As this apt strain proceeded, I could mark
Its kindly influence, o'er the yielding brow
Of our Companion, gradually diffused;

While, listening, he had paced the noiseless turf,
Like one whose untired ear a murmuring stream
Detains; but tempted now to interpose,

He with a smile exclaimed

'Tis well you speak

At a safe distance from our native Land,

And from the Mansions where our youth was taught
The true Descendants of those godly Men
Who swept from Scotland, in a flame of zeal,
Shrine, Altar, Image, and the massy Piles
That harbored them, the Souls retaining yet
The churlish features of that after Race

Who fled to caves, and woods, and naked rocks,
In deadly scorn of superstitious rites,

Or what their scruples construed to be such
How, think you, would they tolerate this scheme
Of fine propensities, that tends, if urged
Far as it might be urged, to sow afresh
The weeds of Romish Phantasy, in vain
Uprooted; would re-consecrate our Wells
To good Saint Fillan and to Fair Saint Anne;
And from long banishment recall St. Giles,
To watch again with tutelary love

O'er stately Edinborough throned on crags?

A blessed restoration, to behold

The Patron, on the shoulders of his Priests,
Once more parading through her crowded streets
Now simply guarded by the sober Powers
Of Science, and Philosophy, and Sense!"

This answer followed: "You have turned my thoughts

Upon our brave Progenitors, who rose
Against Idolatry with warlike mind,
And shrunk from vain observances, to lurk
In caves, and woods, and under dismal rocks,
Deprived of shelter, covering, fire, and food;
Why? for this very reason that they felt,
And did acknowledge, wheresoe'er they moved,
A Spiritual Presence, oft-times misconceived;
But still a high dependence, a divine

Bounty and government, that filled their hearts
With joy, and gratitude, and fear, and love;
And from their fervent lips drew hymns of praise,
That through the desert rang. Though favored less,
Far less, than these, yet such, in their degree,
Were those bewildered Pagans of old time,
Beyond their own poor Natures and above
They looked; were humbly thankful for the good
Which the warm Sun solicited and Earth

Bestowed; were gladsome, and their moral sense
They fortified with reverence for the Gods ;
And they had hopes that overstepped the Grave.

"Now, shall our great Discoverers," he exclaimed,
Raising his voice triumphantly, "obtain
From Sense and Reason less than These obtained
Though far misled? Shall Men for whom our Age
Unbaffled powers of vision hath prepared,

To explore the world without and world within,
Be joyless as the blind? Ambitious Souls
Whom Earth, at this late season, hath produced
To regulate the moving spheres, and weigh
The planets in the hollow of their hand;

And They who rather dive than soar, whose pains
Have solved the elements, or analyzed

The thinking principle — shall They in fact

Prove a degraded Race? and what avails Renown, if their presumption make them such? Oh! there is laughter at their work in Heaven! Inquire of ancient Wisdom; go, demand

Of mighty Nature, if 'twas ever meant

That we should pry far off yet be unraised;
That we should pore, and dwindle as we pore,
Viewing all objects unremittingly

In disconnexion dead and spiritless ;
And still dividing, and dividing still,
Break down all grandeur, still unsatisfied
With the perverse attempt, while littleness
May yet become more little; waging thus
An impious warfare with the very life

Of our own souls! And if indeed there be
An all-pervading Spirit, upon whom
Our dark foundations rest, could He design
That this magnificent effect of Power,

The Earth we tread, the Sky that we behold
By day, and all the pomp which night reveals,
That these and that superior Mystery

Our vital Frame, so fearfully devised,

And the dread Soul within it should exist
Only to be examined, pondered, searched,
Probed, vexed, and criticised? Accuse me not
Of arrogance, unknown Wanderer as I am,
If, having walked with Nature threescore years,
And offered, far as frailty would allow,
My heart a daily sacrifice to Truth,
I now affirm of Nature and of Truth,
Whom I have served, that their DIVINITY
Revolts, offended at the ways of Men

Swayed by such motives, to such end employed;
Philosophers, who, though the human Soul
Be of a thousand faculties composed,

And twice ten thousand interests, do yet prize
This Soul, and the transcedent Universe,
No more than as a Mirror that reflects
To proud Self-love her own intelligence;
That One, poor, infinite Object, in the Abyss
Of infinite Being, twinkling restlessly!

"Nor higher place can be assigned to Him
And his Compeers the laughing Sage of France.
Crowned was He, if my Memors do not err,
With laurel planted upon hoary hairs,

In sign of conquest by his Wit achieved,

And benefits his wisdom had conferred,

His tottering Body was with wreaths of flowers
Opprest, far less becoming ornaments

Than Spring oft twines about a mouldering Tree;
Yet so it pleased a fond, a vain old Man,
And a most frivolous People. Him I mean
Who penned, to ridicule confiding Faith,
This sorry Legend; which by chance we found
Piled in a nook, through malice, as might seem,
Among more innocent rubbish." - Speaking thus,
With a brief notice when, and how, and where,
We had espied the Book, he drew it forth;
And courteously, as if the act removed,
At once, all traces from the good Man's heart
Of unbenign aversion or contempt,

Restored it to its owner. "Gentle Friend,"

Herewith he grasped the Solitary's hand,

"You have known better Lights and Guides than hese Ah! let not aught amiss within dispose

A noble mind to practise on herself,
And tempt Opinion to support the wrongs
Of Passion: whatsoe'er he felt or feared,
From higher judgment-seats make no appeal

To lower can you question that the Soul
Inherits an allegiance, not by choice
To be cast off, upon an oath proposed
By each new upstart Notion? In the ports
Of levity no refuge can be found,

No shelter, for a spirit in distress.
He, who by wilful disesteem of life,
And proud insensibility to hope,
Affronts the eye of Solitude, shall learn,
That her mild nature can be terrible;
That neither she nor Silence lack the power
To avenge their own insulted Majesty.

O blest seclusion! when the Mind admits
The law of duty; and can therefore move
Through each vicissitude of loss and gain,
Linked in entire complacence with her choice;
When Youth's presumptuousness is mellowed down,
And Manhood's vain anxiety dismissed;
When Wisdom shows her seasonable fruit,
Upon the boughs of sheltering Leisure hung
In sober plenty; when the spirit stoops
To drink with gratitude the crystal stream
Of unreproved enjoyment; and is pleased
and be saluted by the air

To muse,
Of meek repentance, wafting wall-flower scents
From out the crumbling ruins of fallen Pride
And chambers of Transgression, now forlorn.
O, calm contented days, and peaceful nights!
Who, when such good can be obtained, would strive
To reconcile his Manhood to a couch

Soft, as may seem, but, under that disguise,
Stuffed with the thorny substance of the past,

For fixed annoyance; and full oft beset

Wi" floating dreams, disconsolate and black,

The vapory phantoms of futurity?