4 NATURE'S REALM. 
ble river on earth, it might not be out of place 
to supplement it with the following 
HYMN TO THE ST. LAWRENCE. 
Methinks there’s naught on earth more beautiful 
Than the wild rush of some broad, glittering river. 
Rivers there are of dulland silent flow 
That wake no joyous feelings in the soul ; 
But thou, O glorious, sparkling, crystal stream, 
Art full of life, of laughter and ot song— 
A joy to man, a blessing to the earth! 
From where thou rusheth out of Huron’s breast 
To where thy mighty tribute meets the sea, 
‘Thou’rt ever beautiful ; e’en where thou puttest on 
Thy sternest aspect, and with mighty bound 
Hurlest thyself in thunder and in foam 
Down broad Niagara’s tremendous steep, 
Thou still art beautiful, and hid’st thy wrath 
Behind a cloud of silver and of gold 
And robest thyself in rainbows; beautiful 
In lake, or fall, or rushing cataract, 
Our noblest river and our fairest, thou! 
Many the mighty streams that wend their way 
O’er this vast continent from sea to Sea, 
Whose wasting waters shrink *neath summer suns 
Till they become mere mockeries of rivers ; 
But thou defiest the elements ; rains may fall, 
And creeping rills may swell to cataracts, 
But thou remainest unchanged ; thou artso broad. 
So deep and mighty that thou dost disdain 
The petty tribute sent thee from the clouds. 
Scorner of the bright sun also art thou; 
His angry beams may beat upon thy breast— 
For days unnumbered no small, fleecy cloud 
May mar the fierceness of his burning rays 
That shrink up mighty rivers into rills ; 
But thou defiest alike the summer suns 
And torrents of the autumn or the spring. 
Thou drawest thy strength not from the clouds ot heaven, 
For all the waters of vast inland seas 
Pour themselves oceanward through thee, 
Disdainer of the sunshine and the rain! 
Emblem of purity and strength art thou 
Beyond all other rivers of the earth ; 
Thovu’rt unpolluted and pollutest not ; 
Thou art too mighty to be marred by man. 
He raises stately cities on thy shores, 
And on the lakes that feed thy giant flood, 
But thou remain’st unsullied ; thy blue waves 
Sparkling and bright in crystal purity 
Roll gleaming on amid the Thousand Isles, 
And down the laughing rapids to the sea, 
Pure as when first the sunlight kissed thy tace, 
And lit thy beauties for a voiceless world. 
With all the beauties of thy bosky isles, 
With all the wonders of thy thund’ring falls, 
With all that loveliness supreme of thine 
That crowns thee king of rivers, thine own sons 
Are but half-hearted in their love of thee ; 
They turn from thee in coldness and disdain 
To gaze upon some old-world tiny stream 
Richer than thou in legend and in song. 
But fear not, river of unshrinking wave 
And scorner of the elements! thy fame 
Shali yet be spread abroad o’er all the earth, 
And men will leave their homes in far-off lands, 
Will turn their backs on Europe’s storied streams— 
‘Their ruined strongholds of grim robber kings, 
Their dark mementos of a feudal past, 
To worship at thy shrine where all are free. 

