And louder torrents stun the noon-tide hill, High and more high in summer's heat they go, And hear the rattling thunder far below; Or steal beneath the mountains, half-deterred, Where huge rocks tremble to the bellowing herd. One I behold who, 'cross the foaming flood, 380 Leaps with a bound of graceful hardihood; Another, high on that green ledge; - he He, all superior but his God disdained, Walked none restraining, and by none restrained Confessed no law but what his reason taught, Did all he wished, and wished but what he ought. As man in his primeval dower arrayed With this "the blessings he enjoys to guard." And, as his native hills encircle ground For many a marvellous victory renowned, The work of Freedom daring to oppose, 451 With few in arms, innumerable foes, When to those famous fields his steps are led, An unknown power connects him with the dead: For images of other worlds are there; Awful the light, and holy is the air. Fitfully, and in flashes, through his soul, Like sun-lit tempests, troubled transports roll; His bosom heaves, his Spirit towers amain, Beyond the senses and their little reign. 460 And oft, when that dread vision hath past by, He holds with God himself communion high, There where the peal of swelling torrents fills The sky-roofed temple of the eternal hills; Or when, upon the mountain's silent brow Reclined, he sees, above him and below, Bright stars of ice and azure fields of snow; While needle peaks of granite shooting bare Tremble in ever-varying tints of air. And when a gathering weight of shadows brown 470 500 If dairy-produce, from his inner hoard, Of thrice ten summers dignify the board. - Alas! in every clime a flying ray Is all we have to cheer our wintry way; And here the unwilling mind may more than trace The general sorrows of the human race; That solitary man disturb their reign, 511 To manhood, seems their title to disown; •And from his nest amid the storms of heaven Drives, eagle-like, those sons as he was driven; And thou, lost fragrance of the heart, return! Alas! the little joy to man allowed We still confide in more than we can know; Death would be else the favourite friend of woe. 'Mid savage rocks, and seas of snow that shine, 540 Between interminable tracts of pine, Within a temple stands an awful shrine, By an uncertain light revealed, that falls On the mute Image and the troubled walls. Oh! give not me that eye of hard disdain That views, undimmed, Einsiedlen's wretched fane. While ghastly faces through the gloom ap |