A bead-roll, in his hand a clasped book, Or staff more harmless than a shepherd's crook, [to hide

Like ivy, round some ancient elm, they twine In grisly folds and strictures serpentine ; Yet, while they strangle without mercy, bring

For recompense their own perennial bower.

CONTINUED.

METHINKS that to some vacant hermitage
My feet would rather turn-to some dry nook
Scooped out of living rock, and near a brook
Hurled down a mountain-cove from stage
to stage,

Yet tempering, for my sight, its bustling rage
In the soft heaven of a translucent pool;
Thence creeping under forest arches cool,
Fit haunt of shapes whose glorious equipage
Would elevate my dreams. A beechen bowl,
A maple dish, my furniture should be ;
Crisp, yellow leaves my bed; the hooting
owl
(fowl
My night-watch: nor should e'er the crested
From thorp or vill his matins sound for me.
Tired of the world and all its industry.

REPROOF.

BUT what if one, through grove or flowery mead,

Indulging thus at will the creeping feet
Of a voluptuous indolence, should meet
Thy hovering shade, O venerable Bede!
The saint, the scholar, from a circle freed
Of toil stupendous, in a hallowed seat
Of learning, where thou heard'st the billows
beat

On a wild coast, rough monitors to feed
Perpetual industry. Sublime recluse !
The recreant soul, that dares toshun the debt
Imposed on human kind, must first forget
Thy diligence, thy unrelaxing use

Of a long life; and, in the hour of death,
The last dear service of thy passing breath ?*

In cloistered privacy. But not to dwell
In soft repose he comes. Within his cell
Round the decaying trunk of human pride,
At morn, and eve, and midnight's silent hour,
Do penitential cogitations cling:

SHADES OF THE RELIGION,

By such examples moved to unbought pains

The people work like congregated bees; t

* He expired dictating the last words of a translation of St. John's Gospel.

† See in Turner's History, vol. iii., p. 528, the account of the erection of Ramsey monastery. Penances were removable by the perfor mances of acts of charity and benevolence

Eager to build the quiet fortresses
Where piety, as they believe, obtains
From heaven a general blessing; timely rains
Or needful sunshine; prosperous enterprise,
And peace, and equity.-Bold faith! yet rise
The sacred structures for less doubtful gains.
The sensual think with reverence of the
palms
[grave;
Which the chaste votaries seek, beyond the
If penance be redeemable, thence alms
Flow to the poor, and freedom to the slave;
And, if full oft the sanctuary save
Lives black with guilt, ferocity it calms.

To their beloved cells :-or shall we say

And Christian India, through her widespread chime,

In sacred converse gifts with Alfred shares.

HIS DESCENDANTS.

CAN aught survive to linger in the veins
Of kindred bodies-an essential power
That may not vanish in one fatal hour,
And wholly cast away terrestrial chains?
The race of Alfred covets glorious pains
When dangers threaten, dangers ever new!
Black tempests bursting, blacker still in view!
But manly sovereignty its hold retains;
The root sincere, the branches bold to strive
With the fierce tempest, while, within the
round

Of their protection, gentle virtues thrive;
As oft, 'mid some green plot of open ground,
Wide as the oak extends its dewy gloom,
The fostered hyacinths spread their purple
bloom.

INFLUENCE ABUSED.

their way,

To lead in memorable triumph home
Truth-their immortal Una? Babylon,
Learned and wise, hath perished utterly,
Nor leaves her speech one word to aid the
sigh
[are gone
That would lament her ;-Memphis, Tyre,
With all their arts,-but classic lore glides on
By these religious saved for all posterity.

ALFRED.

BEHOLD a pupil of the monkish gown,
The pious Alfred, king to justice dear;
Lord of the harp and liberating spear;
Mirror of princes! Indigent renown
Might range the starry ether for a crown
Equal to his deserts, who, like the year,
Pours forth his bounty, like the day doth
cheer,
[frown.
And awes like night with mercy-tempered
Ease from this noble miser of his time
No moment steals; pain narrows not his
cares.*
[gem,
Though small his kingdom as a spark or
Of Alfred boasts remote Jerusalem,

Changes her means, the enthusiast as a dupe Shall soar, and as a hypocrite can stoop, And turn the instruments of good to ill, Moulding the credulous people to his will. Such Dunstan :- from its Benedictine coop Issues :he master mind, at whose fell swoop The chaste affections tremble to fulfil Their purposes. Behold, pre-signified, The night of spiritual sway! his thoughts, his dreams,

Do in the supernatural world abide : So vaunt a throng of followers, filled with pride

In shows of virtue pushed to its extremes, And sorceries of talent misapplied.

DANISH CONQUESTS. WOE to the crown that doth the cowl obey!t Dissension checks the arms that would restrain

The incessant rovers of the Northern main; And widely spreads once more a pagan sway: But gospel-truth is potent to allay

*

ner.

Fierceness and rage; and soon the cruel
Dane
[reign,
Feels, through the influence of her gentle
His native superstitions melt away.
Thus, often, when thick gloom the east o'er-
shrouds,
[appear
The full-orbed moon, slow-climbing, doth
Silently to consume the heavy clouds;
How no one can resolve; but every eye
Around her sees, while air is hushed, a clear
And widening circuit of ethereal sky.

CANUTE.

A PLEASANT music floats along the mere, From monks in Ely chanting service high, Whileas Canute the king is rowing by :"My oarsmen," quoth the mighty king, "draw near, [hear!" That we the sweet song of the monks may He listens, (all past conquests and all schemes

Of future vanishing like empty dreams,) Heart-touched, and haply not without a tear. The royal minstrel, ere the choir is still, While his free barge skims the smooth flood along,

Gives to that rapture an accordant rhyme,* O suffering earth! be thankful; sternest

As with the stream our voyage we pursue, The gross materials of this world present A marvellous study of wild accident; Uncouth proximities of old and new ; And bold transfigurations, more untrue (As might be deemed) to disciplined intent Than aught the sky's fantastic element, When most fantastic, offers to the view. Saw we not Henry scourged at Becket's shrine? [crown,

Lo! John self-stripped of his insignia ;Sceptre and mantle, sword and ring, laid down [line At a proud legate's feet! The spears that Baronial halls, the opprobrious insult feel; And angry ocean roars a vain appeal.

SCENE IN VENICE.

BLACK demons hovering o'er his mitred head,

To Cæsar's successor the pontift spake : Ere I absolve thee, stoop! that on thy

neck [tread." Levelled with earth this foot of mine may Then, he who to the altar had been led, He, whose strong arm the orient could not check,

He, who had held the soldan at his beck,
Stooped, of all glory disinherited,
And even the common dignity of man!
Amazement strikes the crowd;-while many
turn

Their eyes away in sorrow, others burn
With scorn, invoking a vindictive ban
From outraged nature; but the sense of most
In abject sympathy with power is lost.

CISTERTIAN MONASTERY.

'Here man more purely lives,* less oft doth fall,

More promptly rises, walks with nicer heed,

*"Bonum est nos hic esse, quia homo vivit

More safely rests, dies happier, is freed Earlier from cleansing fires, and gains withal

A brighter crown."--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;

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.

AND not in vain embodied to the sight
Religion finds even in the stern retreat
Of feudal sway her own appropriate seat;
From the collegiate pomps on Windsor's
height,

Down to the humble 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, whose foes are planted
round,
[place,
Who teach the intrepid guardians of the
Hourly exposed to death, with famine worn,
And suffering under many a perilous wound,

purius, cadit rarius, surgit velocius, incedit cautius, quiescit securius, moritur felicius, purgatur citius, præmiatur copiosius."- Bernard." This sentence," says Dr. Whitaker, "is usually in scribed on some conspicuous part of the Cistertian houses."

Hów sad would be their durance, if forlorn Of offices dispensing heavenly grace!

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
That swells the bosom of our passing sail !
gale
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!
I see a matchless blazonry unfurled
Of wisdom, magnanimity, and love;
And meekness tempering honourable pride;
The lamb is couching by the lion's side,
And near the flame-eyed eagle sits the dove.

CRUSADERS.

of these bright scenes without a farewell NOR can imagination quit the shores glance [mance Given to those dream-like issues-that roOf many-coloured life which 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. [chanted

Am I deceived? Or is their requiem By voices never mute when heaven unties Her inmost, softest, tenderest harmonies; Requiem which earth takes up with voice [and wise, For their high guerdon not in vain have When she would tell how good, and brave, panted!

undaunted