Page:Memorials of a tour on the continent, 1820 (IA memorialsoftouro00word).pdf/114

And all its branchy vales, and all that lurks
Within them, church, and town, and hut, and grange,
For my enjoyment meet in vision strange;
Snows—torrents;—to the region's utmost bound,
Life, Death, in amicable interchange—
But list! the avalanche—heart-striking sound!
Tumult by prompt repose and awful silence crown'd!

VI.
Is not the Chamois suited to his place?
The Eagle worthy of her ancestry?
—Let Empires fall; but ne'er shall Ye disgrace
Your noble birthright, Ye that occupy
Your Council-seats beneath the open sky,
On Sarnen's Mount¹, there judge of fit and right,
In simple democratic majesty;
Soft breezes fanning your rough brows—the might
And purity of nature spread before your sight!