Cameos of American History - Sir Henry Vane on the Isles of Scilly

It haunts my days, it haunts my nights,
It haunts my castle's wall —
No man on earth has any rignts
But those God gives to all.

To me the Scilly Isles are fair,
A place of happy dreams,
And every cloud that shades the air
An angel's chariot seems.

What scenes across my vision drift!
I see the ages blest,
And the Messiah of Nations lift
Its great gates in the West.

What though new truths, in light arrayed
Their treasures new unfold,
And break the Serpent Moses made
Like him, the seer of old.

Forever while the Light divine
To noble souls is sweet,
The ark will move, the seraphs shine
Above the Mercy Seat.

Whate'er men teach, whate'er believe,
What may or not be known,
The soul that asks, it shall receive
The Witness of its own.

My name the nations fain would blot,
Since God alone I heed;
My inward evidence comes not
From state or courtly creed.

Now holy night her guardian wing
Draws slowly o'er the sea;
But in my spirit I can sing
Of ages grand and free.

O Thou of life the Source and Cause,
O Thou of life the End,
All things, by thy eternal laws,
Towards perfection tend.

Thy purposes I cannot trace
'Tis mine alone to trust;
The earth is but a speck in space,
And human life is dust.

I know that nothing tends to loss,
That all things helpful prove,
And all events are tides that cross
The ocean of thy love.

Above the rifts of darkness past,
Fair freedom's star I see;
Each age is better than the last,
And shall forever be.

This truth divine my spirit feeds,
I sing amid the calm
As soft the shepherds touched their reeds
When ceased the angel's psalm.

And so the Scilly Isles are fair,
A place of happy dreams,
And every cloud that shades the air
An angel's chariot seems.