necessary and comfortable for the body, at the least possible expense of time, labour, care, thought, and capital, and so far to free every man of every nation from the worky-day business of the world, that the poorest, while he looks forward with assurance to his morrow's meal, may have some leisure for rational enjoyment, mental cultivation, meditation, and devotion; that whatever ranks, orders, honours, or dignities may subsist, and however the political functions of the commonweal may be distributed, there may be none who toil merely to eat, and eat to toil. Then, and not till then, will Freedom be more than a name. The Earth has lent Her waters, Air her breezes; and the sail Of some bare hill, with wonder kenned from far. How quick, how vast an increase! From the germ Here a large town, continuous and compact, Hiding the face of earth for leagues—and there, Where not a habitation stood before, Abodes of men irregularly massed Like trees in forests-spread through spacious tracts, Or disappearing; triumph that proclaims Freighted from every climate of the world With the world's choicest produce. Hence that sum Of keels that rest within her crowded ports, That through her inland regions, to and fro Hence a dread arm of floating power, a voice Of thunder, daunting those who would approach * * * * Yet do I exult, Casting reserve away, exult to see An intellectual mastery exercised O'er the blind Elements; a purpose given, Imparted to brute matter. I rejoice, * Measuring the force of those gigantic powers, That, by the thinking mind, have been compelled To serve the will of feeble-bodied Man. For with the sense of admiration blends The animating hope that time may come When, strengthened, yet not dazzled, by the might Of this dominion over nature gained, Men of all lands shall exercise the same In due proportion to their Country's need; Learning, though late, that all true glory rests, All praise, all safety, and all happiness, Upon the moral law. Egyptian Thebes; Tyre by the margin of the sounding waves, And the Arts died by which they had been raised. Upon the plain of vanished Syracuse, |