its wondrous way.

There was a little light

That twinkled in the misty distance.

None but a spirit's eye

Might ken that rolling orb;

None but a spirit's eye,

And in no other place

But that celestial dwelling, might behold
Each action of this Earth's inhabitants.
But matter, space, and time,

In those aërial mansions cease to act;
And all-prevailing wisdom, when it reaps
The harvest of its excellence, o'erbounds
Those obstacles of which an earthly soul
Fears to attempt the conquest.

The Fairy pointed to the earth.
The Spirit's intellectual eye
Its kindred beings recognized.

The thronging thousands, to a passing view,
Seemed like an ant-hill's citizens.

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