Wins gentle solace as with upward eye
He marks the streamy banners of the North,
Thinking, himself those happy spirits shall join
Who there in floating robes of rosy light
Dance sportively. For Fancy is the power80
That first unsensualizes the dark mind
Giving it new delights; and bids it swell
With wild activity; and peopling air,
By obscure fears of Beings invisible
Emancipates it from the grosser thrall85
Of the present impulse, teaching self controul
'Till Superstition with unconscious hand
Seat Reason on her throne. Wherefore not vain,
Nor yet without permitted power impressed,
I deem those legends terrible, with which90
The polar Ancient thrills his uncouth throng:
Whether of pitying Spirits that make their moan
O'er slaughter'd infants, or that Giant Bird
in excavato ligno (Gieed'k ipsi vocant) quod pro cunis utuntur, in hoc infanspannis et pellibus convolutus colligatus jacet.
