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industry would ensure plenty, and where the forces of the world would be working for the solid happiness of the race. Shelley was not the first, nor, let us hope, the last, to see this beatific vision. When Isaiah called upon the people of Israel to obey the everlastingly divine rules, he painted in glowing colours the beauty of the City of the Just, where men should live out their days in peace and righteousness. The Hebrew prophet and the English poet both declare that in the Holy Mountain of the Lord "they shall not hurt nor destroy." That which they both foresaw was the Reign of Brotherhood. The Festival of the Nations, described in "Laon and Cythna," is a bloodless banquet, such as could not be provided by man, who
Slays the lamb that looks him in the face.
This is the vision of the glorified earth as seen by the poet prophet:—
My brethren, we are free! The fruits are glowing
Beneath the stars, and the night-winds are flowing
O'er the ripe corn. The birds and beasts are dreaming.
Never again may blood of bird or beast
Stain with its venomous stream a human feast.
To the pure skies in accusation steaming;
Avenging poisons shall have ceased
To feed disease and fear and madness;
The dwellers of the earth and air
Shall throng around our steps in gladness,
Seeking their food or refuge there.
Our toil from thought all glorious forms shall cull,
To make this earth, our home, more beautiful;
And Science, and her sister Poesy,
Shall clothe in light the fields and cities of the free
*********
Over the plain the throngs were scattered then
In groups around the fires, which from the sea
Even to the gorge of the first mountain-glen
Blazed wide and far. The banquet of the free
Was spread beneath many a dark cypress-tree;
Beneath whose spires which swayed in the red flame
Reclining as they ate, of liberty,
And hope, and justice, and Laone's name,
Earth's children did a woof of happy converse frame.
