There were school rooms, lyceums and vast lecture halls With all treasures of Time, densely filling the walls, While professors of every known science and art, Sought the mind to inform or to lead the young heart. The longs rows of workshops for artisans made, No longer their low, dusty windows displayed, Where faint, toil-worn hundreds met sickness and death In the close stifling air, corrupted by breath; But sunlight enlivened each lofty-walled room And each rounded cheek showed freshness and bloom. The master was ever the workers among, Their health to secure--not their labors prolong. No law was required--as a Christian, he knew He to others should act as he wished them to do. No poisonous gas was floating in air Sowing germs of disease and of death everywhere, For the vapors evolved, by chemical skill Were innocuous made, other ends to fulfil. The men who long delved in the deep gloomy mine, Mid’ the fire-damp, allowed their bright lanterns to shine; As the light they now used created no heat, ’Twere idle to think any danger to meet, And the air, so mephitic of old time, became As oxygen pure, when it met the soft flame. Roamed the deer through the streets of the populous town. Not now with swift steeds and fierce dogs hunted down. The fox and the hare lived in the same den On intimate terms, unmolested by men, Every beast, bird or fish, by night and by day, No longer regarded each other its prey, But, protected by man, to his friendship proved true, And love bound all creatures in league ever new. Nought was seen, nought was heard but gladness and praise For the blessings that crowned those bright halcyon days, And even from Erin thanksgiving was heard, ’Till the gray crags of Scotland with echoes were stirred. I returned to the sea where the white cliffs arose As landmarks to show how the tide ebbs and flows; “Adieu to Old England! exulting, I cried, Where order, peace, love and religion abide! Of the nations who spent blood and treasure in war, She, who once was the first, ambitious no more, Now sends forth her people to each distant land To teach and to preach at the Saviour’s command!” As I gazed o’er the deep, entranced at the view, Not a vapor or cloud dimmed the fair boundless blue. At my feet the waves with joy seemed to dance Through the piers of an air-tube, the high road to France, And, lying at ease on a rich velvet bed, Impelled like an arrow, in safety I sped O’er the channel that washes each bold rocky shore, First united--then severed--but now linked once more. The manners of every one caused such surprise, Unprepared as I was, I could scarce trust my eyes. The butterfly airs and the light lively tone By which, time out of mind, the Frenchman was known.