Since that sad hour, and will remain― So wills th' offended God-for ever! It was to yonder star I traced Her journey up th' illumined waste- Her home of light for evermore! Once-or did I but fancy so?— On him who stood in darkness here; But soon that passing dream was gone; Farther and farther off she shone, Till lessen'd to a point, as small As are those specks that yonder burn- The last from day's exhausted urn. Of Heaven and love both pass'd away; The Spirit bow'd his head in shame ; A shame, that of itself would tellWere there not even those breaks of flame, Celestial, through his clouded frame— How grand the height from which he fell! That holy Shame, which ne'er forgets What clear renown it used to wear; Whose blush remains, when Virtue sets, To show her sunshine has been there. As though he felt some deadly pain From its sweet light through heart and brain— Shrunk back, and never look'd again. Who was the Second Spirit ?—he With the proud front and piercing glance Who seem'd, when viewing Heaven's expanse, As though his far-sent eye could see On, on into th' Immensity Behind the veils of that blue sky, Where God's sublimest secrets lie?— His wings, the while, though day was gone, Of light they from themselves alone, A breathing forth of beams at will, Of living beams, which, though no more Were such, when glittering out all o'er, 'Twas RUBI-once among the prime And flower of those bright creatures, named Spirits of Knowledge, who o'er Time And Space and Thought an empire claim'd, Second alone to Him, whose light Was, even to theirs, as day to night— "Twixt whom and them was distance far And wide, as would the journey be To reach from island star any The vague shores of Infinity! "Twas RUBI, in whose mournful eye Slept the dim light of days gone by; *The Cherubim.-See Note. Of moonlight rainbows, fair, but wan, Even o'er his pride, though still the same, Such was the Angel, who now broke For many a day, relumed his cheek, |