Than her destructive energies, attend His independence, when along the side 930 Of Mississippi, or that northern stream[DS] That[278] spreads into successive seas,[DT] he walks; Pleased to perceive his own unshackled life, And his innate capacities of soul, There imaged: or when, having gained the top 935 Of some commanding eminence, which yet Intruder ne'er beheld, he thence surveys Regions of wood and wide savannah, vast Expanse of unappropriated earth, With mind that sheds a light on what he sees; 940 Free as the sun, and lonely as the sun, Pouring above his head its radiance down Upon a living and rejoicing world! "So, westward, tow'rd the unviolated woods I bent my way; and, roaming far and wide, 945 Failed not to greet the merry Mocking-bird;[DU] And, while the melancholy Muccawiss (The sportive bird's companion in the grove) Repeated, o'er and o'er, his plaintive cry,[DV] I sympathised at leisure with the sound; 950 But that pure archetype of human greatness, I found him not. There, in his stead, appeared A creature, squalid, vengeful, and impure; Remorseless, and submissive to no law But superstitious fear, and abject sloth. 955 "Enough is told! Here am I--ye have heard What evidence I seek, and vainly seek; What from my fellow-beings I require, And either they have not to give, or I Lack virtue to receive; what I myself, 960 Too oft by wilful forfeiture, have lost[279] Nor can regain. How languidly I look Upon this visible fabric of the world, May be divined--perhaps it hath been said:-- But spare your pity, if there be in me 965 Aught that deserves respect: for I exist, Within myself, not comfortless.--The tenour Which my life holds, he readily may conceive Whoe'er hath stood to watch a mountain brook In some still passage of its course, and seen, 970 Within the depths of its capacious breast, Inverted trees, rocks, clouds, and azure sky;[280] And, on its glassy surface, specks of foam, And conglobated bubbles undissolved, Numerous as stars; that, by their onward lapse, 975 Betray to sight the motion of the stream, Else imperceptible. Meanwhile, is heard A softened roar, or murmur;[281] and the sound Though soothing, and the little floating isles Though beautiful, are both by Nature charged 980 With the same pensive office; and make known Through what perplexing labyrinths, abrupt Precipitations, and untoward straits, The earth-born wanderer hath passed; and quickly, That respite o'er, like traverses and toils 985 Must he again encounter.[282]--Such a stream