ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS.

PART III.

Introduction.

I

SAW the figure of a lovely Maid

Seated alone beneath a darksome tree,

Whose fondly over-hanging canopy

Set off her brightness with a pleasing shade.
No Spirit was she; that my heart betrayed,
For she was one I loved exceedingly;

But while I gazed in tender reverie

(Or was it sleep that with my Fancy played?)
The bright corporeal presence-form and face---
Remaining still distinct, grew thin and rare,
Like sunny mist;—at length the golden hair,
Shape, limbs, and heavenly features keeping pace
Each with the other in a lingering race

Of dissolution, melted into air.

AST night, without a voice, this Vision spake Fear to my Soul, and sadness that might seem Wholly dissevered from our present theme; Yet, my beloved Country! I partake

Of kindred agitations for thy sake;

Thou, too, dost visit oft my midnight dream;
Thy glory meets me with the earliest beam
Of light, which tells that Morning is awake.
If aught impair thy beauty or destroy,
Or but forebode destruction, I deplore
With filial love the sad vicissitude;

If thou hast fallen, and righteous Heaven restore
The prostrate, then my spring-time is renewed,
And sorrow bartered for exceeding joy.

IT'HO comes with rapture greeted, and caress'd
With frantic love-his kingdom to regain?

Him Virtue's Nurse, Adversity, in vain
Received, and fostered in her iron breast:
For all she taught of hardiest and of best,
Or would have taught by discipline of pain
And long privation, now dissolves amain,
Or is remembered only to give zest

To wantonness.-Away Circean revels!

But for what gain? if England soon must sink

Into a gulf which all distinction levels

That bigotry may swallow the good name,

And, with that draught, the life-blood: misery, shame, By Poets loathed; from which Historians shrink!

YET Truth is keenly sought for, and the wind
Charged with rich words poured out in thought's

Whether the Church inspire that eloquence,

Or a Platonic Piety confined

To the sole temple of the inward mind;
And One there is who builds immortal lays,
Though doomed to tread in solitary ways,
Darkness before and danger's voice behind!
Yet not alone, nor helpless to repel

Sad thoughts; for from above the starry sphere
Come secrets, whispered nightly to his ear;
And the pure spirit of celestial light

[defence;

Shines through his soul-' that he may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight.'

Clerical Integrity.

NOR shall the eternal roll of praise reject

Those Unconforming; whom one rigorous day
Drives from their Cures, a voluntary prey
To poverty, and grief, and disrespect,

And some to want—as if by tempests wrecked
On a wild coast; how destitute! did They
Feel not that Conscience never can betray,
That peace of mind is Virtue's sure effect.
Their altars they forego, their homes they quit,
Fields which they love, and paths they daily trod,
And cast the future upon Providence ;

As men the dictate of whose inward sense

Outweighs the world; whom self-deceiving wit
Lures not from what they deem the cause of God.

Р

Persecution of the Scottish Covenanters.

WHEN Alpine Vales threw forth a suppliant cry,
The majesty of England interposed

7

And the sword stopped; the bleeding wounds were closed; And Faith preserved her ancient purity.

How little boots that precedent of good,

Scorned or forgotten, Thou canst testify,

For England's shame, O Sister Realm! from wood,
Mountain, and moor, and crowded street, where lie
The headless martyrs of the Covenant,

Slain by Compatriot-protestants that draw
From councils senseless as intolerant

Their warrant. Bodies fall by wild sword-law;
But who would force the Soul, tilts with a straw
Against a Champion cased in adamant.

Acquittal of the Bishops.

A VOICE, from long-expecting thousands sent,

Shatters the air, and troubles tower and spire;

For Justice hath absolved the innocent,

And Tyranny is balked of her desire:
Up, down, the busy Thames-rapid as fire
Coursing a train of gunpowder-it went,
And transport finds in every street a vent,
Till the whole City rings like one vast quire.
The Fathers urge the People to be still,

With outstretched hands and earnest speech-in vain !
Yea, many, haply wont to entertain

Small reverence for the mitre's offices,
And to Religion's self no friendly will,
A Prelate's blessing ask on bended knees.

C

ALM 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 stedfast eye.

U

Obligations of Civil to Religious Liberty. 7
NGRATEFUL 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.