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21

XVI.

Endless the task to name the multitudes
From every land, from isles remote, in seas
Which no adventurous mariner has sailed:—
From desert-girdled cities, of whose pomp
Some solitary wanderer, by the stars
Conducted o'er the burning wilderness,
Has told a doubted tale: as Europe's sons
Describing Mexic' and, in fair Peru,
The gorgeous Temple of the Sun, its Priests,
Its Virgin, and its fire for ever bright,
Were fablers deemed, and, for belief, met scorn.
Around while gazing thus, far in the sky
Appeared what looked, at first, a moving star;
But onward, wheeling through the clouds it came,
With brightening splendor and increasing size,
Till within ken a fiery chariot rushed,
By flaming horses drawn, whose heads shot forth
A twisted, horn-like beam. O'er its fierce wheels
Two shining forms alighted on the mount,
Of mortal birth, but deathless rapt to Heaven.
Adown their breasts their loose beards floated, white
As mist by moonbeams silvered; fair they seemed,
And bright as Angels; fellowship with Heaven
Their mortal grossness so had purified.
Lucent their mantles; other than the Seer
By Jordan caught; and in the Prophet's face
A mystic lustre, like the Urim's, gleamed.
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