With him can talk; nor blush to waste a word On creatures less intelligent and shrewd. And if the blustering wind that drives the clouds Care not for me, he lingers round my door, And makes me pastime when our tempers suit; But, above all, my thoughts are my support, My comfort: would that they were oftener fixed On what, for guidance in the way that leads To heaven, I know, by my Redeemer taught.' The Matron ended-nor could I forbear By ease and leisure; by the very wealth For you the hours of labor do not flag; For you each evening hath its shining star, And every sabbath-day its golden sun.'" "Yes" said the Solitary with a smile That seemed to break from an expanding heart, "The untutored bird may found, and so construct, And with such soft materials line, her nest Powers not unjustly likened to those gifts Upon the individual doth confer Among her higher creatures born and trained To use of reason. And, I own that, tired Of the ostentatious world-a swelling stage With empty actions and vain passions stuffed, up So green, so fresh, so plentiful, as mine!' But thinly sown these natures; rare, at least, The mutual aptitude of seed and soil That yields such kindly product. He, whose bed Perhaps yon loose sods cover, the poor Brought yesterday from our sequestered dell So call him, for humanity to him Undeterred, And from the private struggles of mankind Perhaps incited rather, by these shocks, Hoping far less than I could wish to hope, In no ungracious opposition, given Far less than once I trusted and believed-To the confiding spirit of his own I love to hear of those who, not contend- Experienced faith, the everend Pastor In him who bled for man upon the cross; Of pure imagination ;-above all, And streams, whose murmur fills this hollow vale, Whether their course be turbulent or smooth, Their waters clear or sullied, all are lost Within the bosom of yon crystal Lake, And end their journey in the same repose! And blest are they who sleep; and we that know, While in a spot like this we breathe and walk, [ered That all beneath us by the wings are covOf motherly humanity, outspread And gathering all within their tender shade Though loth and slow to come! A battlefield, In stillness left when slaughter is no more, With this compared, makes a strange spectacle ! A dismal prospect yields the wild shore strewn With wrecks, and trod by feet of young and old Wandering about in miserable search That all the scattered subjects which compose Earth's melancholy vision through the space Of all her climes-these wretched, these de praved, To virtue lost, insensible or peace, Tyrants who utter the destroying word, Were of one species with the sheltered few, Who, with a dutiful and tender hand, The vital air; others, which, though allowed That privilege, did yet expire too soon, That lovingly consigns the babe to the arms Of Jesus, and his everlasting care. And the besprinkled nursling, unrequired one Taken from air and sunshine when the rose Of infancy first blooms upon his cheek; The thinking, thoughtless, school-boy; the bold youth Of soul impetuous, and the bashful maid 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 burthensome; 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, And whence that tribute? wherefore these regards? Not from the naked Heart alone of Man (Though claiming high distinction upon earth [tears, As the sole spring and fountain-head of His own peculiar utterance for distress Or gladness)-No," the philosophic Priest Continued, " 'tis 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 and ear, 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 And by the care prospective of our wise Forefathers, who, to guard against the shocks The fluctuation and decay of things, 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 per verse. The faith partaking of those holy times. BOOK SIXTH. THE CHURCH-YARD AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. ARGUMENT. 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 pube of the Pastor What subjects he will exclude from his Narrative-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 Whereon he sits! throne [lie In veneration and the people's love; Whose deep foundations Whose steps are equity, whose seat is law. lic life-The rule by which Peace may be obtained expressed, and where- Solitary-Hail to the State of England! And conhints at an overpowering Fatality-Answer join |