Laws, and customs, and strange dealings; And these worlds are ever turning, Moving round the orbs of splendor, Fixéd, in the height of spaces, For a light and heat unto them. Now we wonder if these people Are by evil spirits haunted, Which incite them to rebellion, And destroy their God-like image; But we cannot solve the wonder, And must choose to sit in darkness. Then I guide you hence awayward From the sparkling of this system, From the sun’s rebounding brightness, And the pale moon’s ever-fair light, And the many colored star lights, Blended in a great profusion, To the limits of our world, Which we best can know and search in. First, unto the boundless ocean, By the billow which returneth Echo to great Neptune’s call, Where the mermaid host sojourneth In his ancient rocky hall; Where Leviathan, the mighty p. 62Keeper of all Neptune’s treasure, Roams around the rocky caverns In majestic state, exploring. Let us see these mighty waters When they rise in foaming billows, Swallowing towns, and ships, and people, Roaring like a mighty thunder; And, when they are still and peaceful, Like a plain of pasture spreading, Sleeping as a virgin sleepeth Ere vain love-dreams fill her bosom. Both these aspects are majestic, Grand, and pleasing, and inspiring. On a bark we will convey us Through the peering rocks and islands, Where the Summer brings its sunshine, And the Winter frost and snow-storms, For a season to the lone isles. Then unto the tropic regions, Where the proud sun pours its glory On the burning sandy deserts; Streams of brightness everlasting, Like ten thousand mountains blazing; And the khamsheens wild and fiercely Sweep in burning flakes along them, And torment the weary traveller p. 63Who is slowly wading through them, Thirsting for a cooling river. And ’tis there the wild tornado Riseth in its frame of terror, Wild, and fierce, and unrelenting. To the spreading woods and forests Of the black pine and the myrtle, Of the cedar and the red birch, Of the oak tree and the walnut, Of the tulip and mahogany, All in branchy webwork blended, That the light can hardly enter To remove the clouds of darkness In the vast and deep recesses; Where the lion and the tiger, Where the panther and the leopard, And the jaguar and hyæna, And the tan wolf and the ocelot, In the daytime hold their parley, And resort for wakeful slumbers, Till the dusky hand of black night Draweth down her curtain on them; Then they leave the sylvan passes To traverse the open valley, Prowling after luckless surfeit, Lurking by the lakes and rivers p. 64For the panting prey which cometh To allay its thirsty feelings At their sweet and cooling waters. There the owl at midnight whoopeth, And the lions roar majestic, And the many prowling wild brutes Raise such divers 

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