Home Editor's Notes

THE HURRICANE:

A THEOSOPHICAL AND WESTERN

ECLOGUE.

TO WHICH IS SUBJOINED

A

SOLITARY EFFUSION

IN A

SUMMER’s EVENING.

________________________

BY WILLIAM GILBERT.

________________________

Odi profanum vulgus et arceo.

Favete inguis: Carmina non Prius

Audita, Musarum Sacerdos

VIRGINIBUS PUERISQUE canto.

HOR. Lib. III. Od. 1.

Bristol.

PRINTED AND SOLD FOR THE AUTHOR, BY R. EDWARDS;

SOLD ALSO BY MARTIN AND BAIN, AND B. CROSBY,

LONDON; EDDOWES SALOP; AND HAZARD AND BARRATT, BATH.

_____

1796.

[iii]

PREFACE.

THE following Poem requires some previous elucidation, as it comprehends a scope of design far beyond vulgar research.

The history of it's progress is, at present, of little importance. Here it is, a whole: arrived at maturity; and wishes not to recollect the blandishments nor retrace the imperfections, of childhood.

It gives, and is grounded on, a Theosophical view of the relation between America and Europe; but concatenated, because necessary for illustration, with the two old Quarters of the Globe. Of each of all these the characteristics are enlarged upon in the Notes: But some general resolution of the fact, that Countries have characteristics, is the necessity, which causes this Preface.

[iv]

I know it to be a fact that the elaboration of my own mind assigned to Africa, Asia and Europe the precise characters which were respectively attributed to them by the Antients, and have been since by Swedenborg; though each, used his own language; which is a proof, that each was original, and actually travelled the road himself and saw objects in his own light. For these I refer to my Notes. Suffice it to say here, that the machinery of my Eclogue thus proceeds on this Doctrine; namely,

First, That all Countries have a specific Mind, or determinable principle. This character may be traced with as much satisfaction in the vegetable as in the animal productions. Thus, Strength with its attributes, viz. Asperity, &c. is the character or mind of England. Her leading productions are the Oak, Peppermint, Sloes, Crabs, sour Cherries. All elegance, all polish, is superinduced; and primarily from France, of which they are Natives.

Secondly, That a Country is subdued, when, it's mind or life, it's prince according to Daniel, or it's

[v]

genius according to the modern Easterns, or it's principle according to Europeans, is either supprest, destroyed or chemically combined with that of a foreign country in a form, that leaves the foreign property predominant; and not till then. And this cannot ensue but upon Suicide, upon a previous abandonment on the part of a nation, of its own principle. For when the Creator made every thing very good, he also made it tenable, on the one hand; and on the other complete; consequently without the necessity, without the desire, of encroaching, and also without the capability, except under the penalty of surrendering with its own complete roundness, its own tenability. Thus I arrive at a primary Law of Nature, that every one must fall into the pit that he digs for others; either before or after success, or without success.

Thirdly, That in the European subjugation of America, the American Mind or Life only suffered under a powerful affusion of the European; and, that as the solution proceeds it acquires a stronger and stronger tincture of the Subject, till at length that, which was first subdued, assumes an absolute, in-

[vi]

expugnable predominancy, and a final—inasmuch as the contest is between the two last parts of the world, and there is no prospective umpire to refer to; but it must be decided by the possession of first principles, or the highest Mind in the Hierarchy of Minds; and the European possession of mind having previously arrived at perfection from her long intercourse with AFRICA and Asia and not being able to rescue her from the present grasp and predominancy of American Mind, the question is now settled for ever, and Europe yields to the Influence, Mind and Power of AMERICA, linked in essential principle with AFRICA and Asia, for ever. Besides Europe had full success in her encroachments; she succeeded in throwing America into the pit, and of course, it must be her own turn to go in, now: She depopulated America, and now AMERICA MUST depopulate her.

This survival of American principle, I represent by asserting the survival of her spirits, under the name of the Children of the Sun, according to the Yncas; or The Sons of Virgin Light; while their bodies, or their appearance in the world sank to ocean;

[vii]

that is, were destroyed by Europe, who had the power of the ocean and corresponds thereto. The Resurrection of their Bodies is the Reappearance in the world of persons enlivened by their Life or Spirit, actuated by their principles. What these principles are, will be fully seen in the Notes at the End.

I have said enough to explain my Machinery, and enable the Reader to keep me company as he reads; though I by no means suppose, that this Preface is more than a flash of lightning in a dark night. However, the System yields a strong, steady light with me; and I would be liberal of it to my Reader if he will permit me.

[viii]

ADVERTISEMENT

A FRIEND is the occasion of this Advertisement; who, having printed some lines of this Poem in a Miscellany that could not fail to introduce it respectably, in the best sense of the word, has thereby acquired a right to have his feelings attended to, in things that may affect the credit of the Poem.

HE once passed to me a very strong opinion against the Metre of some verses. What is Metre ? It is the focus of Union between the Sense and the Sound; in the best English Poets, at least: It is a contrivance to throw the accent, not where a common reader or speaker would throw it, but where an impassioned orator or judicious actor would throw it. One instance of disapproved accent in The Hurricane I suppose will be given in these three lines;

————————hear I not some

Female shriek, now faintly sighing on the

Wings of Night? Straightly appeared a gleam of

White before us.

The action here is Dramatic. And a person who supposes himself speaking in the situation there described, and running on with volubility, or capable of constantly finishing his periods, supposes an impossible combination of irregular hesitation of step, with regulated volubility of tongue. I have ended the line, and thrown the pause before the leading words. In other instances, where I have not the same reason, I have an equipollent.

If, after all, the ear is fastidiously offended with a short syllable at the end of a line, or with dividing by a line two words, which are joined in construction, let it feed upon my Motto, attack Horace and let me go free—

———Carmina non prius

Audita——

With innumerable other instances in Latin and English.

W. G.

[9]

THE

HURRICANE.

______

CANTO I.

NEAR where with Tropic heats bright Cancer glows,

And sun beams glitter with perennial force,

Girt with the azure wave an Island lies,

Called by the Spaniards ANTIENT. [1] Its breadth is

Measured by the eye; which, still unsatisfied,

Strikes far beyond the reach of land, Northward

When turned. Its utmost length doubles it's breadth.

ISLANDS, faint seen among the adjacent seas,

Bearing their various headlands in the wave,

A social and romantic scene disclose:

[10]

They give the wing for amplest thought to range

On all the mighty wonders of the world!

Scenes undiscovered, uncreate to man,

E'er distant Europe's energetic arm

Ploughed up the vasty ocean to their base;

And still, with art miraculous, detects

Their sunny ports through many a pathless league.

Ah! here, Columbus, with the din of war,

Broke the mild concords of the Mermaid's ((A)) shell;

Who, mild, at evening, in the glassy wave,

Joined with the Genii of the neighbour shores,

To sing of Love as spotless as the sky,

And as their ocean clear; bounteous as airs

Wafting full fragrance from the thornless grove

Complicate of sweets, diffusing transport;

And the realm of Love, and Health extatic,

Spread, unjealous, round. Then the glowing sons

Of this mature and Occidental Sun,

[11]

(Not less than Memnon, ((B)) whom Aurora bore

To Eastern mornings; and whose grateful harp

Spontaneous echoed to the rising day)

To bolder measures led the exalting strain;

And, fired with all the radiance of their sire,

Poured elemental music from their strings—

Till Hell's dread discords from dark Europe broke:

Then the Mermaid to her deeps shot rapid:

Trembling she lay—but safe; and long concealed

From haunts of war. ((C)) Soon many and many

A son of earth plunged after her, and she gave

A coral sepulchre and tears of heart;

While armied spirits formed, in Fire and Earth

And Air and Seas a phalanx of avengers.

Who far from Europe and it's bodied forms, ((D))

Survived Immortal, Vengeful and Creative.

Expelled, these Sons of Virgin Light retired

Or to refulgent air or terrene depths.

In subterranean vaults where ocean roars ((E))

[12]

Terror and dread to European hearts,

They hold consult with Genii of the deep,

With placid Mermaids, (who preserve the keys

Of coral tombs; till from their safeguard called,

To repossess once more their hallowed seats,

Forgotten bodies startle the dull world

And take their own from myriads aghast)

With all the good and great of all the world—

The many‑murdered Innocence of Ind

Or East or West—and their Avengers great—

However named—in sweet alliance leagued,

Whose fount is God, whose end and stream is bliss.

These peaceful murmurs and these pure consults

Of nearing Bliss, speak thunder to the North.

They give prognostic to the fear-worn ears

Of list'ning usurpers of their fertile clime,

In sounds unscanned, of pondered Hurricanes;

When they remount on air triumphant, joined

[13]

With dread auxiliars riding on the wave,

And shew their greatness—over pale Europe's

Miniatures of winds! Reigning superior

To their victors mean, as in fost'ring Peace

So in black War's rude crash; as in melody,

Just in great discords, throughout all the maze

Of involute, transversive harmony,

Till they repoise the scale in tonal Peace;

Victors on Europe, witherers of her might!

For their's are Nature's powers; Elemental strength

Springs in their nerves, to artificial or

Cold Europe's man unknown; and at the Fount

Divine they drink pursuant of the stream:

They hence are keenly sentient of all truth:

Familiar, hence, is bold Emprize; easy,

Hence, Atchievement, that to Europe's upward

Navigation is impractical and mad. ((F))

[14]

Deep in these Caverns, or in Air sublime

A long abode they held; but never slept:

Secure—that Europe dreamed not, or dreaming,

Dared not search for Life in principles of Life,

The ethereal sense and fire's elastic beam. [2]

They rallied, time by time, Their scattered bands,

With antient concords on their still‑tuned harps;

Which, momently, the favoured ear might catch,

At silent dawning in the Zenith Air;

And feel the high seraphic rapture trill,

As the sweet sounds evolved a maze of song

A song replete with all that Egypt knew,

Or close Eleusis taught her pious youth. ((G))

Here too I sat with them enwrapt, though open; ((H))

Till now the concert hastens to a close,

And all our War is out! Bold and more quick

The countervailing Discords now We sound

[15]

And ply the terrible Antistrophe, ((I))

With fearful Justice and closed Harmony

Full on Europe, who ghastly sinks to Hell!

The Genius of the West is High, and rides

Swiftly on the bold and regulated

Pinion of the Atlantic Wind. His race is won.

His burning wheels run on the rolling floods!

He has not other climes to visit. New

To the world in Afric's ((K)) Morning; and in

Asia's Noon but just reflecting rays

Feeble and broken on European snows—

He challenged no return who made no gift.

But now through Europe his descending beams

Have all diffused their lustre; and at length,

Fresh and resplendent in the Western sky,

He sums up all his Justice and his Strength;

Kindles his orient and meridian blaze

Clear as in Asia, as in Afric bold;

[16]

Displays as lucid purple on his throne,

And summons all the Honors of the World.

No lingering twilight in the proud-robed WEST

Shews indecision in the Paths of Day!

But each must grasp the single hour of Light,

Or lose for ever, and in darkness die.

IT is not till receding to the point,

Whence, from the lofty Zenith's blazy height,

Again he darts, with generous force intense,

His arrows vertical; as with quickened march,

He hastens to relume the Southern World,—

That his indignant and protected Sons

Sweep on the Isles commissioned Hurricanes.

NOW e’er description bid the tempest pour,

Retire We to the bower of Love and feel

The blaze of Beauty. 'Tis the hour of Noon:

Tokens have caused an awful expectation:

[17]

The Calm; diamond-bright, pellucid, ether;

The cavern murmuring to the troubled wave—

Give note unerring of the big Event.

And who will join me in this safe Recess?

Come Love's and Nature’s offspring pure, whoe'er

Or whence thou art! For thou art mine, I know:

Come Fancy's sweetest Child! For I am thine

Through the contrasted changes of my Life!

Swift let me lead thee tender, and fearful,

Or of the wild blast, or the madman's touch,

Assiduous for that calm and full Recess,

To Indian Groves of aromatic breath,

To spicy Thickets and to ample flowers

Redolent of every various sweet that glows

Beneath the beams of Heaven's Eternal Sun!

Thence, in the house, careless of every blast,

Fixt on the Rock whose Quarry gave its Walls,

[18]

And whose Foundations are the central Earth,

We'll smile contempt on every fear around.

Before the Tempest darken on the Isle,

We'll view the little Archipelago,

That raise their pleasant banks and slope their beach

Around their parent Isle.

Green Island, first,

Excels in verdure, and to listlessness

And summer pleasure spreads the cocoa shade.

Pelican Island on the North-East lies;

Whose shelving shore, or here presents the cool,

Sequestered spot for bathing; or covered o'er

With beauteous shells of every gaudy tinge,

Invites the mind, that springs to Nature's charms,

Or loves to class what she diffusely throws.

These, with Long Island, and that Isle whose name

The Guana, found in multitudes, imparts;

[19]

Successive open to the glad eager eye

Of mariner, now lightly concluding

A long Voyage with Bliss, and down the Northern coast,

Rocky, but pleasant, as his business calls,

With steady breeze and unreefed topsails, sailing.

But far more extacied with all the scene

Is that gay Girl, or this impetuous Youth,

Who, long estranged from early blisses sweet

And all the transports of their infant years,

In search of Learning radiant, or the dance,

Greet joyous now, the pleasant Isle, that holds

Their Friends, their Parents, and (if virtue warm

The feeling bosoms of their race and them)

The orphaned train, whose daily sweat has won

The Pride and Pleasure which exalts them now:

But whom Diviner justice soon will teach,

That the same hand which sowed, shall reap the field;

And that, which reaps, uninjured, shall enjoy.

[20]

Around Us here, while all was tempered Peace,

Pleasing although illusive and unjust;

The balmy trade-wind breathed refreshing airs,

And blew salubrious to the toil-worn slave.

The Eastern shore receives the welcome gale;

And leads to caverns, or the brow of rocks,

To gravel banks with glittering shell-fish strewed,

To deep-green mangrove, or the shadowing branch

Of lofty cedar droping blossoms white,

That tremble as they fall and meet the wave

Progressive to their root. Here, oft, at even,

When lengthening shadows to the calmy wave

Shot dubious twilight and alluring gloom,

I sat contemplative; and viewed the breeze

Chequer the water with far-streaming light,

That glistened as with gems: I sat and thought

Ambition was a folly; glory, madness;

And all the hopes attending various man

[21]

Were robbers of his rest: I thought, that Love

Was all the sum indulgent Heaven e'er made

To constitute his bliss. I thought so and was blest.

FOR four long days a calm through nature reigned;

A calm as dead as ever struck the deep;

As ever marked the silent air with awe,

Or stilled the leaf high trembling, on the bough.

The fifth at eve to my accustomed haunt,

Along the shadow of a Cocoa Grove,

Down to the beach I strolled. The setting sun

Was dyed with crimson; and the full‑orbed moon,

That palely rose above the dusky arch,

Was deeply burred. Settled, encreasing, black,

With jagged clouds, voluminous and deep,

Scudded along the Northern verge of ocean,

And a long labouring swell hove the large

Billow lifeless on the shore, while adverse clouds

In dark battalia swiftly met in air.

[22]

Just where the horizon bends to meet the wave,

Within the farthest reach of human ken,

A Sail appeared. The mild ray far beaming

From the Western Sun glanced on her canvas,

And beheld it spread ((L)) before the rising breeze.

The rising breeze far from the Northward moved,

Ruffling along, and blackened as it came.

The affrighted plover from its blast retired;

The lizard nestled in the watchman's hut,

And heavy, awful, gloom poured deepening on.

Soon reigning darkness o'er Creation drew

The deep‑black curtain of involving night:

The tempest thickened; and the dark wind howled

Encreasing horrors and sublimer blasts

Heavy the deep-hung atmosphere along.

Retired as soon as straws around me felt

The wind, I, hence, enjoyed in silent peace

The rending gale. But, ever and anon,

Some crash of trees or noise of swift destruction

[23]

Met my ear. Soon the expected signals of

Distress roll through the heavy storm; the wind

Almost suppressed the deep-mouthed sound it bore.

Reiterate at rapid intervals,

The guns were heard, and oftimes joined the thunder.

The firing ceased. The aggravated storm rode

Wide and unrivalled through the midnight air.

All else was silence.

[24]

CANTO II.

_________

FRESH from the roaring of the darksome wind

Peace for a moment, draw thy mantle round, ((M))

Hushing disordered Nature; while rapid

Humanity and Love disperse their beams,

To light the houseless exile to my home,

Before the Hurricane confirm his waste.

Brothers in Vengeance! For one moment's pause,

I yield you Nature till the golden morn,

And claim from none, to stay your shivering hand!

While yet o'er all the solemn stillness reigned,

Instant relief, in all directions sent,

The nearest wanderers found, and safely housed.

[25]

The moral victims whom the gale destroyed,

And her preserved with life to Bliss I sing—

If not with metral pomp on harp sublime,

Yet to the youthful heart and virgin's ear.

‘Twas where the Sound of guns had marked a wreck,

My own selected path I took, in search

Of objects breathing from the Eastern storm.

Wild and tremendous was the nightly sky:

The clouds involved in vast confusion, deep

And ripening still for action, ascended

Swiftly from the South and West. Exhausted

To the East they thinned, and nearly oped there

The lowering sky; where, dimly seen, one star

Glimmered on night's dull brow, and then was hid.

Pale twilight from the shroudèd moon discovered

Shattered Nature; and, as we neared the dreadful

Sounding ocean, large torches held aloft

[26]

Gleamed fearful on the loud tempestuous waste.

Ocean, why in darkness hid, sounds so deep

Your midnight roar? Clouds, enclosing warring

Winds, why so solemn flit ye o'er? Tell me

All your mighty ravage! Hear I not some

Female shriek now faintly sighing on the

Wings of night? Straightly appeared a gleam of

White before us. Advancing quickly forward,

We saw, on near approach, the tattered sail

Of a ship driven by billows over shelves

Of rocks, high up the creek, and lodged on shore.

Around, no form of life was seen. 'Twas ravage.

No hand remained. The Tempest was her pilot,

And the mighty arm, that winged the ruin.

Hung o'er the side, female attire we found

In shreds; it's owner sought in vain, was lost.

Within with speed through every hold we search,

And cabin. The first were empty. The last

Repaid my zeal; for here I found, softly

[27]

Reclining on a leeward couch a form

Divine. Waked by the noise and lights, her eyes,

As on I came, returned the beams of mine.

With hurried speed she said

ELMIRA.

Where is My Mother?

And the captain? How glad I am, that they

Directed you to me!

I.

‘Twas no direction

But our own. Come quick thou mildly‑beaming

Angel‑form with me—The moments stay not—

And I'll lead thee into peace and safety.

[28]

ELMIRA.

Where is my mother gone? And are we yet

In England?

I.

No: with truest Friends you are.

I placed Her in an idle hammaque near,

Which, held by Negroes, bore her gently on.

And as we went, I aimed, with tenderest talk

To cheer the droopy maid; who, not reluctant

Seemed, to solace: for to Sea unused, young

And innocent, she knew not the dangers

She had passed; but hearing English spoke, and

Dreaming nought of strangers, having sunk to sleep

Among accustomed friends, supposed herself

Still known. Simply eloquent, she told me,

[29]

How they disturbed her with their noise on board;

How, being still at length, she hugged her couch,

Rocked by the winds and seas to dead repose,

Till thence awoke by me. So infant spirits,

Who wing their animating flight of Death

In pleasing slumbers from their mother's arms,

Alight unknowing on celestial ground:

Then press with firmy step the flowery path,

Nor dream of serpents they have never known;

Embrace with smiles their first angelic Friend,

And ope the little treasure of their hearts:

Thus sweet Elmira told her gentle tale,

And lit each generous ardour in my breast.

At home arrived and entering at the East—

For now all entrance from the West was barred—

She looked and asked—

[30]

ELMIRA.

Where is my mother's room?

Or where is she? I want to sleep again:

For you removed me when but half awake.

What is this country?

I.

A country tis, where—

Daughters and mothers seldom live together.

ELMIRA.

Why not?

I.

They cannot. Young with young, and old

With old together dwell, where you are now.

[31]