Page:Redemption, a Poem.djvu/91

 REDEMPTION. 85

And where Niagara its glitt'ring gems,

And diamond spray, impetuous pours

From Eries' em'rald bed. Thence coasting south,

Through Mississippi's florid vale, he eyes,

With rapid glance, fair Amazon's rich fields;

An empire vast, adorn'd with precious stones,

And wealth excelling all Golconda's mines,

Or fabled stores; whose founts and healing streams

Perennial flow, endow'd with virtue's rare,

Rare and more rich than all their precious gems,

Or mines, aurate or argent, treach'rous soil;

Lands, which the Tncas rule, where redmen roam,

The savage lords of fairest heritage,

O'er whom supreme, through untold ages, he

Had reign'd, and undivided worship sway'd.

Intent, with close inspection, next he gloats

O'er parts most populous, the busy marts,

Cities and towns, where multitudes before

Him bow, direct invoke, or indirect,

Through Mammon's, Ashteroth's incestuous,

Or Bacchus' lewd, or Moloch's bloody rites;

In every clime views temples to him rise,

With priests and vestals to his service train'd,

And hecatombs of victims pour their blood,

With dev'lish rites o'er the unhallow'd ground;

On hill-tops in the face of heav'n, or deep

The groves within, their full libations flow,

Whilst rough, hoarse cries with rude accomp'niments,

Make hideous the air, incessant rack'd.

Sees all his busy ministers, employ'd

With zeal uncessant at the heart of man,

To blind his sense and cause to thread the maze

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