onstrated by our records of a year ago, all we want now is the development of that material and that means work ! THE PROLOGUE. COLUAIIIIA'S CENTURY. [An UnfiniGhed Dramatic Poem.] BY THOBMOND. Through unrecorded ages earth in beauty lay Enwrapped in light that won from night the primal day. That time was I, newborn, akin to heav'n and light, At sport amidst the throned and crowned in ether bright. I played with winds and meteors and wildest storms, And drew on lurid skies the lightning's blinding forms; Or gave to setting suns their gold'n and purple burs And rode with night the glorious circle of the stars, Their spheral music heard, their ordered motion saw, And still attuned my being to eternal law. Two visions, past and yet to be, ariso to sight. One fades away, and ono is touched with coming light, Dim eent'ries lie between that day and this fair dawn, As night's obscuring dark o'er half the world is drawn. When came the lord of earth, her olden solitude Grow populous, anon,with nations fierce and rude, Wild passions blazed in war above all nature's strife, And might was all the shield and all the law of life. I left groat Jove's throned court of the immortals all. Forsook my native skies and high Olympus' hall, That I might dash in eyes but used to battle stroke And break from necks of conq'ror's slaves the galling yoke; Savage tribes, unknown or dimly seen, o'er earth to roam. Till Valor should to Freedom give with man a home, And they who first my form divinely fair did sec, First built my shrines, their suit first offered unto me— Their homes,their lands,from mount'n crest to ocean shore The might of early gods and hearts of heroes bore. Oh curly home, the first of lands in splendor named For gifts of hoav'n, for Freedom, Song' and Beauty famed, From far and exiled long, ybt I do over yearn To thee, and all my proudest thoughts to thee return, The sea, with waves like lovers' lips insatiate 'Which clinging kisses do but make more passionate, Swells to thy shores and circles thou in strong gray arms Like love desirous Youth enfolding Beauty's ()harms. Thy mountain summits grand aro lords of light That wear ove's flaming robes and starry crown of night. And (latch, at dawn, from crimson skies eaoh shining trace Of color suu begotten in the depths of space. Yet chief of all the glories In thy largo renown I gave to thee, what time thou gav'st to none a crown. But when thy sons, degenerate, the sceptre gave To kings, and each abjectly bowed a slave, Forgetful of his own largo lordship in the State, Unheeded then, I left thee to impending fate. THE FREE LANCE. O'er unsoiled seas was then my flight, to lands unknown To tyrants and to song. Here long I dwelt alone, And questioned Time, and turned his starry horoscope To satisfy with lore of worlds my deathless hope When centuries were full a nation should arise • The joy of earth, so strong, so free, so j ust, so wise. Fulfillment conies. The hour is sot. The dawn appears, Columbia's born, to live with mirth's unmeasured years. Ithaca, '7B. Visions of dreams appear and pass in less time than it takes to tell them. Many curious and ab surd circumstances occupy peculiarly prominent places in these visions. The following of very recent origin illustrate how plants have been woven into mythology, poetry, and fairytales. A plant sprang up over the grave of a once beautiful girl who had been cruelly murdered by her envious companion ; the latter through all kinds of weather sat on the grave repenting for her unprofitable sin. The plant was thrifty and robust but without flowers. Large flakes of snow fluttering over the plant expanded into the most gorgeous blossoms as soon as they touched the foliage. The mourner repeatedly extended her withering hand to pluck the tantalizing beauty, but as often the flowers would vanish upon the ap proach of the wicked fingers. Another runs thus: A young by who had won the applause of the world by his inimita ble power to sway the feelings of a multitude of hearers with his sweet music, sought his themes and inspiration in the songs of birds and insects. Late one evening while roaming alone in a strange forest his thoughtless steps lead him to a winding ravine in which stood a very odd tree. Extreme• ly long pendant hairs from all parts of the tree almost concealed the upright branches and danc ed on the gentle breeze that coursed through this narrow sinuous vale. When the musician reach ed a spot where the wind from the tree fell upon him his body was paralyzed, and yet from him proceeds an endless stream of words in descrip tion and praise of the delicate and refined har mony issuing from that tree. Such melody was =l= A GARDEN IN DREAMLAND
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