"O for the coming of that glorious time
When, prizing knowledge as her noblest wealth
And best protection, this imperial Realm,
While she exacts allegiance, shall admit

An obligation, on her part, to teach
Them who are born to serve her and obey;

Binding herself by statute to secure

For all the children whom her soil maintains
The rudiments of letters, and inform
The mind with moral and religious truth
Both understood and practised, so that none,
However destitute, be left to droop

By timely culture unsustained; or run

Into a wild disorder; or be forced

To drudge through a weary life without the help
Of intellectual implements and tools;
A savage horde among the civilised,

A servile band among the lordly free!

This sacred right, the lisping babe proclaims
To be inherent in him, by Heaven's will,
For the protection of his innocence;
And the rude boy-who, having overpast
The sinless age, by conscience is enrolled,
Yet mutinously knits his angry brow,

And lifts his wilful hand on mischief bent,

Or turns the godlike faculty of speech

To impious use-by process indirect

Declares his due, while he makes known his need. -This sacred right is fruitlessly announced,

This universal plea in vain addressed,

To eyes and ears of parents who themselves

Did, in the time of their necessity,

Urge it in vain; and, therefore, like a prayer

That from the humblest floor ascends to heaven, It mounts to reach the State's parental ear;

Who, if indeed she own a mother's heart,

And be not most unfeelingly devoid

Of gratitude to Providence, will grant

The unquestionable good-which, England, safe
From interference of external force,

May grant at leisure; without risk incurred
That what in wisdom for herself she doth,

Others shall e'er be able to undo."

JAMES MONTGOMERY.

LECTURE II.

JAMES MONTGOMERY.

It was on the 25th of April, 1800, that William Cowper died. Had his life been spared for a few years of the present century, it is probable that he, rather than his excellent successor, James Montgomery, would have been the subject of this evening's lecture. For, besides that in native genius Cowper excelled Montgomery, it was nobly characteristic of the former, that, by the ease, the freedom, and the freshness of his strains, he introduced a new epoch in English poetry; and also that he was among the first-not, indeed, to indite sweet songs in honour of our Saviour-Lord-but in metrical composition, to blend, with pervading profusion, even the common scenes of nature, and the ordinary occurrences of life, with sacred sentiment and feeling, and to make Religion the presiding genius and animating spirit of the

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whole. Two curious problems, moreover, rise in connection with the life and writings of Cowper -the one suggested by the fact, that, in spite of his high appreciation of evangelical truth, and his personal consecration to Christ, a morbid nature led him to put away from himself the hopes and consolations of the Christian faith; the other suggested by the fact, that, in spite of his terrible mental disease, his religious strains are singularly healthy in sentiment and tone, and often fair and fresh as the flowers of Eden, and clear and bright as the streams which watered the garden of the Lord. Had Cowper been our theme, I might have humbly sought to solve these problems, and might also have detailed the experience of a pleasant summer-day in which, besides visiting the little village where the author of "The Pilgrim's Progress" came into the world, and looking on the humble house in which his father lived, the ample green in which his childhood sported, and the ancient church whose massive tower he feared -when brought to realise the guilt of his early follies-would fall upon his sinful head and sink him lower than the grave, I proceeded by the church and parsonage of Turvey-where good Legh Richmond lived and ministered-to Olney