Music — Poetry — Fiction 



Whence hast thou thy beginning? Who supplies, 1830 



Age after age, thy unexhausted springs? H«dia 



What power hath order'd, that, when all thy weight 

 Descends into the deep, the swollen waves 

 Rise not, and roll to overwhelm the earth? 



The Lord hath open'd his omnipotent hand. 

 Covered thy face with clouds, and given his voice 

 To thy down-rushing waters ; he hath girt 

 Thy terrible forehead with his radiant bow. 

 I see thy never-resting waters run. 

 And I bethink me how the tide of time 

 Sweeps to Eternity. So pass, of man — 

 Pass like a noon-day dream — the blooming days, 

 And he awakes to sorrow. 



Hear, dread Niagara! my latest voice! — 

 Yet a few years, and the cold earth shall close 

 Over the brow of him who sings thee now 

 Thus failingly. Would that this my humble verse 

 Might be, like thee, immortal! I, meanwhile, 

 Cheerfully passing to the appointed rest, 

 Might raise my radiant forehead in the clouds 

 To listen to the echoes of my FAME." 



1831 



COOPER, James FENIMORE. The spy; a tale of the neutral ground. 1831 

 . . . Lond.: H. Colburn and R. Bentley. 1831. P. 403 Cooper 



Niagara is used as the background of the closing scene in the story. 



Galt, John. The early missionaries; or, The discoveries of the Falls 1831 

 of Niagara. (The museum of for. lit. and sci., Oct., 1831. 19: 

 (new ser. 12) 397-400.) 



A history of two missionaries who travelled westward from Boston to 

 christianize the Indians and to find the vast fresh-water seas of which 

 they had heard the Indians speak. In the course of their travels they come 

 upon the Falls. There is no attempt at description. It is not apparent 

 that the tale has any historical basis. 



45 705 



