be destroyed; but the MIND OF MAN, rendered at last
perfect, shall endure through all ages, and "justify His ways from whom
it sprung."

* * * * *

Such is the outline and plan of the following poem. I have felt myself
obliged to give this hasty analysis, thinking that self-defence almost
required it, lest a _careless_ reader might charge me with _carelessness
of arrangement_.

I must again beg it to be remembered, that History and Poetry are two
things; and that the poet has a right to build his system, not on what
is exact truth, but on what is, at least, plausible; what will form, in
the clearest manner, a WHOLE; and what is most susceptible of poetical
ornament.

THE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY BY SEA.

BOOK THE FIRST.

Awake a louder and a loftier strain!
Beloved harp, whose tones have oft beguiled
My solitary sorrows, when I left
The scene of happier hours, and wandered far,
A pale and drooping stranger; I have sat
(While evening listened to the convent bell)
On the wild margin of the Rhine, and wooed
Thy sympathies, "a-weary of the world,"
And I have found with thee sad fellowship,
Yet always sweet, whene'er my languid hand 10
Passed carelessly o'er the responsive wires,
While unambitious of the laurelled meed
That crowns the gifted bard, I only asked
Some stealing melodies, the heart might love,
And a brief sonnet to beguile my tears!
But I had hope that one day I might wake
Thy strings to loftier utterance; and now,
Bidding adieu to glens, and woods, and streams,
And turning where, magnificent and vast,
Main Ocean bursts upon my sight, I strike,-- 20
Rapt in the theme on which I long have mused,--
Strike the loud lyre, and as the blue waves rock,
Swell to their solemn roar the deepening chords.
Lift thy indignant billows high, proclaim
Thy terrors, Spirit of the hoary seas!
I sing thy dread dominion, amid wrecks,
And storms, and howling solitudes, to Man
Submitted: awful shade of Camoens
Bend from the clouds of heaven.
By the bold tones 30
Of minstrelsy, that o'er the unknown surge
(Where never daring sail before was spread)
Echoed, and startled from his long repose
The indignant Phantom[153] of the stormy Cape;
Oh, let me think t