BOLD words affirmed, in days when faith was strong And doubts and scruples seldom teased the brain, That no adventurer's bark had power to gain These shores if he approached them bent on wrong; For, suddenly up-conjured from the Main, Mists rose to hide the Land -- that search, though long And eager, might be still pursued in vain. O Fancy, what an age was 'that' for song! That age, when not by 'laws' inanimate, As men believed, the waters were impelled, The air controlled, the stars their courses held; But element and orb on 'acts' did wait Of 'Powers' endued with visible form, instinct With will, and to their work by passion linked. |