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America, Volume 4 (of 6)

CROSSING THE EMPIRE STATE. (continued 2)

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"O'er Huron's wave the sun was low, The weary soldier watched the bow Fast fading from the cloud below The dashing of Niagara. "And while the phantom chained his sight Ah! little thought he of the fight,— The horrors of the dreamless night, That posted on so rapidly."

Thus majestically wrote Mrs. Sigourney of this matchless cataract of Niagara:

"Flow on forever in thy glorious robe Of terror and of beauty. Yea, flow on, Unfathomed and resistless. God hath set His rainbow on thy forehead, and the cloud Mantled around thy feet. And He doth give Thy voice of thunder power to speak of Him Eternally—bidding the lip of man Keep silence, and upon thine altar pour Incense of awe-struck praise. Earth fears to lift The insect trump that tells her trifling joys, Or fleeting triumphs, 'mid the peal sublime Of thy tremendous hymn. Proud Ocean shrinks Back from thy brotherhood, and all his waves Retire abashed. For he hath need to sleep, Sometimes, like a spent laborer, calling home His boisterous billows from their vexing play, To a long, dreary calm: but thy strong tide Faints not, nor e'er with failing heart forgets Its everlasting lesson, night or day. The morning stars, that hailed Creation's birth, Heard thy hoarse anthem mixing with their song Jehovah's name; and the dissolving fires, That wait the mandate of the day of doom To wreck the Earth, shall find it deep inscribed Upon thy rocky scroll."

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