Ye fetted pinnacles, ye fanes sublime

We are apt to form romantic and exaggerated notions about the moral innocence of our ancestors. Ages of ignorance and simplicity are thought to be ages of purity. The direct contrary, I believe, is the case...In the middle ages, not only …

All human race, from China to Peru, Pleasure, howe’er disguis’d by art, pursue.

Nor rough, nor barren, are the winding ways Of hoar antiquity, but strown with flowers.

O! what's a table richly spread Without a woman at its head!

I look'd far back into the past, and lo! in bright array, I saw, as in a dream, the forms of ages pass'd away. It was a stately convent, with its old and lofty walls, And gardens with their broad green walks, where soft the footstep falls.

On the morning of January 11th, 1860, I passed, for the eighth time, through the Golden Gate... As the shores of California faded in the distance, and the summits of the Coast Range sank under the blue horizon, I bade farewell — yes, I do …