More worthy," Odin says, "than of these

times:

Times in which lofty philosophic minds

Range through creation, and deride such
creeds!

110. Be bold, Mirandah; all thy soul is great!—
O let not then such greatness be enchain'd
By law enthusiastic and severe !

the church, the priesthood, the altar, the throne, the aristocracy, and to raise a voice in commendation of these great bulwarks of our Jerusalem, is to expose ourselves to the charge of bigotry of the most besotted kind, amongst many, whose rank, influence, education, and associations in the world, would lead men to hope better things of them. To maintain, and fight, if necessary, to the last drop of blood, for what is essentially good in principle, and indispensable in practice, is not bigotry, nor the conduct of a bigot; it is courage!-true, undaunted, holy courage!—and an act becoming a courageous, true, undaunted, holy martyr! Bigotry quarrels with truth, and fights for falsehood! courage makes war with error, and contends only for truth! Most men are so blind that they cannot distinguish between bigotry and courage; and the reason is, they never took the pains to compare things disreputable with things honest, and have ever been content to utter lies, and to live by lies, because, mayhap, they could gain, they imagined, the top-stone of a certain chalked-out respectability by the aid of lies, more readily than by that of truth.

Cain slew his brother!-Must I therefore slay?
Think'st thou his progeny are murd❜rers all?
Death to the thought!-Mirandah! dare to
love!

And follow nature rather than thy sire!
Why are yon hills all vocal? Aye, and why
Respond the valleys to the voice of song?
Why shouts the screech-owl at the hour of
night?

20. And why doth rise the little lark at morn?
Love is the secret! wonder-working love!

That is the mine where life's spring hidden lies!
T'escape the grasp and tender touch of love

Is suicide! and she who thus doth act

Is a self-murderer and courteth death!"

"Yes!" says Mirandah, "truth hath seal'd thy words

We must court something while that love exists!

And since her empire's indestructible,

We must or wed her 'mid the flow'rs of life, 130. Or in the valley where stern sullen death Sits like a hermit wan and hunger-mouth'd, Churl-featur'd lev'ller of the tribes of earth! Thou hast philosophy! and in thy lore I read the law of nature! and dare quit The roof of Noah, bigotted, and proud Of tales traditional which long I've scorn'd! Farewell the sounds once pleasing to these ears! Farewell my home, my guardian, and my games!

My ev'ning vistas! and bright morning views! 140. My noon-tide occupations! and the flocks Which once I tended, evermore adieu! For thee, dear Odin, all things I resign!— Treat thy Mirandah with a husband's care!" "Most noble dame!" says Odin, "I am blest!

Thy magnanimity has had its source

In stern divinity above the reach

Of sires whose notions are out-worn and odd!

Earth now may quake, hills tremble,-I can waft

My thoughts beyond them, and on love's own

wings

150. Take flight with thee, Mirandah, to the climes

Where bliss is marr'd by no rude mortal's

hand!"

Here ends the dialogue, and Odin goes
Homeward, the fair one walking by his side.

Nine days elapse, and then the new-wed man
Thinks of his army downcast and dismay'd;
And, pond'ring o'er life's ills and remedies,
Remembers a geologist, whose aim
Had often been to tell how clay-built orbs
Began to float in ether, and how sand

160. Of its own will, and unimpell'd by force
Of vital agency, or ought extern,

Could smother nations! and how fire could

burn

If water there was none to put it out!

G

To this geologist thus Odin writes:

"Great Muddiduck! whose wonders have been

told

By the four winds to ev'ry coast abroad,

Long famed for wisdom such as seldom finds
A homestead in the brain of mortals, or
A tabernacle 'mid the works of man,

170. O highly temper'd and all glorious spark
Of flame immortal, such as feeds the realms
By poets seen when gazing on the skies,
I ask thine aid! thou knowest that to me
Belongs the conduct of some men once brave,
But who, since earth her jaws extended wide,
And swallow'd some of their commilitants,
Have mov'd in terror, nerveless and depress'd!
Nay, more, they're superstitious, and assert
That if earth yawns, she speaks; and speaks

of things

180. Such as thou know'st weak men name deity!

180. Such as thou know'st weak men name deity.—“The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God."-Psalm liii., 1. Well