Who in their private Cells have yet a care
SCENE IN VENICE.

Of public quiet; unambitious Men,
Black Demons hovering o'er his mitred head,

Counsellors for the world, of piercing ken; To Cæsar's Successor the Pontiff spake;

Whose fervent exhortations from afar « Ere I absolve thee, stoop! that on thy neck

Move Princes to their duty, peace or war; Levelled with Earth this foot of mine may tread.» And oft-times in the most forbidding den Then, lie who to the Altar had been led,

Of solitude, with love of science strong, He, whose strong arm the Orient could not check, llow patiently the yoke of thought they bear! lle, who had held the Soldan at his beck,

Uow subtly glide its finest threads along! Stooped, of all glory disinherited,

Spirits that crowd the intellectual sphere And even the common dignity of man!

With mazy boundaries, as the Astronomer
Amazement strikes the crowd;- while many turn With orb and cycle girds the starry throng.
Their

eyes away in sorrow, others burn
With scorn, invoking a vindictive ban
From outraged Nature; but the sense of most
In abject sympathy with power is lost.

OTHER BENEFITS.
And not in vain embodied to the sight

Religion finds even in the stern Retreat
PAPAL DOMINION.

Of feudal Sway her own appropriate Seal;
Unless to Peter's Chair the vicwless wind

From the Collegiate pomps on Windsor's height, Must come and ask permission wlien to blow,

Down to the humble altar, which the knight What further empire would it have? for now

And his Retainers of the embattled liall A ghostly Domination, unconfined

Seek in domestic oratory small, As that by dreaming Bards to Love assigned,

For prayer in stillness, or the chanted rite ; Sits there in sober truth-10 raise the low,

Then chictly dear, when foes are planted round, Perplex the wise, the strong to overthrow

Who teach the intrepid guardians of the place, Through earth and heaven to bind and to unbind!

llourly exposed to death, with famine worn, Resist-the thunder quails thee!--crouch-rebuff Aud suffering under many a perilous wound, Shall be thy recompensc! from land to land

llow sad would be their durance, if forlorn The ancient thrones of Christendom are stuff

Of offices dispensing heavenly grace!
For occupation of a magic wand,
And 't is the Pope that wields is, - whether rough
Or smooth his front, our world is in his hand!

CONTINUED.

And what melodious sounds at times prevail !
PART II.

And, ever and anon, how bright a gleam
Pours on the surface of the turbid Stream!

What heartfelt fragrance mingles with the gale
TO THE CLOSE OF THE TROUBLES IN THE That swells the bosom of our passing sail!
REIGN OF CHARLES I.

For where, but on this River's margin, blow

Those tlowers of Chivalry, to bind the brow
CISTERTIAN MONASTERY,

Of hardihood with wreaths that shall not fail ? « Here Man more purely lives,' less oft doth fall,

Fair Court of Edward! wonder of the world! More promptly rises, walks with nicer heed,

| sec a matchless blazonry unfurled More safely rests, dies happier, is freed

Of wisdom, magnanimity, and love ;
Earlier from cleansing fires, and gains withal And meekuess tempering honourable pride ;
A brighter crown.»--On yon Cistertian wall

The Lamb is couching by the Lion's side,
That confident assurance may be read;

And near the flame-eyed Eagle sits the Dove.
And, to like shelter, from the world have fled
Increasing multitudes. The potent call
Doubtless shall cheat full oft the heart's desires ;

CRUSADERS.
Yet, while the rugged age on pliaot knee
Vows to rapt Fancy humble feally,

Nor can Imagination quit the shores
A geutler life spreads round the holy spires ;

Of these bright scenes without a farewell clanec Where'er they rise, the sylvan waste retires,

Given to those dream-like Issues—that Romance And aery harvests crown the fertile lea.

Of many-coloured life which Fortune pours
Round the Crusaders, till on distant shores

Their labours end ; or they return to lie,
MONKS AND SCHOOLMEN.

The vow performed, in cross-legged effigy,
RECORD wc loo, with just and faithful pen,

Devoutly stretched upon their chancel floors. That many hooded Cenobites there are,

Am I deceived? Or is their requiem chauted

By voices never mule wheu lleaven uoties 1. Bonum est nos hic esse, quia bomo vivit purius, cadit raritrs, Ier inmost, softest, tenderest harmovies ; surgit velocius, incedit cantios, quiescit secarias, moritur felicius. Requiem which Earth takes up with voice undaunted, purgatur citius, pramiatur copiosius.. Bernard. saya Dr Whitaker, - is usually inscribed on some conspicuous part of when she would tell how Good, and Brave, and Wise, ibe Cistertian houses..

For their high qucrdon not in vain have panted !

TRANSUBSTANTIATION.

Erough! for see, with dim association
The tapers burn; the odorous incense feeds
A greedy tlame; the pompous mass proceeds :
The Priest bestows the appciated consceration;
Ind, while the Host is raised, its elevation
An awe an) supernatural horror breeds,
And all the People bow their heads, like reeds
To a soft breeze, io lowly adoration.
Tuis Valdo brooked not. On the banks of Rlione
i{e taught, till persecution chased him thence,
lo adore the Invisible, and lim alone.
Nor were his Followers Joth to seek defence,
Mid woods and wilds, on Nature's craggy throne,
From rites that trample upon soul and sense.

WARS OF YONK AND LANCASTER.
Thus is the storm abated by the craft
Of a shrewd Counsellor, eager to protect
The Church, whose power hatli recently been checked,
Whose monstrous riches threatened. So the shaft
Of victory mounts high, and blood is quaffed
In fields that rival Cressy and Poictiers-.
Pride to be washed away by bitter tears ;
For deep as hell itself, the avenging drauglit
Of civil slaughter! Yet, while Temporal power
Is by these shocks exhausted, Spiritual truth
Maintains the else endangered gift of life ;
Proceeds from infancy to lusty youth ;
And, under cover of this woeful strife,
Gathers unblighted strength from hour to liour.

WALDENSES.

THESE who gave earliest notice, as the Lark
Springs from the ground the morn to gratulate;
Who rather rose the day to antedate,
ily striking out a solitary spark,
When all the world with midnight gloom was dark-
These larbiogers of good, wliom bitter hate
lo vain endeavoured to exterminate,
Fell Obloquy pursues with bideous burk,'
Bat they desist pot; and the sacred fire,
Rekindled thus, from dens and savage

woods
Moves, hapded on with never-ceasing care,
Througla courts, through camps, o'er limitary tloods ;
Nor lacks this sea-girt Isle a timely share
of the new Flame, not suffered to expire.

WICLIFFE.
Once more the Church is seized with sudden fear,
And at her call is Wicliffe disinbumed:
Yea his dry bones to ashes are consumed,
And flung into the brook that travels near;
Forthwith, that ancient Voice which Streams cau hcar,
Thus speaks, (that Voice which walks upon the wind,
Though seldom heard by busy human kind,)
« As thou these ashes, little Brook! wilt bear
Into the Avon, Avon to the tide
Of Severn, Severn to the narrow seas,
Into main Ocean they, this Deed accurst
An emblem yields to friends and enemics
llow she bold Teacher's Doctrine, sanctified
Psy 'Truth, shall spread throughout the world dispersed.»

CORRUPTIONS OF THE HIGHER CLERGY. ARCHBISHOP CHICHELY TO HENRY V. « Wok to you, Prelates! rioting in ease

And cumbrous wealth-the shame of your estate; « Want Beast in wilderness or cultured field

You on whose progress dazzling trains await The lively beauty of the Leopard shows?

of pompous horses; whom vain titles please, What Flower in meadow-ground or garden grows Who will be served by others on their knees, That to the lowering Lily doth not yield ?

Yet will yourselves to God no service pay; I let both meet only on thiy royal shield !

Pastors who neither take nor point the way Co forth, Creat King! claim what thy birth bestows; To leaven; for either lost in vanities Conquer the Gallic Lily which thy foes

Ye have no skill to teach, or if ye kuow Dare to usurp;-thou hast a sword to wield,

And speak the word--» Alas! of fearful things
And Ileaven will crown the right.»— The mitred Sire 'T is the most fearful when the People's eye
Ilus spake—and lo! a Flcet, for Gaul addrest, Abuse liath cleared from vain imaginings;
Pluches her bold course across the wondering seas; dod taught the general voice to prophesy
For, sooth 10 say, ambition, in the breast

Of Justice armed, and Pride to be laid low.
Of youthful Heroes, is no sullen fire,
But one that leaps to ineet the fanning breeze.

ABUSE OF MONASTIC POWER.
. The list of foul names bestowed upon those poor creatures is
long and curious; and, as is, alas! too natural, most of the oppro-

And what is Penance with her knotted thong,
borious appellations are drawn from circumstances into wbichibey Mortification with the shirt of hair,
were forced by their pers culoro, who evru consolidated their tiee Wan cheek, and knees indurated with prayer,
szerint the reproachiul urm, calling ibem Patareniane or Paturins, Vigils, and fastings rigorous as Jong,
tror pati, to suffer.

If cloistered Avarice scruple not to wrong
Dwellers with wolves she names them, for the Pine The pious, bumble, useful Secular,
Apd arred Oak are ibeir covert; as the gloom

And rob the People of his daily care,
Or bebt oft foils their toemy's design,

Scoruing that world whose blindness makes hier stroop?
Sbe calls them fidera on the Hinc bruom;
Surterers, whose frame and oupect have become

Inversion strange! that upto One who lives
Oec and be samo obroncli practios maligu.

For self, and struggles with himself alone,

The amplest share of heavenly favour gives;

The warrant bail-exulting to be free; That to a Monk allots, in the esteem

Like ships before wliose keels, full long embayed Of God and Man, place higher than to him

In polar ice, propitious winds have made
Who on the good of others builds his own!

Unlooked-for outlet to an open sea,
Their liquid world, for bold discovery,

In all her quarters temptingly displayed!
MONASTIC VOLUPTUOUSNESS. Hope guides the young; but when the old must pass

The threshold, whither shall they turn to find
Yet more,-round many a Convent's blazing fire
Unhallowed threads of revelry are spun;

The hospitality-the alms (alas !

Alms There Venus sits disguised like a Nun,

may be necded) which that House bestowed?

Can they, in faith and worship, train the mind
Wbile Bacchus, clothed in semblance of a Friar,

To keep this new and questionable road ?
Pours out his choicest beverage high and higher
Sparkling, until it cannot chuse but run
Over the bowl, whose silver lip hath won
Au instant kiss of masterful desire-

SAINTS.
To stay the precious waste. In every brain

Ye, too, must fly before a chasing hand, Spreads the dominion of the sprightly juice,

Angels and Saints, in every hamlet mourned!
Through the wide world, to madding Fancy dear,

Ah! if the old idolatry be spurned,
Till the arched roof, with resolute abuse
Of its grave echoes, swells a choral strain,

Let not your radiant Shapes desert the Land:

Her adoration was not your demand,
Whose votive burthen is—«OUR KINGDOM 'S HERE!»

The fond heart proffered il—the servile heart;
And therefore are ye summoned to depart,

Michael, and thou St George, whose flaming brand DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES.

The Dragon quelled; and valiant Margaret Threats come which no submission may assuage;

Whose rival sword a like Opponent slew : No sacrifice avert, no power dispute ;

And rapt Cecilia, seraph-haunted Queen The tapers shall be quenched, the belfries mute, Of harmony; and weeping Magdalene, Aud, 'mid their cloirs unroofed by selfish rage,

Who in the penitential desert met
The warbling wren shall find a leafy cage;

Gales sweet as those that over Eden blew!
The gadding bramble hang her purple fruit;
And the green lizard and the gilded newl
Lead unmolested lives, and die of age.

THE VIRGIN.
The Owl of evening and the woodland Fox
For their abode the shrines of Waltham chuse : MOTHER! whose virgin bosom was uncrost
Proud Glastonbury can no more refuse

With the least shade of thought to sin allied;
To stoop her head before these desperate shocks Woman! above all women glorified,
She whose high pomp displaced, as story tells,

Our tainted nature's solitary boast ;
Arimathean Joseph's wattled cells.

Purer than foam on central Ocean tost;
Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewu

With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon
THE SAME SUBJECT.

Before her wane begins on heaven's blue coast;

Thy Image falls to carth. Yet some, I ween, Toe lovely Nun (submissive but more ineek

Not unforgiven the suppliant kuce might bend, Through saintly habit, than from effort due

As to a visible Power, in which did blend To uorelenting mandates that pursue

All that was mixed and reconciled in Thee With equal wrath the steps of strong and weak)

Of mother's love with maiden purity,
Goes forth-unveiling timidly ler cheek

Of high with low, celestial with terrene !
Suffused with blushes of celestial hue,
While through the Convent gate to open view
Softly she glides, another home to seek.
Not Iris, issuing from her cloudy shrine,

APOLOGY.
An Apparition more divinely bright!

Nor utterly unworthy to endure Not more attractive to the dazzled sight

Wis the supremacy of crafty Rome; Those watery clorics, on the stormy brine

Age after age to the arch of Christendom Poured forth, while summer suns at distance sbine,

Acrial keystonc haughtily secure;
And the green vales lie hushed in sober light!

Supremacy from Ileaven transmitted pure
As many hold ; and, therefore, to the tomb

Pass, some through fire-and by the scaffold some-
CONTINUED.

Line saintly Fisher, and unbanding More. Yer some, Noviciates of the cloistral shade,

« Lightly for both the bosom's lord did sit Or chained by vows, with undissembled glee

Upon his throne ;» unsoftened, undisınayed

By aught that mingled with the tragic scene " These two lines are adopted from a MS. written about ibe year of pily or fear; and More's gay genius played 1970. which accidentally fell into my possession. The close of the with the inoffensive sword of native wit, proceding Soopet on monastic voluptuousness is taken from the same source, as is the verso, - Where Venus sits, etc.

Than the bare axe more luminous and keen.