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 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
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 Shelf.- 
 
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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 '^m^ 
 
A GALAXY 
 
 li OF 
 
 PROGRESSIVE POEMS. 
 
 BV ^ 
 
 John W. Day. 
 
 r^ 3 
 
 ^1^9^ I 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 COLBY & RICH, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 9 BoswoRTH Street. 
 
 1890. 
 
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 f^r.i^ 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 Copyright, 1890, 
 By JOHN W. DAY. 
 
 Typography by J. S. Gushing & Co., Boston. 
 PfiEsswoRK by Berwick. & Smith, Boston. 
 
IBetiicatton. 
 
 To ISAAC B. RICH. EsQ.r 
 
 In Memory of his many years of devotion to the interests of 
 
 Spiritual Literature and Journalism, and in respectful 
 
 appreciation of personal kindnesses received, 
 
 This Volume is dedicated by 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1. Introductory 7 
 
 2. The White Dog Sacrifice 11 
 
 (An Aboriginal Aspiration. ) 
 
 3. Guardian Angels 20 
 
 (Spirit Nearness.) 
 
 4. Jack 23 
 
 (Animals in Spirit Life. ) 
 
 5. Springflower . ; 25 
 
 (Demonstration of the Inner Vision.) 
 
 6. A Woman of Hungary 29 
 
 (Died for Fatherland. ) 
 
 7. The Emigrants 32 
 
 (No Hell !) 
 
 8. To A Sea-Shell 34 
 
 (A Moral from the Deep. ) 
 
 9. " O-Grab-'em ! " 36 
 
 (No Trusts !) 
 
 10. Wine or the Spirit 38 
 
 (Eternal Progress. ) 
 
 / 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 11. Forest Spring 41 
 
 (A Legend of Cape Ann. ) 
 
 12. OxwARD ! 43 
 
 (Light at Last.) 
 
 13. The Chariot of Fire 45 
 
 (Historical.) 
 
 14. " The Art Preservative " '. 48 
 
 (Technical and Prophetic.) 
 
 15. " When My Ship gets in from Sea ! " 51 
 
 (Fadeless Youth.) 
 
 16. The Millennial Sun .53 
 
 (Spirit the Potential.) 
 
 17. Morning by the Sea 58 
 
 (The Soul's "Other Chance.") 
 
 18. Lady Franklin 60 
 
 (Woman's Devotion.) 
 
 19. AUTOPHONIA 63 
 
 (Patience Conquers.) 
 
 20. Hope 66 
 
 (For All.) 
 
 21. Notes 68 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 John W. Day was born in Annisquam (a part of 
 the city of Gloucester, Mass.), February 17th, 1838. 
 His parents were Jossph and Augusta L. Day. His 
 mother was the daughter of Eev. Ezra Leonard, 
 who in the early days of Universalism became a 
 convert to its teachings, bravely renounced his con- 
 nection with the Orthodox denomination, and was fol- 
 lowed in his change of belief by his whole parish 
 (excepting deacons), to whom he lovingly expounded 
 for years the " new light " of that day, until 
 
 " Th' eternal simshiiie settled on liis head ! " 
 
 The subject of this sketch received his education 
 at the grammar schools of the rugged seaport of his 
 nativity, at the High School of Portsmouth, N. H., 
 and at Hampton Academy, where he began fitting for 
 Harvard College. Circumstances prevented, the con- 
 summation of this plan, and he entered the office of 
 The Trumpet (Universalist), and latterly that of The 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Banner of Light (a few months after its establish- 
 ment in 1857), as an apprentice to "the art preserva- 
 tive." Later on he entertained views of studying for 
 the Universalist ministry, and commenced the course ; 
 but the state of his sight, which had deterred him 
 from the printing. business, also operated with other 
 causes to lead him to abandon the thought and enter 
 into different fields of out-of-door activity — such as 
 two years spent at sea, and five years in the army, 
 where he served with success as private in the In- 
 fantry, 2d and 1st Lieutenant, and afterward Cap- 
 tain of Cavalry. He holds certificates of honorable 
 service during 1861-1866 from the States of New 
 Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Khode Island. 
 
 Eeturning to Boston, he, in May, 1867, again be- 
 came connected with The Banner, and has served 
 since then as compositor, shorthand reporter, and for 
 many years as its Associate Editor, which position 
 he now occupies. 
 
 In February, 1880, he was united in marriage with 
 Nellie M., daughter of Benjamin and Lydia B. 
 King, of Cambridge, Mass. 
 
 Members of the fraternal orders have in Mr. Day 
 a worthy brother — he being a highly respected mem- 
 ber of the Masonic fraternity, the Odd Fellows, the 
 Grand Army of the Republic, and other societies. 
 
INTRODUCTION. y 
 
 In addition to his record as sailor, soldier, reporter, 
 journalist, etc., Mr. Day has gained standing in the 
 field of versification — having written many poems 
 which have appeared in the columns of The Banner, 
 and various other periodicals published in New Eng- 
 land, of which the contents of this volume may be 
 regarded as a specimen sheaf. 
 
 The subject of this sketch has a retiring and unas- 
 suming nature, disposed to let his works bear witness 
 to his worth. Since his earliest youth his wish and 
 ambition have been to prove true (as faf- as the imper- 
 fections inherent in our common humanity allow) in 
 all the trying emergencies that have arisen in the 
 midst of varying experiences ; and this desire to be 
 found doing his whole duty (wheresoever his lot may 
 be cast), when the Angel of Change shall draw nigh 
 to him, is the stay and religion of his manhood. 
 
NEW-YEAR'S OFFERING. 
 
 >>©<c 
 
 THE WHITE DOG SACRIFICE.i 
 
 EvEKY land and every nation 
 Owns "Our Father" sphered in heaven 
 Heaven His brain and earth His body, 
 We are linked unto Him always. 
 His the wondrous scale chromatic 
 Shading on from sand to sunbeam, 
 Shading past the shallow atoms — 
 Bidding science stop and falter — 
 To the mystic realm called spirit ; 
 Deep'ning thence to hues and forces 
 Which the seraph may not fathom ! 
 
 We are of His blood the molecules 
 While we wander here in matter. 
 Drawn from Him, in spores magnetic, 
 At the hody^s primal birth-hour, 
 Lo, our souls like sparks emitted 
 Quit His eye 'mid thunder flashes 
 When the air is big with travail ! 
 
12 kew-yeak's offering. 
 
 'Mid the rain of fate descending, 
 Zig-zag'd through the cloud of sorrow, 
 Lo ! we strike the earth — the circuit 
 Formed, we join the broad'ning system, 
 And to wider range develop. 
 
 Prescient hearts have felt His life-throbs ; 
 Prescient ears have caught the music 
 Of His voice in hours ecstatic ; 
 Prescient eyes have seen the glory 
 Of His thronging troo^DS of angels ; 
 But the mighty mass of mortals — 
 Spirits for a time in prison — 
 Hear no music, catch no glory. 
 May but gaze from out life's loopholes, 
 Speculate on fragments only, 
 PoAverless to behold the landscape. 
 
 They who see and dare to utter 
 Witness of the sights bestowed them 
 Man has martyred through the ages ; 
 Seeking on his bed Procrustean 
 Every form of truth to measure. 
 But the cloudless Sun of Being 
 Hath through all the circling eras 
 Shed a boundless tidal radiance 
 On the castle-roof of error ,• 
 And one day its close-tiled armor 
 Shall be downward fused in ruin 
 And the daylight flood its dungeons. 
 
THE WHITE DOG SACRIFICE. 13 
 
 When the traveler, worn and weary, 
 Treads some mighty Andean valley, 
 Kound him swoon the airs mephitic, 
 Eound him blooms the tropic verdure, 
 Eound him lurk the wild carniv^ra, 
 Near him trails the slimy serpent ; 
 But above him towers the mountain, 
 Grand and glorious, zenith-piercing ; 
 And as further from the valley 
 Mounts the pilgrim's toiling footfall, 
 Lo ! the forms of death and carnage 
 Fade — the tropic verdure lessens ; 
 Snow-clad rock and icy brightness* 
 Now replace terrestrial danger ; 
 Now the storm-cloud's muttered thunder 
 Far below doth speak its story, 
 While the thin clear air of heaven 
 Seems to beck the spirit onward, 
 Forth from matter's crumbling prison 
 To a realm of power unending. 
 
 So with us ; we walk earth's valley 
 Close beside the soaring mountain 
 Of the v/ondrous Avorld of spirit ; 
 Here in dread we trace our footsteps. 
 Here the chafing stream of sorrow 
 Wears the hope and joy of living; 
 Here we front the wild carnivWa — 
 Passion's hosts and man inhuman — 
 Here the slander-serpent twineth, 
 
14 kew-year's offering. 
 
 Here the air of wrath mephitic, 
 
 Like the fire-damp of the coal-mine, 
 
 Flashes oft in grisly Avarfare. 
 
 But this lower realm inferior 
 
 Is but as the Father's greave plates, 
 
 And the honest soul of Knighthood 
 
 Gleams within the keen-eyed luster 
 
 Streaming from His visor'd helmet. 
 
 Therefore as we grow through progress, 
 
 In the life toward which we hasten. 
 
 Higher mount we o'er His body, 
 
 See His heart beat in the Soul-World, 
 
 But His reason — who may climb it ? 
 
 Still that reason holds ascendance — 
 Throned within his brow supernal, 
 Tempered by his heart warm loving — 
 O'er the shifting forms of matter. 
 O'er the humblest shapes and atoms, 
 O'er the worlds in highest aether ; 
 And th' involuntary functions 
 Of the universe wide arching — 
 Nature's automatic action^ — 
 Coupled are with power and wisdom 
 From the Absolute — the Spirit ! 
 Man may sweat in rubbish'd workshop, 
 But 'tis God who builds the chariot ! 
 
 Therefore 'tis that every nation 
 Gains a knowledge of His presence, 
 
THE WHITE DOG SACRIFICE. 15 
 
 Sucli as it may grasp and fathom — 
 Only such. The thought and worship 
 Of the barbarous state and order 
 May be rude, uncouth, repulsive, 
 To the child of lands enlighten'd, 
 But 'tis fitted to its orbit ; 
 And the thrill of true devotion 
 Kegnant in th' aspiring bosom 
 Is the same though raised to honor 
 Chrishna, Jesus, Jove, Manito ! 
 
 Marvel not, then, child of knowledge, 
 If I tell in fleeting cadence ^ 
 
 How th' untutor'd savage wanders 
 Up to God, through smoke ascending ! 
 Up the sky — progression's symbol — 
 Steals the white wreath of his offering. 
 Seeks Manito, the Good Giver — 
 That Great Spirit nomenclatured 
 Variously by ev'ry nation — 
 Bringing answer from the Father 
 (Of all tongues and forms the fountain) 
 Fitted to his spirit's uses ! 
 
 Through earth's grim crust a giant's foot had stamped 
 
 a caiion trail ; 
 Like white-stol'd angels through the sky the curling 
 
 cirri sail ; 
 Like chieftains grand on either hand the dome-brow' d 
 
 hills arise, 
 
16 new-year's offering. 
 
 And silence down the vaulted blue leans with expec- 
 tant eyes. 
 
 he bear rests in his craggy den — the yelping wolf 
 
 is dumb; 
 None save the human echo stirs — the slow-voiced 
 
 Indian drum 
 That beats a cadence weird and faint, like leaded 
 
 brain-throbs, known 
 When fever-toss'd the sick man leans on death with 
 
 quavering moan ! 
 
 The council-fires — the sacred three — flame 'neath 
 
 the Lodge of State ; 
 There sits each warrior, crouched beside his red 
 
 brow'd child and mate ; 
 ^^ Bring forth the dog for sacrifice ! " the chieftain 
 
 speaks the word, 
 And lo ! the dusky ranks divide, and anxious sighs 
 
 are heard. 
 
 They lead him down the murm'ring ranks, a whisking, 
 fleecy cloud 
 
 Of joyous life, that wraps a germ in matter's confines 
 bow'd. 
 
 Bright-eyed, clean-limb'd, and strong to dare his mas- 
 ter's cause to win. 
 
 He shines, where looms the grisly priest swathed in 
 his bison-skin ! 
 
THE WHITE DOG SACRIFICE. 17 
 
 Come, beat the dram ! and raise the shout ! and wheel 
 
 the victim round ! 
 'Tis not the scalp dance now ye join, no deathful 
 
 chant ye sound ; 
 Save that ye pour on Western air your tribe's sepul- 
 
 tural song 
 As wave before and whites behind, ye linger late and 
 
 long ! 
 
 So rolled the Jewish timbrel-cheer along the roaring sea ! 
 From E/Ome's arena, God-like grown, the hymns of 
 
 Galilee ! 
 From Scotian glen in echo stern ^^ the Covenant's " 
 
 voice upsprang 
 "When Dundee smote the mountain path and hoofs 
 
 careering rang 1 
 
 The song is hushed, the dog is slain. Swift to the 
 
 sacred flame 
 The priests and chieftains offerings cast in high 
 
 Manito's name : 
 " As mounts this smoke of sacrifice up to the bending 
 
 sky, 
 Great Spirit, hear our lonely call, and in our aid draw 
 
 nigh : 
 
 ^' Thou fill'st the bison's stately march, Thou nerv'st 
 
 the eagle's wing, 
 Thou bend'st the storm-bow's shining arch, and riv'st 
 
 the buds of spring : 
 
18 new-year's offering. 
 
 Thou glow'st in fire, thou roll'st in flood the mountain 
 
 gorge along, 
 Thy sunshine warms the freezing earth, thy life the 
 
 warrior's song ! 
 
 ^' Great Spirit, hear our trembling prayer ; we wander 
 faint and.few — 
 
 Strangers and exiles from the land our Eastward 
 fathers knew. 
 
 Accept our off'ring poor and frail, and may we faith- 
 ful be— 
 
 Keep fearless foot on duty's trail, and honest faith 
 in thee ! 
 
 " The mighty wave of human life up to thy presence 
 
 rolls ; 
 We seek, through gloom and closing night, the brighter 
 
 land of souls. 
 Be right th' inspirer of our speech, as fade the moons 
 
 away ; 
 Keep us true Indians till we meet our next assembling 
 
 day ! " 
 
 The white dog took the shining trail beyond the 
 
 smoke-fire's glow. 
 Up from the earthquake splintered vale that crouched 
 
 the hills below ! 
 The sun sat in his wigwam door — where twilight 
 
 shadows lie — 
 
THE WHITE DOG SACRIFICE. 19 
 
 When, reached Manito's fateful shore, he sought His 
 
 presence high ! 
 While many a zealot's stilted prayer limped slow 
 
 through darkening skies. 
 Our Father marked with welcome rare the Eed Man's 
 
 sacrifice ! 
 
20 ^EW-YEAR*S OFFERlNa. 
 
 GUARDIAN ANGELS. 
 
 " They <are gone, and here no longer 
 
 Shall their mortal forms appear ; 
 Make our faith, oh Father, stronger 
 
 That their spirits still are here. 
 Oh when round us night is falling. 
 
 May our souls, in Truth secure, 
 Hear their holy voices calling: 
 
 ' Come where life and joy endure ! ' " 
 
 The sunset crowns Rome's glittering turrets high, 
 
 And evening shadows creep along the plain ; 
 The vesper bell rings out along the sky, 
 
 And choral anthems shake each lordly fane ! 
 
 They sing of her who bore a mother's pain 
 To bring the Christ, the promised Saviour, down 
 
 When Syrian shepherds heard th' angelic strain, 
 And Chaldean sages stooped his brow to crown 
 AVhose manly life-tide flowed 'neath priestcraft's mid- 
 night frown ! 
 
 Beyond the broad Campagna's rolling breast, 
 'Mid twilight shadows bend a pilgrim band ; 
 
 From many a distant clime their feet have pressed. 
 To gain th' " Eternal City's " wished-for strand. 
 Among the shattered wrecks, the ruins grand, 
 
GUARDIAN ANGELS. 21 
 
 That speak the fleeting breath of earthly power, 
 
 They kneel in silent awe, by breezes fanned 
 Rich with the perfume of the prayerful hour — 
 The vestal virgin's chant borne from the far-off 
 tower ! 
 
 And o'er the kneeling group a woman stands — 
 
 A girlish figure, stately and serene — 
 She points the travelers on, with eager hands 
 Nobly uplifted 'mid the wondrous scene ; 
 She points, while written on her holy mien 
 Is traced : " Not yet ye rest — your goal is there ! 
 Where, on her seven-hilled throne, ''an ancient 
 queen, 
 Rome sits, and upward from the city's glare, 
 St. Peter's mighty dome looms through the twilight 
 air." 
 
 We seek a holy shrine, through earth's dark way. 
 Through sin's hot sands, and fierce temptation's 
 woe ; 
 We seek the portals of eternal day. 
 And God's evangels cheer our wanderings slow. 
 Think ye the cadence of the Jordan's flow 
 Can dull their friendly cars, who've gone before ? 
 Think ye the voice whose kindling power we 
 know 
 Is hushed for aye where death's black waters roar, 
 And Eden gives no smile back from her golden 
 shore ? 
 
22 new-year's offering. 
 
 No ! as the north-lights in the midnight gleam, 
 
 When frosty stars in chilling silence roll, 
 So in the twilight thought, the peaceful dream. 
 
 They come to cheer the sin-beleaguered soul ! 
 
 They bid the beacons blaze, the watch-bells toll 
 To mark the invading fiend's delusive powers — 
 
 They tell how Autumn creeps in russet stole 
 Through Winter's sorrowing path to Springtide's 
 hours. 
 And vernal gales that float o'er fair, celestial flowers. 
 
 Oft in our wandering comes a vision bright ; 
 
 We see the heavenly city's gates of gold. 
 And all the spirit's power is plumed for flight, 
 
 To reach that land — to clasp the loved of old ! 
 
 'Tis then the guardian speaks : " Not yet ye fold 
 Th' immortals in your arms of crumbling clay ; 
 
 Life claims your duty ; dare the winter cold 
 Of trembling age — or manhood's blazing day — 
 Till God the Father calls along the heavenly way ! " 
 
 When human spirits bow in humble prayer, 
 
 And doff conceit of pharisaic sway, 
 Loved friends departed cleave the viewless air, 
 
 To wipe the tear from sorrowing eyes away ! 
 
 They point beyond earth's broad Campagna gray, 
 Where towering domes and glittering spires arise — 
 
 Where Aiden's glory sheds a fadeless ray — 
 And, fairer than th' Italian sunset dies, 
 The smiling " Summer-Land " sits throned among the 
 skies ! 
 
JACK, 23 
 
 JACK. 
 
 [Obit April 20th, 1884.] 
 
 Mid gloomy wold, 'neath gust of April rain ; 
 
 Where seeks the broad'ning Charles the broader main, 
 
 '^eath buttress'd bridge and ship's red-rusted chain, 
 
 With hearts that voice demission's sad refrain, 
 We stand beside a broken chalice, fain 
 To fill a grave with all that. doth remain.^ 
 
 No Statesman, worn with time's unending jar; 
 
 No Warrior, slain in grisly strife afar ; 
 
 ISTo Prophet, dead beneath his Morning Star ! 
 
 We bring — our dog : whose service-years are told ! 
 Take thou these relics to thy kindly fold 
 And give them fitting use, oh ! Mother old. 
 
 We bring brisk feet, each duty's willing thrall ; 
 Quick ears that sharpen'd at his master's call. 
 Bright eyes that danced — oh ! grave, we give thee all! 
 
 No, Jack ; not all ! Shall mutual love divide 
 With crumbling, arch on Nature's lower side. 
 And leave on man's but figment for his pride ? 
 
 Instinct with Eeason clear, doth closely blend : 
 Who shall declare where such doth reach its end 
 And miss the hand of Life's Eternal Friend ! 
 
24 new-year's offering. 
 
 Progression's law each dust-grain aye controls ; 
 Its full-orb'd presence through creation rolls — 
 And shall it bar these rudimental souls ? 
 
 We will not say "Farewell," with heart-strings tense: 
 No link of Being may be stricken thence — 
 Its chain is girded round Omnipotence. 
 
 Where Truth is bless'd, where Justice lends its grace 
 Along the files of Life's subtending race, 
 There such as thou shalt ever find a place. 
 
 Shall Honor fail to meet th' approving eye, 
 And faithful Courage sense no welcome nigh 
 When earth's weak children find their time to die ? 
 
 Shall not Life's Sponsor mark their journey run — 
 Their surcease gained 'neath Time's dissembling sun — 
 And to his humblest servant say : " Well done " ? 
 
 Oh ! Spring, o'erchilled with Winter's lingering snows, 
 
 That on far inland mountains find repose — 
 
 Oh ! sun, cloud-visor'd though the daytime grows : 
 
 Oh ! crevic'd mists, like shot-riven flags that fly 
 Along the frontlet of a frowning sky — 
 No types are ye of Being's destiny ! 
 
 Beyond earth's cloud the sunshine's glory thrills ! 
 Beyond deatli's cloud th' Eternal Purpose wills 
 All Life shall tread the Amaranthine Hills ! 
 
SPKINGFLOAYER. 25 
 
 SPRINGFLOWER. 
 
 The artist soul lias caught the golden morning; 
 
 Through Time's dull bars th' unfailing glory 
 streams ; 
 The living canvas/^ 'neath his bright adorning, 
 
 Gives forth a fair creation seen in dreams, 
 When spirits, free from matter's crumbling prison. 
 
 Speed forth enfranchised, hand enclasped in hand, 
 Where loved of eld, to life and light arisen. 
 
 Walk shining fields in Eden's goodly land ! 
 
 She comes, the forest's pure and radiant maiden, 
 
 Illumed with rays prophetic, and the powers 
 Of golden sunlight ; with a promise laden 
 
 That hints a hidden life which death embowers. 
 Down from her rounded shoulder droops the vesture 
 
 Of summer's dee-p fruition — yet to be 
 Kather than that which is : each graceful gesture 
 
 Speaks symbol'd harvest, russet crowned and free. 
 
 But not alone in somber, tangled mazes 
 
 Of wilding woods she shines in tender grace. 
 
 And cheers the land which on her presence gazes 
 With rich and varied joy ; her tender face 
 
26 new-yeak's offering. 
 
 Speaks to the eye, where'er the hungry spirit 
 Gives open entrance to her pollen store 
 
 Of fruitful "thought, and wakened souls inherit 
 A sweet aroma from the further shore. 
 
 Fair index she, that points the fact eternal 
 
 That naught but victor hands of conquered self 
 Can pluck life's truest good from pastures vernal ; 
 
 Th' ambitious clutch and gain but sordid pelf, 
 While to the pure in heart alone are given 
 
 The precious flowers that gem the shining meads, 
 Where, sunrise-like, the jeweled porch of heaven 
 
 Gleams in the dawn that mortal change succeeds ! 
 
 With growing strength and firmer hold on matter, 
 
 Toward broader light her pilgrim footstep strays 
 Silent, with stealing steps that lightly scatter 
 
 The dew on untrod paths ; her lithe form sways 
 Soft to the quiv'ring breeze. A glorious creature. 
 
 Her radiant face upturned, with cheeks of bloom. 
 An uncheck'd glee in every beaming feature. 
 
 That speaks a heart where guile finds never room. 
 
 Her deep, moist, gleaming eye, with powder aesthetic. 
 
 Mashes far-reaching thought for visual ray ; 
 Thence speeds the arrow from the bow magnetic 
 
 Unerring — to her victor feet as prey 
 The rapturous prize of vernal beauty bringing ! 
 
 Behold bright fields and blossoms cheer "the earth ; 
 Trailing arbutus, buttercups are springing — 
 
 Her every impress gives a flow'ret birth. 
 
SPKINGF LOWER. 27 
 
 Within her shade anemones are shining. 
 
 And on the bank, where winds the slow-paced stream, 
 The purple Innocence, at ease reclining. 
 
 Lights up the floral way ; where joys outgleam 
 Her spirit onward moves, exuberant glowing 
 
 Amid the flush, the wealth of boundless love. 
 Her smile a close-linked sweetness e'er bestowing, 
 
 That speaks to planes below of spheres above. 
 
 Her pictured path is decked with sunrise glory ; 
 
 She spreads a lover's feast before the eye 
 Of souls who, crushed by mis'ry's whelming story, 
 
 Faint by the way while hope's bright tide rolls by; 
 Her loving soul with all their sorrows blending, 
 
 Slie gives them of her life in flowery forms 
 And juices rich and colors far transcending 
 
 The rainbow arch that spans the parted storms ! 
 
 In wooded dell where mirror waves are wending, 
 
 Eeflecting back, amid the blush of earth, 
 The blue expanse of heaven above them bending, 
 
 She waiting stands ; her glance in artless mirth 
 Expectant turned where sweeps the cleaving arrow 
 
 Up to the clouds ; so in its keen-edged flight 
 Swift swirls aloft the homeward-wheeling sparrow 
 
 When fall the shadows of the closing night. 
 
 Soft through her raven locks the winds are playing. 
 
 Upbearing slowly from her parted lips 
 Sweet, perfumed utterings, calmly upward straying — 
 
 A meed of joy that knows no dark eclipse. 
 
28 new-year's offering. 
 
 She speaks : " Behold, I come all richly laden, 
 From realms. of light, by subtle force upstayed; 
 
 A simple, natural and untutored maiden, 
 Like poising butterfly in forest glade. 
 
 "I bloom in hues the blue, the red, the golden,* 
 
 Far-sighted yellow spring-tide's tender green ; 
 Earth warmly greets me ; I am gladly folden 
 
 To Nature's heart, a robed tiara'd queen. 
 I never seem — I a7n; all arts dissembling 
 
 My honest soul abhors ; sincere, I shine | 
 
 A messenger to turn the balance trembling 
 
 In human hearts, from w^rong to right divine. 
 
 "Armed with love's bow, and thought-shaft keenly 
 flying. 
 
 To shoot the swift-winged truth whereon to live. 
 Behold I stand by limner's art, defying 
 
 Decay's dim veil. The circling years shall give 
 No darkness to this flower of inspiration, 
 
 This nineteenth ' century tlossom,' ripely blown ; 
 But endless cycles peal the glad ovation. 
 
 To hail the Cause I type to every zone." 
 
 Thrice holy Cause, to mourning hearts revealing 
 
 That after life whose Jiojoe had e'en grown dim, 
 Oh, let us choose this picture's centered feeling — 
 
 Childlike and huniV)le, Avalk earth's river brim. 
 Till, as the morn mists quit the soaring mountains. 
 
 Our souls to higher realms shall gladly fly, 
 Where Iris crowns the Paradisean fountains, 
 
 And human love and joyance never die ! 
 
A WOMAN OF HUNGARY. 29 
 
 A WOMAN OF HUNGARY. 
 
 O'er the broad mooPj white with its wreaths of 
 snow — 
 Flanked on each side by shadowy forests deep — 
 The sun's last rays in softened luster glow, 
 
 Or, halting on the pine-tree summits steep, 
 Seem waiting for an hour that soon must come. 
 
 And Nature thrills through all her trembling 
 frame — 
 For lo ! with scream of fife, and rolling drum, 
 
 And charger's tramp, and cannon's breath of flame, 
 Proud Hapsburg's legions march the Magyar land 
 to tame ! 
 
 Forth from the forest's darkening ais''es they wheel — 
 The Croatian bold, the Tyrol's heart of fire ! 
 
 Up leaps the sunlight from their gleaming steel — 
 And trumpets hoarse each warrior soul inspire ! 
 
 Oh fated Hungary — so soon to weep — 
 
 Forth from the further shade thy patriots pour ; 
 
 Thy blood-stained page the circling years shall keep, 
 Writ with the sword, mid Hist'ry's magic lore, 
 Till slumb'ring Europe wake, and kings shall be no 
 more ! 
 
30 new-year's offering. 
 
 '^ Eljehn el Magyar T' swift the war-cry rolls 
 In rending echoes down the leveled line. 
 
 The volleying musket Freedom's tocsin tolls — 
 Low, cannon-smitten, sinks the rocking pine ; 
 
 Still Hungary's banner flings (Jefiant scorn — ^ 
 Still from her front wear's crimson currents veer, 
 
 Till like a tempest on the Danube born, 
 
 Downward, with bugle-blast and charging cheer, 
 Bursts through her death-thinned flank the thun- 
 dering Cuirassier ! 
 
 Shout, Austrian legions ! lo, the field is won ! 
 
 Back reels the Maygar to his forest lair ! 
 Sheathe the dulled sword, the day's red work is done, 
 And shriek and groan swell through the twilight 
 air. 
 But who art thou that on this fearful spot 
 
 Crimsonest with life's warm tide the shot-ploughed 
 snow ? 
 Thou art a maiden ^ — nay, deny it not — 
 Thine eyes are radiant with that mystic glow 
 That speaks a nearer heaven, man's soul doth never 
 know ! 
 
 AVhat brought thee to this field of strife and gloom ? 
 
 Frail woman's arm avails not in the fray. 
 When o'er the plain the trembling cannon boom. 
 
 And round the reeking lines the war-clouds play ! 
 Thou liest in death — not in the homestead hall, 
 
 Where love's soft tears distill in gentle rain — 
 
A WOMAK OF HUNGARY. 31 
 
 Alone thou liest, where, at fancy's call, 
 
 The fainting foe hears, 'mid his deathful pain. 
 The Drave's low murmuring song — the Moldau's 
 home-like strain ! 
 
 Oh soul ! thou art a stranger to this land ! 
 
 Didst steer thy bark in ages long ago — 
 Like the bold G-enoese — through some ocean grand, 
 
 Where bright star-islands in their beauty glow. 
 Seeking some new world's glory for thine own ? 
 
 And wrecked where time's remorseless surges pour^ 
 Was't bound by savage hands, a prisoner lone, 
 
 As Afric's sons, on wild Sahara's shore. 
 
 Seize on the storm-tossed wretch who 'scapes th' 
 Atlantic's roar ? 
 
 So doth it seem ; for oft against the bars 
 Thy pinions to the angel choir keep time, 
 
 And oft as twilight brings the marching stars. 
 
 Thou hear'st the watchword from their ranks sub- 
 lime ! 
 
 Oft dost thou see thy duty high unrolled, 
 And rising grandly, by thy fetters stayed. 
 
 Thou shak'st earth's prison through its confines old. 
 As when the -lightning's quiv'ring flag's displayed, 
 And heaven's fierce cohorts pour the storm-king's 
 fusillade ! 
 
32 new-year's offering. 
 
 THE EMIGRANTS. 
 
 " We have here no continuing city or abiding place." 
 
 'Tis the summer's sultry noontide, and the long, dull 
 voyage is past ; 
 
 And up through the city highway their line is speed- 
 ing fast/ 
 
 As they follow the " Star of Empire," with a flushed 
 and anxious mien. 
 
 Where it points to the spreading prairies, and the 
 Western slopes of green ! 
 
 There is youth with its fond ambition, and age with 
 
 its weight of care ; 
 And the mother hastes, with her children, in the 
 
 " goodly land " to share. 
 For the shield of our eagle's pinions, and the hills by 
 
 free winds fanned. 
 They have come from the armed dominions of the 
 
 German's "Fatherland." 
 
 That none are left from the column they watch with 
 
 jealous care. 
 Lest the stragglers wander blindly, and faint in the 
 
 stranger air. 
 
THE EMIGRANTS. 33 
 
 Their hearts are bold as the Pilgrims^ who moored in 
 
 okl Plymouth Bay — 
 And the scream of the panting engine is .their shout 
 
 as they speed away ! 
 
 Shall we miss one soul from owr column when, up 
 from Death's harbor strand, 
 
 With life's weary voyage all ended, ice march through 
 the ^' Promised Land " ? 
 
 When out to the hills of Progress we speed on our 
 joyous way, 
 
 'Mid the vales and streams that glisten with a never- 
 ending day ? , ^ ■ 
 
 Shall one be lured by " the demons," through the by- 
 paths of sin and shame, 
 
 To a sulph'rous lake that burnetii with a never-dying 
 flame? " ' 
 
 Ah, no ! for the loving angels but smile on these 
 earth-born fears. 
 
 And the creedal damps that darkened the light of our 
 earlier years ! 
 
 And we hnow, whose souls are lighted with the rays 
 
 that gleam before. 
 That our Heavenly Father guideth our bark, though 
 
 the surges roar. 
 And grief shall dissolve in glory, and His loving 
 
 smile be seen 
 When out from the " Golden City " we march to the 
 
 hills of green ! 
 
34 new-year's offering. 
 
 TO A SEA-SHELL. 
 
 Thou tell'st of the bright and smiling sea, 
 Wliere the ri]3ples laugh in their winsome glee : 
 And the smooth beach shines like a silver band 
 On a maiden's brow in Orient land ; 
 And the white gull rocks on the dreamy swell 
 As the wild bird rests in the hazel dell. 
 
 Thou tell'st of the black and windswept sea, 
 When the good ship toils from the land to flee, 
 And the breakers dash on the groaning shore, 
 And the watery plain to its oozy core 
 Is stirred by the plowshared hurricane, 
 And the boasted strength of man is vain ! 
 
 Thou tell'st of the murmurs, faint and low, 
 That sweep where the charnel waters flow 
 When the sailor rests — from his wand'rings passed 
 And the wave rolls deep o'er the riven mast, 
 And the starry hosts on his funeral pall 
 Scatter bright gems that are free to all ! 
 
 Oh relic strange of the watery strife. 
 
 Your form once thrilled with a conscious life ; 
 
 A germ in your roseate halls was born 
 
TO A SEA-SHELL. 35 
 
 So rich with the tints of opening morn ; 
 
 And still through your arcades, weird and dim, 
 
 We catch the sweep of the ocean's hymn. 
 
 But the life-power died in thine inner breast, 
 And the waves have cast thee ashore to rest ; 
 And the dew and sun and the tramping storms 
 Shall knead thy dust into other forms ; 
 For the God who thrills in each changing grade. 
 Not an atom of earth in vain has made ! 
 
 Thou art witness mute 'gainst the olden tale, 
 Of the rending of time's parting veil — ^ 
 How the heavens like a scroll shall roll away. 
 And the isles shall flee in that fearful day. 
 When the mountains burn like a furnace red, 
 And the hissing " sea shall give up its dead." 
 
 For the sea doth give to the earth again 
 The spoils that sunk 'neath the angry main. 
 They come, by the force of law divine, 
 In differing forms from the surging brine ; 
 But the sailor's risen spirit dwells 
 In the land of fadeless asphodels ! 
 
 Oh, mourning hearts by the sea-beat shore. 
 There are angel tones in that sullen roar. 
 As the waves come up with reverence grand, 
 And bow on the rocky altar strand, 
 They swear hj the God who reigns on high : 
 ^^Not a soul on earth was horn to dieJ^ 
 
NEW-YEARS OFFERING. 
 
 " 0-GRAB- EM I " 
 
 When Madison embargo ^ laid 
 
 On all New England's thriving trade, 
 
 And bade tlie tall ships fretful ride 
 
 At anchor on the restive tide, 
 
 Nor seek on foreign shores the gains 
 
 Which Commerce gives for sailors' pains, 
 
 His mandate rang through all the land — 
 
 And servants stout clinched his command 
 
 " O-grab-'em ! " 
 
 The ruined merchant traced the letters 
 In mingled order — called them fetters 
 Laid on the nation's writhing arm. 
 But quickly burst the hateful charm 
 When the roused land, its rights denied. 
 Swung out on battle's crimson tide. 
 And foemen heard Columbia's shout 
 Through thund'rous echoes pealing out : 
 " O-grab-'em ! " 
 
 But modern day the measure heaps : 
 " Grab " is the game while justice sleeps, 
 And patriots frown, and prophets wail 
 The rising of destruction's gale ! 
 
o-gkab-'em." 37 
 
 Is there no power in all the land 
 To bid Corruption's deluge stand — 
 To heed the toilers' bitter sigh 
 As Mammon roars his soulless cry : 
 "O-grab-'em!"? 
 
 &^ 
 
 The creeds in golden armor strong 
 Peal forth their trumpets loud and long ; 
 Their feet with " Gospel " shod no more 
 They clang the nineteenth century's floor. 
 Their social extradition waits 
 In hearse-like robes at " Liberal " gates. 
 Shall they, ere long, repeat the cr/ 
 That crushed brave souls in days gone by 
 " 0-grab-em ! " ? 
 
 No Jest these serio-comic lines ! 
 Along th' horizon grimly shines 
 A blood-red dawn, whose noon-day sun 
 Must see Truth's battle lost or won. 
 Awake ! bold hearts, where'er ye be, 
 And bid the trusts and zealots flee : 
 Till honest thought with freedom blend 
 Where'er Columbia's hills ascend 
 '' O-grab-'em ! " 
 
38 new-year's offering. 
 
 THE WINE OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 Another year hatli trod th' arena's floor 
 
 Where uses stern to Being's call respond ; 
 And we with gladness hail the loved once more 
 
 Who bring their message from the Fair Beyond ! 
 We mark with joy Progression's prophet shine 
 
 That streams puissant from that primal ray 
 When angel fingers from the land divine 
 
 Swept the dark lignite clouds of doubt away/ 
 
 This Cause then born moves on — its conquering 
 train 
 
 Brings peace and light and love to all mankind ; 
 Round every tribe and race the golden chain 
 
 Of world-wide brotherhood its power shall bind. 
 It comes not to destroy, but to fulfill ; — 
 
 Not to supplant, but grandly to illume : 
 Lead mourning hearts from Death's penumbra chill, 
 
 And prove a conscious state beyond the tomb. 
 
 We steadfast sow this hour the harvest bright 
 
 Whose fruit shall crown each future age with peace, 
 
 When we here met shall pass from mortal sight 
 Where Paradisean skies bring sweet release. 
 
THE WINE OF THE SPIRIT. 39 
 
 May He whose presence thrills in worm and sun 
 Guide all our steps to duty's furrow true, 
 
 Till, matter's surcease gained, soul-freedom won, 
 Life's chosen friendships we again renew. 
 
 They tell of one who roam'd by castled Ehine 
 
 'Mid the rich gloaming of the vesper hour. 
 When o'er the hills the parting sunbeams shine. 
 
 And purpling dells are dight with mystic power : 
 And who, by elfin led,^ a grotto found 
 
 Where cashless wine (whose years no mind might 
 know) 
 Flash'd amethyst and ruby glances round, 
 
 Held by its age-formed crust from outward flow. 
 
 So in the past man's outward-reaching thought 
 
 Hath fashioned systems oft to serve his needs : 
 In creedal cellarets hath earnest sought 
 
 The wine of moral worth, though cashed in creeds. 
 Each met some human want in partial sense, 
 
 None fed the all — none gained the final meed : 
 Each through this fact (whene'er deduced or whence) 
 
 But prophet was of that which shall succeed ! 
 
 All souls in being's twilight track the vale 
 
 Where Time's swift river seeks th' eternal sea ; 
 
 Some dogma-laden walk with steps that fail. 
 
 Some with the stride of him whom Truth makes 
 free: 
 
40 new-year's offering. 
 
 The cave-brewed Soma of man's earliest line 
 
 In schemes and forms diverse has flowed for him, 
 
 But we this Jiour may drink the spirit tvine 
 
 Whose currents yieed no creed's supporting brim ! 
 
 As years depart each circling land shall know 
 
 The soulful cordial from celestial vine; 
 And kindly deeds, not webs of faith, shall grow. 
 
 And Justice lead the world with power benign : 
 Till heav'n-illumined man walk hand in hand 
 
 With beings free from dull restraining clay — 
 Till Death shall die, and conquering Life expand 
 
 Its widening, peopled, potent spheres alway ! 
 
 Farewell the pleasant scene, the crowded hall, 
 
 Farewell the sights and sounds of friendly mirth ; 
 Years as they speed the bolts of change let fall. 
 
 And migrant dust must strew the cooling earth : 
 Crowd on the sail ! for golden turrets line 
 
 The nearing shore : though varying seas we roam, 
 Mid adverse tides, though sun or lightning shine. 
 
 The spirit's course is laid for Heaven and Home. 
 
THE FOREST SPRING. 41 
 
 THE FOREST SPRING. 
 
 The forest holds within its temple grand, 
 Full many an altar to the Father's praise ; 
 
 But holiest is the placid fountain — fanned 
 By zephyrSj as they breathe ^^olian lays 
 
 To the low-drooping branches ; up it wells, 
 
 Through earth's deep caves and strata to the day — 
 
 As the true soul beneath life's bondage swells. 
 And upward mounts, though errors dark display, 
 To where the Eternal Sun sheds forth his glorious 
 ray! 
 
 Oh, wondrous stream,^ tradition gives thy tide 
 
 A silent influence, that follows him 
 Who tastes it, through his earthly wanderings wide. 
 
 Till back it leads him to thy mossy rim ; 
 To muse on days and hours long passed away 
 
 To the dim regions of the far-off lands — 
 And in a goblet of thy flashing spray 
 
 Remember those who from the angel bands 
 
 Look forth with anxious gaze to count life's waning 
 sands ! 
 
 Solemn communion ! Christ 'mid Salem's towers. 
 In ancient days, poured forth memorial wine ! 
 
42 new-year's offering. t 
 
 Here Nature, through the gorgeous summer hours, 
 Sends up this offering from her inmost shrine ! 
 
 " Drink, and revere thy great Creator, thou 
 Who standest here, rapt in a beauteous dream — 
 
 For as the dawning light gems morning's brow, 
 His mercies ever through the darkness gleam, 
 And light the sloping vale where rolls the ^ Bridge- 
 less Stream ! ' '^ 
 
 At morn I lingered by thy crystal wave, 
 
 When thrilled the forest-warbler's matin hymn; 
 
 And comrades true the gladsome chorus gave, 
 
 And pledged their friendship at thy sparkling brim ! 
 
 Years passed — I drank 'neath twilight's pall of 
 grief — 
 For day was fading at thy mystic shrine — 
 
 And heard the cold wind sweep the falling leaf ; 
 Still further stretched the forest's shadowy line. 
 Till evening's vestal star shone o'er the somber pine ! 
 
 So youth with gladness tastes life's current bright. 
 While friends and joys crowd round in thick array — 
 
 So manhood drains the second-childhood's blight, 
 And fear's wild host their frowning ranks display ! 
 
 But as the star-rays glimmered o'er thy breast 
 When day's last sunbeams faded in their pride. 
 
 So faith shall light the spirit to its rest. 
 
 Onward, to Avhere the glittering worlds divide, 
 And golden watch-fires gleam o'er Jordan's rolling 
 tide ! 
 
ONWAKD. 43 
 
 ONWARD. 
 
 Oh ye who watch the morning light 
 
 By faith through frowning centuries grow; 
 Ye warders on the wintry height 
 
 Whence error's downward glaciers go : 
 Earth's history, like a warrior's bjeast, 
 
 Clov'n with the stripes upon ye laid, 
 Bears ouAvard to its final rest 
 
 The cicatrix of storm and shade ! 
 
 The tyrant's arm in vengeance mailed, 
 
 The swift scythed-chariot speeding fast, 
 The scaffold's gory stroke, hath failed 
 
 To crush ye in the dark'ling past ! 
 Though fields be heaped with freedom's dead. 
 
 And stakes gleam red with martyr pain. 
 On lands obscure God's rays are shed — 
 
 Ye rise to guardian life again ! 
 
 The spirit moves — from age to age 
 
 Still brighter streams the conquering sign; 
 
 The bigot's power, the hireling's rage, 
 Check not the dayspring's march divine ! 
 
44 new-year's offering. 
 
 As hours their tireless orbit roll. 
 
 And night and day to earth are given, 
 
 A change diurnal waits the soul — 
 From night of life to dawn of heaven ! 
 
 It calls — the Voice Eternal calls ! 
 
 Each age, through man-made shadows dim 
 Creeps further toward th' horizon walls 
 
 And lifts an answ'ring cry to Him. 
 One day shall justice crown the van, 
 
 And race with race shall brethren be ; 
 And 'franchised human sight shall span 
 
 Our rolling globe from sea to sea ! 
 
THE CHARIOT OF FIRE. 45 
 
 THE CHARIOT OF FIRE. — Nov. 9-10. 
 
 "And . . . Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for 
 thee before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I 
 pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. . . . 
 
 ' ' And it came to pass as they still went on and talked, that 
 behold there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and 
 parted them both asunder ; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind 
 into heaven. . . . 
 
 "And . . . Elisha took up the mantle of Elijah that fell 
 from him, and went back and stood by the bank of Jordan. ' ' — 
 2 Kings a. 9, 11, 13. 
 
 The sky with midniglit horror glows, 
 
 The bayonets glare below ; 
 And tramping down each furnace street 
 
 The frenzied thousands go. 
 Wild peal the bells in 'larum loud, 
 
 The shrieking engines call ; 
 The ladder's crackling length is bowed 
 
 Beneath each crashing wall ! 
 
 Proud manhood rears his helmet crest 
 
 With purpose firm and high ; 
 Straight in the yawning jaws of death 
 
 The spouting torrents fly ! 
 
46 new-year's offering. 
 
 Mark, how yon sheeted lightning-burst 
 
 Leaps to the vault afar ! 
 Hark to the muffled answer hoarse — 
 
 The powder's earthquake jar ! 
 
 Woe for our city's queenly pride ; 
 
 Her fair and regal crov/n 
 Sweeps like a blazing comet shaft 
 
 From Hope's horizon down. 
 Morn sees her lintel, roof and tower 
 
 In ruin prostrate lie, 
 As Arctic berg, o'erbalanced, reels 
 
 In thunder down the sky. 
 
 Above that blazing holocaust 
 
 Our Baxxer ensign streamed ; 
 Sphered in that blazing chariot's arms, 
 
 Its parting radiance gleamed. 
 The toil of years, the hope of souls 
 
 Whelmed in its ashes, all — 
 But from the crisping heavens we saw 
 
 Its smoke-white mantle fall ! ^"^ 
 
 Stout hands that fallen flag had borne, 
 
 And faced the bigot's scorn ; 
 Stern eyes Avith prescient light had glowed 
 
 To greet the rising morn ! 
 And angels since that gloomy hour 
 
 Have stayed their weight of care, 
 And raised The Baxter's folds once more 
 
 To Freedom's native air ! 
 
THE CHARIOT OF FIRE. 47 
 
 Oh white flag, dropped from blood red sky, 
 
 We hail thee as a sign : 
 Though earth with hate and strife be dark, 
 
 Yet shall the morn star shine, 
 When Peace and Love, twin seers, shall stand 
 
 Death's Jordan billows by ; 
 And, sunlike, o'er each waking land 
 
 Truth's chariot roll on high ! 
 
48 new-year's offering. 
 
 ''THE ART preservative; 
 
 As mountain cliff that upward soars 
 
 From valley'd spring to frosty rime, 
 Till round its crest tlie whirlwind roars 
 
 With in-sped surge from space sublime, 
 So, o'er the mass some minds aspire 
 
 With tireless impulse stern and high, 
 Till round them heaves thought's lightning fire. 
 
 And cheering plaudits thunder by. 
 
 And such, great Franklin, was thy cast — 
 
 Like bold Wachuset towering strong ; 
 'Mid toil and humble comrades pass'd, 
 
 Thine iron morn-wheels ground along ; 
 Thy manhood raised a brazen targe 
 
 To fence Columbia's smitten brow ; 
 Fame's silver crowned life's yielded charge — 
 
 Heaven's golden age is round thee now ! 
 
 Our " quoins " to-night " in forests grew 
 Where Eight was soil and Truth was tree, 
 
 Whereon, down-streaming from the blue, 
 God shot the rays of Liberty ! 
 
49 
 
 By logic's " mallet " tightly driven, 
 
 With " shooting-stick " of mental steel, 
 
 They compass where true hearts have striven — 
 From birth's dark "press " to '^Land o' Leal! " 
 
 Our " quadrats '^ mark the resting-place 
 
 By toiling generations won 
 Along earth's rolling " turtle " face, 
 
 As hour-shades cast by dialed sun. 
 Benevolence — " head-rule " — we greet ; 
 
 Our '' take " full oft, the fleeting breath 
 When raised the nation's " tympan-sheet," 
 
 And war's black " rollers " clang in death ! 
 
 The tales of old Phoenicia known. 
 
 The wondrous myths of far Cathay, 
 The gleams from Coptic ruins thrown, 
 
 Th' Assyrian's arrow-pointed lay, 
 Tell of strange arts, man's willing thralls, 
 
 Lost in Tradition's less'ning flame ! 
 What power shall breach Oblivion's walls, 
 
 And give their spectres form and name ? 
 
 The Art Preservative, we sing, 
 
 Whose magic Time and Death defies. 
 No more shall learning's living spring 
 
 Be darkly hid from human eyes. 
 From ev'ry power man's toil doth gain, 
 
 In student cell, or workshop din. 
 Our Art Promethean weaves a chain 
 
 To lead the full-orbed centuries in ! 
 
50 new-year's offering. 
 
 What though with quick and nervous hand 
 
 We lay the " form " for life supreme, 
 Or at Death's " distribution '' stand 
 
 Like half-dazed actors in a dream ? 
 Life's "fountain," brimmed with "ink drops " red. 
 
 Shall in a little " space " run dry, 
 And Aiden's crystal morning spread 
 
 Through each grimed oflEice-window high. 
 
 Toil, brothers, for our work, more bless'd 
 
 Than throned king's or statesman's art. 
 Bids Eeason, waked by Learning's zest, 
 
 Pierce every sham, and read the heart. 
 And as the morning stars began 
 
 Creation's round and bar-less lay, 
 Earth, sometime, crowned by G-od-like man, 
 
 Shall smiling greet a broader day ! 
 
 Oh Press ! God's beacon light to cheer 
 
 While storm-winds rocked a trembling world, 
 Shine, till we reach the golden year. 
 
 And Error's midnight wings be furled ; 
 Till Peace come down, an angel guest. 
 
 And heaven peal out the morning chime, 
 And Sin and Care and Death shall rest 
 
 Within the close-barr'd grave of Time ! 
 
"WHEN MY SHIP GETS IN FROM SEA." 51 
 
 WHEN MY SHIP GETS IN FROM SEA." 
 
 — "And poured round all 
 Old ocean's gray and melanclioly waste." 
 
 Where a headland breasts the fury 
 
 Of the wild Atlantic wave — 
 'Neath whose depths in thund'rous midnight 
 
 Manhood oft has found a grave — 
 Stands an ancient rock, moss-crested, 
 
 And this tale it tells to me : 
 " All your fond desires I'll answer 
 
 When my ship gets in from sea I " 
 
 'Twas a father's voice that uttered — 
 
 Childhood's quickening ear that heard j 
 Seaward many a pennon fluttered, 
 
 Seaward sped the soaring bird. 
 And the watcher's youthful vision 
 
 Peered across the shining lea 
 Filled with dreams of joys elysian, 
 
 When that ship should come from sea. 
 
 But across the far-off billows 
 
 Never swept her landward sail, 
 Though he watched, when tumbling surges 
 
 Bowed before the roaring gale — 
 
52 new-year's offering. 
 
 Or when sunset's blazing banner 
 Waved o'er evening's western wall, 
 
 Or the distant light-house glimmered 
 In the spectral twilight's fall ! 
 
 'Twas a dream of boyish fancy, 
 
 Smiling spoke, and smiling heard ; 
 But a strange and forceful meaning 
 
 Lurks within each passing word : 
 Down from yonder vault eternal, 
 
 Soul, thy Father speaks to thee : 
 ^' All thy fond desires I'll answer. 
 
 When my ship gets in from sea." 
 
 Father, God ! on life's wild headland 
 
 Still I watch thy coming sail ; 
 Yearn to see her fair white pennon 
 
 Streaming lordly o'er the gale : 
 For along her crowded bulwarks 
 
 Friends of old shall smile on me — 
 Death shall claim a thankful spirit 
 
 When Thy " ship gets in from sea.'^ 
 
THE MILLENNIAL SUN. 63 
 
 THE MILLENNIAL SUN. 
 
 Oh ! wondrous path, o'erarched by centuries gray, 
 
 Through, which 'mid creedal sands and shadows lorn 
 The human soul has held its toilsome way 
 
 To modern light, from life's primordial morn ! 
 What woeful tales each circling age hath told, 
 
 What hearts grown dim 'mid trial's d^ad'ning round, 
 Outreaching sadly for the " Age of Gold," 
 
 "Which kings and prophets sought, but never 
 found ! " 
 
 And we who see beyond earth's mighty brow 
 
 The golden effluence of Heaven's morning rise — 
 Let us give thanks, while fading errors bow, 
 
 And Truth walks regnant through the waking skies : 
 And as we steadfast stand this golden hour, 
 
 Where Thought's clear heavens with beck'ning 
 splendors glow, 
 List ye a legend of the star-world's power 
 
 As type of Keason's evolution slow : 
 
 Who walks the winding vale at close of even. 
 When skies are clear, and twilight breezes blow, 
 
 May see adown the violet cope of heaven, 
 The fringe-like constellations trailing low ; 
 
54 new-year's offering. 
 
 Born of tlie flaming Sun, whose leaven supreme 
 Burns in all life to human senses known, 
 
 Their glittering bands in argent union dream 
 When night reveals our system's solar zone. 
 
 Each filled its place ere yet a human eye 
 
 Look'd anxious up from earth's fire-matrix'd plain; 
 And one by one as years of toil went by, 
 
 Men spied these wonders of the heavenly main, 
 And gave them names, and piecemeal sought each 
 cause 
 
 Which ruled with mystic power their time and tide; 
 Till Science gave coordinated laws 
 
 Through stylus, telescope, and thought allied. 
 
 Each planisphere's deflected orb foretold 
 
 A potent neighbor hid from mortal ken, 
 And thus earth's the'ries in the ages old 
 
 Outbroadened 'neath the toil of earnest men 
 Who held dull Matter's pris'ning confines naught, 
 
 But God-like trod the empyrean vast, 
 A-ud, gradual, wrought a path for human thought 
 
 From earth to far Uranus — deemed the last : ^^ 
 
 The link that closed our solar system's chain ; 
 
 But still th' astronomers disturbance found. 
 And wrought each careful codex o'er in vain 
 
 Till Neptune's disc their seeming triumph crowned ; 
 Then metes and bounds conclusive they ordained, 
 
 And held the utmost of our system reached, 
 
THE MILLENNIAL SUN. 55 
 
 Nothing beyond the new-found orb remained, 
 
 They taught, whose word not lightly is impeached. 
 
 But years roll by ; and students of the skies 
 
 With computations keen, and centered thought, 
 Begin the startling fact to recognize 
 
 That Neptune's self hath not conclusion wrought ; 
 And some with zeal and steadfast faith declare 
 
 A huge twin planet, not yet seen, doth roll 
 In vast ellipse through dim, tenebrous air — 
 
 Neptune th' objective — this the potent pole.^^ 
 
 Thus from the mistiest eras of the past. 
 
 On through the nineteenth century's prismic arch, 
 The human soul hath tracked Truth's precepts vast, 
 
 While Apprehension dawned along the march. 
 Each step attained hath told a greater near ; 
 
 Each woe o'erspent a greater gladness borne ; 
 Each storm of trial made th' horizon clear ; 
 
 Each partial truth dissolved in broader dawn. 
 
 Years fled, and in His name of Galilee, 
 
 (Like Heavenly Neptune) from Judean hills 
 Streamed forth at last a system claimed to be 
 
 The closing luord our Heavenly Father wills ! 
 Earth speaks to-day in million-tongued reply; 
 
 It hath not brought the boon the spirit craves : 
 The bigot rules — Christ's love and mercy fly 
 
 Like storm-swept birds along its wrathful waves. 
 
56 new-year's offering. 
 
 'Twas hailed at first by glad proplietic souls, 
 
 Whose earnest '' wish was father to the thought/' 
 As " final gift from Him whose power controls 
 
 Th' advance of mind; whose will is aye out wrought." 
 They sensed the spirit-planet then, but gave 
 
 Mistaken credence to th' objective /orm; 
 But on the Perihelion's circling wave 
 
 That planet now returns with pulses warm. 
 
 Fair Science waits till coming years reveal 
 
 The potent orb so boldly prophesied : 
 And thinking minds no longer may conceal 
 
 In creed's domain the world-awakening wide — 
 The sense prophetic of an opening way 
 
 That leads from faith to soulful actions done ; 
 The Churchman's Neptune dim with errors gray, 
 
 Shrinks from the Spirit World's millennial sun ! 
 
 The telescope, which yet shall glad our eyes 
 
 With coming glories in the sphere of soul, 
 Is formed of medial sayings, trite and wise, 
 
 From those who've passed from Death to Life's 
 control ; 
 It gives a mental prophecy to man. 
 
 Whereby the future of earth's moral state 
 Is outlined clear to all who dare to scan 
 
 Its lens, unawed by sneer of bigot's hate. 
 
 We stand on Being's glory-lighted hills ! . 
 The cloudy banners of the Xight are riven ! 
 
THE MILLENNIAL SUN. 57 
 
 Our hearts the volt of Eeason clearer thrills, 
 We sense the noontide from a nearing Heaven. 
 
 May He whose presence burns in worm and sun 
 Guide all our thoughts 'neath duty's peerless ken, 
 
 Till time shall see full Comprehension won. 
 And 'carnate angels walk the earth with men ! 
 
58 new-year's offering. 
 
 MORNING BY THE SEA. 
 
 I've seen the midnight's eastern star grow dim, 
 
 When daylight paled above the black-browed land, 
 While briny wavelets poured their matin hymn, 
 
 And bowed in prayer along the shining sand. 
 The day rolled upward. Cove and fort and town 
 
 Gleamed like a landscape from some fairer world ; 
 And round the beetling summits, old and brown, 
 
 The dewy freshness of the morning curled. 
 
 The ocean gleamed a quaint mosaic floor. 
 
 Where golden tile and sapphire matrix vied : 
 And free winds trod this temple, as of yore 
 
 The high priest walked old Sol'ma's hall of pride. 
 The lazy smoke climbed up o'er streets and spires. 
 
 The sound of man's brisk toiling went abroad. 
 As Heaven's bright angel lit the vestal fires. 
 
 And cried, " Another day is born of God ! " 
 
 So, when life's clouds and darkening trials end, 
 Shall fadeless youth in golden dawn arise. 
 
 And grateful joy its holy anthem blend 
 
 With welcoming: chant from saints in Paradise ; 
 
MORNING BY THE SEA. 59 
 
 And being's aim shall stand at last full told ; 
 
 Nor time nor change the pulsing heart shall chill ; 
 But scathless from the mortal vistas roll'd 
 
 Each soul its deathless purpose shall fulfill ! 
 
60 new-year's offering. 
 
 LADY FRANKLIN. 
 
 Oh, the human spirit naught can chain — 
 
 Nor time, nor tide, nor the lowering sky ; 
 As the fire-god gives the lightning rein, 
 
 Its steeds through the golden life-sands fly ; 
 It hath fearless wrought mid the battle's rage 
 
 On the rocking ^^lain, and the sounding sea, 
 But the noblest deeds on its storied page 
 
 Each age hath graven sweet Love for thee ! 
 
 Where the floe-fields march with their leaders bold 
 
 'Neath the red Aurora's guidon high ! 
 The twin barks ^* steered for the midnight cold. 
 
 And the years in silence pass'd them by. 
 And few were the tales from that charnel land. 
 
 Though England marshaled her barks from far — 
 And the clear, wild gales of the Northland fann'd 
 
 The folds of Columbia's banner'd star ! 
 
 And hope grew dead in the nation's heart. 
 
 And all ceased at length from the fruitless toil. 
 
 Save the noble lady who bore her part 
 
 With a dauntless purpose no ill might foil. 
 
 And all that her power might win she gave, 
 Till swift, to her tear-gemmed vision dim, 
 
LADY FRANKLIN. 61 
 
 A lone bark skimmed o'er the seething wave, 
 
 With her white wings spread for the Norland grim ! 
 
 And the months crept on — but she came at last ! 
 
 And bore the tidings of saddening pain — 
 Of a chief inurned, ere the march was past, 
 
 Of the barks that crashed in the iceberg's strain ; 
 Of the braves who trod on their journey dread, 
 
 With hunger and woe for their comrades nigh — 
 Of the lonely boat and her sleeping dead, 
 
 Watched ten long years by the pole-star's eye ! 
 
 Oh, man's spirit longs for the truth sublime, 
 
 And the sage and the stoic boldly strive, 
 And up through the gathering darkness climb, 
 
 Where the splintered crags through the future drive. 
 Oh Science ! thy votaries wide and free 
 
 Ma.rch in th' Eternal's conq'ring name, 
 And the desert sand, or the wintry sea. 
 
 May never its kindling glories tame ! 
 
 But, Woman ! thou — like the legend ark 
 
 By sage upreared in a primal world, 
 That safely rode o'er the waters dark. 
 
 Though no oar she bent, nor a sail unfurled — 
 Thou spring'st aloft on the flood of woe. 
 
 Though low thou liest in joy's sunlight fair, 
 And bearest thy treasures from below 
 
 In the holy arms of a loving prayer ! 
 
62 new-year's offering. 
 
 We steer tlirougli a cold and midnight way, 
 
 To the magnet-home of our Father's smile — 
 And the death-ice clutches our mortal clay, 
 
 And it crumbles in silent dust the while ! 
 But the soul shall vault from its bark forlorn, 
 
 Where the Dayspring's vanward pennons wave, 
 And wild, at the gates of Endless Morn, 
 
 Life's ocean thunders its crashing stave I 
 
AUTOPHONIA. 63 
 
 AUTOPHONIA. 
 
 Up from the land where somber darkness dwells, 
 
 Comes a wild stream, and through the fair earth's 
 bound, 
 By marshy fen, and cliff-girt valley swells. 
 
 Till back to darkness flows the fearful round ; 
 Hearse-like above it, droop the vapors dank, 
 
 No sunrays glitter on the pulseless wave. 
 The marching star-worlds break their glittering rank. 
 
 And tremble where its quenching waters lave, 
 While Luna's white, cold eye, glares on their liquid 
 grave. 
 
 And scaly forms loom through that gloomy tide. 
 
 Or lift their huge heads from its leaden breast ! 
 Whence came they, none can tell — nor confines wide 
 
 Of sea, or land, or sky, may give them rest ! 
 They slowly drift back to the parent hold, 
 
 W^here baffled ills, and broken life-clouds fly, 
 Hope's name can chill them like the Greenland cold, 
 
 And bid them swift to murkier blackness hie — 
 But Hope that looks on them shall darkly wailing die ! 
 
64 new-year's offering. 
 
 With wan, weird forms crouched o'er each bending 
 sweep, 
 
 Dim, spectral barks along the waters go. 
 Deep with their load, that brings undreaming sleep — 
 
 The drug, the steel, the cord " that shortens woe." 
 The helmsmen glare along the sloping land. 
 
 Till some pale, mortal, wildered in the mist 
 Hung blankly round him, calls the grisly band ; 
 
 Sends the lone soul to wander where it list, 
 And holds with dark decay a never-ending tryst ! 
 
 That flood is self-destruction I through the earth, 
 
 By life's bright wave it rolls, a curdling stream ; 
 But life in heaven-lit hills received its birth — 
 
 This in wild caverns where the demons dream ; 
 Life flows 'mid fields and sunny-girdled isles — 
 
 This by the jungle weeds, the poisoned flower, 
 And he, who, trembling in its misty wiles 
 
 Peers round him, sees by noon or midnight hour 
 The strange, fantastic shapes, wrought by desponding 
 power ! 
 
 Alas ! that sorrow brooding o'er the mind 
 
 Should hurl proud reason from its firm-built throne ; 
 
 Or stern ambition, grasping at the wind 
 
 And finding naught should scorn its power o'er- 
 thrown. 
 
 And soar away to brave the future's gloom ! 
 Each has a cross, a weary load, to bear. 
 
 As downward tread we to the shrouding tomb ! 
 
AUTOPHONIA. 65 
 
 Heaven help us all to cleave the tempting snare, 
 And in the land on high the crown of victory wear ! 
 
 Yes ! let us live till all our work be done, 
 
 And 'mid the shadows of the grave-land vast, 
 His hand for us veils out the glowing sun 
 
 Who bade its glory gild our transient past ! 
 Then shall the soul spread forth her tireless wing, 
 
 While earth along her dusty orbit jars, 
 And to the w^aiting angels raptured spring — 
 
 As, when beyond their cloudy prison bars, 
 The free lights of the north shoot up among the stars ! 
 
6Q NEW-YEAR^S OFFERING. 
 
 HOPE. 
 
 Oh glorious morning ! o'er the pilgrim's way 
 
 Thou stream'st puissant from the hills afar — 
 A. reflex of that broad and glorious day 
 
 Where risen, triumphant souls in glory are ! 
 
 Thy mounting beams 'round Reason's colder star 
 Throw warmest light — Fruition's golden flame ; 
 
 Life's crowding clouds, perchance, may briefly mar 
 Thy conquering course, but Death presents no claim 
 To stay thy rising tide, which erst from Aiden came ! 
 
 Thou shin'st forever ; 'mid the Springtide's glow — 
 
 The warm, rich gales of Summer's ripening hours — 
 The wild, weird winds of Autumn, when they blow 
 
 Chanting a requiem through earth's gloomy bowers. 
 
 Thy light immortal streams from heavenly towers 
 Across the tide ; but mortal eyes are dim — 
 
 We call it night when life's fair, fragrant flowers 
 Fade from our sight beyond earth's cloudy rim. 
 And all our cherished joys in Grief's black deluge 
 swim ! 
 
 But still thou shin'st ; thy light shall pierce the gloom 
 
 .When we are drawn to our Emanuel nigh, 
 Anll^'all the lesson learned, the heart finds room 
 
HOPE. 67 
 
 For humble, patient trust in God on high. 
 
 Our Brother spake 'neath a Juclean sky 
 The words that oped the blind one's faded sight; 
 
 So each dark trial opes the spirit's eye, 
 And gleams, a Christ, amid celestial light. 
 When from our rayless orbs is swept the doubting 
 night. 
 
 Oh Father God ! thou art the same to all — 
 The martyr, or the wand'rer from thy face ! 
 
 Thou bidd'st by Law the fruits of labor fall 
 To each as Nature's recompensing grace 
 Beholds the needed gift. Oh may our race. 
 
 In coming years, with hope and love be crowned ; 
 Light thou the weary path we dark'ling trace, 
 
 And o'er our spirits pour that calm profound 
 
 Befitting deathless souls to thy great bosom bound ! 
 
NOTES. 
 
 1 In a conversation held some years before his decease witli 
 Father John Beeson, the Indian's life-long friend (to whose 
 memory this poem is respectfully dedicated), the writer of these 
 lines was put in possession of several interesting facts concern- 
 ing the " Senecas " — one of the original " Six Nations " of the 
 North American continent. The tribe is now divided, a portion, 
 some twelve hundred strong, still residing on the Cattaraugus 
 reservation, in New York State. The other branch was located 
 on a reservation in the Indian Territory at the time specified, 
 and the ceremony herein described was one taking place among 
 them every year, the spot chosen for its celebration being as 
 secluded as possible from all presence of the whites (although 
 Mr. Beeson was privileged to attend it on one occasion). A 
 white dog without spot or blemish is chosen, highly adorned 
 with ribbons, beads, paint, etc. , and strangled, in a temporarily 
 reared Council Lodge, which has three openings in the roof, and 
 upon the floor of which burn three fires. Singing, shouting, 
 dancing, and the beating of drams are included in the services. 
 The dog hangs till the third day, and then is thrown, whole, 
 into the flames and consumed, the priests (hideously painted 
 and ornamented) and the chiefs joining in the ceremony, by 
 throwing upon the fires sweet, fragrant mosses, tobacco, etc., 
 which they have brought in baskets, and jointly exclaiming, 
 " As the smoke of our offering ascends to the sky, so may our 
 thanks [mentioning thanks severally and specially for all the 
 blessings of sunshine, rain, food, etc.] go up to thee, oh Great 
 Spirit." At the conclusion the baskets themselves are thrown 
 
NOTES. 69 
 
 into the fire, and the prayer continues : " And now, Great Spirit, 
 we offer ourselves to thee : make us faithful to eacli other, and 
 may we be true Indians till we meet here again ! " 
 
 It was explained to Mr. Beeson that the dog was selected 
 because it represented the higher qualities of man, — courage 
 in defense of his master, faitlifulness to his call, and swiftness 
 for duty ; it was strangled so that, being spotless white in life, 
 it might go up to the Great Spirit without the blemish of broken 
 bone or flowing blood ; the dancing was instituted because 
 "the Great Spirit knew it was necessary for his children" to 
 move about and feel free in his presence. 
 
 2 See Chapter XIV., "Proof Palpable of Immortality," by 
 Epes Sargent, Esq. 
 
 3 These lines are inscribed to Joseph Jolin's superb painting 
 of the spirit Indian maiden Springflower. '' The circumstances 
 which led to and followed the course of the preparation of this 
 picture were remarkable. The artist was able to see his subject 
 with clairvoyant vision, and thus had the advantage of the 
 actual model to match with the power of his cultured ideality in 
 the production of the work. 
 
 Springflower, who demonstrated herself from the first occa- 
 sion of her control to be a lively and intelligent spirit, attached 
 herself to the late Mrs. J. H. Conant (the first medium of the 
 Banner of Light Public Free Circles) as an attendant, in the 
 earliest days of her mediumship, and proved to be a most useful 
 and beneficial companion. The account given of her mortal 
 experiences stated, among other things, that she was of the 
 Sioux tribe, and that she was known among the Indians by a 
 name which signifies " The-one-who-shows-herself," as she was 
 frequently seen, as a spirit, near the spot where she met her 
 death. To give any extended sketch of her operations as a 
 spirit attendant at the public circles and private sittings given 
 by Mrs. Conant, would be only to recite a record of faithful 
 devotion and unwavering kindness, but at the same time would 
 be only a repetition of experiences which the media of the 
 
70 new-year's offering. 
 
 modern phenomena have met with and described, in some 
 measure, and therefore it will not be attempted. The public 
 is respectfully invited, freely, to call at the Banner of Light 
 bookstore, and view this fine work of art, which has been pro- 
 nounced by Mrs. Conant and several other clairvoyants, who 
 have (by their gift) seen the spirit, to be a striking likeness of 
 the Indian maiden. 
 
 4 It is recorded that at the close of one of the lost fields 
 fought for the Magyar independence, an Austrian officer was 
 horror-stricken at recognizing in a dying soldier of the patriot 
 forces the face of a lovely Hungarian lady to whom, before the 
 war, he had been deeply attached ; she had met death at the 
 hands of his comrades (perhaps his own) as a willing sacrifice 
 for her country. 
 
 5 Suggested at seeing a party of emigrants hurrying through 
 Boston on their way to the West. 
 
 6 The attention of the writer was first called to this ' ' saber- 
 cut of Saxon speech " by his listening to the narrative of " Heze- 
 kiah," a good Orthodox deacon in a New England village 
 bordering on the Merrimac, who, being financially ruined by 
 Madison's embargo, immediately preceding the war of 1812, 
 used to change the order of the syllables and spelling, making 
 the word "0-grra6-Vm." 
 
 ■^ Written for an'd delivered during the course of the union 
 services held at Tremont Temple, Boston, March 31st, 1887, in 
 commemoration of the 39th anniversary of the advent of Mod- 
 ern Spiritualism. 
 
 8 "Such a charming collection I have never seen, and the 
 tuns glitter like the purest gold." 
 
 " Truly?" smiled his mysterious guide ; " the reason of it is 
 because the wine has formed its own casks ; those which were 
 made by men are long ago decayed. But 'tis not enough to look 
 at them ; we must taste, and then you must tell me if you have 
 ever found a wine like mine." — Legends of the Rhine. 
 
 9 In a forest, near the village of Annisquam, on the northern 
 
NOTES. 71 
 
 shore of Cape Ann, Mass., is a bubbling- spring, of which 
 tradition asserts that he who drinks of its waters will surely 
 return to it once more ! 
 
 10 This poem sets forth an actual occurrence in The Banner's 
 history at the time of the great fire in Boston, Nov. 9-10, 1872. 
 At the moment when the fire made its appearance upon the roof 
 of the Parker Building, in which the Banner of Light Establish- 
 ment was situated, the hitense heat caused the flag- staff directly 
 over the office to give forth a white cloud of smoke, which was 
 borne out by the wind in the form of a flag, occupying nearly 
 the whole length of the staff. It bore a resemblance to a white 
 field streaked horizontally with blue. It continued in plain 
 sight till the flag- staff crumbled and fell. 
 
 11 This poem was wiitten for the Franklin Typographical 
 Society of Boston, on its 50th anniversary, celebrated on the 
 evening of Jan. 17th, 1874. 
 
 12 Uranus was discovered ; and the theories of the seven 
 planets were, ere long, presented to astronomy by the untiring 
 genius of Laplace. ... In the attempt to construct tables 
 which should serve' for the prediction of the places of the 
 planets, it was ascertained that the irregularities of motion of 
 the new outer planet still required the intervention of some 
 unseen power. Two great geometers, independently of each 
 other, computed the elements of a planet which should recon- 
 cile the discrepancies. They coincided in its orbit and position. 
 In the very direction predicted by them the planet Neptune was 
 found. — Prof, Pierce before the Lowell Institute, Boston. 
 
 13 But the observed planet is quite distinct in orbit and the- 
 ory from that which was predicted ; and the theory of predic- 
 tion throws no light upon the actual theory, nor has it any but 
 an accidental connection with it. . . . To the present case I 
 have given a critical and laborious investigation. . . . My posi- 
 tion is that there were two possible planets ; either of which 
 might have caused the observed irregularities in the motion of 
 Uranus. Each planet excluded the other. They coincided in 
 
72 
 
 direction from the earth at certain epochs, once in six hundred 
 and fifty years. It was at one of tliese epochs that the predic- 
 tion was made ; and at no otlier time for six centuries would 
 the prediction of one planet have revealed the other. The ob- 
 served planet was not the predicted one. . . . The potential 
 planet is as splendid a reality as the true planet, and as marvel- 
 ous a discovery. — Id. 
 
 1* The fate which overtook Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin 
 and his ships has been forcibly recalled to the mind of the 
 present generation by a revelation of secret history connected 
 with the disaster. The Erebus and Terror were last seen in the 
 Arctic regions in July, 1845; but it was not till 1859 — after 
 the English nation had utterly abandoned (after many expedi- 
 tions) the hope of finding traces of them — that their fate was 
 clearly determined by a little vessel, courageously fitted out by 
 Lady Franklin herself. Rev. J. H. Skewes (Vicar of the Holy 
 Trinity, Liverpool, Eng.), recently published a work in which 
 he stoutly avers that the success of the concluding search- 
 expedition was due to an occult revelation, given in the form of 
 a spirit- drawing to a family in Londonderry, with the outlines 
 and locations of which rough cartograph Lady Franklin and 
 the captain were made acquainted by a party who believed the 
 sketch to be reliable.