CHAPTER XV.--NEPTUNE.

Now we seek a lone station far outward, alone, On the confines bordering on the vast unknown; An elliptical way of an orb that’s sublime-- The sentinel of our system, on the outward line. Like a flash from the sun we are piercing our way, But the light from the stars flickers out in the gray Desolation of oceans eternally stilled, Like the seas at the poles by Arctic night chilled. And phantasmagoria bewilderingly plays Through the weird, sunless glens and the pale chilly haze, Where spectres derisively grin through the gloom, Beckoning us downward as to a dread doom!

But the victory is ours--before us they flee-- And we rise from the gloom of that desolate sea; And the light from the vast orb we seek meets our gaze, Translucently illumined by a pale, cold blaze; And it flares up before us with one pallid moon-- A stern, lonely wanderer--majestic Neptune!

Strange Neptune! Pacing thy lone rounds through the evanishing years, From creation’s wonderful dawn guarding our frontiers: Peering into the distance and watching the deep Of horror and dangers deadly that never sleep Creep stealthily from the impenetrable sweep Of frightful desolation, and there fierce awaits To hurl their fell attack on our far outward gates. But an alert sentinel, ever on his rounds, Is faithfully guarding our remote outer bounds.

And we draw up in the shadow of thy stern form, Grown gray in fronting the cruel battle and storm-- Draw up beside thee, weary, strange, and travelworn, Half bewildered, o’erwhelmed, and anxiously torn By conflicting emotions. So grim and forlorn Are the desolate scenes of a weird, spectred form. Here on the measureless verge of infinitude We shrink from the indescribable solitude That hath lain in those bottomless gulfs of dread doom-- The black annihilation of a cold phantom tomb. Ah, how we shrink from dangers vague, undefined! The unreal, more than the real, disturbs the finite mind. O All-wise Father! give us faith to trust in Thee, All fearless to sail over life’s troubled sea.