XXXIX

EMINENT REFORMERS

1821 1822

METHINKS that I could trip o'er heaviest soil,
Light as a buoyant bark from wave to wave,
Were mine the trusty staff that JEWEL gave
To youthful HOOKER, in familiar style
The gift exalting, and with playful smile: 62
For thus equipped, and bearing on his head
The Donor's farewell blessing, can he dread
Tempest, or length of way, or weight of toil?—
More sweet than odours caught by him who sails
Near spicy shores of Araby the blest,

A thousand times more exquisitely sweet,
The freight of holy feeling which we meet,
In thoughtful moments, wafted by the gales
From fields where good men walk, or bowers
wherein they rest.

XL

THE SAME

1821 1822

HOLY and heavenly Spirits as they are,
Spotless in life, and eloquent as wise,

With what entire affection do they prize

Their Church reformed! labouring with earnest

care

To baffle all that may her strength impair; That Church, the unperverted Gospel's seat; In their afflictions a divine retreat;

Source of their liveliest hope, and tenderest
prayer! -

The truth exploring with an equal mind,
In doctrine and communion they have sought
Firmly between the two extremes to steer;
But theirs the wise man's ordinary lot-
To trace right courses for the stubborn blind,
And prophesy to ears that will not hear.

XLI

DISTRACTIONS

1821 1822

MEN, who have ceased to reverence, soon defy,
Their forefathers; lo! sects are formed, and spilt
With morbid restlessness; - the ecstatic fit
Spreads wide; though special mysteries multiply,
The Saints must govern, is their common cry;
And so they labour, deeming Holy Writ
Disgraced by aught that seems content to sit
Beneath the roof of settled Modesty.
The Romanist exults; fresh hope he draws
From the confusion, craftily incites
The overweening, personates the mad-63
To heap disgust upon the worthier Cause:
Totters the Throne; the new-born Church is sad,
For every wave against her peace unites.

XLII

GUNPOWDER PLOT

1821 1822

FEAR hath a hundred eyes that all agree

To plague her beating heart; and there is one (Nor idlest that!) which holds communion

With things that were not, yet were meant to be.
Aghast within its gloomy cavity

That eye (which sees as if fulfilled and done
Crimes that might stop the motion of the sun)
Beholds the horrible catastrophe

Of an assembled Senate unredeemed

From subterraneous Treason's darkling power:
Merciless act of sorrow infinite!

Worse than the product of that dismal night,
When gushing, copious as a thunder-shower,

The blood of Huguenots through Paris streamed.

XLIII

ILLUSTRATION

THE JUNG-FRAU AND THE FALL OF THE RHINE NEAR SCHAFFHAUSEN

1821 1822

THE Virgin Mountain,64 wearing like a Queen
A brilliant crown of everlasting snow,

Sheds ruin from her sides; and men below
Wonder that aught of aspect so serene
Can link with desolation. Smooth and green,
And seeming, at a little distance, slow,
The waters of the Rhine; but on they go
Fretting and whitening, keener and more keen;
Till madness seizes on the whole wide Flood,
Turned to a fearful Thing whose nostrils breathe
Blasts of tempestuous smoke-wherewith he tries
To hide himself, but only magnifies;

And doth in more conspicuous torment writhe,
Deafening the region in his ireful mood.