[151]
III.
Of that system of spheres, should but one fly the track,
Or with others conspire for a general dispersion,
By the great central orb they would all be brought back,
And held each in her place by a wholesome coercion.
Should one daughter of light
Be indulged in her flight,
They would all be engulfed by old Chaos and Night.
So must none of our sisters be suffered to run;
For, “E Pluribus Unum” --we all go, if one.
IV.
Let the demon of discord our melody mar,
Or treason's red hand rend our Union asunder;
Break one string from our harp, or extinguish one star,
The whole system's ablaze with its lightning and thunder.
Let the discord be hushed!
Let the traitors be crushed!
Though “Legion” their name, all with victory flushed
For aye must our motto stand, fronting the sun:
“E Pluribus Unum” --though many, we're one.
This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
Van Nostrand. New York, New York. 1862.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.