The Rhode Island American, And General Advertiser

Miscellany.
The following passage closes the last Canto of
a Poem, entitled "Trails of the Aborigines
of America," which was recently published
at Cambridge (Mass.) expressly for charitable
purposes:
"My Country! Rouse
From thy deep trance! Divide the long-drawn
veil
Of thy lethargick slumbers, and perceive
Britannia's bright example; she who said
To Africa, "Be free." Awake, and bear
From Heav'n's high arch the awful question
break.
"Where is thy brother?" Wilt thou turn
away,
Answering, "I know not!" with contentment
vain.
Or arrogantly asking, "Why should I
Be made my brother's keeper?"
View the day
Of retribution! Think how thou wilt bear
From thy Redeemer's lips the fearful words,
"Thy brother perishing within thy gates,
Thou saw'st. Thy brother hunger'd and
athirst,
Was naked, and thou saw'st it. He was sick,
And thou withhold'st the healing: was in
prison
To Vice and Ignorance, nor didst thou send
To set him free." Oh! ere that hour of doom,
Whence there is no reprieve, my Country!
wake
From thy dark dream!
Blot from th' accusing scroll
Those guilty traces, with repentant tears:
Teach thy red brethren in the day of wrath
To stand before the Judge, and plead, "For-
give!
Forgive! For he hath sent thine holy word,
Hath told me of a Saviour, and diffus'd
The day-beams o'er my darkness. His kind
voice
Taught me to call thee Father. Oh! forgive
Those earthly wrongs which he hath well
'atond
By pointing me to Heaven."
The time of Hope,
And of probation, speeds on rapid wing
Swift and remorseless. What thou hast to do
Do with thy might. Haste! lift aloud thy
voice,
And publish on the borders of the pit,
The Resurrection. Bid thy heralds bear,
To thy own wilds, Salvation. Strike the harp
Of God's high praises mid the desert lone,
And let thy mountains speak them. Lo! they
rise
Wafted on every gale. From Africk's sands,
From chill Siberia, from the restless wave
O! turbid Ganges, from the spicy groves,
And from the sea-green islands. Rise and
spread
That name which must be borne from sea to sea,
And from the river to the utmost bounds
Of the wide world. Then, when the ransom'd
come
With gladness unto Zion, thou shalt joy
To hear the vallies and the hills break forth
Before them with singing; thou shalt join
The raptur'd strain, exulting that the Lord
Jehovah, God Omnipotent, doth reign
O'er all the earth."