Shall blush; and may not we with sorrow

say

rules,

Among the herdsmen of the Alps, have

wrought

More for mankind at this unhappy day Than all the pride of intellect and thought?

"O'ER THE WIDE EARTH, ON MOUNTAIN AND ON PLAIN" 1809. 1815

O'ER the wide earth, on mountain and on plain,

Dwells in the affections and the soul of man
A Godhead, like the universal PAN;
But more exalted, with a brighter train:
And shall his bounty be dispensed in vain,
Showered equally on city and on field,
And neither hope nor steadfast promise
yield

In these usurping times of fear and pain?
Such doom awaits us. Nay, forbid it
Heaven!

We know the arduous strife, the eternal laws

To which the triumph of all good is given, High sacrifice, and labour without pause,

With heroes, 'mid the islands of the Blest, Or in the fields of empyrean light.

A meteor wert thou crossing a dark night: Yet shall thy name, conspicuous and sublime,

Stand in the spacious firmament of time,
Fixed as a star: such glory is thy right.
Alas! it may not be: for earthly fame
Is Fortune's frail dependant; yet there lives
A Judge, who, as man claims by merit,
gives;

To whose all-pondering mind a noble aim,
Faithfully kept, is as a noble deed;
In whose pure sight all virtue doth suc-
ceed.

A people sunk in apathy and fear.

If this endure, farewell, for us, all good!
The awful light of heavenly innocence
Will fail to illuminate the infant's bier;
And guilt and shame, from which is no
defence,

Descend on all that issues from our blood.

ON A CELEBRATED EVENT IN ANCIENT HISTORY 1810. 1815

A ROMAN Master stands on Grecian ground,

And to the people at the Isthmian Games Assembled, He, by a herald's voice, proclaims

THE LIBERTY OF GREECE:- the words rebound

Until all voices in one voice are drowned; Glad acclamation by which air was rent! And birds, high-flying in the element, Dropped to the earth, astonished at the sound!

Yet were the thoughtful grieved; and still that voice

Haunts, with sad echoes, musing Fancy's

By more deserving brows. Yet so ye prop,

Sons of the brave who fought at Marathon, Your feeble spirits! Greece her head hath bowed,

As if the wreath of liberty thereon
Would fix itself as smoothly as a cloud,
Which, at Jove's will, descends on Pelion's
top."

THE OAK OF GUERNICA
1810. 1815

The ancient oak of Guernica, says Laborde in his account of Biscay, is a most venerable natural monument. Ferdinand and Isabella, in the year 1476, after hearing mass in the church of Santa Maria de la Antigua, repaired to this tree, under which they swore to the Biscayans to maintain their fueros (privileges). What other interest belongs to it in the minds of this people will appear from the following