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Hadst thou, loved Bard! whose spirit Lifting them up, the worship to confound

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Of the Most High. Again do they invoke The Creature, to the Creature glory give; Again with frankincense the altars smoke Like those the Heathen served; and mass is sung;

And prayer, man's rational prerogative, Runs through blind channels of an unknown tongue.

XXXIV

LATIMER AND RIDLEY

How fast the Marian death-list is unrolled!
See Latimer and Ridley in the might
Of Faith stand coupled for a common flight!
One (like those prophets whom God sent
of old)

Transfigured, from this kindling hath foretold

A torch of inextinguishable light;
The Other gains a confidence as bold;
And thus they foil their enemy's despite.
The penal instruments, the shows of crime,
Are glorified while this once-mitred pair
Of saintly Friends the "murtherer's chain
partake,

Corded, and burning at the social stake:"
Earth never witnessed object more sublime
In constancy, in fellowship more fair!

XXXV

CRANMER

OUTSTRETCHING flameward his upbraided hand

(O God of mercy, may no earthly Seat Of judgment such presumptuous doom repeat!)

Amid the shuddering throng doth Cranmer

stand;

Firm as the stake to which with iron band His frame is tied; firm from the naked

feet

To the bare head. The victory is complete; The shrouded Body to the Soul's command Answers with more than Indian fortitude, Through all her nerves with finer sense endued,

Till breath departs in blissful aspiration:

1 See Note.

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SCATTERING, like birds escaped the fowler's

net,

XXXIX

EMINENT REFORMERS

METHINKS that I could trip o'er heaviest

soil,

Light as a buoyant bark from wave to wave, Some seek with timely flight a foreign Were mine the trusty staff that JEWEL

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XL

THE SAME

HOLY and heavenly Spirits as they are,
Spotless in life, and eloquent as wise,
With what entire affection do they prize
Their Church reformed! labouring with

earnest care

To baffle all that may her strength impair; That Church, the unperverted Gospel's

seat;

In their afflictions a divine retreat;

Source of their liveliest hope, and tenderest prayer!

The truth exploring with an equal mind,
In doctrine and communion they have
sought

Firmly between the two extremes to steer;
But theirs the wise man's ordinary lot—
To trace right courses for the stubborn
blind,

And prophesy to ears that will not hear.

XLI

DISTRACTIONS

MEN, who have ceased to reverence, soon defy,

Their forefathers; lo! sects are formed, and split

With morbid restlessness;-the ecstatic fit

Spreads wide; though special mysteries multiply,

The Saints must govern, is their common cry;
And so they labour, deeming Holy Writ
Disgraced by aught that seems content to sit
Beneath the roof of settled Modesty.
The Romanist exults; fresh hope he draws
From the confusion, craftily incites
The overweening, personates the mad-1
To heap disgust upon the worthier Cause:
Totters the Throne; the new-born Church

is sad,

For every wave against her peace unites.

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XLII

GUNPOWDER PLOT

FEAR hath a hundred eyes that all agree To plague her beating heart; and there is

one

J See Note.

XLIV

TROUBLES OF CHARLES THE FIRST

EVEN such the contrast that, where'er we move,

2 The Jung-frau.

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PREJUDGED by foes determined not to spare, An old weak Man for vengeance thrown aside,

Laud, "in the painful art of dying" tried, (Like a poor bird entangled in a snare Whose heart still flutters, though his wings forbear

To stir in useless struggle) hath relied
On hope that conscious innocence supplied,
And in his prison breathes celestial air.
Why tarries then thy chariot? Wherefore
stay.

O Death! the ensanguined yet triumphant wheels,

Which thou prepar'st, full often, to convey (What time a State with madding faction reels)

The Saint or Patriot to the world that heals All wounds, all perturbations doth allay?

XLVI

AFFLICTIONS OF ENGLAND

HARP! could'st thou venture, on thy boldest string,

The faintest note to echo which the blast Caught from the hand of Moses as it passed 1 See Note.

PART III

FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE PRESENT

TIMES

When I came to this part of the series I had the dream described in this Sonnet. The figure was that of my daughter, and the whole passed exactly as here represented. The Sonnet was composed on the middle road leading from Grasmere to Ambleside it was begun as I left the last house of the vale, and finished, word for word as it now stands, before I came in view of Rydal, I wish I could say the same of the five or six hundred I have written: most of them were frequently retouched in the course of composition, and, not a few, laboriously.

I have only further to observe that the intended Church which prompted these Sonnets was erected on Coleorton Moor towards the centre of a very populous parish between three and four miles from Ashby-de-la-Zouch, on the road to Loughborough, and has proved, I believe, a great benefit to the neighbourhood.

I SAW the figure of a lovely Maid
Seated alone beneath a darksome tree,
Whose fondly-overhanging canopy
Set off her brightness with a pleasing shade.
No Spirit was she; that my heart betrayed,
For she was one I loved exceedingly;
But while I gazed in tender reverie
(Or was it sleep that with my Fancy played?)
The bright corporeal presence-form and
face-

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