XLIX. Thus said the Angel, Thou to whom one day Ere now for that most sacred charge hath Heaven L. Bear thou that great Eliza in thy mind, When Rome in hope its wiliest engines plied, By her own heart and righteous Heaven approved, Stood up against the Father whom she loved. LI. Laying all mean regards aside, fill Thou Her seats with wisdom and with learned worth; That so whene'er attacked, with fearless brow Her champions may defend her rights on earth: Link'd is her welfare closely with thine own, One fate attends the Altar and the Throne! LII. Think not that lapse of ages shall abate The inveterate malice of that Harlot old; Fall'n though thou deem'st her from her high estate, She proffers still the envenom'd cup of gold, And her fierce Beast, whose names are Blasphemy, The same that was, is still, and still must be. LIII. The stern Sectarian in unnatural league Joins her to war against their hated foe; Error and Faction aid the bold intrigue, And the dark Atheist seeks her overthrow, While giant Zeal in arms against her stands, Barks with an hundred mouths, and lifts an hundred hands. LIV. Built on a rock, the fabric may repel Their utmost rage, if all within be sound: But if within the gates Indifference dwell, Woe to her then! there needs no outward wound! Through her whole frame benumb'd, a lethal sleep, Like the cold poison of the asp will creep. LV. In thee, as in a cresset set on high, The light of piety should shine far seen, A guiding beacon fixed for every eye: Thus from the influence of an honour'd Queen, As from its spring, should public good proceed,The peace of Heaven will be thy proper meed. LVI. So should return that happy state of yore When piety and joy went hand in hand; The love which to his flock the shepherd bore, The old observances which cheer'd the land, LVII. Thus having spoke, away the Angel past The sudden void they left; all meaner light Seeming like darkness to the eye which lost The full effulgence of that heavenly host. LVIII. Eftsoon, in reappearing light confess'd, With his own radiance clothed as with a vest. LIX. Somewhile he fix'd upon the royal Bride A contemplative eye of thoughtful grief; The trouble of that look benign implied A sense of wrongs for which he sought relief, And that Earth's evils which go unredrest May waken sorrow in an Angel's breast. LX. I plead for babes and sucklings, he began, I plead for all the surest hopes of man, Oh let not bestial Iguorance maintain LXI. O Lady, if some new-born babe should bless, When thou, beholding it in tenderness, The deepest, holiest joy of earth shalt prove, In that the likeness of all infants see, And call to mind that hour what now thou hear'st from me. LXII. Then seeing infant man, that Lord of Earth, Most weak and helpless of all breathing things, Remember that as Nature makes at birth No different law for Peasants or for Kings, LXIII. But in that space, how wide may be their doom LXIV. Is it then fitting that one soul should pine Perish, like seeds upon the desert sand?— The household prayers, which, honouring God's high That needful knowledge in this age of light name, Kept the lamp trimm'd and fed the sacred flame. Should not by birth be every Briton's right? |