260 But weighed in truth's firm balance, ask, if all Be even.

Do not crimes of ranker growth Batten amid thy cities, whose loud din, From flashing and contending cars, ascends, Till morn! Enchanting, as if aught so sweet Ne'er faded, do thy daughters wear the weeds Of calm domestic peace and wedded love; Or turn, with beautiful disdain, to dash Gay pleasure's poisoned chalice from their lips Untasted! Hath not sullen atheism, 270 Weaving gay flowers of poesy, so sought To hide the darkness of his withered brow With faded and fantastic gallantry Of roses, thus to win the thoughtless smile Of youthful ignorance! Hast thou with awe Looked up to Him whose power is in the clouds, Who bids the storm rush, and it sweeps to earth The nations that offend, and they are gone, Like Tyre and Babylon! Well weigh thyself: Then shalt thou rise undaunted in the might 280 Of thy Protector, and the gathered hate Of hostile bands shall be but as the sand Blown on the everlasting pyramid.
Hasten, O Love and Charity! your work, Ev'n now whilst it is day; far as the world Extends may your divinest influence Be felt, and more than felt, to teach mankind They all are brothers, and to drown the cries Of superstition, anarchy, or blood! Not yet the hour is come: on Ganges' banks 290 Still superstition hails the flame of death, Behold, gay dressed, as in her bridal tire, The self-devoted beauteous victim slow Ascend the pile where her dead husband lies: She kisses his cold cheeks, inclines her breast On his, and lights herself the fatal pile That shall consume them both! On Egypt's shore, Where Science rose, now Sloth and Ignorance Sleep like the huge Behemoth in the sun! 300 The turbaned Moor still stains with strangers' blood The inmost sands of Afric.

But all these The light shall visit, and that vaster tract From Fuego to the furthest Labrador, Where roam the outcast Esquimaux, shall hear The voice of social fellowship; the chief Whose hatchet flashed amid the forest gloom, Who to his infants bore the bleeding scalp Of his fall'n foe, shall weep unwonted tears! Come, Faith; come, Hope; come, meek-eyed Charity! 310 Complete the lovely prospect: every land Shall lift up one hosannah; every tongue Proclaim thee FATHER, INFINITE, and WISE, And GOOD.

The shores of palmy Senegal (Sad Afric's injured sons no more enslaved) Shall answer HALLELUJAH, for the LORD Of truth and mercy reigns;--reigns KING OF KINGS;-- HOSANNAH--KING OF KINGS--and LORD OF LORDS! So may His kingdom come, when all the earth, Uniting thus as in one hymn of praise, 320 Shall wait the end of all things.

This great globe, His awful plan accomplished, then shall sink In flames, whilst through the clouds, that wrap the place Where it had rolled, and the sun shone, the voice Of the ARCHANGEL, and the TRUMP OF GOD, Amid heaven's darkness rolling fast away, Shall sound! Then shall the sea give up its dead;-- But man's immortal mind, all trials past That shook his feverish frame, amidst the scenes 330 Of peril and distemper, shall ascend Exulting to its destined seat of rest, And "justify His ways" from whom it sprung.
[188] Mete, in the Arabic, according to Bruce, signifies "the place of burial." The entrance of the Red Sea was so called, from the dangers of the navigation.