LXXIV. TUBAL CAIN. MACKAY. [Charles Mackay is a living English author, who has written well both m prose and verse.] 1. OLD Tubal Cain was a man of might In the days when the earth was young, And he lifted high his brawny' hand On the iron glowing clear, Till the sparks rushed out in scarlet showers Hurrah for the hand that shall wield them well 2. To Tubal Cain came many a one, And each one prayed for a strong steel blade, And he made them weapons sharp and strong, And gave him gifts of pearls and gold, And spoils of forest free. And they sang, "Hurrah for Tubal Cain, 3. But a sudden change came o'er his heart Ere the setting of the sun, And Tubal Cain was filled with pain He saw that men, with rage Made war upon their kind; and hate, That the land was red with the blood they shed 3 In their lust for carnage blind. And he said, "Alas, that ever I made, Or that skill of mine should plan, The spear and the sword, for men whose joy 4. And for many a day old Tubal Cain And his hand forbore to smite the ore, And bared his strong right arm for work, And the red sparks lit the air "Not alone for the blade was the bright steel made,” And he fashioned the first ploughshare. 5. And men, taught wisdom from the past, In friendship joined their hands, Hung the sword in the hall, the spear on the wall, And sang, "Hurrah for Tubal Cain! Our stanch good friend is he; And, for the ploughshare and the plough, To him our praise shall be. But while oppression lifts its head, Or a tyrant would be lord, Though we may thank him for the plough, 1 BRAWN'Y. Muscular; strong. 4 SMŌUL'DẸred. flame or vent. Burned without HAND'I-WORK (-würk). Work of the hand; manufacture. 6 STÄNCH. Firm; sure. LXXV. — THE APPROACH OF DAY. EDWARD EVERETT. [From an oration delivered at Albany, on the 28th of August, 1856, at the Inauguration of the Dudley Astronomical Observatory.] 1. THE great object of all knowledge is to enlarge and purify the soul, to fill the mind with noble contemplations, and to furnish a refined pleasure. Considering this as the ultimate end of science, no branch of it can surely claim precedence of astronomy. No other science furnishes such a palpable embodiment of the abstractions which lie at the foundation of our intellectual system - the great ideas of time, and space, and extension, and magnitude, and number, and motion, and power. 2. How grand the conception of the ages on ages required for several of the secular equations* of the solar system; of distances from which the light of a fixed star would not reach us in twenty millions of years; of magnitudes compared with which the earth is but a football, of starry hosts, suns like our own, numberless as the sands on the shore; of worlds and systems shooting * The movements of the heavenly bodies are very nearly but not quite uni、 form. There are slight variations, which must be taken into account to secure accurate results. Some of these variations stretch over very long periods, even whole centuries. Secular equations are the corrections required by variations of this kind. Secular is derived from seoulum, a Latin word, meaning an age or century. through the infinite spaces, with a velocity compared with which the cannon ball is a way-worn, heavy-paced trav eller. 3 3. Much, however, as we are indebted to our observatories for elevating our conceptions of the heavenly bodies, they present, even to the unaided sight, scenes of glory which words are too feeble to describe. I had occasion, a few weeks since, to take the early train from Providence to Boston, and for this purpose rose at two o'clock in the morning. 4. Every thing around was wrapped in darkness and hushed in silence, broken only by what seemed at that hour the unearthly clank and rush of the train. It was a mild, serene, midsummer's right; the sky was without a cloud; the winds were whist. The moon, then in the last quarter, had just risen, and the stars shone with a spectral lustre but little affected by her presence. Jupiter, two hours high, was the herald of the day; the Pleiades,* just above the horizon, shed their sweet influence in the east; Lyra sparkled near the zenith; Andromeda veiled her newly-discovered glories from the naked eye in the south; the steady Pointers far beneath the pole, looked meekly up from the depths of the north to their sovereign. 5. Such was the glorious spectacle as I entered the train. As we proceeded, the timid approach of twilight became more perceptible; the intense blue of the sky began to soften; the smaller stars, like little children, went first to rest; the sister-beams of the Pleiades soon melted together; but the bright constellations' of the west and north remained unchanged. Steadily the wondrous transfiguration went on. Hands of angels, hidden from mortal eyes, shifted the scenery of the heavens; the glories of night dissolved into the glories of the dawn. 6. The blue sky now turned more softly gray; the *PLE'IA-DES (plē'ya dēz). † LY'RA. AN DROME DA great watch-stars shut up their holy eyes; the east began to kindle. Faint streaks of purple soon blushed along the sky; the whole celestial concave' was filled with the inflowing tides of the morning light, which came pouring down from above in one great ocean of radiance; till at length, as we reached the Blue Hills, a flash of purple fire blazed out from above the horizon, and turned the dewy tear-drops of flower and leaf into rubies and diamonds. In a few seconds, the everlasting gates of the morning were thrown wide open, and the lord of day, arrayed in glories too severe for the gaze of man, began his course. 7. I do not wonder at the superstition of the ancient Magians, who in the morning of the world went up to the hill-tops of Central Asia, and, ignorant of the true God, adored the most glorious work of his hand. But I am filled with amazement, when I am told that in this enlightened age, and in the heart of the Christian world, there are persons who can witness this daily manifestation of the power and wisdom of the Creator, and yet say in their hearts, "There is no God." |