FACILE credo, plures esse Naturas invisibiles quam visibiles
in rerum universitate. Sed horum omnium familiam quis
nobis enarrabit, et gradus et cognationes et discrimina et
singulorum munera? Quid agunt? quæ loca habitant?
Harum rerum notitiam semper ambivit ingenium humanum,
nunquam attigit. Juvat, interea, non diffiteor, quandoque
in animo, tanquam in tabulâ, majoris et melioris mundi
imaginem contemplari: ne mens assuefacta hodiernæ vitæ
minutiis se contrahat nimis, et tota subsidat in pusillas
cogitationes. Sed veritati interea invigilandum est, mo-
dusque servandus, ut certa ab incertis, diem a nocte, distin-
guamus. T.
BURNET. ARCHEOL. PHIL. p. 68.

PART I.

T is an ancient Mariner,

IT

And he stoppeth one of three.

"By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

"The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide, And I am next of kin ;

The guests are met, the feast is set:

May'st hear the merry din."

He holds him with his skinny hand,

"There was a ship," quoth he.

An ancient Mariner meeteth three gallants bidden to a wedding-feast,

and detaineth one.

"Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"
Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

The wedding. He holds him with his glittering eye-
guest is spell-
bound by the The wedding-guest stood still,

eye of the old And listens like a three year's child:
sea-faring

man, and

constrained to hear his tale.

The Mariner hath his will.

The wedding-guest sat on a stone :
He cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,

The bright-eyed Mariner.

The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,

Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,

Below the light house top.

The Mariner The sun came up upon the left,

tells how the

ship sailed

southward

with a good

Out of the sea came he!

And he shone bright, and on the right

wind and fair Went down into the sea.

weather till

it reached the

line.

Higher and higher every day,

Till over the mast at noon

The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.

The wedding- The bride hath paced into the hall, guest heareth Red as a rose is she;

the bridal

music; but

the mariner continueth

his tale.

Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.

The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.

And now the storm-blast came, and he
Was tyrannous and strong:
He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
And chased us south along.

With sloping masts and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,
And forward bends his head,

The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,
And southward aye we fled.

And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold:

And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen:

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken-
The ice was all between.

The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:

It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound!

At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;

As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.

The ship

drawn by a
storm toward
the south
pole.

The land of ice, and of fearful sounds where no living thing was to be seen.

Till a great sea-bird, called the Albatross, came through the snow-fog,

and was received with great joy and hospitality.

It ate the food it ne'er had eat,

And round and round it flew.

The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through.

And lo! the And a good south wind sprung up
The Albatross did follow,

Albatross

proveth a

bird of good

omen, and

followeth the ship as it returned north

ward through fog and floating ice.

The ancient mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen.

And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner's hollo!

behind;

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;

Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white moon-shine.

"God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus !
Why look'st thou so?"-With my cross-bow
I shot the Albatross.

PART II.

His shipmates cry out against the

THE Sun now rose upon the right:

Out of the sea came he,

Still hid in mist, and on the left

Went down into the sea.

And the good south wind still blew behind,

But no sweet bird did follow,

Nor any day for food or play
Came to the mariner's hollo!

And I had done a hellish thing,
And it would work 'em woe:

For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.

Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,
That made the breeze to blow!

Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,
The glorious Sun uprist:

Then all averred, I had killed the bird
That brought the fog and mist.

'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea.

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,

'Twas sad as sad could be;

And we did speak only to break

The silence of the sea!

All in a hot and copper sky,

The bloody Sun, at noon,

Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;

Q

ancient Mariner, for killing the bird of good luck.

But when the fog cleared off, they justify the same, and thus make themselves accomplices in the crime.

The fair
breeze con-
tinues; the
ship enters
the Pacific
Ocean, and
sails north-
ward, even
till it reaches
the Line.

The ship hath been suddenly becalmed.

And the Albatross begins to be avenged.