Thus heard Columbus, eager to behold The famed Apocalypse its years unfold; The soul stood speaking thro his gazing eyes, And thus his voice: Oh let the visions rise! Command, celestial Guide, from each far pole, John's vision'd morn to open on my soul, And raise the scenes, by his reflected light, Living and glorious to my longing sight. Let heaven unfolding show the eternal throne, And all the concave flame in one clear sun; On clouds of fire, with angels at his side, The Prince of Peace, the King of Salem ride, With smiles of love to greet the bridal earth, Call slumbering ages to a second birth, With all his white-robed millions fill the train, And here commence the interminable reign! Such views, the Saint replies, for sense too bright, Would seal thy vision in eternal night; Man cannot face nor seraph power display The mystic beams of such an awful day. Enough for thee, that thy delighted mind Should trace the temporal actions of thy kind; That time's descending veil should ope so far Beyond the reach of wretchedness and war, Till all the paths in nature's sapient plan Fair in thy presence lead the steps of man, And form at last, on earth's extended ball, Union of parts and happiness of all. To thy glad ken these rolling years have shown The boundless blessings thy vast labors crown, That, with the joys of unborn ages blest, Thy soul exulting may retire to rest, But see once more! beneath a change of skies, The last glad visions wait thy raptured eyes. Eager he look'd. Another train of years Had roll'd unseen, and brighten'd still their spheres; Earth more resplendent in the floods of day Assumed new smiles, and flush'd around him lay. Green swell the mountains, calm the oceans roll, Fresh beams of beauty kindle round the pole; Thro all the range where shores and seas extend, In tenfold pomp the works of peace ascend. Robed in the bloom of spring's eternal year, And ripe with fruits the same glad fields appear; O'er hills and vales perennial gardens run, Cities unwall'd stand sparkling to the sun; The streams all freighted from the bounteous plain Swell with the load and labor to the main, Whose stormless waves command a steadier gale And prop the pinions of a bolder sail: Sway'd with the floating weight each ocean toils, And joyous nature's full perfection smiles. Fill'd with unfolding fate, the vision'd age Now leads its actors on a broader stage; When clothed majestic in the robes of state, Moved by one voice, in general congress meet The legates of all empires. Twas the place Where wretched men first firm'd their wandering pace; Ere yet beguiled, the dark delirious hordes Began to fight for altars and for lords; Nile washes still the soil, and feels once more The works of wisdom press his peopled shore.