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 fixed more firmly, as might seem,
And more secure, by very weight of all
That, for support, rests on them; the decayed
And burdensome; and, lastly, that poor few
Whose light of reason is with age extinct ;
The hopeful and the hopeless, first and last,
The earliest summoned 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 touched with kind concern,
And gentle 'Nature grieved, that one should die';
Or, if the change demanded no regret,
Observed the liberating stroke, and blessed.
"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, "'t is 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
The one by which a creature, whom his sins Have rendered 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.
Not without such assistance could the use
Of these benign observances prevail:
Thus are they born, thus fostered, thus maintained;
And by the care prospective of our wise
Forefathers, who, to guard against the shocks,
The fluctuation and decay of things,
Embodied and established 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, hollowed out and scooped
For Man's affections, else betrayed and lost,
And swallowed 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, in tribulation; and ordained,
If so approved and sanctified, to pass,
Through shades and silent rest, to endless joy."
THE CHURCHYARD AMONG THE MOUN
Poet's address to the State and Church of England. - The Pastor not inferior to the ancient Worthies of the Church.He begins his Narratives with an instance of unrequited Love. - Anguish of mind subdued, and how. -The lonely Miner. - An instance of perseverance. Which leads by contrast to an example of abused talents, irresolution, and weakness. Solitary, applying this covertly to his own case, asks for an instance of some Stranger, whose dispositions may have led him to end his days here. -Pastor, in answer, gives an account of the harmonizing influence of Solitude upon two men of opposite principles, who had encountered agitations in public life. - The rule by which Peace may be obtained expressed, and where. Solitary hints at an overpowering Fatality.· Answer of the Pastor. What subjects he will exclude from his Narratives. Conversation upon this. - Instance of an unamiable character, a Female, and why given.- Contrasted with this, a meek sufferer, from unguarded and betrayed love. Instance of heavier guilt, and its consequences to the Offender.
With this instance of a Marriage Contract broken is contrasted one of a Widower, evidencing his faithful affection towards his deceased Wife by his care of their female Children.
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
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 reared
In beauty of holiness, with ordered pomp,
Decent and unreproved. The voice, that greets
The majesty of both, shall pray for both;
That, mutually protected and sustained,
They may endure long as the sea surrounds
This favored Land, or sunshine warms her soil.
And O ye swelling hills, and spacious plains! Besprent from shore to shore with steeple-towers,
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