High in the air serene, with the brightness of gold in the Were the Souls of the Wicked, who wilful in guilt and furnace, in error, Where on their breadth the splendour lay intense and Chose the service of sin, and now were abiding its wages. Change of place to them brought no reprieval from quiescent: Part with a fierier glow, and a short quick tremulous motion, Like the burning pyropus; and turrets and pinnacles sparkled, Playing in jets of light, with a diamond-like glory coruscant. Groves of all hues of green their foliage intermingled, Tempering with grateful shade the else unendurable Justre. Drawing near, I beheld what over the portal was writ ten: Dimly descried within were wings and truculent faces; This is the Gate of Bliss,4 it said; through me is the And in the thick obscure there struggled a mutinous passage To the City of God, the abode of beatified Spirits. Weariness is not there, nor change, nor sorrow, nor parting; Time hath no place therein; nor evil. Ye who would enter, Drink of the Well of Life, and put away all that is earthly. O'er the adamantine gates an Angel stood at the summit. Ho! he exclaim'd, King George of England cometh to judgement! Hear Heaven! Ye Angels hear! Souls of the Good and the Wicked Whom it concerns, attend! Thou, Hell, bring forth his accusers! As the sonorous summons was utter'd, the Winds, who were waiting, Bore it abroad through Heaven; and Hell, in her nethermost caverns, Heard, and obey'd in dismay. Anon a body of splendour uproar, Railing, and fury, and strife, that the whole deep body of darkness Roll'd like a troubled sea, with a wide and a manifold motion. V. THE ACCUSERS. On the cerulean floor by that dread circle surrounded, Stood the soul of the King alone. In front was the Presence Veil'd with excess of light; and behind was the blackness of darkness. Then might be seen the strength of holiness, then was its triumph, Calm in his faith he stood, and his own clear conscience upheld him. When the trumpet was blown, and the Angel made proclamation Gather'd before the gate, and veil'd the Ineffable Pre- Lo, where the King appears! Come forward ye who sence, Which, with a rushing of wings, came down. The sentient ether arraign him! Forth from the lurid cloud a Demon came at the sum mons. Shook with that dread descent, and the solid firmament It was the Spirit by whom his righteous reign had been Round the cloud were the Orders of Heaven-Archan- Likest in form uncouth to the hideous Idols whom In Heavy and sulphurous clouds roll'd on, and completed Freedom, Invaded Rights, Corruption, and War, and There with the Spirits accurst, in congenial darkness Loudly enounced were heard. enveloped, But when he stood in the Presence, Then was the Fiend dismay'd, though with impudence Who might the other be, his comrade in guilt and in clothed as a garment; And the lying tongues were mute, and the lips which had scatter'd Accusation and slander, were still. No time for evasion This, in the Presence he stood: no place for flight; for dissembling No possibility there. From the souls on the edge of the darkness, suffering, Brought to the proof like him, and shrinking like him from the trial? Nameless the libeller lived, and shot his arrows in dark ness; Undetected he pass'd to the grave, and leaving behind him Noxious works on earth, and the pest of an evil example, Two he produced, prime movers and agents of mis- Went to the world beyond, where no offences are hidchief, and bade them den. Show themselves faithful now to the cause for which Mask'd had he been in his life, and now a visor of iron they had labour'd. Riveted round his head, had abolish'd his features for Wretched and guilty souls, where now their audacity? Where now Are the insolent tongues so ready of old at rejoinder? Where the lofty pretences of public virtue and freedom? Where the gibe, and the jeer, and the threat, the envenom'd invective, Calumny, falsehood, fraud, and the whole ammunition of malice? Wretched and guilty souls, they stood in the face of their Sovereign, Conscious and self-condemn'd; confronted with him they had injured, At the Judgement-seat they stood. Beholding the foremost, Him by the cast of his eye oblique, I knew as the fire brand Whom the unthinking populace held for their idol and hero, ever. Speechless the slanderer stood, and turn'd his face from the Monarch Iron bound as it was, so insupportably dreadful Soon or late to conscious guilt is the eye of the injured Caitiffs, are ye dumb? cried the multifaced Demon in anger; Think ye then by shame to shorten the term of your penance? Back to your penal dens!—And with horrible grasp gigantic Seizing the guilty pair, he swung them aloft, and in ven geance Hurl'd them all abroad, far into the sulphurous dark ness. Sons of Faction, be warn'd! And ye, ye Slanderers! learn ye Lord of Misrule in his day. But how was that coun- Justice, and bear in mind that after death there is tenance alter'd judgment.6 Where emotion of fear or of shame had never been wit- Whirling, away they flew. Nor long himself did be ness'd; tarry, That invincible forehead abash'd; and those eyes where- Ere from the ground where he stood, caught up by a in malice Solely by selfishness moved, and reckless of aught that | Fell precipitate, down to their dolorous place of endurmight follow. ance. redden'd Could he plead in only excuse a confession of baseness? Then was the region clear; the arrowy flashes which They of all souls in bale, who see no term to the evil Him I could not choose but know, nor knowing but Hell hath been dumb in his presence. Ye who on earth grieve for. arraign'd him, Some were there then who advanced; and more from Who, for wicked ends, with foul arts of faction and the skirts of the meeting, Spirits who had not yet accomplish'd their purifica tion, Yet being cleansed from pride, from faction and error deliver'd, Purged of the film wherewith the eye of the mind is clouded, They, in their better state, saw all things clear; and discerning Now in the light of truth what tortuous views had deceived them, They acknowledged their fault, and own'd the wrong they had offer'd; Not without ingenuous shame, and a sense of compunction, More or less, as each had more or less to atone for. station : Silently he had stood, and still unmoved and in silence, With a steady mien, regarded the face of the Monarch. Thoughtful awhile he gazed; severe, but serene, was his aspect; Calm, but stern; like one whom no compassion could weaken, Neither could doubt deter, nor violent impulses alter: Lord of his own resolves,-of his own heart absolute master. WHEN that Spirit withdrew, the Monarch around the assembly Look'd, but none else came forth; and he heard the voice of the Angel, Awful Spirit! his place was with ancient sages and King of England, speak for thyself! here is none to ar heroes: Fabius, Aristides, and Solon, and Epaminondas. Here then at the Gate of Heaven we are met! said the Spirit; raign thee. Father, he replied, from whom no secrets are hidden, What should I say? Thou knowest that mine was an arduous station, Full of cares, and with perils beset. How heavy the burthen King of England! albeit in life opposed to each other, Thou alone canst tell! Short-sighted and frail hast withholden. In the course of events, to thee seem'd as a Rebel, Thou a Tyrant to me;-so strongly doth circumstance rule men Thou knowest But as surely The desire of my heart hath been alway the good of my people, Pardon my errors, O Lord, and in mercy accept the intention! During evil days, when right and wrong are confounded. Left to our hearts we were just. For me, my actions have As in Thee I have trusted, so let me not now be conspoken, Where inscrutable light enveloped the Holy of Holies, While we work'd its will, doing each in his place as Moved, and was borne away, through the empyrean asbecame him. cending Beautiful then on its hill appear'd the Celestial City, Soften'd, like evening suns, to a mild and bearable lustre. Beautiful was the ether above; and the sapphire beneath us, Beautiful was its tone, to the dazzled sight as refreshing summer, When the mind is at ease, and the eye and the heart are contented. Then methought we approach'd the gate. In front of the portal, From a rock where the standard of man's Redemption was planted, Issued the Well of Life, where whosoever would enter, So it was written, must drink, and put away all that is earthly. Earth among its gems, its creations of art and of nature, Offers not aught whereto that marvellous Cross may be liken'd O'er whose innocent head there hover'd a silvery halo, Even in dim similitude, such was its wonderful sub- Such as crowns the Saint when his earthly warfare is stance. Pure it was and diaphanous. It had no visible lustre; neither Sun, nor Moon, nor Stars; but from that Cross as a fountain Flow'd the Light uncreated; light all-sufficing, eternal, Light which was, and which is, and which will be, for ever and ever; Light of light, which, if daringly gazed on, would blind an Archangel, Yet the eye of weak man may behold, and beholding is strengthened. Yea, while we wander below, opprest with our bodily burthen, ended. There too was he of the sable mail, the hero of Flower of chivalry, he, in arms and in courtesy peer less. There too his royal sire I saw, magnificent Edward, Windsor In the Orient and Occident known, from Tagus to Lion-hearted Richard was there, redoubtable warrior, Syrian mothers grew pale, and their children were And in the shadow of death, this Light is in mercy Born in a bloody age, did he in his prowess exulting vouchsafed us, So we seek it with humble heart; and the soul that receives it Run like a meteor his course, and fulfil the service Hath with it healing and strength, peace, love, and life Checking the Mussulman power in the height of its everlasting. prosperous fortune; Thither the King drew nigh, and kneeling he drank (Otherwhere else, be sure, his doom had now been ap- pointed), Oh what a change was wrought! In the semblance of Friendship, disdain of wrong, and generous feeling age he had risen, redeem'd it, Such as at last he appear'd, with the traces of time and Magnanimity there had its seat, and the love of the affliction Deep on his faded form, when the burthen of years was upon him. Oh what a change was wrought! For now the cor- Incorruption; the mortal put off mortality. Rising sorrow, Muses. There with the Saxon Kings who founded our laws (Gratefully still to be named while these endure in re- They, for the pious work!) I saw the spirit of Alfred; But for eternity form'd, and to bliss everlasting ap- Made a throne twice-hallow'd, and reign'd in the hearts 1 Some who in cloisters immured, and to painful study devoted Day and night, their patient and innocent lives exhausted, Gazed on that soul sublime: of passion now as of blindness Heal'd, and no longer here to Kings and to Hierarchs hostile, And in meekness possess'd their souls: and some who He was assoil'd from taint of the fatal fruit; and in Not again to be lost, consorted an equal with Angels. Taylor too was there, from whose mind of its treasures redundant Streams of eloquence flow'd, like an inexhaustible fountain: Plough'd with audacious keel the Hyperborean Ocean. Shone like a single star, serene in a night of darkness. Are what they seem, and the good and the beautiful Seem'd to me weary, and stale, and flat. there are eternal. pupil shall e'er be approach'd, alone in his greatness. Reverend in comely mien, of aspect mild and benignant, There, too, Wesley I saw and knew, whose zeal apostolic, Though with error alloy'd, hath on earth its merited honour, As in Heaven its reward. And Mansfield the just and intrepid; Wise Judge, by the craft of the Law ne'er seduced from its purpose; With other emotion And when the misled multitude raged like the winds Milton's severer shade I saw, and in reverence humbled in their madness, |