"" 'OH WHAT A WRECK! HOW CHANGED IN MIEN AND SPEECH!"

The sad condition of poor Mrs. Southey put me upon writing this. It has afforded comfort to many persons whose friends have been similarly affected.

OH what a Wreck! how changed in mien and speech!

Yet-though dread Powers, that work in mystery, spin

Entanglings of the brain; though shadows stretch

O'er the chilled heart-reflect; far, far within

Hers is a holy Being, freed from Sin.
She is not what she seems, a forlorn wretch;
But delegated Spirits comfort fetch

To Her from heights that Reason may not win.

Like Children, She is privileged to hold
Divine communion; both do live and move,
Whate'er to shallow Faith their ways un-
fold,

Inly illumined by Heaven's pitying love;
Love pitying innocence not long to last,
In them-in Her our sins and sorrows past.
1838.

A PLEA FOR AUTHORS, MAY 1838
FAILING impartial measure to dispense
To every suitor, Equity is lame;
And social Justice, stript of reverence
For natural rights, a mockery and a shame;
Law but a servile dupe of false pretence,
If, guarding grossest things from common
claim

Now and for ever, She, to works that came From mind and spirit, grudge a short-lived fence.

"What! lengthened privilege, a lineal tie, For Books!" Yes, heartless Ones, or be it proved

That 'tis a fault in Us to have lived and loved

Like others, with like temporal hopes to die;

No public harm that Genius from her course Be turned; and streams of truth dried up, even at their source !

THIS Spot-at once unfolding sight so fair Of sea and land, with yon grey towers that still

Rise up as if to lord it over air

Might soothe in human breasts the sense of ill,

Or charm it out of memory; yea, might fill The heart with joy and gratitude to God For all his bounties upon man bestowed : Why bears it then the name of "Weeping Hill"?

Thousands, as toward yon old Lancastrian Towers,

A prison's crown, along this way they past For lingering durance or quick death with shame,

From this bare eminence thereon have cast Their first look-blinded as tears fell in showers

Shed on their chains; and hence that doleful name.

II

TENDERLY do we feel by Nature's law For worst offenders: though the heart will heave

With indignation, deeply moved we grieve, In after thought, for Him who stood in awe Neither of God nor man, and only saw, Lost wretch, a horrible device enthroned On proud temptations, till the victim

groaned

Under the steel his hand had dared to draw.

But oh, restrain compassion, if its course, As oft befalls, prevent or turn aside Judgments and aims and acts whose higher

source

Is sympathy with the unforewarned, who died

THE Roman Consul doomed his sons to die

Who had betrayed their country. The stern word

Afforded (may it through all time afford)
A theme for praise and admiration high.
Upon the surface of humanity

He rested not; its depths his mind explored;
He felt; but his parental bosom's lord
Was Duty,-Duty calmed his agony.
And some, we know, when they by wilful

act

A single human life have wrongly taken, Pass sentence on themselves, confess the fact,

And, to atone for it, with soul unshaken Kneel at the feet of Justice, and, for faith Broken with all mankind, solicit death.

IV

Is Death, when evil against good has fought With such fell mastery that a man may dare By deeds the blackest purpose to lay bare? Is Death, for one to that condition brought, For him, or any one, the thing that ought To be most dreaded? Lawgivers, beware, Lest, capital pains remitting till ye spare The murderer, ye, by sanction to that thought

Seemingly given, debase the general mind; Tempt the vague will tried standards to disown,

Nor only palpable restraints unbind,
But upon Honour's head disturb the crown,
Whose absolute rule permits not to with-

stand

In the weak love of life his least command.

V

NOT to the object specially designed,
Howe'er momentous in itself it be,
Good to promote or curb depravity,
Is the wise Legislator's view confined.
His Spirit, when most severe, is oft most
kind;

As all Authority in earth depends

On Love and Fear, their several powers he

blends,

Copying with awe the one Paternal mind. Uncaught by processes in show humane, He feels how far the act would derogate From even the humblest functions of the

State;

If she, self-shorn of Majesty, ordain
That never more shall hang upon her breath
The last alternative of Life or Death.

VI

YE brood of conscience-Spectres! that frequent

The bad Man's restless walk, and haunt his bed

Fiends in your aspect, yet beneficent
In act, as hovering Angels when they spread
Their wings to guard the unconscious
Innocent ---

Slow be the Statutes of the land to share
A laxity that could not but impair
Your power to punish crime, and so pre-
vent.

And ye, Beliefs! coiled serpent-like about
The adage on all tongues, Murder will

out,"

So far that, if consistent in their scheme, They must forbid the State to inflict a pain, Making of social order a mere dream.

VIII

FIT retribution, by the moral code
Determined, lies beyond the State's embrace,
Yet, as she may, for each peculiar case
She plants well-measured terrors in the road
Of wrongful acts. Downward it is and
broad,

And, the main fear once doomed to banishment,

Far oftener then, bad ushering worse event,
Blood would be spilt that in his dark abode
Crime might lie better hid. And, should
the change

Take from the horror due to a foul deed,
Pursuit and evidence so far must fail,
And, guilt escaping, passion then might
plead

In angry spirits for her old free range,
And the "wild justice of revenge" prevail.

IX

good

In the full might they hitherto have shown, If for deliberate shedder of man's blood Survive not Judgment that requires his own?

VII

BEFORE the world had past her time of youth

While polity and discipline were weak,
The precept eye for eye, and tooth for tooth,
Came forth-a light, though but as of day-
break,

Strong as could then be borne. A Master

meek

Proscribed the spirit fostered by that rule, Patience his law, long-suffering his school, And love the end, which all through peace must seek.

But lamentably do they err who strain His mandates, given rash impulse to control

And keep vindictive thirstings from the soul,

Far higher, else full surely shalt thou err. What is a State? The wise behold in her A creature born of time, that keeps one

Aн, think how one compelled for life to abide

Locked in a dungeon needs must eat the heart

Out of his own humanity, and part
With every hope that mutual cares provide;
And, should a less unnatural doom confide
In life-long exile on a savage coast,
Soon the relapsing penitent may boast
Of yet more heinous guilt, with fiercer pride.
Hence thoughtful Mercy, Mercy sage and
pure,

Sanctions the forfeiture that Law demands,
Leaving the final issue in His hands
Whose goodness knows no change, whose
love is sure,

Who sees, foresees; who cannot judge amiss,

And wafts at will the contrite soul to bliss.

XII

SEE the Condemned alone within his cell And prostrate at some moment when re

morse

Stings to the quick, and, with resistless force,

Assaults the pride she strove in vain to quell.

Then mark him, him who could so long rebel,

The crime confessed, a kneeling Penitent Before the Altar, where the Sacrament Softens his heart, till from his eyes outwell Tears of salvation. Welcome death! while Heaven

Does in this change exceedingly rejoice; While yet the solemn heed the State hath given

THE formal World relaxes her cold chain For One who speaks in numbers; ampler scope

His utterance finds; and, conscious of the gain,

Imagination works with bolder hope
The cause of grateful reason to sustain;
And, serving Truth, the heart more strongly
beats

Against all barriers which his labour meets
In lofty place, or humble Life's domain.
Enough;-before us lay a painful road,
And guidance have I sought in duteous love
From Wisdom's heavenly Father. Hence
hath flowed

Patience, with trust that, whatsoe'er the way Each takes in this high matter, all may

move

Cheered with the prospect of a brighter day.