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HEN the wild waters from the deluged earth Retired, and Nature woke to second birth, And the first rainbow met the patriarch’s gaze, In the blue west—a pledge of better days; What crowded feelings of delight were his In that bright hour of hope and happiness! What tears of rapture glistened in his eye, His early tears forgot—his life’s long agony!

So did the heart of Mr. Rembrandt Peale, The “moral picture-painter,” beat and feel, When by the Mayor and Aldermen was passed That vote which made his talent known at last, And those wise arbiters of taste and fame Pronounced him worthy of his Christian name.

Long did he linger anxiously, in vain, Beside his painting in the classic fane Of science (where, arranged by Scudder’s hand, The curiosities of every land,