IV

LATITUDINARIANISM

YET Truth is keenly sought for, and the

wind

Charged with rich words poured out in thought's defence;

Whether the Church inspire that eloquence, Or a Platonic Piety confined

To the sole temple of the inward mind; And One there is who builds immortal lays, Though doomed to tread in solitary ways, Darkness before and danger's voice behind: Yet not alone, nor helpless to repel

Sad thoughts; for from above the starry sphere

Come secrets, whispered nightly to his ear:
And the pure spirit of celestial light
Shines through his soul-"that he may see
and tell

Of things invisible to mortal sight."

V

WALTON'S BOOK OF LIVES

THERE are no colours in the fairest sky

renewed,

And sorrow bartered for exceeding joy.

III

CHARLES THE SECOND

WHO Comes with rapture greeted, and caressed

With frantic love-his kingdom to regain?
Him Virtue's Nurse, Adversity, in vain
Received, and fostered in her iron breast:
For all she taught of hardiest and of best,
Or would have taught, by discipline of pain
And long privation, now dissolves amain,
Or is remembered only to give zest
To wantonness.-Away, Circean revels!
But for what gain? if England soon must
sink

Into a gulf which all distinction levels-
That bigotry may swallow the good name,
And, with that draught, the life-blood:
misery, shame,

By Poets loathed; from which Historians shrink!

pen

Was shaped that traced the lives of these

good men,

Dropped from an Angel's wing. With moistened eye

We read of faith and purest charity
In Statesman, Priest, and humble Citizen:
Oh could we copy their mild virtues, then
What joy to live, what blessedness to die!
Methinks their very names shine still and
bright;

Apart-like glow-worms on a summer night;

Or lonely tapers when from far they fling
A guiding ray; or seen-like stars on high,
Satellites burning in a lucid ring
Around meek Walton's heavenly memory.

VI

CLERICAL INTEGRITY

NOR shall the eternal roll of praise reject Those Unconforming; whom one rigorous

day

Drives from their Cures, a voluntary prey
To poverty, and grief, and disrespect.
And some to want as if by tempests
wrecked

On a wild coast how destitute! did They
Feel not that Conscience never can betray,
That peace of mind is Virtue's sure effect.
Their altars they forego, their homes they
quit,

Fields which they love, and paths they daily trod,

And cast the future upon Providence;

As men the dictate of whose inward sense Outweighs the world; whom self-deceiving wit

Lures not from what they deem the cause of God.

And Tyranny is balked of her desire: Up, down, the busy Thames-rapid as fire

Coursing a train of gunpowder—it went, And transport finds in every street a vent, Till the whole City rings like one vast quire.

The Fathers urge the People to be still, With outstretched hands and earnest speech -in vain !

Yea, many, haply wont to entertain
Small reverence for the mitre's offices,
And to Religion's self no friendly will,
A Prelate's blessing ask on bended knees.

IX

WILLIAM THE THIRD

CALM as an under-current, strong to draw
Millions of waves into itself, and run,
From sea to sea, impervious to the sun
And ploughing storm, the spirit of Nassau
Swerves not, (how blest if by religious awe
Swayed, and thereby enabled to contend
With the wide world's commotions) from
its end

Swerves not-diverted by a casual law.
Had mortal action e'er a nobler scope?
The Hero comes to liberate, not defy;
And, while he marches on with stedfast
hope,

Conqueror beloved! expected anxiously!
The vacillating Bondman of the Pope
Shrinks from the verdict of his stedfast
eye.

Be lost, through apathy, or scorn, or fear,
Shalt thou thy humbler franchises support,
However hardly won or justly dear:
What came from heaven to heaven by
nature clings,

And, if dissevered thence, its course is short.

XI

SACHEVEREL

A SUDDEN conflict rises from the swell
Of a proud slavery met by tenets strained
In Liberty's behalf. Fears, true or feigned,
Spread through all ranks; and lo! the

Sentinel

Who loudest rang his pulpit 'larum bell, Stands at the Bar, absolved by female eyes

Mingling their glances with grave flatteries Lavished on Him-that England may rebel Against her ancient virtue. HIGH and Low,

Watchwords of Party, on all tongues are rife;

As if a Church, though sprung from heaven,

must owe

To opposites and fierce extremes her life,Not to the golden mean, and quiet flow Of truths that soften hatred, temper strife.

XII

DOWN a swift Stream, thus far, a bold design

Have we pursued, with livelier stir of heart Than his who sees, borne forward by the Rhine,

The living landscapes greet him, and depart;

Sees spires fast sinking-up again to start! And strives the towers to number, that

recline

O'er the dark steeps, or on the horizon line

Striding with shattered crests his eye athwart,

So have we hurried on with troubled plea

sure:

Henceforth, as on the bosom of a stream That slackens, and spreads wide a watery gleam,

We, nothing loth a lingering course to

measure,

May gather up our thoughts, and mark at leisure

How widely spread the interests of our theme.

XIII

ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY IN

AMERICA

1. THE PILGRIM FATHERS1

WELL worthy to be magnified are they Who, with sad hearts, of friends and country took

A last farewell, their loved abodes forsook, And hallowed ground in which their fathers lay;

Then to the new-found World explored their way,

That so a Church, unforced, uncalled to brook

Ritual restraints, within some sheltering nook

Her Lord might worship and his word obey In freedom. Men they were who could not bend;

Blest Pilgrims, surely, as they took for guide

A will by sovereign Conscience sanctified; Blest while their Spirits from the woods

ascend

Along a Galaxy that knows no end, But in His glory who for Sinners died.

XIV

II. CONTINUED

FROM Rite and Ordinance abused they fled
To Wilds where both were utterly unknown;
But not to them had Providence foreshown
What benefits are missed, what evils bred,
In worship neither raised nor limited
Save by Self-will. Lo! from that distant

shore,

For Rite and Ordinance, Piety is led Back to the Land those Pilgrims left of yore,

Led by her own free choice. So Truth and Love

By Conscience governed do their steps

retrace.

1 This and the two following were added in 1842. See Note.

XVIII

PASTORAL CHARACTER

A GENIAL hearth, a hospitable board,
And a refined rusticity, belong

To the neat mansion,1 where, his flock among,

The learned Pastor dwells, their watchful Lord.

Though meek and patient as a sheathed sword;

Though pride's least lurking thought appear a wrong

To human kind; though peace be on his tongue,

Gentleness in his heart-can earth afford
Such genuine state, pre-eminence so free,
As when, arrayed in Christ's authority,
He from the pulpit lifts his awful hand;
Conjures, implores, and labours all he can
For re-subjecting to divine command
The stubborn spirit of rebellious man?
1 See Note.