Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: TO THE FRENCH TRIUMPHAL COLUMN IN THE PLACE VENDOME, AT PARIS. Well hast thou braved the storm!?Pillar of state! O4) Proudly thou shootest forth thy crest elate; And thy bright panoply still seems to rise Mid-way to heaven, and glads a nation’s eyes J What though the idol-form (15) be headlong hurled, That from thy summit frowned o'er half a world, And dashed to earth What though thy gorgeous base Stand mutilate of many a precious trace, (16) Indelible to all?save Envy’s touch, Yet spring'st thou radiant from his poisonous clutch 4 Still peer'st thou forth?majestic and the same, And haughtily thy folds the immortal tale n’) proclaim ! ?And what dost thou proclaim What tidings tell, Of feats that challenge heaven to parallel, And mortals to revere ? Vain-glorious piJe! Stern monument of woes?and strife?and guile ! Ambition’s eagle-flight?by Fraud sustain’d; Foul Treason?with an Empire’s ravage stain’d; And dark Ferocity, with Rapine yoked; And Constancy, abjured, when best invoked; (18) ?Lo !?such the theme thy blazonry records, The spell that from thy head the thunder wards ! Such the dread lesson in thy sculpture wrought, To stir the soul, and prompt the aspiring thought! ?But all inscrutable the ways of Heaven !? Even thou, perchance, in sovereign bounty given; Even thou for noblest purpose art design’d; Pledge of the peace and welfare of mankind ! For since the clouds have left thy airy brow, Mysterious change its placid smiles avow; And there be some, whose vision can descry, From thy tall summit, streaming to the sky, Not the dim halo that was wont to shine, But a bright beacon-blaze, of source divine; Not half so bright, of yore, the warning brand That hailed the pilot from Egyptian strand; (19) Not half so dire the pe…
