That shows, ev'n on its better side, the might
Of proud Self-will, Rapacity, and Lust,
'Mid clouds enveloped of polemic dust,
Which showers of blood seem rather to incite
Than to allay. Anathemas are hurled

From both sides; veteran thunders (the brute test
Of truth) are met by fulminations new—
Tartarean flags are caught at, and unfurled—
Friends strike at friends-the flying shall pursue-
And Victory sickens, ignorant where to rest!

SCA

XXXVII

ENGLISH REFORMERS IN EXILE

CATTERING, like birds escaped the fowler's net, Some seek with timely flight a foreign strand; Most happy, re-assembled in a land

By dauntless Luther freed, could they forget

Their Country's woes. But scarcely have they met,
Partners in faith, and brothers in distress,

Free to pour forth their common thankfulness,

Ere hope declines:—their union is beset

With speculative notions rashly sown,

Whence thickly-sprouting growth of poisonous weeds;
Their forms are broken staves; their passions, steeds
That master them. How enviably blest

Is he who can, by help of grace, enthrone
The peace of God within his single breast!

XXXVIII

ELIZABETH

HAL, Virgin Queen! o'er many an envious bar

ΤΟ

9

Triumphant, snatched from many a treacherous
wile!

All hail, sage Lady, whom a grateful Isle
Hath blest, respiring from that dismal war
Stilled by thy voice! But quickly from afar
Defiance breathes with more malignant aim;
And alien storms with home-bred ferments claim

Portentous fellowship. Her silver car,

By sleepless prudence ruled, glides slowly on;
Unhurt by violence, from menaced taint
Emerging pure, and seemingly more bright:
Ah! wherefore yields it to a foul constraint

Black as the clouds its beams dispersed, while shone,
By men and angels blest, the glorious light?

ΤΟ

M

XXXIX

EMINENT REFORMERS

ETHINKS that I could trip o'er heaviest soil,
Light as a buoyant bark from wave to wave,

Were mine the trusty staff that JEWEL gave
To youthful HOOKER, in familiar style

The gift exalting, and with playful smile : 1
For thus equipped, and bearing on his head
The Donor's farewell blessing, can he dread
Tempest, or length of way, or weight of toil ?-
More sweet than odours caught by him who sails
Near spicy shores of Araby the blest,

A thousand times more exquisitely sweet,

The freight of holy feeling which we meet,

In thoughtful moments, wafted by the gales

From fields where good men walk, or bowers wherein they rest.

XL

THE SAME

OLY and heavenly Spirits as they are,

H 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.

M

XLI

DISTRACTIONS

reverence, soon defy

EN, who have ceased to re

Their forefathers; lo! sects are formed, and split

With morbid restlessness;-the ecstatic fit

Spreads wide; though special mysteries multiply,

1 See Note.

ΙΟ

ΙΟ

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
To heap disgust upon the worthier Cause:
Totters the Throne; the new-born Church is sad,
For every wave against her

peace

unites.

F

XLII

GUNPOWDER PLOT

EAR hath a hundred eyes that all agree

To plague her beating heart; and there is one (Nor idlest that!) which holds communion

With things that were not, yet were meant to be.
Aghast within its gloomy cavity

That eye (which sees as if fulfilled and done
Crimes that might stop the motion of the sun)
Beholds the horrible catastrophe

Of an assembled Senate unredeemed
From subterraneous Treason's darkling power:
Merciless act of sorrow infinite!

Worse than the product of that dismal night,
When gushing, copious as a thunder-shower,
The blood of Huguenots through Paris streamed.

10

XLIII

ILLUSTRATION

THE JUNG-FRAU AND THE FALL OF THE RHINE

NEAR SCHAFFHAUSEN

HE Virgin-Mountain,1 wearing like a Queen
A brilliant crown of everlasting snow,

TH

Sheds ruin from her sides; and men below

Wonder that aught of aspect so serene

Can link with desolation. Smooth and green,
And seeming, at a little distance, slow,
The waters of the Rhine; but on they go

Fretting and whitening, keener and more keen;

1 The Jung-frau.

Till madness seizes on the whole wide Flood,
Turned to a fearful Thing whose nostrils breathe
Blasts of tempestuous smoke-wherewith he tries
To hide himself, but only magnifies;

And doth in more conspicuous torment writhe,
Deafening the region in his ireful mood.

ΤΟ

E

XLIV

TROUBLES OF CHARLES THE FIRST

VEN such the contrast that, where'er we move, To the mind's eye Religion doth present; Now with her own deep quietness content;

Then, like the mountain, thundering from above
Against the ancient pine-trees of the grove

And the Land's humblest comforts. Now her mood
Recalls the transformation of the flood,

Whose rage the gentle skies in vain reprove,
Earth cannot check. O terrible excess
Of headstrong will! Can this be Piety?
No-some fierce Maniac hath usurped her name;
And scourges England struggling to be free:
Her peace destroyed! her hopes a wilderness!
Her blessings cursed-her glory turned to shame!

ΙΟ

P

XLV
LAUD 1

REJUDGED 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?

1 See Note.

ΤΟ

H

XLVI

AFFLICTIONS OF ENGLAND

ARP! couldst thou venture, on thy boldest string,
The faintest note to echo which the blast

Caught from the hand of Moses as it passed
O'er Sinai's top, or from the Shepherd-king,
Early awake, by Siloa's brook, to sing

weep,

ΤΟ

Of dread Jehovah; then should wood and waste
Hear also of that name, and mercy cast
Off to the mountains, like a covering
Of which the Lord was weary.
Weep, oh !
Weep with the good, beholding King and Priest
Despised by that stern God to whom they raise
Their suppliant hands; but holy is the feast
He keepeth; like the firmament his ways:
His statutes like the chambers of the deep.

I

PART III

FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE PRESENT TIMES

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-
Remaining still distinct grew thin and rare,
Like sunny mist;-at length the golden hair,
Shape, limbs, and heavenly features, keeping pace
Each with the other in a lingering race

Of dissolution, melted into air.

II

PATRIOTIC SYMPATHIES

AST night, without a voice, that Vision spake

LAS

Fear to my Soul, and sadness which might seem

Wholly dissevered from our present theme;

Yet, my beloved Country! I partake

ΤΟ