THE ALTAR'S SIMPLICITY.

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THE ALTAR'S SIMPLICITY.

["And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it."-Exodus, xx, 25.]

Lord! may the precept still impart
Its import to the Christian's heart,
And teach us, as we look to Thee,
Thy worship's true simplicity.

If thus, 'mid ancient forms, the aid
Of human art thy word forbade,
Choosing for altar of thine own
Unhewn, and unpolluted stone;

By more than emblematic speech,
Thy Spirit now this truth would teach,
Altars of flesh, like those of stone,
Must be prepared by Thee alone.

If now to Thee we build no more
An outward shrine as heretofore,
That in the heart, if truly thine,
Must yet be reared by power divine.

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CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

The meddling touch of human will
Would make that shrine polluted still;
The utmost stretch of human powers,
Would leave the fabric only ours.

Thine it should be ;-in mercy deign
To build,-what we but build in vain,—
And when the work by Thee is done,
Accept its incense through thy Son.

B. BARTON.

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

I would not enter on my list of friends, (Though graced with polished manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility) the man

Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.

An inadvertent step may crush the snail
That crawls at evening in the public path;
But he that has humanity, forewarn'd,
Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.
The creeping vermin, loathsome to the sight,
And charged perhaps with venom, that intrudes,
A visiter unwelcome, into scenes

Sacred to neatness and repose, the alcove,
The chamber, or refectory, may die :

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

A necessary act incurs no blame.

Not so when, held within their proper bounds,
And guiltless of offence, they range the air,
Or take their pastime in the spacious field;
There they are privileged; and he that hunts.
Or harms them there is guilty of a wrong,
Disturbs the economy of Nature's realm,
Who, when she form'd, designed them an abode.
The sum is this. If man's convenience, health,
Or safety, interfere, his rights and claims
Are paramount, and must extinguish theirs.
Else they are all the meanest things that are
As free to live, and to enjoy that life,
As God was free to form them at the first,
Who in his sovereign wisdom made them all.
Ye, therefore, who love mercy, teach your sons
To love it too. The spring-time of our years
Is soon dishonoured and defiled in most
By budding ills, that ask a prudent hand
To check them.

Mercy to him that shews it, is the rule

And righteous limitation of its act,

By which Heaven moves in pardoning guilty man;
And he that shews none, being ripe in years,
And conscious of the outrage he commits,
Shall seek it, and not find it, in his turn.

143

COWPER.

144

LINES ON LIBERATING A CHAMOIS.

LINES ON LIBERATING A CHAMOIS.

[Providence has formed this interesting animal with such instinctive love of liberty, that it is hardly possible to confine it long: when once convinced of its own strength, it constantly endeavours to escape into the rocks; and almost all the young ones they have taken, with a view of bringing them up tame, have made their escape.]

"Freeborn and beautiful! the mountain
Has nought like thee!

Fleet as the rush of Alpine fountain—
Fearless and free!

Thy dazzling eye outshines in brightness
The beam of Hope;

Thine airy bound outstrips the lightness
Of antelope.

On cliffs, where scarce the eagle's pinion
Can find repose,

Thou keep'st thy desolate dominion

Of trackless snows!

Thy pride to roam where man's ambition
Could never climb,

And make thy world a dazzling vision
Of Alps sublime!

LINES ON LIBERATING A CHAMOIS.

How glorious are the dawns that wake thee
To thy repast!

And, where their fading lights forsake thee,
They shine the last.

Thy clime is pure-thy heaven is clearer-
Brighter than ours;

To thee, the desert snows are dearer
Than summer flowers.

No kindness, fear, nor love can tame thee-
The desert born!

Then go, where thy free comrades claim thee,
And meet the morn!

There, all thy kindred rights inherit,
And ne'er again

May hunter's guile on thy free spirit
Impose a chain !"

145

If thy conscience blame thee, though ever so little, despise it not, nor neglect the secret check, 'tis a message from heaven, sent to summon thee to thy duty.

K