XXXIV.

ELIZABETH.

HALL, Virgin Queen! o'er many an envious bar
Triumphant, snatched from many a treacherous wile!
All hail, sage Lady, whom a grateful Isle
Hath blest, respiring from that dismal war
Stilled by thy voice! But quickly from afar
Defiance breathes with more malignant/aim ;
And alien storms with home-bred ferments claim
Portentous fellowship. Her silver car,

By sleepless prudenco ruled, glides slowly on ;
Unhurt by violence, from menaced taint
Emerging pure, and seemingly more bright:
For, wheresoc'er she moves, the clouds anon
Disperse; or, under a divine constraint,
Reflect some portion of her glorious light.

METHINKS that I could trip o'er heaviest soil,
Light as a buoyant bark from wave to wave,
Were mine the trusty staff that JEWEL gave
To youthful HOOKER, in familiar style

The gift exalting, and with playful smile":
For thus equipped, and bearing on his head
The Donor's farewell blessing, can he dread
Tempest, or length of way, or weight of toil ?—
More sweet than odours caught by him who sails.
Near spicy shores of Araby the blest,

A thousand times more exquisitely sweet,
The freight of holy feeling which we meet,

In thoughtful moments, wafted by the gales

From fields where good men walk, or bowers wherein they rest

* Sve Note.

!

HOLY and heavenly Spirits as they are,
Spotless in life; and eloquent as wise,
With what entire affection do they prize
Their new-born Church! labouring with carnest care
To balle all that may her strength impair ;
That Church, the unperverted Gospel's seat;

In their afflictions a divine retreat;

Source of their liveliest hope, and tenderest prayer!—
The truth exploring with an equal mind,

In doctrine and communion they have sought
Firmly between the two extremes to steer;
But theirs the wise man's ordinary lot,

To trace right courses for the stubborn blind,
And prophesy to cars that will not hear.

XXXVII.

DISTRACTIONS.

MEN, who have ceased to reverence, soon defy
Their forefathers; lo! sects are formed, and split
With morbid restlessness ;-the ecstatic fit

Spreads wide; though special mysteries multiply,
The Saints must govern, is their common cry ;
And so they labour, deeming Holy Writ
Disgraced by aught that seems content to sit
Beneath the roof of settled Modesty,

The Romanist exults; fresh hope he draws

From the confusion, craftily incites

The overweening, personates the mad-

To heap disgust upon the worthier Cause :

Totters the Throne; the new-born Church is sad,

For every wave against her

peace unites.

XXXVIII.

GUNPOWDER PLOT.

FEAR hath a hundred that all agree

eyes

To plague her beating heart; and there is one (Nor idlest that!) which holds communion

With things that were not, yet were meant to be. Aghast within its gloomy cavity

That eye (which sees as if fulfilled and done

Crimes that might stop the motion of the sun) Beholds the horrible catastrophe

Of an assembled Senate unredeemed

From subterraneous Treason's darkling power:
Merciless act of sorrow infinite!

Worse than the product of that dismal night,
When gushing, copious as a thunder-shower,
The blood of Huguenots through Paris streamed.