Caxton's Book: A Collection of Essays, Poems, Tales, and Sketches.
Page 30
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XXVIII.
_LOST AND FOUND._
'Twas eventide in Eden. The mortals stood, Watchful and solemn, in speechless sorrow bound. He was erect, defiant, and unblenched. Tho' fallen, free--deceived, but not undone. She leaned on him, and drooped her pensive brow In token of the character she bore-- _The world's first penitent_. Tears, gushing fast, Streamed from her azure eyes; and as they fled Beyond the eastern gate, where gleamed the swords Of guarding Cherubim, the flowers themselves Bent their sad heads, surcharged with dewy tears, Wept by the stare o'er man's immortal woe.
Far had they wandered, slow had been the pace, Grief at his heart and ruin on her face, Ere Adam turned to contemplate the spot Where Earth began, where Heaven was forgot. He gazed in silence, till the crystal wall Of Eden trembled, as though doomed to fall: Then bidding Eve direct her tear-dimmed eye To where the foliage kissed the western sky, They saw, with horror mingled with surprise, The wall, the garden, and the foliage rise! Slowly it mounted to the vaulted dome, And paused as if to beckon mortals home; Then, like a cloud when winds are all at rest, It floated gently to the distant west, And left behind a crimson path of light, By which to track the Garden in its flight!
Day after day, the exiles wandered on, With eyes still fixed, where Eden's smile last shone; Forlorn and friendless through the wilds they trod, Remembering Eden, but forgetting God, Till far across the sea-washed, arid plain, The billows thundered that the search was vain!
Ah! who can tell how oft at eventide, When the gay west was blushing like a bride, Fair Eve hath whispered in her children's ear, "Beyond yon cloud will Eden reappear!"
And thus, as slow millenniums rolled away, Each generation, ere it turned to clay, Has with prophetic lore, by nature blest, In search of Eden wandered to the West.
I cast my thoughts far up the stream of time, And catch its murmurs in my careless rhyme. I hear a footstep tripping o'er the down: Behold! 'tis Athens, in her violet crown. In fancy now her splendors reappear; Her fleets and phalanxes, her shield and spear; Her battle-fields, blest ever by the free,-- Proud Marathon, and sad Thermopylae! Her poet, foremost in the ranks of fame, Homer! a god--but with a mortal's name; Historians, richest in primeval lore; Orations, sounding yet from shore to shore! Heroes and statesmen throng the enraptured gaze, Till glory totters 'neath her load of praise. Surely a clime so rich in old renown Could build an Eden, if not woo one down!
Lo! Plato comes, with wisdom's scroll unfurl'd, The proudest gift of Athens to the world! Wisest of mortals, say, for thou can'st tell, Thou, whose sweet lips the Muses loved so well, Was Greece the Garden that our fathers trod; When men, like angels, walked the earth with God? "Alas!" the great Philosopher replied, "Though I love Athens better than a bride, Her laws are bloody and her children slaves; Her sages slumber in empoisoned graves; Her soil is sterile, barren are her seas; Eden still blooms in the Hesperides, Beyond the pillars of far Hercules! Westward, amid the ocean's blandest smile, Atlantis blossoms, a perennial Isle; A vast Republic stretching far and wide, Greater than Greece and Macedon beside!"
The vision fades. Across the mental screen A mightier spirit stalks upon the scene; His tread shakes empires ancient as the sun; His voice resounds, and nations are undone; War in his tone and battle in his eye, The world in arms, a Roman dare defy! Throned on the summit of the seven hills, He bathes his gory heel in Tiber's rills; Stretches his arms across a triple zone, And dares be master of mankind, alone! All peoples send their tribute to his store; Wherever rivers glide or surges roar, Or mountains rise or desert plains expand, His minions sack and pillage every land. But not alone for rapine and for war The Roman eagle spreads his pinions far; He bears a sceptre in his talons strong, To guard the right, to rectify the wrong, And carries high, in his imperial beak, A shield armored to protect the weak.
Justice and law are dropping from his wing, Equal alike for consul, serf or king; Daggers for tyrants, for patriot-heroes fame, Attend like menials on the Roman name!
Was Rome the Eden of our ancient state, Just in her laws, in her dominion great, Wise in her counsels, matchless in her worth, Acknowledged great proconsul of the earth?
An eye prophetic that has read the leaves The sibyls scattered from their loosened sheaves, A bard that sang at Rome in all her pride, Shall give response;--let Seneca decide!
"Beyond the rocks where Shetland's breakers roar, And clothe in foam the wailing, ice-bound shore, Within the bosom of a tranquil sea, Where Earth has reared her _Ultima Thule_, The gorgeous West conceals a golden clime, The petted child, the paragon of Time! In distant years, when Ocean's mountain wave Shall rock a cradle, not upheave a grave, When men shall walk the pathway of the brine, With feet as safe as Terra watches mine, Then shall the barriers of the Western Sea Despised and broken down forever be; Then man shall spurn old Ocean's loftiest crest, And tear the secret from his stormy breast!"
Again the vision fades. Night settles down And shrouds the world in black Plutonian frown; Earth staggers on, like mourners to a tomb, Wrapt in one long millennium of gloom. That past, the light breaks through the clouds of war, And drives the mists of Bigotry afar; Amalfi sees her burial tomes unfurl'd, And dead Justinian rules again the world. The torch of Science is illumed once more; Adventure gazes from the surf-beat shore, Lifts in his arms the wave-worn Genoese, And hails Iberia, Mistress of the Seas!
What cry resounds along the Western main, Mounts to the stars, is echoed back again, And wakes the voices of the startled sea, Dumb until now, from past eternity?
"Land! land!" is chanted from the Pinta's deck; Smiling afar, a minute glory-speck, But grandly rising from the convex sea, To crown Colon with immortality, The Western World emerges from the wave, God's last asylum for the free and brave!
But where within this ocean-bounded clime, This fairest offspring of the womb of time,-- Plato's Atlantis, risen from the sea, Utopia's realm, beyond old Rome's Thule,-- Where shall we find, within this giant land, By blood redeemed, with Freedom's rainbow spann'd, The spot first trod by mortals on the earth, Where Adam's race was cradled into birth?
'Twas sought by Cortez with his warrior band, In realms once ruled by Montezuma's hand; Where the old Aztec, 'neath his hills of snow, Built the bright domes of silver Mexico. Pizarro sought it where the Inca's rod Proclaimed the prince half-mortal, demi-god, When the mild children of unblest Peru Before the bloodhounds of the conqueror flew, And saw their country and their race undone, And perish 'neath the Temple of the Sun! De Soto sought it, with his tawny bride, Near where the Mississippi's waters glide, Beneath the ripples of whose yellow wave He found at last both monument and grave. Old Ponce de Leon, in the land of flowers, Searched long for Eden 'midst her groves and bowers, Whilst brave La Salle, where Texan prairies smile, Roamed westward still, to reach the happy isle. The Pilgrim Fathers on the Mayflower's deck, Fleeing beyond a tyrant's haughty beck, In quest of Eden, trod the rock-bound shore, Where bleak New England's wintry surges roar; Raleigh, with glory in his eagle eye, Chased the lost realm beneath a Southern sky; Whilst Boone believed that Paradise was found In old Kentucky's "dark and bloody ground!"
In vain their labors, all in vain their toil; Doomed ne'er to breathe that air nor tread that soil. Heaven had reserved it till a race sublime Should launch its heroes on the wave of time!
Go with me now, ye Californian band, And gaze with wonder at your glorious land; Ascend the summit of yon middle chain, When Mount Diablo rises from the plain, And cast your eye
s with telescopic power, O'er hill and forest, over field and flower. Behold! how free the hand of God hath roll'd A wave of wealth across your Land of Gold! The mountains ooze it from their swelling breast, The milk-white quartz displays it in her crest; Each tiny brook that warbles to the sea, Harps on its strings a golden melody; Whilst the young waves are cradled on the shore On spangling pillows, stuffed with golden ore!
Look northward! See the Sacramento glide Through valleys blooming like a royal bride, And bearing onward to the ocean's shore A richer freight than Arno ever bore! See! also fanned by cool refreshing gales, Fair Petaluma and her sister vales, Whose fields and orchards ornament the plain And deluge earth with one vast sea of grain! Look southward! Santa Clara smiles afar, As in the fields of heaven, a radiant star; Los Angeles is laughing through her vines; Old Monterey sits moody midst her pines; Far San Diego flames her golden bow, And Santa Barbara sheds her fleece of snow, Whilst Bernardino's ever-vernal down Gleams like an emerald in a monarch's crown! Look eastward! On the plains of San Joaquin Ten thousand herds in dense array are seen. Aloft like columns propping up the skies The cloud-kissed groves of Calaveras rise; Whilst dashing downward from their dizzy home The thundering falls of Yo Semite foam! Look westward! Opening on an ocean great, Behold the portal of the Golden Gate! Pillared on granite, destined e'er to stand The iron rampart of the sunset land! With rosy cheeks, fanned by the fresh sea-breeze, The petted child of the Pacific seas, See San Francisco smile! Majestic heir Of all that's brave, or bountiful, or fair, Pride of our land, by every wave carest, And hailed by nations, Venice of the West!
Where then is Eden? Ah! why should I tell, What every eye and bosom know so well? Why thy name the land all other lands have blest, And traced for ages to the distant West? Why search in vain throughout th' historic page For Eden's garden and the Golden Age? HERE, BROTHERS, HERE! NO FURTHER LET US ROAM; THIS IS THE GARDEN! EDEN IS OUR HOME!
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Transcriber's Notes:
1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_.
2. Words in Bold are surrounded by =equal= signs.
3. Words in both Bold and Gothic Font are surrounded by bars and equalsigns |=text=|.
4. Any footnotes in the original text have been placed directly underthe paragraph or passage containing their anchors.
5. The following words with the [oe] ligature appeared in the originaltext: manoeuvre, Croesus, oesophagus. The ligature has been removed forthe purpose of this e-text.
Punctuation corrections:
p. 30, removed double quote from unquoted passage (and deprecated theaction)
p. 69, added closing quote to passage ("...responsibility at once.")
p. 124, added closing quote to passage ("...discovering one of them.")
p. 182, adding closing quote to passage ("...degree of curvature.")
Spelling corrections:
p. 69, "insenate" to "insensate" (Shall insensate nature)
p. 138, "pursuaded" to "persuaded" (2) (I was persuaded that)
p. 148, "Leverier" to "Leverrier" (2) (Leverrier computed the orbit)
p. 150, "hieroglyphi" to "hieroglyphic" (13) (beautiful hieroglyphicextant)
p. 153, "accidently" to "accidentally" (3) (I accidentally entered)
p. 161, "Okak-oni-tas" to "O-kak-oni-tas" (4) (with the O-kak-oni-tas)
p. 205, "amosphere" to "atmosphere" (18) (but the atmosphere)
p. 276, "liberty" to "Liberty" (the angel of Liberty)
Words used in this text for which spelling could not be verified, butthat have been retained because they were used multiple times or werecontained within quoted text:
p. 48, 288, "Goliah" (2) (possible alt. sp. of Goliath)
p. 181, "petira" (1) (flat lens, immense petira,)
p. 274, 287, "deringer" (2) (possible alt. sp. of derringer)
p. 286, "lappels" (1) (possible alt. sp. of lapels, in quoted material)
Word Variations occuring in this text which have been retained:
"bed-chamber" (1) and "bedchamber" (1)
"Cortes" (1) p.122 and "Cortez" (2) (another instance of "Cortes" alsooccurs on p. 111, however the person described is other than the"Cortez" who set out to conquer Mexico)
"enclose" (1) and "inclose(d) (ures)" (2)
"ever-living" (2) and "everliving" (1)
"every-day" (2) and "everyday" (1)
"Gra-so-po-itas" (2) and "Gra-sop-o-itas" (2)
"head-dress" (2) and "headdress" (1)
"melancholy" (3) and "melancholly" (1) (in a quoted "report")
"MERCHANTS'" (1) and "MERCHANT'S" (1) (in TOC and CHAPTER TITLE)
"O-kak-o-nitas" (2) and "O-kak-oni-tas" (3)
"right-about face" (1) and "right-about-faced" (1)
"sceptre" (4) and "scepter" (7)
"sea-shore" (1) and "seashore" (1)
"semi-circle" (2) and "semicircle" (1)
"wouldst" (1) and "would'st" (1)
Printer Corrections and Notes:
p. 11, Table of Contents: Chapter XI. "THE TELESCOPIC EYE" changedfrom p. 175 to 174 and Chapter XII. "THE EMERALD EYE from p. 191 to 190.
p. 201, italicised "First." and "Secondly", to conform with remainingrecitations on succeeding page 202.
p. 227, "The thought crossed my mind, Can this be a spirit?" (iscorrectly capitalized. Direct question within a sentence.
Wherever the printer used a row of asterisks as a separator, the numberof asterisks used has been standardized to 5.
Wherever the printer used blank space as a separator, a row of fivenumber signs (#) appears.