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CISTERTIAN MONASTERY.

She daunts, forth-thundering from her spiritual tower,
Brute rapine, or with gentle lure she tames.

Justice and Peace through Her uphold their claims;
And Chastity finds many a sheltering bower.
Realm there is none that if controlled or swayed
By her commands partakes not, in degree,

Of good, o'er manners arts and arms, diffused:

Yes, to thy domination, Roman See,
Tho' miserably, oft monstrously, abused
By blind ambition, be this tribute paid.

III.

CISTERTIAN MONASTERY.*

"HERE Man more purely lives, less oft doth fall,
More promptly rises, walks with stricter heed,1
More safely rests, dies happier, is freed
Earlier from cleansing fires, and gains withal
A brighter crown." t-On yon Cistertian wall
That confident assurance may be read;

And, to like shelter, from the world have fled
Increasing multitudes. The potent call

Doubtless shall cheat full oft the heart's desires; 2

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*The Cistercian order was named after the monastery of Citéaux or Cistercium, near Dijon, founded in 1098 by the Benedictine abbot, Robert of Molême.-ED.

+ "Bonum est nos hic esse, quia homo vivit purius, cadit rarius, surgit velocius, incedit cautius, quiescit securius, moritur felicius, purgatur citius, præmiatur copiosius."-Bernard. "This sentence," says Dr Whitaker, "is usually inscribed in some conspicuous part of the Cistertian houses.”W. W., 1822.

DEPLORABLE HIS LOT WHO TILLS THE GROUND.

Yet, while the rugged Age on pliant knee
Vows to rapt Fancy humble fealty,

A gentler life spreads round the holy spires;
Where'er they rise, the Sylvan waste retires,
And aëry harvests crown the fertile lea.

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IV.*

Pub. 1835.

DEPLORABLE his lot who tills the ground,
His whole life long tills it, with heartless toil
Of villain-service, passing with the soil
To each new Master, like a steer or hound,
Or like a rooted tree, or stone earth-bound;
But mark how gladly, through their own domains,
The Monks relax or break these iron chains;
While Mercy, uttering, through their voice, a sound
Echoed in Heaven, cries out, "Ye Chiefs, abate
These legalized oppressions! Man—whose name
And nature God disdained not; Man-whose soul
Christ died for-cannot forfeit his high claim
To live and move exempt from all control

Which fellow-feeling doth not mitigate!"

*The following note, referring to Sonnets 4, 12, and 13, appears in the volume of 1835-entitled Yarrow Revisited, and other Poems-immediately after the poem St Bees

[The three following Sonnets are an intended addition to the "Ecclesiastical Sketches," the first to stand second; and the two that succeed, seventh and eighth, in the second part of the series. They are placed here as having some connection with the foregoing poem.]-ED.

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OTHER BENEFITS.

V.

MONKS AND SCHOOLMEN.

RECORD We too, with just and faithful pen,
That many hooded Cenobites* there are,
Who in their private cells have yet a care
Of public quiet; unambitious Men
Councillors for the world, of piercing ken;
Whose fervent exhortations from afar
Move Princes to their duty, peace or war; †
And oft-times in the most forbidding den
Of solitude, with love of science strong,
How patiently the yoke of thought they bear!
How subtly glide its finest threads along!
Spirits that crowd the intellectual sphere
With mazy boundaries, as the astronomer
With orb and cycle girds the starry throng.

VI.

OTHER BENEFITS.

AND, not in vain embodied to the sight,
Religion finds even in the stern retreat

Cenobites (Kobßiot), monks who live in common, as distinguished from hermits or anchorites, who live alone.-ED.

"Counts, kings, bishops," says F. D. Maurice, "in the fulness of their wealth and barbaric splendour, may be bowing before a monk, who writes them letters from a cell in which he is living upon vegetables and water."-Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy, Vol. I., Medieval Philosophy, chap. iv., p. 534.-ED.

E.g., Albertus Magnus (1193-1280); Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) ; Duns Scotus (1275-1308); Roger Bacon (1214-1294).—ED.

OTHER BENEFITS.

*

Of feudal sway her own appropriate seat;
From the collegiate pomps on Windsor's height
Down to the humbler1 altar, which the Knight
And his retainers of the embattled hall
Seek in domestic oratory small,

For prayer in stillness, or the chanted rite;
Then chiefly dear, when foes are planted round,
Who teach the intrepid guardians of the place—
Hourly exposed to death, with famine worn,
And suffering under many a perilous wound-2
How sad would be their durance, if forlorn

Of offices dispensing heavenly grace!

VII.

CONTINUED.

AND what melodious sounds at times prevail !
And, ever and anon, how bright a gleam
Pours on the surface of the turbid Stream!
What heartfelt fragrance mingles with the gale
That swells the bosom of our passing sail!
For where, but on this River's margin, blow
Those flowers of chivalry, to bind the brow
Of hardihood with wreaths that shall not fail?-
Fair Court of Edward! wonder of the world!+

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* St George's Chapel, Windsor, begun by Henry III. and finished by Edward III., rebuilt by Henry VII., and enlarged by Cardinal Wolsey.— ED.

+ Edward the Third (1336-1360). See The Wonderful Deeds of Edward the Third, by Robert of Avesbury; and Longman's History of Edward the Third.-ED.

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I see a matchless blazonry unfurled
Of wisdom, magnanimity, and love;
And meekness tempering honourable pride;
The lamb is crouching by the lion's side,
And near the flame-eyed eagle sits the dove.

VIII.

CRUSADERS.

FURL we the sails, and pass with tardy oars
Through these bright regions, casting many a glance
Upon the dream-like issues-the romance 1
Of many-coloured life that 2 Fortune pours
Round the Crusaders, till on distant shores
Their labours end; or they return to lie,
The vow performed, in cross-legged effigy,
Devoutly stretched upon their chancel floors.
Am I deceived? Or is their requiem chanted
By voices never mute when Heaven unties
Her inmost, softest, tenderest harmonies;
Requiem which Earth takes up undaunted,

When she would tell how Brave, and Good, and Wise,3
For their high guerdon not in vain have panted!

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Nor can Imagination quit the shores

Of these bright scenes without a farewell glance
Given to those dream-like issues-that Romance

1822.

Given to the dream-like Issues-that Romance

1837.

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