ith those grand, immortal eyes
He stood--his heart on fire to know
When morning next illumed the skies,
What wonders in its light should glow--
O'er all one thought must, in that hour,
Have sway'd supreme--Power, conscious Power--
The lofty sense that Truths conceived,
And born of his own starry mind,
And foster'd into might, achieved
A new Creation for mankind!
And when from off that ocean calm
The Tropic's dusky curtain clear'd,
All those green shores and banks of balm
And rosy-tinted hills appear'd
Silent and bright as Eden, ere
Earth's breezes shook one blossom there--
Against that hour's proud tumult weigh'd,
LOVE, FAME, AMBITION, how ye fade!

VI.

Thou LUTHER of the darken'd Deep!
Nor less intrepid, too, than He
Whose courage broke EARTH'S bigot sleep
Whilst thine unbarr'd the SEA--
Like his, 'twas thy predestined fate
Against your grin benighted age,
With all its fiends of Fear and Hate,
War, single-handed war, to wage,
And live a conqueror, too, like him,
Till Time's expiring lights grow dim!
O, Hero of my boyish heart!
Ere from thy pictured looks I part,
My mind's maturer reverence now
In thoughts of thankfulness would bow
To the OMNISCIENT WILL that sent
Thee forth, its chosen instrument,
To teach us hope, when sin and care,
And the vile soilings that degrade
Our dust, would bid us most despair--
Hope, from each varied deed display'd
Along thy bold and wondrous story,
That shows how far one steadfast mind,
Serene in suffering as in glory,
May go to deify our kind.

FOOTNOTES:

{A} October 11, 1492.--"As the evening darkened, Columbus took his
station on the top of the castle or cabin, on the high poop of his
vessel. However he might carry a cheerful and confident countenance
during the day, it was to him a time of the most painful anxiety; and
now, when he was wrapped from observation by the shades of night, he
maintained an intense and unremitting watch, ranging his eye along the
dusky horizon in search of the most vague indications of land. Suddenly,
about ten o'clock, _he thought he beheld a light glimmering at a
distance_. Fearing that his eager hopes might deceive him, he called to
Pedro Gutierrez, gentleman of the king's bedchamber, and enquired
whether he saw a light in that