THE BRAHMIN. 137 



From love to God, let love for man be thine, 



And own the faith, o'er all of earth Divine! 



Aghast the Sage beheld ! Blank horror shook 



His withered frame, and froze his deadening look ; 



His anxious eye with speechless thought was filled, 



From every pore the chilly sweat distilled. 



A moment — and that thought to frenzy grew, 



Wild to the earth the fatal Glass he threw ; 



For Brahma's cause with one fierce movement wroke 



His zeal, — and into glittering atoms broke 



The mystic instrument of knowledge brought 



Like a dark cloud before his eye and thought ; 



Then thus, scarce calmed, with shuddering life confessed 



The grief and dread that harrowed up his breast; 



** Stranger ! that crystal to mine eye hath shown 



Things unrevealed, and mysteries unknown, 



Mocked all the truths by thousand Sages taught, 



And blanked with doubt this agonizing thought. 



Vain Wisdom's search, — for Wisdom pierced not through 



That mystic medium ^twixt the false and true, 



Which crushed to fragments, comes no more between 



Our two dread worlds — the seen, and the unseen : 



Never again shall eye perceive that light 



Which only serves to show how dark our night; 



Of Brahma's sons, none other e'er behold 



The secret wonders Bramah left untold, 



Or knowing heaven's forbidden knowledge, be 



For ever wretched, — as thou makest me ! 



VOL. VI.— 1835. 



