when Other Stars were Dim. 
A thousand ministering seraphim appear, 
Thronging his path through the resplendent sphere, 
And with the lustre ofhis progress vie! 
“ Return to earth. Can that no proof supply 
OF heaven-illumin’d worth, which, even now, 
The high ethereal spirit scorns to bow, 
Or, in a sphere of seeming darkness, quail ? 
“* What though a thousand vauntful weaklings fail 
Before those earth-dissembled glories vain, 
That dazzle with their glare the sordid train 
And feeble !—or whose weak orbs cannot strain 
Beyond the ignorant present, but think bright 
Whate’er o’erpowers the frailty of their sight ;— 
Though to such narrow circumstance confin’d, 
The half-fledg’d swallow, yet unimp’d for flight, 
Shall leave it on unpractis’d wing behind !— 
Or, stint it but an hour the wonted aid 
Of servile ministry, and it shall fade, 
And like the fen-fire sink: or, if the breath 
Of heaven but stir it rudely, in the death 
Of darkness’t shall expire,—leaving its blind 
Adorers to unpitied scorn resign’d— = 
Credulity’s meet wage! So—even so !— a 
Spite of the glare these mimic suns have made, 
That o’er their track a semblant glory throw, 
Casting the stellar virtues into shade, 
Shall their benighting lustre fade: for know, © 
Though now Oppression urge its meteor-car ~ 
Triumphant in a dazzled sphere below, 
Earth hath its MINA still, and Heaven its Star! °° 
And they shall shine, and spread their glorious light 
Victorious o’er the envious shades of night,— 
When in primeval gloom extinct shall Tie 
Those earth-deluding lamps, that vauntful now 
Appear to merge all *faghea’ in their brow ! 
“ Nor think that, though to the deluded sight‘? 
One star alone of all the expanse seem bright, 44 
That all beside is dim. Thy way pursue 
As meditation leads—leaving behind © 
This sense-confounding glare; and thou shalt’ fitid” 
(The free horizon opening to thy view) ' 
That not in isolated splendour I 
Maintain the regency of this deep sky : 
Nor solitary, though transcending, HE— 
_ The earth-star of fair Freedom’s galaxy. 
A thousand and a thousand spirits still ' 
(Though not the dazzled optic hence descry 
Their watchful fires) hover o’er stream and hill 
Of gloom’d Iberia; and their light shall fill 
Even yet again the horizon, and te-shine 
(When fade the baser fits 2g fade they will !)— 
In constellated glory round the shrine 
Of Liberty, eternal and’ divine! 
And MINA, with a patriot’s joy, shall own 
Though hail’d her brightest star, he shines not all alone.” 
2 
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