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

(By constant impulse of 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 righteous hope,
Conqueror beloved! expected anxiously!
The vacillating Bondman of the Pope
Shrinks from the verdict of his steadfast eye.

IX.

· OBLIGATIONS OF CIVIL TO RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

UNGRATEFUL Country, if thou e'er forget
The sons who for thy civil rights have bled!
How, like a Roman, Sidney bowed his head,
And Russel's milder blood the scaffold wet;
But These had fallen for profitless regret
Had not thy holy Church her Champions bred,
And claims from other worlds inspirited
The Star of Liberty to rise. Nor yet

(Grave this within thy heart!) if spiritual things
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.

X.

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 the eye athwart ;
So have we hurried on with troubled pleasure:
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
Features that else had vanished like a dream,

THERE are no colours in the fairest sky

So fair as these. The feather whence the 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:
O 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.

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,
Watch-words 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.

XIII. PLACES OF WORSHIP.

As star that shines dependent upon star
Is to the sky while we look up in love;

As to the deep fair ships which though they move
Seem fixed, to eyes that watch them from afar ;
As to the sandy desert fountains are,

With palm groves shaded at wide intervals,
Whose fruit around the sun-burnt Native falls
Of roving tired or desultory war;

Such to this British Isle her Christian Fanes,
Each linked to each for kindred services;

Her Spires, her Steeple-towers with glittering vanes
Far-kenned, her Chapels lurking among trees,

Where a few villagers on bended knees

Find solace which a busy world disdains,

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

To the neat Mansion *, where, his Flock among,
The learned Pastor dwells, their watchful Lord.
Though meek and patient as a sheathèd 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?

YES, if the intensities of hope and fear
Attract us still, and passionate exercise
Of lofty thoughts, the way before us lies

Distinct with signs through which, in fixed career,
As through a zodiac, moves the ritual year
Of England's Church-stupendous mysteries!
Which whoso travels in her bosom, eyes
As he approaches them, with solemn cheer.
Enough for us to cast a transient glance
The circle through; relinquishing its story
For those whom Heaven hath fitted to advance,
And, harp in hand, rehearse the King of Glory -
From his mild advent till his countenance
Shall dissipate the seas and mountains hoary.
*See note, p. 202.

BLEST be the Church, that, watching o'er the needs
Of Infancy, provides a timely shower,
Whose virtue changes to a Christian Flower
A Growth from sinful Nature's bed of Weeds!
Fitliest beneath the sacred roof proceeds
The ministration; while parental Love
Looks on, and Grace descendeth from above
As the high service pledges now, now pleads.
There, should vain thoughts outspread their wings and fly
To meet the coming hours of festal mirth,

The tombs which hear and answer that brief cry,

The Infant's notice of his second birth,

Recal the wandering soul to sympathy

With what Man hopes from Heaven, yet fears from Earth.

FATHER! to God himself we cannot give
A holier name! Then lightly do not bear
Both names conjoined - but of thy spiritual care
Be duly mindful; still more sensitive

Do Thou, in truth a second Mother, strive
Against disheartening custom, that by Thee
Watched, and with love and pious industry
Tended at need, the adopted Plant may thrive
For everlasting bloom. Benign and pure
This Ordinance, whether loss it would supply,
Prevent omission, help deficiency,

Or seek to make assurance doubly sure.
Shame if the consecrated Vow be found
An idle form, the Word an empty sound!