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That wretched boon, days lengthen'd by mistrust.
So were the hopeless troubles, that involved
The soul of Dion, instantly dissolved.

Released from life and cares of princely state,
He left this moral grafted on his fate,-
"Him only pleasure leads and peace attends,
Him, only him, the shield of Jove defends,
Whose means are fair and spotless as his ends."

CHARACTER OF THE HAPPY WARRIOR.

WHO is the happy Warrior? Who is he
That every man in arms should wish to be? -
It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought
Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought:
Whose high endeavours are an inward light
That makes the path before him always bright:
Who, with a natural instinct to discern
What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn;
Abides by this resolve, and stops not there,
But makes his moral being his prime care:
Who, doom'd to go in company with Pain,
And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train!
Turns his necessity to glorious gain;
In face of these doth exercise a power
Which is our human nature's highest dower;
Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves
Of their bad influence, and their good receives:
By objects, which might force the soul to abate
Her feeling, render'd more compassionate;

Is placable, because occasions rise

So often that demand such sacrifice;

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More skilful in self-knowledge, even more pure,
As tempted more; more able to endure,
As more exposed to suffering and distress;
Thence, also, more alive to tenderness.
"Tis he whose law is reason; who depends
Upon that law as on the best of friends;
Whence, in a State where men are tempted still
To evil for a guard against worse ill,
And what in quality or act is best
Doth seldom on a right foundation rest,
He labours good on good to fix, and owes
To virtue every triumph that he knows:

[1816.

THE HAPPY WARRIOR.

Who, if he rise to station of command,
Rises by open means; and there will stand
On honourable terms, or else retire,
And in himself possess his own desire;
Who comprehends his trust, and to the same
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim;
And therefore does not stoop nor lie in wait
For wealth, or honours, or for worldly state;
Whom they must follow, on whose head must fall,
Like showers of manna, if they come at all:

Whose powers shed round him in the common strife
Or mild concerns of ordinary life,

A constant influence, a peculiar grace;

But who, if he be call'd upon to face

Some awful moment to which Heaven has join'd
Great issues, good or bad for human kind,

Is happy as a Lover; and attired

With sudden brightness, like a Man inspired;
And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law
In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw;
Or, if an unexpected call succeed,

Come when it will, is equal to the need:
He who, though thus endued as with a sense
And faculty for storm and turbulence,
Is yet a Soul whose master-bias leans
To home-felt pleasures and to gentle scenes;
Sweet images! which, wheresoe'er he be,
Are at his heart; and such fidelity

It is his darling passion to approve;

More brave for this, that he hath much to love.
"Tis, finally, the Man, who, lifted high,
Conspicuous object in a Nation's eye,
Or left unthought-of in obscurity,-
Who, with a toward or untoward lot,
Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not,-
Plays, in the many games of life, that one
Where what he most doth value must be won:
Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
Nor thought of tender happiness betray;
Who, not content that former worth stand fast,
Looks forward, persevering to the last,
From well to better, daily self-surpast:

Who, whether praise of him must walk the Earth
For ever, and to noble deeds give birth,
Or he must fall, to sleep without his fame,
And love a deed unn itable name

105

Finds comfort in himself and in his cause;
And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause:
This is the happy Warrior; this is He

That every Man in arms should wish to be.

[1806.

SONNETS.

WHERE lies the Land to which yon Ship must go?
Fresh as a lark mounting at break of day,
Festively she puts forth in trim array:

Is she for tropic suns, or polar snow?

What boots th' inquiry? Neither friend nor foe
She cares for; let her travel where she may,
She finds familiar names, a beaten way
Ever before her, and a wind to blow.
Yet still I ask, what haven is her mark?

And, almost as it was when ships were rare,
(From time to time, like Pilgrims, here and there
Crossing the waters,) doubt, and something dark,
Of the old Sea some reverential fear,

Is with me at thy farewell, joyous Bark!

WITH ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh,
Like stars in heaven, and joyously it show'd;
Some lying fast at anchor in the road,
Some veering up and down, one knew not why.
A goodly Vessel did I then espy
Come like a giant from a haven broad;
And lustily along the bay she strode,
Her tackling rich, and of apparel high.

This Ship was nought to me, nor I to her,
Yet I pursued her with a Lover's look;
This Ship to all the rest did I prefer:

When will she turn, and whither? She will brook
No tarrying; where She comes the winds must stir:
On went She, and due north her journey took.

ODE TO DUTY.

DEVOTIONAL INCITEMENTS.

["Not to the earth confined,

Ascend to heaven."]

107

And humours change, are spurn'd like

weeds:

The priests are from their altars thrust;
Temples are levell'd with the dust;
And solemn rites and awful forms

HERE will they stop, those breathing Founder amid fanatic storms.

Powers,

e Spirits of the new-born flowers?
ey wander with the breeze, they wind
here'er the streams a passage find;
from their native ground they rise
mute aërial harmonies:

om humble violet-modest thyme-
haled, th' essential odours climb,
if no space below the sky
eir subtle flight could satisfy:
aven will not tax our thoughts with
pride

[ers,

ke ambition be their guide. oused by this kindliest of May-show= spirit-quickener of the flowers, t with moist virtue softly cleaves buds, and freshens the young leaves, birds pour forth their souls in notes apture from a thousand throats, e check'd by too impetuous haste, le there the music runs to waste, bounty more and more enlarged, the whole air is overcharged: = ear, O Man! to their appeal, thirst for no inferior zeal,

, who canst think, as well as feel. -unt from the Earth; aspire! aspire! eads the town's cathedral quire, rains that from their solemn height to attain a loftier flight;

e incense from the altar breathes fragrance in embodied wreaths; ung from swinging censer, shrouds aper-lights, and curls in clouds nd angelic Forms, the still Hon of the painter's skill, on the service wait conceal'd moment, and the next reveal'd.ff your bonds, awake, arise, Or no transient ecstasies! else can mean the visual plea or moving imagery,erated summons loud, asted on th' attendant crowd, holly lost upon the throng ng the busy streets along? ! the sanctities combined to unsensualise the mind,

Yet evermore, through years renew'd
In undisturbed vicissitude
Of seasons balancing their flight
On the swift wings of day and night,
Kind Nature keeps a heavenly door
Wide open for the scatter'd Poor.
Where flower-breathed incense to the

skies

Is wafted in mute harmonies; And ground fresh-cloven by the plough Is fragrant with a humbler vow; Where birds and brooks from leafy dells Chime forth unwearied canticles, And vapours magnify and spread The glory of the Sun's bright head,Conforming to th' eternal Will, Still constant in her worship, still Whether men sow or reap the fields, Divine monition Nature yields, That not by bread alone we live, Or what a hand of flesh can give; That every day should leave some part Free for a sabbath of the heart: So shall the seventh be truly blest, From morn to eve, with hallow'd rest.

ODE TO DUTY.

[1832.

"Jam non consilio bonus, sed more eò
perductus, ut non tantum rectè facere
possim, sed nisi rectè facere non pos-
sim."1

STERN Daughter of the Voice of God!
O Duty! if that name thou love
Who art a light to guide, a rod
To check the erring, and reprove;
Thou, who art victory and law

When empty terrors overawe;

From vain temptations dost set free;
And calm'st the weary strife of frail hu-
manity!

1 "No longer good by conscious effort, but so led on to goodness by habit, that now I not only can do what is right, but am unable to do otherwise."-- The motto well propounds the central thought of this noble Ode, which is "all compact”

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Serene will be our days and bright,
And happy will our nature be,
When love is an unerring light,
And joy its own security.2

And they a blissful course may hold
Even now, who, not unwisely bold,
Live in the spirit of this creed;

My hopes no more must change their name,

I long for a repose that ever is the same.

Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear
The Godhead's most benignant grace;
Nor know we any thing so fair
As is the smile upon thy face:
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds,
And fragrance in thy footing treads;
Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong;
And the most ancient heavens, through
Thee, are fresh and strong.

To humbler functions, awful Power!
I call thee: I myself commend
Unto thy guidance from this hour;

Yet seek thy firm support, according to O, let my weakness have an end!

their need.

I, loving freedom, and untried;
No sport of every random gust,
Yet being to myself a guide,

Too blindly have reposed my trust:
And oft, when in my heart was heard
Thy timely mandate, I deferred

The task, in smoother walks to stray;
But thee I now would serve more strictly,

if I may.

Through no disturbance of my soul,
Or strong compunction in me wrought,
I supplicate for thy control;
But in the quietness of thought:
Me this uncharter'd freedom tires; 3
I feel the weight of chance-desires;

2 The poet here strikes a deep principle of ethics. When a man is so in love with Duty as to find his supreme delight therein, then he will naturally be held to her service by the sweetness of it, and constancy in that service will needs perpetuate his joy.

Give unto me, made lowly wise,
The spirit of self-sacrifice;
The confidence of reason give;

And in the light of truth thy Bondman let

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AN age hath been when Earth was proud
Of lustre too intense

To be sustain'd; and Mortals bow'd
The front in self-defence.

Who then, if Dian's crescent gleam'd,
Or Cupid's sparkling arrow stream'd
While on the wing the Urchin play'd,
Could fearlessly approach the shade?
Enough for one soft vernal day,
If 1, a bard of ebbing time,
And nurtured in a fickle clime,
May haunt this hornèd bay;
Whose amorous water multiplies
The flitting halcyon's vivid dyes;

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3 With Englishmen, the word charter carries the sense of liberty secured by And smooths her liquid breast, to show law. But that which protects freedom These swan-like specks of mountain necessarily restrains and limits it. And inward freedom is a blessing, and by upright minds is felt to be such, so far only White as the pair that slid along the as the inner man is self-restrained and Of heaven, when Venus held the reins !4 ordered in submission to the law of con

science. Now, Duty, with her stern legis

snow,

lation, is the proper home of conscience; 4 This poem originated in the last four and so none but the willing bondmen lines of the first stanza. Those specks of of Duty can have the peace and joy of snow, reflected in the lake and so transthat home. In the well-known words of ferred, as it were, to the subaqueous sky, Hooker, "Of Law there can no less be reminded me of the swans which the acknowledged, than that her seat is the fancy of the ancient classic poets yoked bosom of God, her voice the harmony of to the car of Venus. Hence the tenor of the world." the whole first stanza, and the name of

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