Richard Cobden

for all the space our friend has wrought we thank thee lord and mark thy hand through days with showers of mercy fraught through years with bows of promise for all the grace on him bestowed for all great wisdom hath withheld for strength and weakness sun and cloud we praise thee now all doubts dispelled now on his loved ones and on him may all thy richest blessings fall our strength is frail our sight grows dim but none on thee shall vainly call the colorado and its canyon sweep grandly on o fierce and mighty flood artery of sentient hills serene and tall whose red arms lifted claim more ancient blood than we who count our sires from adam's fall why dost thou choose to wash these rugged steeps rather than wander on the sunlit plain dost love to plash about the donjon keeps thy current fretted with its murky stain oh what are storied castles on the rhine compared with these more ancient and more grand and what the streams of alp and apennine beside this torrent of our sunset land mongst northern snows it lifts its throbbing head its foot rests calmly in the tropic sand its life so restless all disturbed its bed sleeps when with yonder gulf locked hand in hand ah life is also like this turbid stream and frowning walls hem our imperilled path but from its source each drop bears wisest scheme peace wakes at last from fitful dreams of wrath On Lake Huron By Louis V. F. Randolph Read for LibriVox.org to look through nature up to nature's god to know that in the graceful bending sky the king of heaven is bending over us encompassing about his chosen ones with sure protection and a joy serene to feel his breath in every passing breeze and in the smiling sun to meet his eye such precious thought and feeling like to this are far too grand in their expansive swell for the poor scanty dress of threadbare words and why may not the soul each moment rise to contemplation from ethereal heights when spirit wings droop near us and invite to regions purer than the realm of sense alas we steep our better part in sin or let the chain of sloth be bound about the languid faculties in bondage vile not that with sudden onset overcome of evil we are thrown and firmly held apart from pure communings with our god through sacred mediums by him ordained but by degrees of which we take no note by heeding not to keep the heart attuned to lofty themes worthy a lofty birth we loose the tie that bound us to the sky while hour by hour the spirit's guiding light beneath the dark horizon sadly sinks we fail to note the twilight of the soul nor dream that night is stealing o'er the view until perchance when rising to look out upon the marvels of the universe we find the vision barred on every side and not sublime that offers intercourse thank god this blest communion still i hold and feel this moment its exalting spell while standing on this stately vessel's deck a pure delight inhaling with the breeze meanwhile the lake her throbbing bosom cleft by the sharp keel gives forth a soft complaint yet smiles where'er the morning's diamond rays glitter resplendent on her silver plumes meanwhile the clouds alternate grow and melt Each instant taking new and beauteous form, Or in a transitory grandeur, Stand above the distant shore, Itself a cloud.

Two Sublimities by Louis V. F. Randolph Read for LibriVox.org there are two sublimities in nature one of motion one of rest the first niagara the second mont blanc remark of richard cobden to his friend goldwyn smith tis meet it should be so sublimity of motion for our land whose life in strong pulsations deep and grand no rest can ever know but where the icy crest so coldly brilliant crowns the regal hill behold the symbol of a changeless will sublimity of rest there time is old his brow is seared and silvered with the patriarch's hoar though in the fateful past he never wore a nobler mien than now here time is young the blood of youth is coursing through his frame and lo e'en now in loftiest paeans fame america has sung how glorious here to stand at nature's shrine uncovered then to bend and here receive while love and reverence blend a baptism from her hand most glorious tears of all to stand with freedom whose resistless wave oppression tries to stem herself to save from her impending fall that baptism to endure which though it be of blood must ever show athwart the flood a clear resplendent bow of peace benign and pure Niagara Falls, September 14, 1864.

End of poem.

This recording is in the public domain.

to look through nature up to nature's god to know that in the graceful bending sky the king of heaven is bending over us encompassing about his chosen ones with sure protection and a joy serene to feel his breath in every passing breeze and in the smiling sun to meet his eye such precious thought and feeling like to this are far too grand in their expansive swell for the poor scanty dress of threadbare words and why may not the soul each moment rise to contemplation from ethereal heights when spirit wings droop near us and invite to regions purer than the realm of sense alas we steep our better part in sin or let the chain of sloth be bound about the languid faculties in bondage vile not that with sudden onset overcome of evil we are thrown and firmly held apart from pure communings with our god through sacred mediums by him ordained but by degrees of which we take no note by heeding not to keep the heart attuned to lofty themes worthy a lofty birth we loose the tie that bound us to the sky while hour by hour the spirit's guiding light beneath the dark horizon sadly sinks we fail to note the twilight of the soul nor dream that night is stealing o'er the view until perchance when rising to look out upon the marvels of the universe we find the vision barred on every side and not sublime that offers intercourse thank god this blest communion still i hold and feel this moment its exalting spell while standing on this stately vessel's deck a pure delight inhaling with the breeze meanwhile the lake her throbbing bosom cleft by the sharp keel gives forth a soft complaint yet smiles where'er the morning's diamond rays glitter resplendent on her silver plumes meanwhile the clouds alternate grow and melt Each instant taking new and beauteous form, Or in a transitory grandeur, Stand above the distant shore, Itself a cloud.

there are two sublimities in nature one of motion one of rest the first niagara the second mont blanc remark of richard cobden to his friend goldwyn smith tis meet it should be so sublimity of motion for our land whose life in strong pulsations deep and grand no rest can ever know but where the icy crest so coldly brilliant crowns the regal hill behold the symbol of a changeless will sublimity of rest there time is old his brow is seared and silvered with the patriarch's hoar though in the fateful past he never wore a nobler mien than now here time is young the blood of youth is coursing through his frame and lo e'en now in loftiest paeans fame america has sung how glorious here to stand at nature's shrine uncovered then to bend and here receive while love and reverence blend a baptism from her hand most glorious tears of all to stand with freedom whose resistless wave oppression tries to stem herself to save from her impending fall that baptism to endure which though it be of blood must ever show athwart the flood a clear resplendent bow of peace benign and pure Niagara Falls, September 14, 1864.

Adorning the Doctrine.

Titus, Chapter 2, Verse 10.