John Collins

“ And the Holy Spirit now circling the earth,
All creation is pure as when called into birth.
But few enter here—too painful the sight—
Other scenes, other objects our people invite;
To do good and communicate is our sole aim
And our works prove, as Christians, we merit the name.
Then mourn not, my friend, at the picture of crime
That polluted the world and the record of Time,
Up! pilgrim! I bid thee, God-speed on thy way
’Till it lead through the mists to perpetual day! ”

“ Or perhaps may have slumbered, unconscious of time,
While the world was restored in its innocent prime.
Come then to the halls where Science combined,
With truth and religion enlighten the mind,
Where genius, art and sound reason are found,
And errors of schoolmen no longer abound.
Superstition has fled, like the mists of the night,{25}
Dispersed when the sun comes in glorious light.
Rome, once the foul den of crime, lust and sin,
Is purged from all evil, her precincts within,
Remain then and see what treasures untold
They who witness Messiah’s blest advent, behold. ”

“ While the thick boughs above were filled with a throng
Of birds of gay plumage and exquisite song,
Unsuspicious of man, for his nature was changed
And his love for all beings, no longer estranged.
They lived and they loved the green alcoves among,
Or reared, year by year, unmolested, their young.
Wrong, crime and deceit existed no more;
All houses were open—unguarded each door;
No bolts and no bars told of robbers by night,
No high prison walls offended the sight,
Stores of merchandise lay exposed to full view,
For at last men were found to be honest and true. ”

“ To doubt almost inclined that such had e’er been,
But in grateful emotion that vice, crime and war
O’er this our fair earth should run riot no more,
I stood by the edge of a wide and deep bay,
Whose blue waters mingled with ocean’s white spray;
On its shore vessels lay with canvass full furled,
While others were fitting to sail round the world.
They floated as light on the clear glassy tide
As snow-breasted swans in their beauty and pride ”

“ The Sabbath, profaned for long centuries past,
Was observed, not by sorrowful penance or fast,
But the nation obeyed the divine command given,
To rest and to worship one day in seven.
The gay gardens and palaces, open of yore,{22}
Where drinkers and dancers by turns trod the floor,
Were thronged by a multitude ever inclined
To read or to hear what would profit the mind.
No imperial rule forced each class to obey,
No autocrat, king or dictator held sway,
A firm free Republic framed long time ago,
Proved popular still, as Time’s chronicles show. ”

“ We passed on the rail, swift as birds cleave the air,
Vales dotted with villages—mountain peaks bare,
But tinged in the sunlight with soft golden hue,
For many a league ’till the Alps met our view.
There they stood—their proud forms towering up in the sky
But no traces of glaciers or snow, met the eye;
Since the time all mankind had known the new birth,
One perpetual spring had encircled the earth. ”

“ Flower-scented, announced we were nearing the shore,
And ere night’s somber curtain had veiled the red sky,
The glare of bright lamps arrested the eye.
’Twas a populous city of wealth and of fame,
Filled with thousands of every class, country and name.
I passed through the streets—no tumult was there,
No low profane words polluted the air.
No theatre belched out at midnight a throng
Inflamed with drugged wine and lascivious song;
All was peaceful and still, as a calm Sabbath day,
For man was no more to his brother a prey. ”

“ Each dark piercing eye with a purer light shone,
Passion, anger and feuds were entirely unknown.
And the love, the apostle once preached, by God’s grace,
Inspired every heart and lit up each face.
Soon we neared the vast—the magnificent shrine,
Where once to base man was paid homage divine ”

“ The vessel, as faster through light mists it flew,
Till we thought of that word that once echoed sublime,
“Light! be!” and Day marked the divisions of time.
Thus we winged our swift course through the cool upper air,
Now meeting a ship in the atmosphere rare,
Now skimming above the blue boundless deep
With its waves by warm zephyrs lulled softly to sleep.
At last a gray cloud seemed to rise in the north;
It neared us—and soon the glad sea-cry went forth,
“Land! ho! ’tis old England—her white cliffs arise!”
And we crowd to the front in joy and surprise. ”

“ They skimmed the wide waters like leaves in a gale.
But, far stranger than these—a wonderful sight,
High above, were vast air-ships, with pinions as light
As those of the sea bird, that, day after day,
Unwearied, in solitude wings its long way.
Bright streamers on every side gracefully swayed,
Now tossed high in air and now pendent in shade,
And I read, as I stood mid the gathering crowd,
“The Arrow, the Meteor, the Swift Flying Cloud,
The Sunbeam, Wave, Northern Light, Iris,” and more,
Moored proudly above that dense peopled shore.” ”

“ Where the Saviour of sinners first rested his head.
I entered the courts, for hundreds of years
Trod by the pilgrims deluded, in sorrow and tears,
Where thousands knelt bowing to image or cross,
More than true worship loving the world and its dross. ”

“ The columns and temples of Rome rose in view,{23}
Spires, domes and palaces, ancient and new.
We entered where once the chariots rolled
To the vast Coliseum, when centuries old
Saw the sandy arena clotted with gore,
While above the death groan rung the lion’s wild roar. ”

“ Purer lives, better morals and wisdom and wealth.
“And where are the dram shops—the houses for dance,
Where, heated by wine and lost as in trance,
Full many a maiden drank, stumbled and fell,
(Once pure as a snow-flake) from heaven to hell.”
“Alas! my dear friend, how little you know
Of the great revolution the world now can show.
When mankind o’er the globe acknowledged the sway{19}
Of the great King of kings all are bound to obey,
All sin disappeared; lust, passion and crime
No longer defiled the annals of Time ”