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Show 170 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO I V. How Virtue's beams with mental charm engage youth's raptured eye, and warm the frost of age, Gild with soft lustre Death's tremendous gloom, And light the dreary chqmbers of the tomb. How fell Remorse shall strike with venom'd dart, Though mail'd in adamant, the guilty heart; Fierce furies drag to pains and realms unknown The blood-stain'd tyrant from his tottering throne. By hands unseen are struck aerial wires, And Angel-tongues are heard amid the quires; From aile to aile the trembling concord floats, 510 And the wide roof returns the mingled notes, Through each fine nerve the keen vibrations dart, PI-erce the charm'd ear, and thrill the echoing heart.- MUTE the sweet voice, and still the quivering strings, Now Silence hovers on unmoving wings.- -Slow" to the altar fair URANIA bends Her graceful march, the sacred steps ascends, CANTO IV. OF GOOD AND EVIL. High in the midst with blazing censer stands, And scatters incense with illumined hands: Thrice to the GonnEss bows with solemn pause, With trembling awe the mystic veil withdraws, And, meekly kneeling on the gorgeous shrine, Lifts her ecstatic eyes to TRuTu DrvrNE! E ND OF C A NTO I V' . 171 520 524 |