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SAMUEL AGNEAV,

OF P 11 I LA DKI-PHI A, PA.

Book,

SCO

THE HURRICANE i

A THEOSOPHICAL AND WESTERN

ECLOGUE.

TO WHICH IS SUBJOINED, A

SOLITARY EFFUSIOJV

I N A

SUMMER'S EVENING.

c^

BY WILLIAM GILBERT.

Odi profanum vulgus et arceo. Favete Unguis : Carmina non prlus Audita, Musamm Sacerdos

ViRGINIBUS PUERISQUE Cauto.

HoR. Lib. III. Od. 1.

PRINTED AND SOLD FOR THE AUTHOR, BY R. EDWARDS

SOLD ALSO BY MARTIN AND BAIN, AND B. CROSBY,

LONDON ; EDDOWES, SALOP ; AND HAZARD

AND BARRATT, BATH,

1796.

PREFACE.

HE following Poem requires some previous elu- cidation, as it comprehends a scope of design far be- yond vulgar research.

The history of it's progress is, at present, of little importance. Here it is, A whole: arrived at maturity; and wishes not to recolleft the blandish- ments, nor retrace the imperfeftions, of childhood.

It gives, and is grounded on, a Theosophical view of the relation between America and Europe ; but concatenated, because necessary for illustration, with the two old Quarters of the Globe* Of each of all these the charafleristics are enlarged upon in the Notes: But some general resolution of the fa6l, that Countries have chafaderistics^ h the necessity, which causes this Preface.

A 3

iv PREFACE.

I KNOW it to be a faB, that the elaboration of my own mind assigned to Africa, Asia and Eu- rope, the precise charafters which were respectively attributed to them by the Antients, and have been since by Swedenborg; though each, used his own language; which is a proof, that each was original, and aftually travelled the road himself and saw ob- jefts in his own light. For these I refer to my Notes. Suffice it to say here, that the machinery of my Eclogue thus proceeds on this Doftrine ; namely.

First, That all Countries have a specific Mind, or determinable principle. This charafter may be traced with as much satisfa6lion in the vegetable as in the animal produftions. Thus, Strength with its at- tributes, viz. Asperity, &c. is the chara6ler or mind of England. Her leading produftions are the Oak, Peppermint, Sloes, Crabs, sour Cherries. All elegance, all polish, is superinduced ; and primarily from France, ©f which they are Natives.

Secondly, That a Country is subdued, when it's 7mnd ox life, it's /^nV?c^ according to Daniel, or it's

PREFACE. V

■jenius according to the modern Easterns, or it's priti' ciple according to Europeans, is either supprest, de- stroyed or chemically combined with that of a foreign country in a form, that leaves the foreign property predominant ; and not till then. And this cannot en- sue but upon Suicide,, upon a previous abandon- ment on the part of a nation, of its own principle. For when the Creator made everything very good, he also made it tenable, on the one hand ; and ont the other complete ; consequently without the necessity ,^. without the desire, of encroaching, and also without the capability, ' except under the penalty of surrendering with its own complete roundness, its own tenability. Thus I arrive at a primary Lav\r of Nature, that every

ONE MUST FALL INTO THE PIT THAT HE DIQS:

EOii OTHERS 5 either before or after success, or with* out success. . ' ,,

Thirdly, That in the European subjugation of America, the American Mind or Life only suffered under a powerful affusion of the European; and, that as the solution proceeds it acquires a stron- ger and stronger tinfture of the Subjetl, till at length that, which was first subdued, assumes an absolute, in-

VI >KEFACE.

expugnable predominancy, and a final — inasmuch as the contest is between the two last parts of the world, and there is no prospeclive umpire to refer to ; but it must be decided by the possession of first princi- ples, or the highest Mind in the Hierarchy of Minds ; and the European possession of mind having previously arrived at perfeftion from her long intercourse with AFRICA and Asia, and not being able to rescue her from the present grasp and predominancy of American Mind, the question is now settled for ever, and Europe yields to the Influence, Mind and Power of AMERICA, linked in essential principle with AFRICA and Asia, for ever. Besides Europe had full success in her encroachments ; she succeeded in throwing America into the pit, and of course, it MUST be her own turn to go in, now: She depopu- lated America, and now AMERICA MUST depopu^ late her.

This survival of American principle, I re- present by asserting the survival of her spirit s, under the name of the Children of the Sun, according to the Yncas ; or The Sons of Virgin Light ; while their bodies, or their appearance in the world sank to ocean;

PREFACE. Vll

that is, were destroyed by Europe, who had the power of the ocean and corresponds thereto. The Resur- reftlon of their Bodies is the Reappearance in the world of persons enlivened by their Life or Spirit, a6luated by their principles. What these principles are, will be fully seen in the Notes at the End.

I HAVE said enough to explain my Machinery, and enable the Reader to keep me company as he reads ; though I by no means suppose, that this Pre- face is more than a flash of lightning in a dark night. However, the System yields a strong, steady light with me; and I would be liberal of it to my Rea- per, if he will permit me.

<'^^BX advertisement. X*E%-,

•«»te80O0(?!5O«0O009O0l

FRIEND is the occasion of this Advertisement ; who, having printed some hnes of this Poem in a Miscellany that could not fail to introduce it respeftably, in the best sense of the word, has thereby acquired a right to have his feelings at- tended to, m things that may affeft the credit of the Poem.

He once passed to me a very strong opinion against the Metre of some verses. What is Metre ? It is the focus of Union between the Sense and the Sound ; in the best English Poets, at least : It is a contrivance to throw the accent, not wfiere a common reader or speaker would throw it . but where

an IMPASSIONED ORATOR Or JUDICIOUS ACTOR WOuld

throw it. One instance of disapproved accent in The Hur- ricane I suppose will be given in these three lines;

-Hear I not some

Female shriek, now faintly sighing on the Wings of Night? Straightly appeared a gleam of White before us.

The action here is Dramatic. And a person who supposes himself speaking in the situation there described, and running on with volubility, or capable of constantly finishing his periods, supposes an impossible combination of irregular hesita- tion of step, -with regulated volubility of tongue. I have ended the line, and thrown the pause before the leading words. In other instances, where I have not the same reason, I have an equipollent.

If, after all, the ear is fastidiously offended with a short syl- lable at the end of a line, or with dividing by a line two words, which are joined in construction, let it feed upon my Motto, attack Horace, and let me eo free —

-Carmina non prius

Audita-

Wkh innumerable other instances in Latin and English.

THE

HURRICAJVE.

CANTO r.

1^ EAR where with Tropic heats bright Cancer glows,

And sun beams glitter with perennial force,

Girt with the azure wave an Island lies,

Called by the Spaniards ANTIENT * Its breadth is

Measured by the eye ; which, still unsatisfied.

Strikes far beyond the reach of land, Northward

When turned. Its utmost length doubles it's breadth.

Islands, faint seen among the adjacent seas, Bearing their various headlands in the wave, A social and romantic scene disclose :

* Antigua T the Latin q, is changed by the Spaniards to s

B

10 They give the wing for amplest thought to range- On all the mighty wonders of the world ! Scenes undiscovered, uncreate to man, E'er distant Europe's energetic arm Ploughed up the vasty ocean to their base; And still-, with art miraculous, dete6ls Their sunny ports through many a pathless league,.

Ah ! here, Columbus, with the din of war^ Broke the mild concords of the Mermaid's ((A)) shell ;. Who, mild, at evening, in the glassy wave, Joined with the Genii of the neighbour shores, To sing of Love as spotless as the sky, And as their ocean clear ; bounteous as airs Wafting full fragrance from the thornless grove Complicate of sweets, diffusing transport ; And the realm of Love, and Health extatic, Spread, unjealous, round. Then the glowing son5> Of this mature and Occidental Sun,

11

(Not less than Memmon, ((b)] v*^hom Aurora bore

To Eastern mornings ; and whose grateful harp

Spontaneous echoed to the rising day)

To bolder measures Jed the exalting strain ;

And, fired with all the radiance of their sire,

Poured elemental music from their strings —

Till Hell's dread, discords from dark Europe broke :

Then the Mermaid to her deeps shot rapid :

Trembling she lay — but safe ; and long concealed

From haunts of war. ((C)) Soon many and many

A son of earth plunged after her, and she gave

A coral sepulchre and tears of heart ;

While armied spirits formed, in Fire and f!,an.h

And Air and Seas a phalanx of avengers ;

Who far from Europe and it's bodied forms, [(d))

Survived Immortal, Vengeful and Creative.

Expelled, these Sons of Virgin Light retired

Or to refulgent air or terrene depths.

In subterranean vaults where ocean roars p-)) B 2

12

Terror and dread to European hearts,

They hold consult with Genii of the deep.

With placid Mermaids, (who preserve the keys

Of coral tombs ; till from their safeguard called.

To repossess once more their hallowed seats,

Forgotten bodies startle the dull world

And take their own from myriads aghast)

With all the good and great of all the world —

The many. murdered Innocence of Ind

Or East or West — and their Avengers great —

However named — in sweet alliance leagued,

Whose fount is GoD, whose end and stream is bliss,

These peaceful murmurs and these pure consults Of ncaring Bliss, speak thunder to the North. They give prognostic to the fear-worn ears Of list'ning usurpers of their fertile clime. In sounds unscanned, of pondered Hurricanes ; When they remount on air triumphant, joined

13

With dread auxiliars riding on the wave,

And shew their greatness — over pale Europe's

Miniatures of winds ! Reigning superior

To their viftors mean, as in fost'ring Peace

So in black War's rude crash ; as in melody,

Just in great discords, throughout all the maze

Of involute, transversive harmony,

Till they repoise the scale in tonal Peace ;

Vi£lors on Europe, witherers of her might !

For their's are Nature's powers ; Elemental strength

Springs in their nerves, to artificial or

Cold Europe's man unknown ; and at the Fount

Divine they drink pursuant of the stream :

They hence are keenly sentient of all truth :

Familiar, hence, is bold Emprize ; easy,

Hence, Atchievement, that to Europe's upward

Navigation is impractical and mad.((F'5

14

Deep in these Caverns, or in Air sublime A long abode they held ; but never slept : Secure— that Europe dreamed not, or dreaming. Dared not search for Life in principles of Life, The ethereal sense and fire's elastic beam.* They rallied, time by time, Their scattered bands. With ANTIENT concords on their still-tuned harps; Which, momently, the favoured ear might catch. At silent dawning in the Zenith Air ; And feel the high seraphic rapture trill. As the SM^eet sounds evolved a maze ©f song — • A song replete with all that Egypt knew. Or close EleuSIS taught her pious youth. ((^))

Here too I sat with them enwrapt, though open; [(Hj) Till now the concert hastens to a close. And all OUR War is out ! Bold and more quick The COUNTERVAILING DiscordsNOW We sound

* i£thercum Senium atque auvai simplicis Ignem. ^nsld vi. 7<}7.

15

And ply the terrible Antlstrophe, ((I)] With fearful Justice and closed Harmony Full on Europe, who ghastly sinks to Hell !

The Genius of the West is High, and rides Swiftly on the bold and regulated Pinion of the Atlantic Wind. His race is won. His burning wheels run on the rolling floods ! He has not other climes to visit. New To the world in Afric*s ((K)) Morning ; and in Asia's Noon but juft refle6ling rays Feeble and broken on European snows — He challenged no return who made no gift. But now though Europe his descending beams Have all diffused their lustre ; and at length, fresh and resplendent in the Western sky, He sums up all his Justice and his Strength ; Kindles his orient and meridian blaze Clear as in Asia, as in Afric bold ;

16

Displays as lucid purple on his throne,

And summons all the Honors of the World.

No lingering twilight in the proud-robed WEST

Shews indecision in the Paths of Day !

But each must grasp the single hour of Light,

Or lose for ever, and in darkness die.

It is not till receding to the point, Whence, from the lofty Zenith's blazy height, Again he darts, with generous force intense. His arrows vertical ; as with quickened march, He hastens to relume the Southern World, — That his indignant and protected Sons Sweep on the Isles commissioned Hurricanes.

Now e'er description bid the tempest pour. Retire We to the bower of Love and feel The blaze of Beauty. 'Tis the hour of Noon : Tokens have caused an awful expeftation :

17

The Calm; diamond-bright, pellucid, ether ; The cavern murmuring to the troubled wave — Give note unerring of the big Event.

And who will join me in this safe Recess ? Come Love's and Nature's offspring pure, whoe'e: Or whence thou art ! For thou art mine, I know : Come Fancy's sweetest Child ! For I am thine Through the contrasted changes of my Life I Swift let me lead thee tender, and fearful. Or of the wild blast, or the madman's touch, Assiduous for that calm and full Recess, To Indian Groves of aromatic breath. To spicy Thickets and to ample flowers Redolent of every various sweet that glows Beneath the beams of Heaven's Eternal Sun 1 Thence, in the house, careless of every blast, Fixt on the Rock whose Quarry gave its Walls,

C

18 And whose Foundations are the centra! Earth,

We'll smile contempt on'' every fear around.

Before the Tempest darken on the Isle, We'll view the little Archipelago, That raise their pleasant banks and slope their beach Around their parent Isle.

Green Island, first. Excels in verdure, and to listlessness And summer pleasure spreads the cocoa shade. Pelican Island on the North-East lies; Whose shelving shore, or here presents the cool, Sequestered spot for bathing; or covered o'er With beauteous shells of every gaudy tinge, invites the mind, that springs to Nature's charms, Or loves to class what she diffusely throws. These, with Long Island, and that Isle whose name The Guana, found in multitudes, imparts;

19

Successive open to the glad eager eye Of manner, naw lightly concluding A long Voyage with Bliss, and down the Northern coast. Rocky, but pleasant, as his business calls. With steady breeze and unreefed topsails, sailing. But far more extacied with all the s^ene Is that gay Girl, or this impetuous Youth, Who, long estranged from early blisses sweet And all the transports of their infant years. In search of Learning radiant, or the dance, Greet joyous now, the pleasant Isle, that holds Their Friends, their Parents, and (if virtue warm The feeling bosoms of their race and them) The orphaned train, whose daily sweat has won ^he Pride and Pleasure which exalts them now ; But whom Diviner Justice goon will teach, That the same hand which .sowed, shall reap the field ; And that, which reaps, uninjured, shall enjoy.

C 2,

20 Around Us here, while all was tempered Peace,

Pleasing although illusive and unjust ;

The balmy trade-wind breathed refreshing airs,

And blew salubrious to the toil-worn slave.

The Eastern shore receives the welcome gale; And leads to caverns, or the brow ot rocks, To gravel banks with glittering shell-fish strewed. To deep. green mangrove, or the shadowing branch Of lofty cedar droping blossoms white, That tremble as they fall and meet the wave Progressive to their root. Here, oft, at even, When lengthening shadows to the calmy wave Sliot dubious twilight and alluring gloom, 1 sat contemplative ; and viewed the breeze Chequer the water with far-streaming light, That glistened «5 with gems : I sat and thought Ambition was a folly; glory, madness; And all the hopes attending various man

21 Were robbers of his rest : I thought, that Love Was all the sum indulgent Heaven e'er made To constitute his bliss, I thought so and was blest.

For four long days a calm through nature reigned; A calm as dead as ever struck the deep ; As ever marked the silent air with awe. Or stilled the leaf high trembling, on the bough. The fifth at eve to my accustomed haunt. Along the shadow of a Cocoa Grove, Down to the beach I strolled. The setting sun Was dyed with crimson ; and the full-orbed moon, That palely rose above the dusky arch, Was deeply burred. Settled, encreasing, black, With jagged clouds, voluminous and deep, Scudded along the Northern verge of ocean. And a long labouring swell hove the large Billow lifeless on the shore, while adverse clouds In dark battalia swiftly met in air.

22r

Just where the horizon bends to meet the wave. Within the farthest reach of human ken, A Sail appeared. The mild ray far beaming From the Western Sun glanced on her canvas, And beheld it spread ^^)) before the rising breeze. The rising breeze far from the Northward moved, Ruffling along, and blackened as it came. The affrighted plover from its blast retired; The lizard nestled in the watchman's hut, And heavy, awful, gloom poured deepening on. Soon reigning darkness o'er Creation drev; The deep-black curtain of involving night : The tempest thickened ; and the dark wind howled Encreasing horrors and sublimer blasts Heavy the deep-hung atmosphere along. Retired as soon as straws around me felt The wind, I, hence, enjoyed in silent peace The rending gale. But, ever and anon. Some crash of trees or noise of swift destruftiojK

23

Met my car. Soon the expefted signals of Distress roll through the heavy storm ; the wind Almost suppressed the deep-mouthed sound it bore^ Reiterate at rapid intervals,

The guns were heard, and oftimes joined the thunder. The firing ceased. The aggravated storm rode Wide and unrivalled through the midnight air. All else was silence.

24

CANTO II.

Jr RESH from the roaring of the darksome wind, Peace for a ?no?nent, draw thy mantle round, [(m)} Hushing disordered Nature ; while rapid Humanity and Love disperse their beams, To light the houseless exile to my home, Before the Hurricane confirm his waste. Brothers in Vengeance ! For one moment's pause I yield you Nature till the golden morn, And claim from none, to stay your shivering hand !

While yei o'er all the solemn stillness reigned, Instant relief, in all direftions sent, The nearest wanderers found, and safely housed.

25 The moral viftims whom the gale destroyed, And her preserved with life to Bliss I sing — If not with jnetral pomp on harp sublime, Yet to the youthful heart and virgin's ear.

'TwAS where the sound of guns had marked a wreck, My own selefted path I took, in search Of objefls breathing from the Eastern storm. Wild and tremendous was the nightly sky ; The clouds involved in vast confusion, deep And ripening still for a£lion, ascended Swiftly from the South and West. Exhausted To the East they thinned, and nearly oped there The lowering sky ; where, dimly seen, one star Glimmered on night's dull brow, and then was hid. Pale twilight from the shrouded moon discovered Shattered Nature ; and, as we neared the dreadful Sounding ocean, large torches held aloft

D

26

Gleamed fearful on the loud tempestuous waste. Ocean, why in darkness hid, sounds so deep Your midnight roar ? Clouds, enclosing warring Winds, why so solemn flit ye o'er? Tell me All your mighty ravage ! Hear I not some Female shriek now faintly sighing on the Wings of night ? Straightly appeared a gleam of White before us. Advancing quickly foiward, We saw, on near approach, the tattered sail Of a ship driven by billows over shelves Of rocks, high up the creek, and lodged on shore. Around, no form of life was seen. 'Twas ravage* No hand remained. The Tempest was her pilot, And the mighty arm, that winged the ruin. Hung o'er the side, female attire we found In shreds ; it's owner sought in vain, was lost. Within with speed through every hold we search* And cabin. The first were empty. The last Repaid my zeal ; for here I found, softly

27

Reclining on a leeward couch a form

Divine, Waked by the noise and lights, her eyes, As on I came, returned the beams of mine. With hurried speed she said

ElMira.

Where is my mother? And the captain? How glad I am, that they Direfted you to me !

'TwAS no direftion But our own. Come quick thou mildly-beaming Angel-form with me — ^The moments stay not — And I'll lead thee into peace and safety.

D 2

IB

Elmira*

Where is my mother gone? And arc we yet In England ?

No : with truest Friends you are.

I PLACED Her in an idle hammaque near, Which, held by Negroes, bore her gently on. And as we went, I aimed, with tenderest talk To cheer the droopy maid ; who, not reluftant Seemed, to solace: for to Sea unused, young And innocent, she knew not the dangers She had passed ; but hearing English spoke, and Dreaming nought of strangers, having sunk to sleep Among accustomed friends, supposed herself Still known. Simply eloquent, she told me,

39

How they disturbed her with their noise on board ;

How, being still at length, she hugged her couch, Rocked by the winds and seas to dead repose, Till thence awoke by me. So infant spirits, Who wing their animating flight of Death In pleasing slumbers from their mother's arms, Alight unknowing on celestial ground: Then press with firmy step the flowery path, Nor dream of serpents they have never known; Embrace with smiles their first angelic Friend, And ope the little treasure of their hearts : Thus sweet Elmira told her gentle tale. And lit each generous ardour in my breast.

At home arrived and entering at the East-* For now all entrance from the West was barred- She looked and asked-=-

30

Elmira.

Where is my mother's room? Or where is she ? I want to sleep again : For you removed me when but half awake » What is this country ?

A country tis, where — Daughters and mothers seldom live together.

Elmira.

Why not ?

They cannot* Young with young, and old With old together dwell, where you are now.

31

Your mother fully welcomed just is gone

Where you can never follow. The dist;ance

Is but small ; yet bad the road, and water

Lies between you. She begs you here to rest.

Till, with a few days use, you like the place.

You will command whatever you may see,

And all this house is your's. All varied pleasure

Shall attend the varied day. The morning

Breeze luxuriant shall be your's in this saloon.

Or in the Orange and Acacia shade ;

Where flower or fruit alike regale your taste.

For you shall noon pour tranquil splendour wide.

Not unaired, nor void of rich aroma;

For shrubs that love to drink his ray and live.

Will skreen it from EliMIRA. The purple

Sorrel-NeQar high, or milk of Cocoa Nut

You then shall drain ; and in its sportive shade

Hearken, the breeze race on it's rising stem.

^yenlner shall bear us to the Thicket Shade ;

32 Or else, at large, we'll catch the rambling air; And when we see the peaceful breast of ocean Just rippled over with the wildring breeze. We'll then descend the beach; and, pleased, inhale The freshest breath of genial air that blows ; Or snufF the showers colleQing in the East To cool the atmosphere and green the earth,

Elmira.

But, will my mother never come? I long To tell her of those pleasant things.

Better Enjoy them first and know them true yourself. Then, sweet companions of your sex and age Will join your walk and mix their joys with your*s ,-

33

With equal transport catch the lively glow From Nature's face, and beam it in their eyes ; While with extatic smiles you hail the scene, And eager tell, what various pleasures swell.

El MIR A, Will none else be with us?

I.

I WHEN you please, Will join my sweet Elmira and her Friends,

Elmira.

I SHALL always please.

34

Safely lodged at home, And ail secured against the wind stern rising, I pressed refreshment on my travelled guest, Who well enjoyed the delicate repast Oi viands flavoured new and cooling drinks. Full easily she believed herself brought By design to this so happy spot : and sure She deemed aright — It was her God's design : Only she thought from God and not from man. Think still, sweet maid, the same ! No reasoner Shall e'er disturb thy God's domain in thee! Still from the same pure fountain thou shalt drink! Still, in the Light Divine shalt thou see light*

Meanwhile the Tempest turned has rouzed his rage, And blows on Europe unrelenting fury : The rain, in spreading sheets, comes whelming down And forms a flood. Nor man, nor beast, nor house Unfounded on a rock, sustained the assault

85

Of winds and rain : The lightnings flamed, and roared

The thunder in tremendous vollies deep :

Now all the soul of Hurricane was poured,

Infuriate raging with the waste of sea.

Through earth or ocean God's own hand uprearcd

Quickly destroyed all the destruQible :

Well sheltered on the West, we felt it less, But heard it more. The hard rain loud battering The shingled roof surprized my lovely guest ; Who doubted if she were not still afloat : But soon assured and soon resigned to Peace, For her's was bliss innate and incorrupt, And eager on her novel hopes of life, She softly sank to beatific sleep.

With rising morn th^ wind subsides: The clouds Fly lighter and to higher air sublime,

E 2

36

Discharged of all their weight. The Eastern breeze Resumed is balmy; and Creation lives.

The Wreck we next examine : There, nor man, Nor boat is found : A mile to leeward shews The wreck of both : A Female washed on shore Proclaims Elmira's mother. But from her The tragic fa£l is hid.

She broods no tempest Who conceals no guilt. No mean lust of gain Propelled Elmira; nor guilt-infefted hopes Taught her the fear of ill, or yet, to fly To man for safety, which Deity would not .Grant, jior her own breast could claim.

The Sailors hoped- To fetch the quiet creek in boats ; and haste Could not await ELMIRA; nor would fear

37 Surcharge their yawl; nor their trust in human

Aids permit to take a poor helpless hand : —

Yet, alone, would Innocence have saved them !

The female age matured and wise, her child's Guardian, hung for life on men ! While she prayed That they would save her daughter's life and lier*s, A sweeping billow bore her to the deep.

Shortly awake, El mir a joined me soon, Treading with cheerful step and unrestrained The stately portico. 'Twas all enchantment To her soul. The sun burst brilliant forth and Welcomed her : All the Isle, the conquered oceaUj Lay before her : Smaller Isles attraft her : Unknown Diversities of Landscape strike : The distant Hills cite curiosity ; Her God is in her heart in Love and Bliss; And through the Isle and air she lives.**

SOLITARY EFFUSION

SUMMER'S EVENING.

SOLITARY EFFUSION.

nV«"'"//. ««««#» A*'""/l,

HAVING SPENT A VERY FINE DAV IN THE HOUSE, IN

THE MIDST OF A VERY FINE COUNTRY, FROM WANT

OF COMPANY TO ENJOY IT WITH ME', I WROTE

THESE LINES AT FIVE IN THE AFTERNOON

ON THE TWENTIETH OF JULY LAST.

HAT is the cloudless sky to me ? Nature's Devellopt radiance and her thousand charms ? No heart joins mine : no kindred step with me Winds the lone dingle, or pursues the track Slow opening through the mazy thicket's shade; None rests with me upon the verdant slope, And runs his eye enraptured o'er the glade,

F

42

Oil to the distant sleeping stream, that walks With slow and measured lapse, his round of ages In the circling mead ; saw the woad-painted Briton ; beheld, or bore, his sharp-scythed chariot ; Was oft dasht by the fierce arm that ruled it ; Yielded indignant to the new Roman ; Echoed with languid joy and presage sad The desperate shouts of fainting Freedom, As they rang from loud C aer-Caradoc* amain, And with their last rude crash shook every dale, Rouzed each cot in vain ; and has lived to hear That song again from centuries of Death, On Mason's lyre revived.

Hark ! Here are groves That hold, or held, some Druid. Dark mantling Round they throw impenetrable shade ; and hide,

* The hill, whore Caractac us made his last stand, and visible from many pans of the County of Salop, where this was written.

43

And have for ever hid, aye unprofaned By Pvoman, or by Savage conqueror's step. Some Temple sacred by the Mystic Sage.

Here, loo, are haunts of Love, as well as grand And rudest Wisdom's darkest, drear domains. Groves were sacred once to Love : once were heard. Low murm.uring through the many-turtled shades Of Peace, respondent sighs, or livehest notes Of placid and accordant Love, that mixed Airs with the Zephyr, whispers with the sacred grove. Loner husht to sullen silence; Groves no more Echo to human Loves ; the Loves rcnnen, Or antient minstrels sung, of Dryad oV Of Naiad, or perchance of human Maid From cottage or from palace ; or of Gods, From halls of light descending to the plain. Unconscious of a change ; nor so immixt,

F 2

44

Can learned retrospeftion trace distinft,

The^ Nymph, the Goddess or terrestrial Maid.

Lonely their solitary haunts I view: And welcome solitude where they are not: Where such are not companions of the walk !

Tell me, ye Gentle and ye Graceful, tell- Tell me, ye Chaste, yet not averse from Love — Tell me, ye Great, who guarded all these Fair,

And make the lofty Groves of Love, that tower In Zenith Air, terrific to the vain ; As all within was mild, serene and pure— Tell me, wh© most have ravaged your retreats j Who worst your secret delicacies wound, And boldest all your hidden depths profane ? Which age is vile, the Gothic, or Refined ?

45

*'Th AT, which the Heart lays waste!" I hear exclahned In choral harmony of Fair and Great. " Ah! What avails to us, pure Nature's Spirits! ** The managed body and the managed tongue, " Which chaunts no concord to soft Nature's notes? " The managed foot, that dreads our shady brakes, ** And shuns our holiest, wildest, deepest walks ? ** We give no music to the high-trained ear : " Our concert loved is NATURE'S voice Divine, *' And GOD's and LOVE's ; One unison, tliat sounds '* Through every branch, and trembles in each leaf. ^' Here oft, when man awakes not, hear we sweet ^* The voice of GOD conversing in the Calm, *' And preaching of his inmost works Himself; *' Till all the Seraph glow in all his fires, '' And melts the high Society in one '' Enraptured Diapason's holy sound.

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" T\v AS not the Warrior's gleam, that thinned our shades " And harshly grated human Discords there : *' He passed unheeded when the storm was o'er, " And left no measured ravage : Not the man " Of boisterous Nature was our foe ; that man " Was Nature still, and her behests obeyed. " The Man of Art, is NATUR.E's foe and man's " And God's. His desolating axe wastes ail, " That speaks a GOD Creator of the Land; ** And marks it for his own. The ground not thita *' Yields an impartial feast to man, to fowl, " And all the Family of GOD ; but trained '• To furnish famine, mocks at GOD and all. " No shades are holy, nor are rural scenes. '' The Man of Art proscribes all Nature; marks " For dread the embowring thicket formed tor Love *' And Love's delights of Peace ; and w^ise in this "■ Career of Ruin, he ; for LOVE itself •• Is the fir^t dread— LOVE the first great terror

47

'' Of the Man of Art — commivtual Foe!

" And yet is LOVE the Universal Friend :

** And, (hear the choir of NATURE, MAN and GOD!}

" The Man of Art, the Universal Foe!

*' He dreads hirnself- — hates LOVE he can't subdue — ■

" His GOD arraigns— all NATURE desolates !

** But hence, let NATURE rise and reign in Man i

** And him destroy who has destroyed the Earth ;

'' While GOD inspires, and LOVE unites the World T'

I HAIL the blest alternative! Content To live dissociate of the Man of Art And his dissociate earth, usurpt and curst ! Shortly his ruin whelms ; the Dam is broke ] The Founts of Fire are broken up, as erst Of the Great Deep, and FIRE now streams along. Innocuous round my Rest! See! It comes! And claims the SPRINGS of NATURE for it's own \

JVOTES,

NOTES.

CANTO I.

NOTE ((A)) Broke the mild concords of tht Mermaid's shell,

(LyOLUMBUS asserts his having seen Mermaids about the time he first made land, whg sank, at his approach.

The existence of the Mermaid is now cer- tain ; as one was exhibited a long while in Oxford- Street, which I saw two years ago nearly, together with a young one taken in her arms. The length of the mother may have been four feet, and that of the child nine or ten inches. From the loins up- ward appeared to have been covered with flesh ; and

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thence dowms^ard, with scales. They were dried, having been caught five years before on the coasts of Italy or of Sicily. The hands were webbed ; and the fingers terminated sharp, like a monkey's. The owner says, he refused One Hundred Guineas for them, from the British Museum.

Why not Mermem and Mermaids as vrell as Ourang-Outangs ? Why not Sea men and maids (im- perfeQ animals though they are) as well as Sea lions, calves and horses ?

NOTE ((b))

Not less than Memnon whoin Aurora bore To Eastern mornings

HIS statue near Thebes in Egypt, emitted musical sounds, when impinged on by the first rays of the sun, at rising ; and did not lose this faculty when half demolisht. Some ingenious strictures on it may be found in Dr. Darzoin's Botannic Garden, among his many other valua-

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ble notes. The mechanism, which produced this singu- lar, but well avouched, efFeft, is not my business : What I shall argue from it will be equally conclusive, if the mechanism be a fable.

The Celestial Philosophy of the Idea is that — Light and Sound ARE CORELATES. Creation pro^ ceeded in darkness, while it proceeded in silence. At length GOD spake — Let there ^^ Light! And there was Light — ipso f ado, GOD does not speak dark- LY : and here our common phraseology, as I shall mor& fully remark presently, betrays a consciousness of this co-relation. But to go on with Scripture : T/2<? Word was the Light of men. The Stars, which in Genesis i. 17, \s!^r^ to give Light upon the earthy are speaking in Psalm xix. 3. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard — or ASTROLOGY; which is compounded of two Greek words, signifying, the Word or Voice of ^^<; Stars. Perhaps it will be suspefted, that had David possessed as muck Science in futurity as confidence in Astrology, he would in this assertion, have excepted the summits of Wisdom to which modern Europe has attained, so far beyond the loftiest ken of his capacity. In some degree to avert th'-s

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censure, I must endeavour to supply what was wanting in David with the fulness of the Son of David. He has given as a diagnostic of the iasi times, that the Stars shall withdraw their shining, and the powers of HEAVEN shall be shaken. What shining is with- drawn ? The European will first tell you that their ex- ternal shining is meant, and also their external droping from the heaven as a fig-tree shaken by the wind casts her untimely figs; and having inexpugnably fortified himself there, because he has too much reverence for holy writ to let it coimtcnance superstition — proceeds im- mediately to laugh at the profound ignorance in all phy- sical sciences or real learning, of Him, who pretended, that the worlds were made by the word of his power, for asserting, that such immense bodies would fall to the earth. This is one instance of the generous support given by learning to Christianity. Therefore I say to you all, whether College Petit-maltres, Priests, Moralists, Ency- clopaedia Writers, Swedenborglans, or Philosophers,

Non tali auxilio ncc dcfensoribus istis Christus eget.

Christ wants not such help^ nor such defenders.

55 Man by Wisdom knew not GOD— much less by idiocy or a national state of insanity. But how then ? By the Light, and by the speech and action of a Star. There shall come a Star out ^/^ Jacob, and a Sceptre shall arise out ^/Israel, combined in significatioM with it, and shall SMITE the corners of hiodh and de- stroy all the children ^/Seth. And after many years there came wise men from the East, not from the North, to Jerusalem, searching for the Sceptre in consequence of having seen the Star, and asking, Where is He who is born King of the Jews ; for we have seen his Star in the East, and are come to worship Eim. How did they read all this in the Star"? For read it or hear it, they unquestionably did. Was it the extraordinary mag- nitude of the Star, that adm.onished them ? How came it, that the Jews over whom it was vertical did not see it ? For Herod called the Wise men and diligently enquired of them, at what time the Star appeared. But perhaps, it is a satisfa6lory answer, that they always looked upon the ground like Europeans, surrendering the charaEleristic of Ma^^ who with d lofty countenance, is made to be- hold the Stars, If this be allowed, Isaiah has something upon it chap. viii. £2, They shall look unto the earth ; and behold trouble and dabkness, dimness of anguish ;

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and be driven to DARKKESS ! However ready the men were, who could not read the Star, to murder the KING, and till they could atchieve the murder of Inno- cence impersonified, to regale themselves with the but- chery of a multitude of comparative Innocents, the wise men followed the Star and worshiped the King and the GOD ; watching its place of sloping and there, themselves, resting: till, warned by a DreaJii, they re- turned into their country another way, than through the Jews, or by the Kmg^ whom these so religiously obeyed — for, no doubt, they did so, because David had shewn them not to lift their hand against the Lord's Anoin- ted : The natural or external man has no rule to know the Devil's from the Lord's.

Christ was manifested to the Gentiles by a Star : JESUS to the Jews by Visions of Angels and by Dreams. Till I exaBly know, which of these two or three modes of manifestation the Europeans most confide in, I cannot be clear, whether they are Gentiles or Jews, or even Turks, Infidels or Heretics. I rather think they are a mixture, and if I may judge from the serenity with vi-liich they see the heavens and the earth shaken round them, I should say, a happy mixture of all five. But

57 the word five reminds me, that the five foolish virgins, (and surely there is virgin folly in this compound) as well as the five wise, slept and slumbered till the Bridegroom came.

The Speech of the orbs of Light is not an acci- dental figure, taken up for partial illustration and then abandoned; but a Doctrine, which pervades all re- ligions and applies to every perception* In Job, chap, xxxviii. 7, it is said, The Mor?iing St ars sang toge- ther; and this brings us to Memnon ; who seems an impersonation of this sentiment ; and designed to repre- sent in stone the immediate correspondential consequences of light, in a recipient organized for sound. Memnon is a solitary instance of this in human produ£fions or works of art ; but the Crowing of Cocks, and Singing of Birds, are among instances of it, where moral powers predominate rather than physical — that is, in the works of the Father of Lights.

If Light and Sound are corelates, the proposi- tions by which this is affirmed are equally true in the

* I do not speak of Europe, here.

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converse ; as Psalm cxix. 105. TAy Word is a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my Path, Psalm xix. 3. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

With the Greeks, Phabus and Apollo were the same person ; or Light and Sound were twin streams from one spring. With a less philosophical people, si blind man has been thought ridiculous, for conceiving the colour Red to be like the sound of a Trumpet : yet to common perception they both are splendid and spirited. Even the creeping of mechanic philosophy has arrived at discovering the same divisions and proportions in the Diatonic Scale and the Prism,

It is well observed by Dr. Darwin, that we apply words expressive of Light and Sound indifferently to each other ; as Harmony of colours ; a splendid composi- tion or fine painting in Poetry, Oratory or Music ; equi-^ poise of sounds. Perhaps the word equipoise aftually unites Sounds and Light. I have not scrupled to say, a few lines farther on, that ** fired with radiance-^-^ihcy poured Music,'" without thinking it any breach of meta- phor ; though Apollo's arrows and the lyre of Phoebus

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have been by some critics, held such. Even this, I think, amounted to no more than a solecism, supposing it to have been an error at all ; language having prescribed the Word to Apollo and the Light to Phcebus. Scripture, we have just seen, as well as common language, slights the Distinftion.

NOTE Ic)]

Then M(? Mermaid /<? her deeps shot rapid : Trembling she lay ; hut safe, and long concealed From haunts of War,

I HAVE anticipated in the Preface, that the ma- chinery of this Poem turns on the thought, that while the inhabitants of America were subdued, the Europeans were gradually tinfturing themselves with the feelings, manners and habits, of that new Quarter of the Globe. In other words, while American bodies were destroyed by European bodies, American Spirits were subduing the Europeans — and much more effeftually and really, though latently. It was latent to Europeans, only be-

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(30 cause they and their philosophy contemplate forms or externals^ alone ; and hence, they conclude, when a body is put out of the way, the whole work is done ; little considering, that the Spirit or Principle, which solely gave that body existence, is itself, so far from be- ing extinguisht, that it has burst the crucible which confined it, and enflamed to vengeance all those, who are in a similar principle, whether ten, a thousand, a myriad, or in the case of a common Saviour, all Crea- tion— and the murderer himself among the number. And the subjugation effefted by America is more effeftual and real, because Spirit moves body^ but body does not move Spirit. It may remove Spirit from it ; but the good it gains is, that it dies, and the expelled Spirit flourishes more exalted, pure and free.

By Sea I always mean the external, the body or crust, of the world ; I mean also Europe, or still more specifically, England ; as having understandings calcu- lated for the Sea or for Physics ; and excelling alike in the sciences and the arts by which these two are jointly contemplated.

6i

A PROPOSITION.

But though the inhabitants oT America were destroyed, yet, as the Spirit or Genius, or Princi- ple of America infused itself into Europeans, and still goes on rapidly perfusing itself there, it could never be said, in the abstra6l or in the highest sense, that American bodiei were destroyed — or, which is the same thing, that there was no trace of the activity of their prin- ciples in the world.

When I speak of Mermaids, I wish to be un- derstood as expressing by them, the most intelligent in*, habitants of the merely natural world ; because the Sea is that world, and among its animals the Mermaid near- est approaches to the human form, and consequently to the image and similitude of GOD. And by American Mermaids specifically, I mean the intelligence and love of natural or sensual Life am.ong and appro- priate to, the Americans. Hence

By the passage, which Is the Subjcft of this Note, I mean, fkat the cdwve Intelligence and Loy k ziere

02

net extinguisht, but " sunk in the sea," or transfused into European bodies.

Why is the Sea the ultimate of Creation ?

Fire is visibly the Primary, or rather the Esse of Being; because Fire alone has Motion in itself, or can impart motion, that is, inherent motion to any body. This is testified universally by expansion ; and in the case of magnetic bars, by attra6lion. For, unde- niably, where there is attraftion, these is motion^ a fer- mentation of parts ; and this is produced by imparted heat. If Fire be the Primary, the opposite of Fire is the ultimate.

NOTE {{d)]

Who, far from Europe and its bodied forms.

THAT is, far from the perception of their under- ^tandmg : and, as the European lives in his understanding alone ; that is, places no confidence in anything, which

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is not mathematically visible, not even in Logic, far less in internal feelings and the experiences of mind — I have said far from him ; though they were working so power- fully IN him, as to repeopU from Europe, many immense trafts of America, on one side of the Atlantic ; and on the other, combined with a beverage from the East, and the manual cultivation of a still more spiritual country, to establish themselves in every parlour, from the palace to the mud cottage ; and most universally in the most physical kingdom of the most physical Quarter of the Globe, in the form of the most universal, deep-rooted and medicinal luxury ever known. With every lump of Sugar, a certain portion of Essence of America and of Africa is swallowed ; and if refined with the blood of bulls, a proportion of England too ; but the first are wholly predominant.

Strange it would be, that Mathematicians give- no reality to Spirit, while they lay the basis of form in Idea — if they were any thing but Mathematicians. What makes a surface ? What makes a line ? What makes a point ? Here Metaphysics begin* — after Physics end, or have attained their grovelling apex. It stands, or has

* That Metaphysics owe their name to the mark of a book-kinder is «n account worthy of Mathematicians; who are truly vox ct prxtena nihil

04

stood contest by the Mathematicians that all form rises out of Idea ; and justly ; only it is a pity that, after know- ing their place, they would not keep it. The fly, though he feels himself carried by the wheel, fancies he turns it ; but because he is a fly, he cannot be instru6led ; yet he may be killed : Notwithstanding he is capable of survi- ving a passage from America to England in a pipe of Madeira wine — an experiment I am fully informed of, while I write — yet he may be trodden down and thoroughly crusht. Impertinence not corrigible by failure and repulse, nor to be awed by example, may be destroyed.

The importance of a man or of a nation absorbed in one thing, must be decided by tht practical importance of the thing absorbing. The highest practical use of Mathesis is Architeftuie, Land or Naval, and Astrono- mical Navigation : This last serves to convey comforts home ; the second is the medium of the third ; and the first is, at once, the primary and ultimate of sensual en- joyment— a sine qua non ; and of course the most invalu- able atchievement. And this may, in a vioment, be de- molisht by either a human Invention, or by Nature; and must inevitably yield to Time.

05

NOTE ((E))

In subterranean vaults ^ where ocean roars, &c,

A ROARING of the Sea in certain caverns, is one prognostic of an Hurricane, in Antigua.

By holding consultations with Genii of the Deep, I mean superadding to themselves the first and highest principles of Physical Sciences, and thereby excelling or vanquishing Europe on her own Element. Whence I have said farther on, " They are viBors ON Europe— Witherers of her might,'* See the next Note,

NOTE ((F))

For their' s are Nature's Powers : Ele?nentai strength Springs in their nerves ; to artificial or Cold Europe s man unknown ; and at the Fount Divine they drink^ pursuant of the stream. They hence are keenly sentient of all Truth ; /

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Faniiliar, hence, is bold Emprize ; easy. Hence, Atchievement, that to Europe's upward Navigation is impraclical and mad,

THOSE, who teel internally, think or judge froi» that ieeling, and a6l from that judgment, are in order ; They are bannered in Nature's Cavalry : Their course of Aftion is a fine Synthesis ; and wherever they proceed, they meet no objeft but what is below them. They arc always on the higher ground. The man of physical feel- ings, science and action, is always climbing, but never ascending.

But why this distribution of parts to America and Europe ? For Europe I have accounted, in a great measure, already. As to America, first and foremost I shall give the praftical reason, because that is the Ame- rican— and it is this — I am an American, and Qui SEN Til llle EST. I say — Such is the ground ; I de- scribe it ; and did any European teach me ? No. Then it is my own ground.

Next, the speculative reason.

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Fire is the Esse oi' Being, or Being itself: Earth is the Essence ; or that which gives Distinc- tion, Solidity or exterior Permanency ; Water is the Ultimate, the Exanimate, the Weak of Creation : Air is the Result of the Elements ; continent of tliem in vari- ous proportions and recipient of every different quality from them. The Hebrews always knew it to be no Ele- ment ; for of their twenty-two letters, they gave twelve to the Signs of the Zodiac, seven to the planets, and three to Fire, Earth and Water.

As is the Continent or Country, so is the Man of it. AFRICA is evidently the least watered part of the Globe ; or, what is still more to the point, the least ac- cessible by water. She is poised on the Equator; and certainly is the fiery region of the world. Asia is an jE^tr//^ to Africa ; a vehicle, which was contrived to prevent Europe from extinguishing Africa, or Africa from burning Europe, while heatir.g it. With Asia I have no farther business, than to add she was represented among the Antients by a Ship, as Europe was by Water, But on Africa I shall treat in a separate Note. The African is, however, the most internal man in the world, as his country is the most fiery.

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If Europe have not more water than America, nor so much, yet, her chief strength, superiority and energy, lie in that element. America is AIR.

As Air she possesses the powers and advantages combined (and consequently sublimed and in a fulness of perfection which only the combination can give) of all other Quarters of the Globe. The altitude of her Moun- tains, the depth and immensity of her Rivers, the quan- tity of her Metals, her possession of the most noble of them in Platin A, the number of her Islands, her two- fold Continent and its vast extent — join unequivocally to support this fa6l. Her inhabitants, therefore, contem- plating alike Heat and Cold, Mountains and Plains, Woods and Lakes, Rivers and Oceans, each on an im- perial throne — may, v^ry well, for a moment be lost i?2 body, but cannot be defective in Mind.

A MAN is supposed to improve by going out into ihe world, by visiting London. Artificial man does ; he extends with his sphere ; but alas ! that sphere is micro- scopic : It is formed of minutiae, and he surrenders his genuine vision to the artist, in order to embrace it in his ken. His bodily senses grow acute, even to barren and

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inhuman pruriency ; while his mental become propor- tionally obtuse. The reverse is the Man oF Mind : He who is placed in the sphere of Nature and of GOD, might be a mock atTattersall's and Brookes's, and a sneer at St. James's : He would certainly be swallowed alive by the first Pizarro^ that crossed him : — But, when he walks along the River of Amazons ; when he rests his eye on the unrivalled Andes ; when he measures the long and watered Savannah ; or contemplates from a sudden Pro- montary, the distant, Vast Pacific — and feels himself a Freeman in this vast Theatre, and commanding each ready produced fruit of this wilderness, and each progeny of this stream — His exaltation is not less than Imperial. He is as gentle too as he is great : His emotions of tender- ness keep pace with his elevation of sentiment ; for he says, *' These were made by a good Being, who unsought bv me, placed me here to enjoy them." He becomes at once, a Child and a King. His mind is in himself ; from hence he argues and from hence he afts ; and he argues unerr- ingly and a£fs magisterially : His Mind in himself is also in his GOD ; and therefore he loves, and therefore he soars. He knows where he is ; his speculations do not outfly his praftice ; for he thinks he knows nothing but what he proves. The vast pride of discovering Experimental

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Philosophy cannot, indeed, be his; for Discovery is precluded by incessant Knowledge.

The European is always clinnbing, because he al- ways begins with Water, whose property it is, always to sink to a level. He cannot make any progress, because Water originates nothing. He never ascends, because he never quits Water. Hence, for ever, like Sisyphus, struggling up a toilsome, vain Analysis, he judges all things, which are above the height to which Water may be forced by known engines, to be imprafticable ; and the Science of Mind to be impraftical and a mad speculation, instead of what it is — the only and BRILLIANT REALITY. He always thinks out of himself: hence he never meets GOD, and leaves the PRIME Work of Deity, as the least considerable part of creation : but this, he alleges, is because he is not able to consider him at all. He knows not where to be- gin ; he has not one datum in Mind \ and the science of all that is real, stands under the term Metaphysics, as a cani name for all that is speculative. If, when arrived here, he could draw a syllogism, and acknow'ledge his inferiority, he would, at this moment, be an objeQ of my friendship, not of my indignation and inveftive. But he

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is not content to hQ false ; he is bad : he is not content to be ignorant of Mind, but the villain must murder it, if he can — but he cannot. We have just seen him, from the attempt, as ^^^as he \s false ; We see him in the conduct of his attempt, as foolisFi as he is wicked. He throws Water on our seeds, and makes us vegetate. With his ignorance of Mind, he knows not the laws of Vi61orv. He knows not, though he sees it, that the visible body is moved by only the invisible Mind, and that the energies, which impel an imperious course of conduct, lie not in muscles, nor in bones of even six inches dia- meter': We know it and vanquish him on his own ground; moving body to any thing by spirit. He sees it, did I say ? I beg his pardon ; 1 forgot, that eyes can look only outward, and that of course, he cannot see this; But I have an infallible recipe for this blindness ; or if not a recipe, an antidote for those, whom its malignant atrocity would poison — it is this ; he can feel; that is, when he is run through the body. Instru6lion must be written for an European, with ink of blood and a pen of steel.

If the first Motive of Creation, the Crea- tor, the first Life, be connefted with each detacht part of Creation, with each subordinate Lfe, and each

subordinate mover ^ at all ; it must be in the most aftive, the most vital, and the most plastic, which are also the most recondite, parts of his frame. Who ever found Majesty in a bone, or illumination in the eye of a corpse ? But the organization continues, or to what purpose is Anatomy ? Therefore the first motive inheres not in body, nor in its organization. The percipient is vanisht, and the motive is gone. Suppose them to be annihilated, if you will ; lam sure your body is. Yet, in this body you fix demonstration ; from this you argue : It is a reasoning worthy of it, that in the principle of its identity and motion, you disdain to seek that of its Creation, even GOD. Spirit without spirituality ; Christians without Christ or Power ; Asserters of, nay, brawlers for Jesus, without Salvation, you Englishmen are — Mathematicians : all purer charafters are superstitious. The Science of Mind, to be sure, is Superstition: but it is the Superstition which Archimedes wanted to raise the World ; but which, I tell you, mean men of physics, I HAVE ;— and The FRENCH HAVE ! And will KEEP and PERFECT, whether you see, and whether you approve, or not. Adieu !

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NOTEici

A song replete with all that EgypT knevc : Or close Eleusis taught her pious youth :

THAT is, replete with the knowledge and Philosophy of the whole world. I assert this of the Setting Sun, because he has seen, and been seen, through all the World ; as of the Rising Sun, because he was to see and be seen throughout.

Egypt and Eleusis stand for the Rising Sun, with me; Egypt for the Knowledge, and Eleusis for the Philosophy ; because, la)iing aside the vulgar presumption in favor of Asia tor the Spring of human . Being, I have not a penumbra of hesitation in affirming it to be Abyss IN lA ; nor do I doubt, that the first forma- tion of Man into Societies and apparent order, was in Egypt. This I first conclude from its being a country- lying just below Abyssinia, at the mouth of her River, watered by it without the inconvenience oi rains, and the only part of Af RIG A, that presented the easy means ot Ex- tension to other parts of the World \ which it did by the

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Isthmus of Suez, and also by two small and smooth Li- land Seas, where they might pass their infancy oi Navi- gation ; exclusive of a fine River. Secondly, I conclude so, from the corresponding y^^?, that every revela- tion of Science or Instruction to Man, pagan or evangelical, has been from Egypt ; and this evidently must be the case, and can be the^ case only, on the sup- position, that here was the original ore ic in A gen- tium, or work-shop or factory of nations. For where organization first began, they could certainly give the best account of it.

TriE Birth of Theogony among the Greeks, the remission of Israel to a servitude in Egypt, and, after- wards of the Universal Sa\-iour to the same place for proteftion in infancy, coupled with the Prophecy, "Out of Egypt have I called my Son," at once point it out as the Birth-place of the Doclnnals of all Religions. Per- sons read in Emanuel Swedenborg's Manifestations, will sec, how justly I confine it to DotlrinaU or Science, in the last instance as well as the two first ; because a Son signifies Do6trine ; as Males excel by the cultivation of their Understanding ; but Women or Females by retain- ing the purity of their Will.

7^

Look up lo Abyssinia with an eye of natu- ral 5c?>«rf, that is, on the principles and with the views of Science, that belong to a Heathen Philosopher ; and tell me what you see. Chaos: do you not? Look up abstraBedly to the origin of man, wilh the same eye, not enlightened by Divine Revelation : What do you see ? Chaos. Then two things equal to one and the same thing, are equal to one another,

Ln[ short, every Religion but the PRESENT, has begun in Egypt ; and every Religion but the PRE- SENT has been speculative. MEN are now summoned by a Divine Afflatus, to contend For the GOOD OF ENJOYMENT and ^vill no longer trust it to futu- rity, or be content with speculation, that talks about it and about it. Hence the present originates in Abyssinia. The French are embarked and are near landing on this spot of practical, sensual, or corporeal Good. It is historically true, that on the confines o\ Abyssinia, namely at SexNN aar, was the only kingdom in the World, wliich allowed the king to be regularly tried and put to death ; that is, it was the only country, that, finding a principle of political life and ad.ion to be dtstruBive to happiness, instead of beneficial, abandoa-

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ed and destroyed it. How could they venture on this ? Because they lived in a superior Principle; and, of course FELT and knew their whole political struBure to be subordinate. With the English, it is paramount ; for, though they posses a loose belief of a state superior in stability, they feel they have no hold of it ; and so pradically depend on nothing but Wealth and Policy ; and deem him, forsooth, an enemy to mankind, who shg'.kes these ! It is also true, that as the king of France was sending an ambassador to the emperor of Abyssinia, whence a queen came to hear the wisdom of Solomon and where his Progeny by her still reign, that Embassa- dor, with all his suite were cat to pieces before the door of the kings palace-,'^ owing to certain Friars, who, through jealousy, represented (though, most probably, with justice) the embassador to be ?. spy and secret Enemy.

In a future Note, I shall state some specific reasons for my Egotism in this Poem; but I must round this liead with something like Anticipation. I am the only Being in the World, who go through every inch and every league of the French Revolution j which, in-

* Sec Poncct and Bruce

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deetl, is no wonder, as I had embarked, without sail or oar, in the Revolution to practical Good, Public and Pri- vate, as an individual, before they started. / also have strong symptoms of a neighbourhood to Abyssinia. I have such a strong predileftion for Africa, as, when a youth, to have wished, in crossing the Atlantic without a Mediterranean Pass, to be taken by a Corsair and carried in; and while I was in the latitudes, I looked out impatiently for every sail, in hopes of finding an African Cruizer. There is certainly a Nation of Gibberti, who inhabit East and South of Abyssinia, and have had a Dynasty on its Throne. As the Abyssinians never leave their country (and I strenuously maintain, that a total aversion from travelling can only consist with being at the ulti- ??iateoi Enjoyment and the Primary of Being) the Gib- berti have been ever their Merchants and their Embas- sadors* to Europe. The inference designed may seem almost an infantine speculation to the European, who knows of no relations but what are guaranteed by a par- son and clerk, and archived in a register, according to statute ; and therefore I have published enough ; but witk

* If these be not meant in Isaiah xviii. i, 2, who are ? And if the hard, rough, toiling, xaASTTOV, country, (See my laft Note) to which they are Tent, be not Europe, what region is it ?

78

the aid of two or three other Correspondences, I can infallibly prove my Relation yr^/« Spirit, because in Spirit^ akhough naturally, it may be thought, improbable.

I SHALL produce another proof, that Egypt was the first debut of Mankind ; which will have weight with Students of Correspondences, The yikst Gates of the New Jerusalem are East and North. Now the place to which man is brought back, corresponds in principle, for GOD never alters his plan, to the place whence he sat out; and supposing Egypt to have been the first route taken by Man, its gates or channels of external communication, are East and North. So the first gates from the Country of Creation and Re-creation are East and North.

By Eleusis I mean the Philosophy of the Springs of Nature. Egypt was an original spot : Eleusis only a representative : Therefore the one gave knowledge, while the other was only a vehicle of Instruc- tion. See farther Note K.

The Eleusinian Mysteries were celebrated in honor of Ceres, and were proceeded on in darkness according with the operations of the Goddess ; whom the

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Mystery consisted in tracing, step by step : not, however, in the wearisome details and arbitrary jargon of jejune botany, but in the disclosure of the whole parallel be- tween human and vegetable produ61ion. They, scriptu- rally, considered Man as formed to identity from the dust of the Ground, like Plants; as a Tree planted by the Hands of JEHOVAH ; and his catastrophe, spe- cific and generic, as the gathering in of the harvest.

This accordance between Scripture and Ele- USis will not appear susprizing, when we recolleft, what I have urged already, that Egypt supplied both m.arkets ; and, if we attend to the transaftions of Jo- seph's administration in Egypt, we shall add, that it supplied the whole of the market to trie Gentiles, and for a long time to Israel : for there being a universal famine from which the abode of Israel was not exemp- ted, the granaries of Egypt supplied all the world with present food, and the seed of future.

Here, observe,^ri/, that the wheat being culti- vated by the labour, and stored by the providence of Man, represents Man as co-operating, in an external sphere with GOD in an internal, for his own and bre-

80 thren's salvation ; which produces this Definition ol Egypt in a good sense, viz. Sciences, a7id Practice thereon foundal, tributary to L,iYZ'.

Secondly ; Man was indebted for the providence, which he exercised, to the immediate Inspiration of GOD in a Dream ; which was so much attended to by the king, that he brought a man out of jail to expound it. Here recurs, in the first instance, what I have already observed, a most ardent co-operation of Man ; but besides, we are to note, that, in certain stages of fleshly grossncss, GOD can communicate with the Spirit, when the body gives him no admission : In these stages, there is no open Vision; as was the case in Israel before Samuel rose ; but the body is laid asleep, before the Spirit can converse with GOD, If Religion, if Life, consist in a communication with GOD. this remark furnishes an accurate criterion to judge of the general state of Religion at all times, in all nations, and in any individual. Low indeed, is that state, where few see Visions, few dream Dreams, few interpret them, and few are fools enough (for such is the preponderance against DEITY IN ENGLAND— Hear O Earth ! And Give Ear, O Hea- vei:s !J to seek an Interpretation, when THE LORD

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hath spoken — or to give Glory to the LORD their GOD, before he cause darkness, by the silence of His Word, and before their feet stumble on the dar^; MOUNTAINS ! ! For ye are on MOUNTAINS ! and know it not ! He that spoke Light, can be silent

intoDARKNESS.

Thirdly; The Interpreter of the Divine Word, the Refleftor of the Divine Light on Egypt, was one Man, and not a Gentile, but an Israelite : that is, lived not in the light of the World, but in the darkness ; separate from his brethren of Israel, and locked up from public communication in Egypt; the first, because he received the Word of GOD; the second, because he <2(?^^ as became the Recipient of that Word; for had he had humility enough to put the WORD of GOD from him in compliment to his brethren, he might have had the honor to live among them : had he been an adul- terer he might have flourished in Egypt. But the instant GOD was acknowledged, Joseph presided.

These Two Considerations enable us to add to the Definition of Egypt, furnisht by the first, that the said Knowledge and Practice were given by GOD, through the medium of one Man .

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Fourthly ; Though the Gentiles were supplied with this corn from Egypt, they considered it merely as a temporary supply ; carried it into their country, dressed it as many different ways as there were nations or palates ; and finally, the Seed degenerated and they even lorgot, in general, whence it came. The children of Israel went down into Egypt and settled ; earned their subsistence by the Merit of their Brother, through his Mercy and Forgiveness ; ate their Corn fresh from the granary, and it was a Statute to them to REMEMBER it throughout all their Generations : a proof that, it must have a£lcd on an Eternal Principle.

All these things, even to this Extent, I do not doubt, were taught at El e us is. Hence they were justified in opening their Rites witli a Dismission of the profane. — Procul ! O procul este profani ! To any profane that was present, the consequence certainly zuas Death; for the Life of Man is the Death of Evil. Hence also I am not presumptuous in my Motto. We retire from the profane, and then we are authorized to drive \\\t profane from us : — and they then are ready- to go with all willingness to their own place ; and do go accordingly; for they have nothing in US, and WE nothing in them.

I HAVE said above, that Egypt supplied the whole market of the Gentiles, and,yi??^ a long time that of Israel. — The reason of .this reserve I shall now give. The Israelites stand contradistinguisht from other na- tions, in their subsistence', for, at length, led by GOD, THEY wholly relinquished their Egyptian food ; and in- stead of it are fed with that of angels ; to instru6l them beyond the Science of Eleu sis and beyond Egypt, that man liveth not by Bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of GOD, Hence, too, they were informed, that though Egypt was to mankind the Ne plus ultra ^/Science, it was not so of Exis- tence ; and they were reminded, that though Egypt regulated with the nicest accuracy the floods of the Nile, and knew when to expe61:, yet it could not command them; that it received no Showers fro7n Heave):, but was subordinate to a Country, which did, and where both springs^ and is replenlsht to a capacity of Inundation, the triple founted River, for so at length it is now ascertained to be, which irrigates its lands, and fertilizes its womb : a country, which is ex vi termini the Chaos of the Pagan, Egyptian-derived, Mythology ; is also the Metaphysical region o^ the Naturalist — but the Eden ol GOD and of the Man o^ GOD,

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34

NOTE ((h))

Here too I sat, with them enwrapt^ though open.

ENWRAPT in the Principles, and ever forcing them into A6lion, though I wrought wpiolly alone, of equal Liberty, equal Justice and equal Honor, to all Mankind ; regulated alone by Individual desert. Thus aBing, I afted against all Europe till France joined me. *' Though open," is, though in, and aBing i?i, the Body or Europe, or on European Ground,

The Principle of America is this Equi- librium, and agrees with the Sign attributed by Astrology to the West, namely. Libra or the Balance; where Saturn having, by the same Science, his Exaltation, or greatest public Strength, we must also refer Saturn ia Regna, or the Reign of Saturn, so much extolled; and which is thus, in other terms, the Reign of just E(^uality ; where the empty scales are alzvays even, and, of ih^ full, that consequently always preponderates, which ought to preponderate^. I have said this to clear Equality from the obloquy of the English,

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It will be curious to one not accustomed to attend to the prevalence oi principles in human aftions, to ob- serve, how constantly the whole warfare of Europe and America have turned on Command and Equality ; from the Seditions and Rivalships against Columbus, the detraftions he suffered from Nobles in Spain, and the jealousy entertained of him at Court ; and similar events to subsequent Viceroys — through the System on which America was settled by every nation in Europe, of Slavery — up to the year 1776, when America de- clared Independence : and intermingled her genius with that of France ; whose capital, Paris, is assigned by Astrologers to the Sign Virgo, as is also Jerusa- lem. In 1775 and 1776, Saturn was in Libra. And thus too we sccVirgil's Line in Pollio, illustrated;

Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturn ia Regna ; Returns the Virgin, and Saturnian Reign.

Europe is t\\e. fountain oi Slavery ; America the Field of Freedom : The Fountain of it is GOD in Man, and Fire in Nature,

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NOTE [{i)j

And ply the terrible An tistrophe.

THE antient Singers in the Temples of Greece, sang the Strophe from the East, and then turned and sang the Antistrophe from the West. Such is the usual process of a HuRPacANE; particularly that at Antigua in August 1772 : for, after blowing from North East, oy from Europe for some hours, it lulled for half an hour, and then returned with increast violence from South West. This is also frequently the case with seasons of Rain. When fully past to the West, they return with an increast load ; so that a Western Season is always a good one, and gladly welcomed.

Harmony is an Equipoise of Discords. Europe by the first discords, destroyed, or rather, suspended Har- mony ; America strikes the second, equivalent; and restores it. In short, down to every ramification, Equi- libration will be found throughout the Western World, in nature and in Man. Those families, which

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have been long settled there and had little intercourse with Europe, instead of severity to slaves, are most apt to make them companions ; and often ^ very often ^ carry indulgence to an excess, that would be deemed criminal in a parent ; while the English, Irish and Scotch, who go out as Overseers, are Devils to Negroes.

NOTE ((K)]

New To the World in Afric's Morning

WHILE the Mysteries of Eleusis were sacred to Ceres, it is evident, they must have contem- plated Seeds and Earth ; or the Springs and Foun- tains of PLANTS. But that they did not turn '* their backs to bright reality ^''^ and study plants botanically, or without reference to their high analogy, is suffi- ciently known to the learned and too palpable to common sense, for me to waste one argument in supporting.

* Coleridge.

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Africa is Earth : See Robertson's History of America.

The opening of Seeds in the Earth conse- quent on gradual insinuations of Water, is the Dawn and progressively the Morning of Being :

This, then, I mean, by Afric's Morning :

Because the Fountain of Human Being, as well as that of plants is concealed in the Earth ; and Afr ICA more especially Abyssinia, is charafteristically quoad other Continents, the Earth ; as not permeable by Wa- ter ; and, from many parts, scarcely accessible from want of that small supply of Water, which is necessary to human subsistence ; owing to the circwnvolutio^i of a Flaming Sun.

This last circumstance brings me to my Scrip- tural Proofs.

I am aware of all that is alleged in favour of Asia, for the she of Eden; as I have it from the first quarter — the most indefatigable Student of Asia^ who

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has abilities, learning and opportunities, equal to the research, and whom I am happy to call, likewise, the generous, candid and communicative Friend. But FIRST PRINCIPLES are altogether against it from every point : whence the affirmative rests on Historical and Geographical details ; so, that the focus of all arguments in support of Asia^ is that Judea may be satisfaftorily mapt, concordant with the very summary sketch of Eden, given in Genesis : and a great deal of this my friend will allow to depend on very nice, though very ingenious, theories on Bdellium, the Onyx Stone, the Land of Havilah, &c. and I am sure, he will confess, that, like the parallax of a Star, they nearly elude De- monstration in the minute. Now, I touch not the min- ute ; his research afts on nothing else ; and, on this very ground, I first admit, then explode the whole System.

I ADMIT, that Judea, or wherever else he may fix, was Eden secundum subjeBam materiem^ or quoad the Children of Israel in a literal sense ; and this is no more than admitting Jerusalem to be Jerusalem.

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It will be conceded to me, that Scripture ever means by an Ark^ a place of temporary retreat from sur- rounding dangers ; preservative, on the like small scaky of 2iJ'ew or of one, till a period arrive of safe Enlargement, and Eternal Rest, or the Rest of the Redeemed.

The Israelites in journeying to the Land of Pro- mise^ always kept their eyes on the Ark — aftually were always surrounded by enemies — and thus were taught to consider themselves as a seleft and guarded y«:y; who were to occupy a seleS and- guarded spot ; which was to continue surrounded by enemies; for the Ark, which represented this Land, was under precisely the same amenability to enemies, that they were, I say, the Ark represented the Land^ because, i. It was the Tabernacle or Residence of JEHOVAH their GOD; and 2. Be- cause by it they were guided in their journies, and to it they locked : They looked, of course, to, and were guided by, the Land to which they were bound ; and had the Ark been different, they would have had discordant principles of a6lion.

But, more than this, the People also were the Arti and the Land, They werealwavs considered as one

in the judgments and prosperity of tlie Land, whlcli was frlvcn t'hcm :

But this LaJid ^nd this P^^/?/e together, artcrvvards, become the prey of numerous and various Enemies ;

Therefore, neither were this People finally redeemed, nor was this Land the final Paradise, nor this *' Jerusalem the joy of the zukoie Earth," nor thci?- State eternal Rest ; but all were representative, as is echoed throuo-hout the New Testame*nt : the Rest w^s, then temporary and fallacious ; the City was the head of a District ; the Lewd was a model, and the People had finished the first st^q-c of Redem;ption ; and this, not under a hoodwink, but with an express Declaration,, that they were to expeO; " another Prophet.''' So attacht, hov/ever, v/ere they to the Figure, in length oi' time, that they forewent tlie Reality ; so m.ad, that ihey rejefted it : as, suppose a man to be so long in the habit of Bank Notes, that if, at some given aera, it should be thought advisable to call them in and pay cash, he should abso- lutely refuse the Gold and keep the Paper ; preferring the promise to its Performance.* ,

* I have adopted tins simile, merely to give the Ev^liih reader a ju:1 concepiion olthe importance of thesubjeft.

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The Prophet, who came to fulfil the Law, to mag- nify and make it honorable, necessarily abolished the mould wherein it had been cast. When the Palace was built and furnisht, the shed erefted for temporary shelter, was demolisht.

And yet to this shed and the plot of ground in which it stood, are all those still looking, who have per- suaded themselves, that they believe on Him who laid these things waste. At least, they do not know him on whom they have believed. They believe, that the great, final, objeft of him, who builded the Palace, is to refit, and reinhabit the shed, which sheltered the workmen ! ! Melancholy I Melancholy to contemplate their little progress from the first Temple, who dream they are worshiping in the second ! Melancholy the prospeft they have exhibited to themselves ! This is the nation too wise for dreams ! Therefore, God hath sent you strong delusion to believe a lie : for I tell you, you have pleasure in unrighteousness.

I AM NOT UNDERSTOOD. 'Tis Well.

I UNDERSTAND MYSELF. It is better.

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What is understood ? By England and Europe, I mean. The wise man, who glories in his wisdom ; the strong man, who glories in his might ; the rich man, who glories in his riches. It is said, there is some sense in these.

But I know the things that make for my Peace : and nothing shall offend me.

I AM NOT UNDERSTOOD. If a fox be out, and the hounds, however noisy in their course, run towards the kennel he has left, instead of following his steps, are they likely to see him ? Perhaps I have come down low enough to be seen in England, now. If you know not the voice of the Shepherd, you do that of the huntsman. Come then ! Let me turn you! Let .me lead you from a hunt, where, the slaves of incessant hesitation, and paralized to every steady effort, you are, the highest and wisest of you, the staring dupes of any Brothers who cries. Hark! To Jerusalem! Or, on the other band, on these flimsy claims, the still more flimsy casuists ; or the coolly mathematical, or presumptuously declamatory, rejefters of all, either good, bad or indifferent. Turn, I say, from this worse than wild-goose chace, because,

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perchance, when you arrive at the demonstration of ulti- mate disappointment, the Sun may be set, the night come on, the clouds gather darkness, and you not be sheltered. Turn then with ME, Tundi forgeting the things that are behind, look on to those which are before, pressing forward toward the mark for the prize of your high- CALLIN G of GOD ! He that hath eyes to see, may see.

Have done with the temporary state, the par- tial spot, and all preceding stages of your journey ! for you arc now brought, be assured, before the walls of Zion; and this very night must be given the Assault, which will either put you in possession of her walls, or tlirough you out for ever. You are come unto the strong hold of Zion, where neither lame nor blind can enter, and unto the City of the Living GOD, the heavenly Jerusalem ; and to an Innumerable Company of Angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the Last-horn as well as First-born, who arc written in Heaven, and to GOD the Judge of all, and to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect ; and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the Blood of Sprinkling, which speak- eth better things than that of Abd did to the old Church ; which Abd was succeeded by Sheth.

95 What is become of Africa all this while ? Is not this is a fine, digressive, circumrotatory, flight ? No : It is dire6Hy progressive.

The real Eden, the Celestial, must be a whole. It IS 7iot an JrL To be a Whole, it must, in the highest sense, be the Universe, wherein, consequently, every Planet must accord : In a smaller sense, it is a System ; in a third, it is a Planet or World ; in a fourth and last, it is the Center of a World.

On e circle first, and then another spreads.

In the smallest sense, Africa may be Eden, and the Garden Eastward, Abyssinia ; and in the next, where the whole World is Eden, the Garden Eastward is Africa ; equally poised on the Equator, and opening her Forts Jirst, to the narrow sea of Asia ; then to the broader Mediterranean, and lastly, to all the Ocean : And such undeniably has been the road of Light through the World.

There must not bean iron tool heard in framing the Temple. The stones are brought ready poli^ht.

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Each Planet must be pure, and each part of each. Be minimis non curat lex, is a maxim of English, but reverst in Divine, Law. All must be holy to the horse's bridles.

An d little indeed is purity advanced in the Earth, while such a Continent as Africa is abandoned by Europe to efforts of alternate Slavery ; as are those of Mind and^^^jy; fori make no scruple to say, that

AS THE STATE OF MiND IS, IN THE WoRLD, OR IN GIVEN PARTS OF THE WoRLD, SO IS THE

STATE OF Africa in itself, and in its re- lations TO those parts respectively.

The Sun is the Cherub with the flaming Sword, at the East, which turns every way to guard the way to the Tree OF Life — which the Eleusinians contemplate.

Africa, and especially Abyssinia is, the un-' penetrated Country of the World.

I SHALL say no more here : but refer to Moses's Song in Deuteronomy xxxii, where the curses on the Land of the People of GOD, in their most extensive sense, are those under which Africa groans ; and quote

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from the last of it at verse 47, " Rejoice ye Nations WITH HIS People — for he will be gracious to his Land and to his People.'" Here are no specific, separate People named ; but they are all one fold, under one Shepherd.

Thus the Glory of the second Temple, founded by a Gentile king, though brilliant by no strong displays of Divine Presence at its commencement — not prosecu- ted, as was Solomon's, by immediate Divine Communi- cations with its Founder — shall exceed that of the first, as it gradually concentrates every ray of Jew and Gentile. Its commencement was opposed — therefore not exalted ; it was founded on only secondary Inspiration illuminating to the natural eye of Cyrus the letter of a deceast Prophet — therefore its light was clouded ; it was founded on faith, not in sight — therefore proceeded with hesi- tation ; in the apparent strength of the natural man — therefore ordinary in appearance and events : As a Thief in the night, it stole on through alarms ; (Dan. ix. 25. last clause): But hence — the instant of its com- pletion, was the moment of commencing Triumph over every possible foe ; and thence contemplating Eternity.*

* Neither the Messiah's being cut off, nor the destruftion of Cyrus's Temple, at all invalidates this proposition ; for Death was triumpht over, and Captivity was led captive, before the destruftion of the mould.

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98

NOTE II)) And beheld it spread before the rising breeze.

Lest this should be thought bad Seamanship by Sailors, and that rather the men on board should have clued up their sails and laid all snug ; I shall beg them to observe, that it is hardly likely, that the most cautious seaman would not venture a foresail, or even a close- reeft topsail at the beginning of a gale, however threatening ; especially, when being near land, he might hope to come to, before night-fall.

CANTO II.

NOTElyq

Peace ! For a moment drazo thy mantle round.

This introduces the half hour's Calm mentioned mNotcl^ under Antistrophe.

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«*C«^^;: POSTSCRIPT. ^^Ite.

jTjlFTER all, I well know, that the natural man dis- cerneth not the things of the SPIRIT o F GOD ; neither indeed can he, for they are spiritually discerned. A man looking to the West can never see the Sunrise. Therefore, instead of seeking for the origin of things in body, or philosophizing on form, pursue that, which FORMS body. Study no longer the produB, but the Producer. A person, who for ever contemplates body, which is motionless, is so habituated to see nothing move but as it is moved by a force superior to its weight, that he carries it as a law through all being, that A6lion and Reaftion are equal and contrary.

This, the gy-eat Sir Isaac Newton, though not born in Ireland, called a Law of motion : I, though not born in England, call it a Law of NO motion. Sir Isaac wants a Nominative case to the verb moves. I v/ill give

i\r2

100 him one, first from Virgily and then, from the Wisdom of Solomon.

Principle ccelum ct terras, camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum lunae, Titaniaque astra S p I R I T u s intus alit

Igneus est oUis vigor, et cccUstis ori^o Semi N I BUS — — - VirgiL lib. vi.

I quote from memory; so have not the line.

For thine incorruptible Spirit is in all things.

Wisdom xii. i.

And naturally — Central Fires, or Fire forming the Center of every Planet is enough to give it motion ; without suspending yourself over a bottomless abyss of second causes ; each of which is alike without motion ; as is yourfelf, excepting that common to Watci\, of gravi- tation ; senseless, whether itdescend to the root of a plant, or to the foot of a precipice ; but ever proceeding to the last with accelerated motion.

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In writing these Notes, I have had to steer,. ;as the least enlightened may ohserve, between Scylia and Charybdis ; between saying -oo much and too little for perspicuity ; between an appearance oi acrimony and that of indecision ; between the appearance of extrava- gance to those, who are unaccustomed to consider the internal stru6lure of things, on the one liLad, and an un- faithful delineation of my own Sentiments and TRUTHS WHICH CONTEMPLATE EXISTENCE, on the Other. If I have sometimes preferred verging on the first, it was because the last would have been treachery and annihila- tion. I know, that nothing is done towards enlightening the WORLD at large, till the Esoteric overwhelms the Exoteric; and the Achromatic walks trivially. So much for the learned. But to old women, and to young men and maids, I say, that nothing is done, till the knowledge of the Lord cover the earth, as the waters cover the seas : And let him who gloneth, glory i?i this.

Yet, do I not condemn the anticnt Philosophers for this discretion. They afted to the full extent of their sphere. I have too long been confined to distinftion, myself. But I have been in an incessant endeavour to level the barrier : while the public of England maintained

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It, and assiduously repaired its breaches. At length, I have conquered ; at length I have burst the shell, and arrived at day, plumed and oiled against the shower. While the world itself was partially known and inhabited, the Theosopiiist was feign to content himself with a corner of seclusion : for the process, though finisht with him, was scarcely commenced on the whole ; and to have opened himself, W'ould have been to admit such impurities, as would have decomposed the first small result. This is no longer the case. The World is •before me ; from the World I have collected my ma- terials, from Continents, from Islands, from every Quar- ter : To the World, then, I give them; I must give them ; for each claims his own, and the derived progeny as eagerly converses the claim. To try to withhold them would be vain ; and it would be pusillanimous, thievish and tyrannical : and to exclude an individual from a free clioicc of receiving the fruit of my Elaboration, would be Murder. Therefore, I pour out and drain the phial -on the air and to the four winds of Heaven : and I do it most fearlesslv.

It has been my business to embody spirit : to re- flect the Rising Sun by so strong a mirror from the West,

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and that mirror not glass, but untarnishable Platlna, that the man of any wisdom may see it ; be convinced of its existence and turn candidly to the fountain of Light and of Life: ceasing, thus, forever, to think that it is superstition to Vv^orship to the East; for GOD- can be approacht only by ascending the stream of Being. And Philosophy can be so, only as far as it is Theoso- PHY ; as it looks down the stream, from the point of your nearest access to the Fountain. Then you see things proceeding as they a6i:aally originate ; and will comprehend the meaning of the Prophet, when he said

to his GOD, In thy Light, zue shall see Light.

However, all that is obscure here, I am ready at any hour, to explain to the meek.

In the course of a lonesome pilgrimage through the World, which was unavoidable to one, who saw in a light different from all the World, and so much stronger that he could not possibly forego it 1 have been obli- ged to do every office for myself and others. I have taken in their turn, the high-ways and hedges, not to say the ditches and brambles, for I have never been

BELOW THE MARK IN ANY UNDERTAKING; and

then ascended to sweep cobwebs from gilded ceilings. I

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have, often, dirtied myself, it is true ; but I did not make the dirt — I only appropriated it ; and this, not- withstanding I used exertions construftible into madness to prevent its colleflion ; for the zeal of the Temple had even eaten me up : Now I wash my hands clean, and DRESS. Where the dust lies, let it for ever lie ; for the house will NO more be swept. I am indifferent where it lies. It is not with ME.

Barren Fig-Tree ! Let no man pluck fruit, from thee, any more, for ever !

*^* Instead of Acroamatic, I have used Achromatic, from a privative, and yj-j:y.aliKOc, colore imbutus — fignifying CLEAR Truth.

I have thought it well to spell with a t the participles wherein d final is pronounced as t ; and any errata of this kind will be correftcd by the Reader.

ERRATA,

P. 11 1. 1 read Mem N ON. P. 66 1. 4 from the bottom, read sent it. P. 77. In the Note forx read ^

P. 80. Transpose the period and comma in the fifteenth and sixteenth lines after GOD-

ADVERTISEMENT.

'"UinW"'' ®»ee©* "wwifi^

Jtl^FING found these Notes sufficiently voluminous with only Theosophic Learnings and indeed, the Title promising no more, I have expunged several hints m Physics, which 1 had first inserted. These I shall shortly swell into a hulk worthy of separate publication, under the Title of

THE LATF OF FIRE.

Fakkwell ! WILLIAM GILBERT.

i-