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NOR Scorn the aid which Fancy oft doth lend
The Soul's eternal interests to promote:
Death, darkness, danger, are our natural lot;
And evil Spirits may our walk attend
For aught the wisest know or comprehend;
Then be good Spirits free to breathe a note
Of elevation; let their odours float

Around these Converts; and their glories blend,
Outshining nightly tapers, or the blaze

Of the noon-day. Nor doubt that golden cords
Of good works, mingling with the visions, raise
The Soul to purer worlds: and who the line
Shall draw, the limits of the power define,
That even imperfect faith to Man affords?

XIX. PRIMITIVE SAXON CLERGY.

How beautiful your presence, how benign,
Servants of God! who not a thought will share
With the vain world; who, outwardly as bare
As winter trees, yield no fallacious sign

That the firm soul is clothed with fruit divine!
Such Priest, when service worthy of his care
Has called him forth to breathe the common air,
Might seem a saintly Image from its shrine
Descended: - happy are the eyes that meet
The Apparition; evil thoughts are stayed
At his approach, and low-bowed necks entreat
A benediction from his voice or hand;

Whence grace, through which the heart can understand;
And vows, that bind the will, in silence made.

See note, p. 197.

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Ан, when the Frame, round which in love we clung, Is chilled by death, does mutual service fail?

Is tender pity then of no avail ?

Are intercessions of the fervent tongue

A waste of hope? - From this sad source have sprung

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Rites that console the spirit, under grief

Which ill can brook more rational relief:

Hence, prayers are shaped amiss, and dirges sung

For Souls whose doom is fixed!

The way is smooth For Power that travels with the human heart:

Confession ministers, the pang to soothe

In him who at the ghost of guilt doth start.
Ye holy Men, so earnest in your care,
Of your own mighty instruments beware!

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LANCE, shield, and sword relinquished

A Bead-roll, in his hand a claspèd Book,

at his side

Or staff more harmless than a Shepherd's crook,

The war-worn Chieftain quits the world to hide
His thin autumnal locks where Monks abide
In cloistered privacy. But not to dwell
In soft repose he comes. Within his cell,
Round the decaying trunk of human pride,
At morn, and eve, and midnight's silent hour,
Do penitential cogitations cling:

Like ivy, round some ancient elm, they twine
In grisly folds and strictures serpentine ;
Yet, while they strangle without mercy, bring
For recompense their own perennial bower.

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Scooped out of living rock, and near a brook
Hurled down a mountain-cove from stage to stage,
Yet tempering, for my sight, its bustling rage
In the soft heaven of a translucent pool;
Thence creeping under forest arches cool,
Fit haunt of shapes whose glorious equipage
Would elevate my dreams. A beechen bowl,
A maple dish, my furniture should be;
Crisp, yellow leaves my bed; the hooting Owl
My night-watch: nor should e'er the crested Fowl
From thorp or vill his matins sound for me,
Tired of the world and all its industry.

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BUT what if One, through grove or flowery mead,
Indulging thus at will the creeping feet
Of a voluptuous indolence, should meet
Thy hovering Shade, O venerable Bede!
The saint, the scholar, from a circle freed
Of toil stupendous, in a hallowed seat

Of learning, where thou heard'st the billows beat
On a wild coast, rough monitors to feed
Perpetual industry. Sublime Recluse!

The recreant soul, that dares to shun the debt
Imposed on human kind, must first forget
Thy diligence, thy unrelaxing use

Of a long life; and, in the hour of death,

The last dear service of thy passing breath!*

* He expired dictating the last words of a translation of St. John's Gospel.

XXIV.

SAXON MONASTERIES, AND LIGHTS AND SHADES OF THE RELIGION.

By such examples moved to unbought pains,
The people work like congregated bees; *
Eager to build the quiet Fortresses

Where Piety, as they believe, obtains
From Heaven a general blessing; timely rains
Or needful sunshine; prosperous enterprise,
Justice and peace: - bold faith! yet also rise
The sacred Structures for less doubtful gains.
The Sensual think with reverence of the palms
Which the chaste Votaries seek, beyond the grave;
If penance be redeemable†, thence alms

Flow to the Poor, and freedom to the Slave;
And if full oft the sanctuary save

Lives black with guilt, ferocity it calms.

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NoT sedentary all: there are who roam

To scatter seeds of Life on barbarous shores;
Or quit with zealous step their knee-worn floors
To seek the general Mart of Christendom;

Whence they, like richly-laden Merchants, come
To their beloved Cells:
or shall we say

That, like the Red-cross Knight, they urge their way,
To lead in memorable triumph home

Truth - their immortal Una ?

Babylon,

Learned and wise, hath perished utterly,

Nor leaves her Speech one word to aid the sigh
That would lament her ; ·

Memphis, Tyre, are gone With all their Arts, but classic Lore glides on By these Religious saved for all posterity.

*See note, p. 198.

+ See note, p. 198.

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BEHOLD a Pupil of the Monkish gown,
The pious ALFRED, King to Justice dear!
Lord of the harp and liberating spear;
Mirror of Princes! Indigent Renown
Might range the starry ether for a crown
Equal to his deserts, who, like the year,

Pours forth his bounty, like the day doth cheer,
And awes like night with mercy-tempered frown.
Ease from this noble Miser of his time

No moment steals; pain narrows not his cares. *
Though small his kingdom as a spark or gem,
Of Alfred boasts remote Jerusalem,

And Christian India, through her wide-spread clime,
In sacred converse gifts with Alfred shares.

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CAN aught survive to linger in the veins
Of kindred bodies an essential power
That may not vanish in one fatal hour,
And wholly cast away terrestrial chains?
The race of Alfred covet glorious pains
When dangers threaten, dangers ever new!
Black tempests bursting, blacker still in view!
But manly sovereignty its hold retains;
The root sincere, the branches bold to strive
With the fierce tempest, while, within the round
Of their protection, gentle virtues thrive;
As oft, 'mid some green plot of open ground,
Wide as the oak extends its dewy gloom,

The fostered hyacinths spread their purple bloom. * See note, p. 198.

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