The Fairy and the Spirit
Approached the overhanging battlement.—­
Below lay stretched the universe! 70
There, far as the remotest line
That bounds imagination’s flight,
Countless and unending orbs
In mazy motion intermingled,
Yet still fulfilled immutably 75
Eternal Nature’s law. 
Above, below, around,
The circling systems formed
A wilderness of harmony;
Each with undeviating aim, 80
In eloquent silence, through the depths of space
Pursued its wondrous way.

There was a little light
That twinkled in the misty distance: 
None but a spirit’s eye 85
Might ken that rolling orb;
None but a spirit’s eye,
And in no other place
But that celestial dwelling, might behold
Each action of this earth’s inhabitants. 90
But matter, space and time
In those aereal mansions cease to act;
And all-prevailing wisdom, when it reaps
The harvest of its excellence, o’er-bounds
Those obstacles, of which an earthly soul 95
Fears to attempt the conquest.

The Fairy pointed to the earth. 
The Spirit’s intellectual eye
Its kindred beings recognized. 
The thronging thousands, to a passing view, 100
Seemed like an ant-hill’s citizens. 
How wonderful! that even
The passions, prejudices, interests,
That sway the meanest being, the weak touch
That moves the finest nerve, 105
And in one human brain
Causes the faintest thought, becomes a link
In the great chain of Nature.

‘Behold,’ the Fairy cried,
’Palmyra’s ruined palaces!—­ 110
Behold! where grandeur frowned;
Behold! where pleasure smiled;
What now remains?—­the memory
Of senselessness and shame—­
What is immortal there? 115
Nothing—­it stands to tell
A melancholy tale, to give
An awful warning:  soon
Oblivion will steal silently
The remnant of its fame. 120
Monarchs and conquerors there
Proud o’er prostrate millions trod—­
The earthquakes of the human race;
Like them, forgotten when the ruin
That marks their shock is past. 125

’Beside the eternal Nile,
The Pyramids have risen. 
Nile shall pursue his changeless way: 
Those Pyramids shall fall;
Yea! not a stone shall stand to tell 130
The spot whereon they stood! 
Their very site shall be forgotten,
As is their builder’s name!