And what then chanced? O, leave not told, but guess'd; Is Love a god?--a temple, then, the breast! Not to the crowd in cold detail allow Its delicate worship, its mysterious vow! Around the first sweet homage in the shrine Let the veil fall, and but the Pure divine! Coy as the violet shrinking from the sun, The blush of Virgin Youth first woo'd and won; And scarce less holy from the vulgar ear The tone that trembles but with noble fear: Near to God's throne the solemn stars that move The proud to meekness, and the pure to love! Let days pass on; nor count how many swell The episode of Life's hack chronicle! Changed the abode, of late so stern and drear, How doth the change speak--"Love hath enter'd here!" How lightly sounds the footfall on the floor! How jocund rings sweet laughter, hush'd no more! Wide from two hearts made happy, wide and far, Circles the light in which they breathe and are; Liberal as noontide streams the ambient ray, And fills each crevice in the world with day. And changed is Lucy! where the downcast eye, And the meek fear, when that dark man was by? Lo! as young Una thrall'd the forest-king, She leads the savage in her silken string; Plays with the strength to her in service shown, And mounts with infant whim the woman's throne! Charm'd from his lonely moods and brooding mind, And bound by one to union with his kind, No more the wild man thirsted for the waste; No more, 'mid joy, a joyless one, misplaced; His very form assumed unwonted grace, And bliss gave more than beauty to his face: Let but delighted thought from all things cull Sweet food and fair--hiving the Beautiful, And lo! the form shall brighten with the soul! The gods bloom only by joy's nectar bowl. Nor deem it strange that Lucy fail'd to trace } In that dark brow, the birthright of disgrace, } And Europe's ban on Earth's primeval race. }