That lovingly consigns the babe to th' arms
Of Jesus, and His everlasting care.

These that in trembling hope are laid apart;
And the besprinkled nursling, unrequired
Till he begins to smile upon the breast
That feeds him; and the tottering little-one
Taken from air and sunshine when the rose
Of infancy first blooms upon his cheek;

The thinking, thoughtless, school-boy; the bold youth
Of soul impetuous, and the bashful maid
Smitten while all the promises of life

Are opening round her; those of middle age,
Cast down while confident in strength they stand,
Like pillars fix'd more firmly, as might seem,
And more secure, by very weight of all
That, for support, rests on them; the decay'd
And burthensome; and lastly, that poor few
Whose light of reason is with age extinct;
The hopeful and the hopeless, first and last,
The earliest summon'd, and the longest spared, -
Are here deposited, with tribute paid
Various, but unto each some tribute paid;
As if, amid these peaceful hills and groves,
Society were touch'd with kind concern,

And gentle Nature grieved, that one should die;'
Or, if the change demanded no regret,

Observed the liberating stroke, and bless'd.

And whence that tribute? wherefore these regards? Not from the naked heart alone of Man,

(Though claiming high distinction upon Earth,

As the sole spring and fountain-head of tears,
His own peculiar utterance for distress
Or gladness, no," the philosophic Priest
Continued, "'tis not in the vital seat
Of feeling to produce them, without aid

From the pure soul, the soul sublime and pure;
With her two faculties of eye and ear,

The one by which a creature, whom his sins

Have render'd prone, can upward look to Heaven;

The other that empowers him to perceive

The voice of Deity, on height and plain,

Whispering those truths in stillness, which the WORD,
To the four quarters of the winds, proclaims."

7 This subject is eloquently discoursed by Wordsworth in his Essay upon Epitaphs, from which I can but quote the following: "The invention of epitaphs, Weever, in his Discourse on Funeral Monuments, says rightly, 'proceeded from the presage or

Not without such assistance could the use

Of these benign observances prevail:

Thus are they born, thus foster'd, thus maintain'd;
And by the care prospective of our wise

Forefathers, who, to guard against the shocks,
The fluctuation and decay of things,
Embodied and establish'd these high truths
In solemn institutions; - men convinced
That life is love and immortality,
The being one, and one the element.
There lies the channel and original bed,
From the beginning hollow'd out and scoop'd
For Man's affections else betray'd and lost,
And swallow'd up 'mid deserts infinite!
This is the genuine course, the aim, and end
Of prescient reason; all conclusions else
Are abject, vain, presumptuous, and perverse.
The faith partaking of those holy times,
Life, I repeat, is energy of love
Divine or human; exercised in pain,
In strife, and tribulation; and ordain'd,
If so approved and sanctified, to pass,
Through shades and silent rest, to endless joy."

BOOK SIXTH.

THE CHURCHYARD AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.

HAIL to the crown by Freedom shaped, to gird
An English Sovereign's brow! and to the throne
Whereon he sits! whose deep foundations lie
In veneration and the people's love;

Whose steps are equity, whose seat is law.
Hail to the State of England! And conjoin

fore-feeling of immortality, implanted in all men naturally, and is referred to the scholars of Linus the Theban poet, who flourished about the year of the world two thousand seven hundred.'-And, verily, without the consciousness of a principle of immortality in the human_soul, Man could never have had awakened in him the desire to live in the remembrance of his fellows: mere love, or the yearning of kind towards kind, could not have produced it. The dog or horse perishes in the field, or in the stall, by the side of his companions, and is incapable of anticipating the sor row with which his surrounding associates shall bemoan his death, or pine for his loss: he cannot preconceive this regret, he can form no thought of it; and therefore cannot possibly have a desire to leave such regret or remembrance behind him. Add to the principle of love which exists in the inferior animals, the faculty of reason which exists in man alone; will the conjunction of these account for the desire? Doubtless it is a necessary consequence of this conjunction; yet not I think as a direct result, but only to be come at through an intermediate thought, namely, that of an intimation or assurance within us, that some part of our nature is imperishable. At least the precedence, in the order of birth, of one feeling to the other, is unques tionable." See, also, page 248, note 5.

With this a salutation as devout,

Made to the spiritual fabric of her Church;
Founded in truth; by blood of Martyrdom
Cemented; by the hands of Wisdom rear'd
In beauty of holiness, with order'd pomp,
Decent and unreproved. The voice that greets
The majesty of both shall pray for both;
That, mutually protected and sustain'd,"
They may endure long as the sea surrounds.
This favour'd Land, or sunshine warms her soil.
And, O ye swelling hills, and spacious plains!
Besprent from shore to shore with steeple-towers,
And spires whose "silent finger points to Heaven;"
Nor wanting, at wide intervals, the bulk
Of ancient minster lifted above the cloud
Of the dense air, which town or city breeds
To intercept the Sun's glad beams; — may ne'er
That true succession fail of English hearts,
Who, with ancestral feeling, can perceive
What in those holy structures ye possess
Of ornamental interest, and the charm
Of pious sentiment diffused afar,
And human charity, and social love.
Thus never shall th' indignities of time
Approach their reverend graces, unopposed;
Nor shall the elements be free to hurt
Their fair proportions; nor the blinder rage
Of bigot zeal madly to overturn;
And, if the desolating hand of war
Spare them, they shall continue to bestow,
Upon the throng'd abodes of busy men
(Depraved, and ever prone to fill the mind
Exclusively with transitory things)
An air and mien of dignified pursuit;
Of sweet civility, on rustic wilds.

The Poet, fostering for his native land
Such hope, entreats that servants may abound
Of those pure altars worthy; ministers
Detach'd from pleasure, to the love of gain
Superior, insusceptible of pride,

And by ambitious longings undisturb'd;
Men, whose delight is where their duty leads

8 An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches, in flat countries, with spire-steeples which, as they cannot be referred to any other object, point as with silent finger to the sky and stars, and sometimes, when they reflect the brazen light of a rich though rainy sunset, appear like a pyramid of flame burning heaven-ward.

Or fixes them; whose least distinguish'd day
Shines with some portion of that heavenly lustre
Which makes the sabbath lovely in the sight
Of blessed angels, pitying human cares.
And, as on Earth it is the doom of truth
To be perpetually attack'd by foes
Open or covert, be that priesthood still,
For her defence, replenish'd with a band
Of strenuous champions, in scholastic arts
Thoroughly disciplined; nor (if in course
Of the revolving world's disturbances

Cause should recur, which righteous Heaven avert!
To meet such trial) from their spiritual sires
Degenerate; who, constrain'd to wield the sword
Of disputation, shrunk not, though assail'd
With hostile din, and combating in sight
Of angry umpires, partial and unjust;
And did, thereafter, bathe their hands in fire,
So to declare the conscience satisfied:

Nor for their bodies would accept release;

But, blessing God and praising Him, bequeathed

With their last breath, from out the smouldering flame, The faith which they by diligence had earn'd,

Or, through illuminating grace, received,

For their dear countrymen, and all mankind.
O high example, constancy divine!

Even such a Man (inheriting the zeal
And from the sanctity of elder times
Not deviating, a priest, the like of whom,
If multiplied, and in their stations set,
Would o'er the bosom of a joyful land
Spread true religion and her genuine fruits)
Before me stood that day; on holy ground
Fraught with the relics of mortality,
Exalting tender themes, by just degrees
To lofty raised; and to the highest, last;
The head and mighty paramount of truths,
Immortal life, in never-fading worlds,
For mortal creatures, conquer'd and secured.
That basis laid; those principles of faith
Announced, as a preparatory act

Of reverence done to the spirit of the place,
The Pastor cast his eyes upon the ground;
Not, as before, like one oppress'd with awe,
But with a mild and social cheerfulness;
Then to the Solitary turn'd, and spake:

"At morn or eve, in your retired domain,
Perchance you not unfrequently have mark'd
A Visitor in quest of herbs and flowers;
Too delicate employ, as would appear,

For one who, though of drooping mien, had yet
From Nature's kindliness received a frame
Robust as ever rural labour bred."

The Solitary answer'd: "Such a Form

Full well I recollect. We often cross'd
Each other's path; but, as th' Intruder seem'd
Fondly to prize the silence which he kept,
And I as willingly did cherish mine,

We met, and pass'd, like shadows. I have heard
From my good Host that, being crazed in brain
By unrequited love, he scaled the rocks,
Dived into caves, and pierced the matted woods,
In hope to find some virtuous herb of
power
To cure his malady!”

The Vicar smiled,

"Alas! before to-morrow's Sun goes down His habitation will be here: for him

That open grave is destined."

"Died he, then,

Of pain and grief?" the Solitary ask'd:

"Do not believe it; never could that be!"
"He loved," the Vicar answer'd, "deeply loved,
Loved fondly, truly, fervently; and dared
At length to tell his love, but sued in vain;
Rejected, yea, repell'd; and, if with scorn
Upon the haughty maiden's brow, 'tis but
A high-prized plume which female Beauty wears
In wantonness of conquest, or puts on

To cheat the world, or from herself to hide
Humiliation, when no longer free.

That he could brook, and glory in: but when
The tidings came that she whom he had woo'd
Was wedded to another, and his heart
Was forced to rend away its only hope;
Then Pity could have scarcely found on Earth
An object worthier of regard than he,
In the transition of that bitter hour!
Lost was she, lost; nor could the Sufferer say
That in the act of preference he had been
Unjustly dealt with; but the Maid was gone!
Had vanish'd from his prospects and desires;
Not by translation to the heavenly choir