THE FORESTERS. ?D 



The stunning tumult thundering on the ear. 

 Above, below, wher'er the astonished eye 

 Aims to behold, new opening- wonders lie, 

 nil to a steep's high brow unconscious brought, 

 Lost to all other care of sense or thought, 

 There the broad river like a lake outspread, 

 The islands, rapids, falls, in grandeur dread, 

 The heaps of boiling foam, th 1 ascending spray, 

 The gulf profound, where dazzling rainbows play, 

 This great, o'envhelming work of awful Time, 

 In all its dread magnificence sublime, 

 Rose on our view, amid a crashing roar 

 That bade us kneel, and Time's great God adore. 



As when o'er tracks immense o^ deserts drear, 

 Through dangerous nations, and 'midst toils severe, 

 Day after day condemned a war to wage 

 With thirst and hunger, men and lions rage. 

 -Noon's burning heat, and nights distressing cold, 

 Arabian pilgrims Mecca's walls behold ; 

 Those holy walls, whose sacred roof contains 

 Mahomet's tomb — their prophet's blest remains, 

 Past sufferings vanish, every sigh's supprest, 

 A flood of rapture rises in each breast, 

 All hearts confess an awful joy serene, 

 And humbly bow before the glorious scene. 

 ►Such Avere our raptures, such the holy awe 

 That swelled our hearts at all we heard and saw; 

 1 'ixed to the rock, like monuments we stood, 

 On its flat face, above th' outrageous flood, 

 There, while our eyes th' amazing whole explored, 



