That only Heaven to which Earth's children may aspire.[141]

XL.

'Twas on a Grecian autumn's gentle eve
Childe Harold hailed Leucadia's cape afar;
A spot he longed to see, nor cared to leave:
Oft did he mark the scenes of vanished war,
Actium--Lepanto--fatal Trafalgar;[13.B.]
Mark them unmoved, for he would not delight
(Born beneath some remote inglorious star)[142]
In themes of bloody fray, or gallant fight,
But loathed the bravo's trade, and laughed at martial wight.[ew]

XLI.

But when he saw the Evening star above
Leucadia's far-projecting rock of woe,
And hailed the last resort of fruitless love,[14.B.]
He felt, or deemed he felt, no common glow:
And as the stately vessel glided slow[143]
Beneath the shadow of that ancient mount,
He watched the billows' melancholy flow,
And, sunk albeit in thought as he was wont,[ex]
More placid seemed his eye, and smooth his pallid front.

XLII.

Morn dawns; and with it stern Albania's hills,
Dark Suli's rocks, and Pindus' inland peak,[144]
Robed half in mist, bedewed with snowy rills,
Arrayed in many a dun and purple streak,
Arise; and, as the clouds along them break,
Disclose the dwelling of the mountaineer:
Here roams the wolf--the eagle whets his beak--
Birds--beasts of prey--and wilder men appear,
And gathering storms around convulse the closing year.

XLIII.

Now Harold felt himself at length alone,
And bade to Christian tongues a long adieu;
Now he adventured on a shore unknown,[145]
Which all admire, but many dread to view:
His breast was armed 'gainst fate, his wants were few
Peril he sought not, but ne'er shrank to meet:
The scene was savage, but the scene was new;
_This_ made the ceaseless toil of travel sweet,
Beat back keen Winter's blast, and welcomed Summer's heat.

XLIV.

Here the red Cross, for still the Cross is here,
Though sadly scoffed at by the circumcised,
Forgets that Pride to pampered priesthood dear;
Churchman and Votary alike despised.
Foul Superstition! howsoe'er disguised,
Idol--Saint--Virgin--Prophet--Crescent--Cross--
For whatsoever symbol thou art