86 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



" The gUttering stillness of the starry sky 

 Shone in my heart as in the waveless sea ; 

 And rising up in kindred majesty, 



I felt my soul from earthly fetters free ! 



" Joy filled my being like a gentle flood ; 

 I felt as living without pulse or breath ; 

 Eternity seem'd o'er my heart to brood, 

 And, as a faded dream, I thought of death. 



"Through the hush'd air awoke mysterious awe; 

 God cheer'd my loneliness with holy mirth; 

 And in this blended mood I clearly saw 

 The moving spirit that pervades the earth. 



" "While adoration blessed my inward sense 

 I felt how beautiful this world could be, 

 When clothed with gleams of high intelligence 

 Born of the mountain's still sublimity. 



" I sunk in silent worship on my knees, 



While night's unnumber'd planets roll'd afar; 

 Blest moment for a contrite heart to seize — 

 Forgiving love shone forth in every star ! 



" The mighty moon my pensive soul subdued 

 With sorrow, tranquil as her cloudless ray, 

 Mellowing the transport of her loftiest mood 

 With conscious glimmerings of immortal day. 



" I felt with pain that life's perturbed wave 



Had dimm'd the blaze to sinless spirits given; 

 But saw with joy, reposing on the grave, 



The seraph Hope that points the way to heaven. 



" The waveless clouds that hung amid the light, 

 By Mercy's hand with braided glory wove, 

 Seem'd, in their boundless mansions, to my sigh ; 

 Like guardian spirits o'er the land they love. 



" My heart lay pillowed on their wings of snow, 

 Drinking the calm that slept on every fold, 

 Till memory of the life she led below 

 Seem'd like a tragic tale to pity told. 



" When visions from the distant world arose — 



How fair the gleams from memory's mystic urn ; 

 How did my soul, 'mid Nature's blest repose, 

 To the soft bosom of affection turn I 



