XLIII. ON THE POWER OF SOUND. ARGUMENT. The Ear addressed, as occupied by a spiritual functionary, in communion with sounds, individual, or combined in studied harmony. -Sources and effects of those sounds (to the close of 6th Stanza).— The power of music, whence proceeding, exemplified in the idiot.Origin of music, and its effect in early ages-how produced (to the middle of 10th Stanza).-The mind recalled to sounds acting casually and severally.-Wish uttered (11th Stanza) that these could be united into a scheme or system for moral interests and intellectual contemplation. (Stanza 12th). The Pythagorean theory of numbers and music, with their supposed power over the motions of the universe-imaginations consonant with such a theory.-Wish expressed (in 11th Stanza) realised, in some degree, by the representation of all sounds under the form of thanksgiving to the Creator.-(Last Stanza) the destruction of earth and the planetary system-the survival of audible harmony, and its support in the Divine Nature, as revealed in Holy Writ. THY functions are ethereal, 1. As if within thee dwelt a glancing mind, Strict passage, through which sighs are brought, And shrieks, that revel in abuse Hosannas pealing down the long-drawn aisle, II. The headlong streams and fountains Serve Thee, invisible Spirit, with untired powers; Cheering the wakeful tent on Syrian mountains, They lull perchance ten thousand thousand flowers. That roar, the prowling lion's Here I am, How fearful to the desert wide! That bleat, how tender! of the dam Calling a straggler to her side. Shout, cuckoo !-let the vernal soul Go with thee to the frozen zone; Toll from thy loftiest perch, lone bell-bird, toll! At the still hour to Mercy dear, Mercy from her twilight throne Listening to nun's faint throb of holy fear, To sailor's prayer breathed from a darkening sea, Or widow's cottage-lullaby. Ye Voices, and ye Shadows, And Images of voice-to hound and horn Then, or far earlier, let us rove IV. Blest be the song that brightens The blind man's gloom, exalts the veteran's mirth; His duteous toil of furrowing the green earth. And bids it aptly fall, with chime VOL. II. Yon pilgrims see—in lagging file They move; but soon the appointed way And to their hope the distant shrine Nor friendless he, the prisoner of the mine, V. When civic renovation Dawns on a kingdom, and for needful haste Who, from a martial pageant, spreads Incitements of a battle-day, Thrilling the unweaponed crowd with plumeless heads?— Even She whose Lydian airs inspire Peaceful striving, gentle play Of timid hope and innocent desire Shot from the dancing Graces, as they move Fanned by the plausive wings of Love. VI. How oft along thy mazes, Regent of sound, have dangerous Passions trod! Thy votaries, wooingly resigned That taints the purer, better mind; That hath in noble tasks been tried; And, if the virtuous feel a pang too sharp, The uplifted arm of Suicide; And let some mood of thine in firm array Knit every thought the impending issue needs, VII. As Conscience, to the centre Of being, smites with irresistible pain; So shall a solemn cadence, if it enter The mouldy vaults of the dull idiot's brain, Transmute him to a wretch from quiet hurled— Convulsed as by a jarring din; And then aghast, as at the world Of reason partially let in |