fill mi IIlilffiH THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GAIETIES AND GRAVITIES FOR HOLY DAYS AND HOLIDAYS. i^T 51 * /^'^0!i-^r-^P r r' /^>,'^(S-J-^O^v' /^-\(5i>^r^ i*6 ar^x- ei^KrjJcT^ as. } GAIETIES AND GRAVITIES FOR 3>L HOLY DAYS AND HOLIDAYS. 15 Y CHARLES HANCOCK. I ^x For hierarch seers : for M.P.s and great guns : ■* Papas: mammas: their daughters, and their sons: ;rave: the gay: the lively, and severe: v / yj The prude: the poetaster, and compeer: & To raise one manly laugh : or chase one maiden tear ! ft ILottium: SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET. Is", 7. I r k s PR $mmft Jnte. Preface ..... vii — A word or so upon the figure "alliteration" ix — PART I. Lines dedicatory or occasional . . 1 to 34 567 IWRT II. Nursery Rhymes . . . 35 to 96 1,166 Or odds and ends, for inns and outs : For babie l>oys, and little louts : With ludal-lays for Pa-as and Ma-as, And saws and says for all ha-has. PART III. A ghost story or goblin tale, a Cornish le- gend for young people : to which is su- peradded, A curious fact For the lovers of coincidences : and A strange result of a dream for fanciful juveniles . 97 to 122 G9895S VI GENERAL INDEX, I 'ART IV. Poetry and prose: comprising A tale of the Burrells, and A tableau-interlude . 123 to 198 309 PART V. Allmm or scrap-book for omnium gather- ings or what you will. Including Aquaemerrasquae, or a cataplasm of columbo root — a satire for the times . 199 to 276 1,455 PART VI. Poetry, serious and devotional . . 277 to 324 941 PART VII. Psalmody . . . . 325 to 336 202 PART VIII. Paraphrase . . . . . 337 to 364 504 PART IX. A lay thesis upon self-denial, with an occasional prayer : and Hades, or the house of many mansions, with prole- gomena and episode . . . 365 to 400 1?2 PART X. Random reflections induced by solitudinal itinerations . . • . 401 to 419 8 Total lines . 5,324 PREFACE. VII $xtfut " Of making many books there is no end," said, once upon a time, the wisest of men, " and, much study is a weariness of the flesh !" That is, confessedly, a bad book, which induces levity of thought and life, in him who peruses it. That, an insipid production, that neither generates mer- riment on the one hand, nor consolatory instruction on the other. That, a sectarian theme, which is merely adapted to the trite opinions of a party clique, or a contracted-minded few. And, lastly, that must be an abhorrent book, which would throw a gloom over spirits, ordained by a God of goodness and of mercy, to be upheld and cheered in their probationary existences, and to be rendered perfectly happy, in their immortal. With respect to this little volume in parts, should the object happily be attained of neutralising the ebullitions of undue mirth, by the chastening gravities of substantial reasoning: or, r ice versa, of allaying the deep respirations of despondency, by any light sallies of inoffensive or un- obtrusive jocundity, then fun, information, or fancy, will have wrought "their perfect work," and the pen of the amanuensis not have been worn in vain. Or, as a whole, if, on perusal of what is now impressed, any congenial spirit slmll be fortified under the pressure Vlll PREFACE. of passing calamity, or led to the clue consideration of the Divine benevolent motive, in all dispensations of trial, throughout this transitory pilgrimage of hopes and disap- pointments, the author will not have to lament, amongst his many infirmities, obliquity of perception in his primary views : nor to care for critical disquisitions upon the varied style, nor for misconstruction of the,context. Leycroft House, 1857- Note. — A few of the following poems, have been sent forth as feelers of the public pulse. " Aquaemerrasqua?," in Part V., has been favourably noticed by a portion of the press: and for the "lines upon the death of Welling- ton," in Part VI., page 316, the author has received from his Grace, the present Duke, all suitable acknowledgment. ALLITERATION. IX A WORD OR SO UPON THE FIGURE " ALLITERATION." Knox, in his essays, observes, that " though it is con- ducive to sweetness, and is frequently employed by the best writers, ancient and modern," and that though " used with caution, it cannot fail to please," yet "that the cause of the pleasure should be latent. It ought (he says) to !.. iised, like salt at a meal, which agreeably seasons every dish, when mixed with moderation, but which would spoil the whole, if it were rendered the predominant ingredient in the repast." Knox might have carried the palm, as an essayist, for the dvdl King George's days in which he vegetated, but, possibly, would have been deemed a disqualified critic in this particular, for the Byron school. For poetry, without plentiful, if unaffected and unstudied alliteration, is now felt and found to be, like a feast of thy dates, on the sunny -nli' of the way, in the narrow thirsty streets of Grand Cairo, during its Junetide solstices: or in the abeyances of its Xilar effluxions, without the golden-coloured camandria of Cypriot exhilaration. The latent cause of pleasure to which his fastidious taste would seem, solely, to allude, is endeavoured to be wrought, in the line of tin' "Sonnet to Mary," "Still Earnest thou a/ 'home " (at-ome) : where the vocal X ALLITERATION. letter terminates the previous word to the accented syl- lable, and is united to the latter by rendering the letter h mute, or non-aspirate. (See page 177, Part IV.) But instances of this kind are rarely to be met with in English poetry. PART I. LINES DEDICATORY OB OCCASIONAL, " Tin' struggling grain must work obscure, its way, Ere the first green springs upward to the day : Unsprung, such weedlike coarseness it betrays, Flocks, on th' abandoned blade, permissive graze : Then shoots the wealth, from imperfection clear. And, thus, a grateful barvesl crowns the year." Savage's Wanderer. B <>.\ TENTS. (fontcnts of §art ©nc. Dedication .... Apothem, or induction Exordium ..... Invocation .... A lowly, but a peaceful lot Alas, poor Jemmie, woful time I have made up my mind, sir, and will be a nun What a dear little love dove am I . All me. how hitter dues the north wind blow Sweet is the hour when Maytide bloom In earnest of friendship, not owing you aught Yes, this, we own, is sublunary good How delightsome this even ! how mystic the spell From swert bomeand the friends of the fond-heart de parted .... I)i ar Tom. when your poor Bessy's dead I told him fourteen years ago May the memory of these our brief moments together The Canterbury-bell i> blue God ever bless tiny ! througb life's varying scene Hail, fond remembrances of by-gone years . Accept, deargirl, this festive eve lis the lasl evening of our walks a-held ."> 1(> 6 10 — 20 8 20 9 24 . 10 21 . 11 24 . 12 24 . 13 21 . 15 21 . 16 20 • 17 24 . 18 n; lit 16 . 20 22 . 21 30 r 23 it; . 24 28 . 25 12 . 26 8 . ib. 28 • -'7 16 H -J I CONTENTS. May the memory of this our brief intercourse ever When far away from Leycroffc bowers For thep, my tears, at psalm-tide, hour of prime Accept, fair lady, from a poet's bower All calm be the retrospect, dear one, of days Now, Sol in Aries, melts the mountain snow PAGE LINES 28 12 29 21 30 16 31 29 32 20 33 32 Total lines . 567 DEDICATION. BIIDlOiriKDH. Loved of the heart : 'twas orphan tide : Season of gloom : when, far and wide : Searching, in vain, for love beside, We found fond love in you : Therefore, relumed with lightful rays, Our happier heart the call obeys To dedicate the muses' lays To whom such lays are due ! We bless thee, Love, and pray for thee, Since foreordained, thou seemcst to be, The gist of mystic good or glee, Through such a world as this — That, we, when passed away, may prove Thy pleading witness, if above : < >r. seraph-raised, from creature-love, I'm carol thee to bliss ! APOTHEM, OR INDUCTION. & IP (DSP III, (DIB Jlllf 02(DE An epic poem's read but once ; Didactics dry are for the dunce : But lie, whom Polyhymnia chooses, Is made the Moses of the muses : On poppy-pillows he reposes, And roly-polies upon roses. But, see your book before you buy ; Your boots, before you pay for, try : A briar-rose is thick with thorns, And shoes that pinch, engender corns ! EXOKDIL'.M. •r,i 1 1 (b ]R ID 1 11, Why, what a wonderful world is this ! For, in spite of woe — We ever endeavour to antedate bliss, And on we go ! Beauty admiring out of measure — We never say " No," To any proposal for profit or pleasure, And on we go ! Still on the fidget, we eat or drink Whatever winds blow ; But are, rarely or barely, persuaded to think That on we go ! Are all letting off our greatest gun To make a grand show : And we perk up our eyes at the moon and the sun, As on we go Till down we tumble, and, then, cries death, " Old fellow, hollo ! I say- just be so good as — to give us your breath." And off we go ! 8 INVOCATION. ! i ..[ I tl A f ID I (To Polyhymnia.) Say me not nay ! for, well you know, 'Tis you who nerved my luted bow : And sure I am, whate'er betide, I'll woo no sylvan Muse beside ! Say me not nay : but let me be A silver-songster-friend to thee : That, loveful, thou may'st smile alone On what I have or am to own ! Say me not nay: for, should you so, To gray oblivion, all must go : Far from the bower of fane-fed bliss, To fame! ess- withering wilderness ! Say me not nay : but, if you will, I'll, plaintive, harp thy praises still : Count you my brilliant 'mid the blast To gain, perchance, that gem at last ! For, ah ! with glassy ireless eye, Whiles arrowless I lowly lie, I'll sob, with life-emitting breath — Say: me: not: nay? and hope in death ! A LOWLY BUT A PEACEFUL LOT. 9 A LOWLY BUT A PEACEFUL LOT. (Scene — Abbots-leigh, 1825.) A lowly but a peaceful lot Be mine, beneath a hill : A summer sun : a rose-capt cot, A church in sight : a shaded grot : And what beside ? — I'll whisper what— l'kch want, supplied at will ! Then might I pass, with manners meet, Brief residue of life : Cheered, often cheered — delightful treat ! With Tom and Bessy's commune sweet: And alway blest with— bliss replete ! Some darling of a wife ! A May-tide's mirthful influence ours — A June-tide's blush of bloom — J would qo1 hope for lengthened hours. To doze on fond but faded flowers : Nor. faithless to the Heavenly power , I >efer my day of doom. 10 ALAS POOR JEMMIE ! WOPUL TIME. Humble, yet happy to excel The trio I would try : While, softened etch by charmer-spell 3 As kin, requiting kindness well, All say, together we would dwell, And grave, together die ! ALAS POOR JEMMIE ! WOFUL TIME. (To a friend's favourite horse, on hearing of his being sold.) Alas poor Jemrnie ! woful time ! I grieve that thou devoid of crime, Condemned, at last, shouldst be : The fleetest thou upon the course — What ? has your master sold his horse ? His favourite steed without remorse ? Oh, what a heart has he ! With gratitude do I, famed steed, Recount thy once prodigious speed, When, sore against my will, Thou tearedst down, with clattering feet, Where, wondrously I kept my seat, That stony precipice Park Street,* Thence, homewards, by Leigh-hill ! ( Jlifton, ;ii that time paved : HAVE MADE UP MY MINI). 11 Jeinmie, thy fate sad warning is To all who trust, in time like this, In roses or in ravs. The roses fade : the rays depart : Then, ah, how hapless is the heart, Should friendship's fingers deal the dart. When woman's love decays ! I HAVE MADE UP MY MIND, SIR, AM) WILL BE A NUN. (Positively wrong, or, poor thing, I pity her!) 1 have made up my mind, sir, and will be a nun, And, to convent, In Taunton, I'll hie: For I'm certain it is the best thing to be done : So I tell yon quite plainly, I am not in fun: N'or will I, by anyone's wooing, be won, But, in its dull cloisters, I'll die ! Yet, until I'm departed for ever and u - one, And am shrouded in satin and wool, I will live upon lettuce: my head shall be shorn: I will veil me and robe me, in snowy white lawn: Turn pale, Like a spectre : ami, truly forlorn, D<> penance, all Bad, on a stool ! 12 WHAT A DEAR LITTLE LOVE DOVE AM I. The bell it will toll, and the abbess will say, " Why ; what lady is that at the gate ?" Then I'll answer — " Sweet Madam, oh, say me not nay ! I am poor little Marie, who comes here to pray : To watch, the long night, and to weep, the lone day, And all vain things, save one thing to hate ! " For, ah ! should she ask me, " What oddity's he Who seems bound by some magical spell ?" I know what I'll tell her — I'll say, " Lady, see A charming young fellow, who begs hard to be A fond dervise, to watch, all my life, over me, And lie down at the door of my cell ! " WHAT A DEAR LITTLE LOVE DOVE AM I. Decidedly unconjugal ! What a dear little love dove am I ? How spruce and how spry, With my bracelets and bonnet sky-blue ! These ribands and roses I'll twine into posies AVhile sweet hubby dozes, And send them, boy Alleyne, to you, to you, And send them, boy Alleyne, to you ! AH ME, HOW BITTER. 1 What a scandal it is, to be sure, That I'm to endure, The old fogy, who's like a huge dray ! Hear the brute how he snores : Through his nose and his jaws. And he beat me, because I danced with boy Alleyne, so gay, so gay, I danced with boy Alleyne so gay ! On my honour, I vow, I'll elope : Unless, as I hope, You'll go off in a coughing fit, Ben ; When, (betaken to bed,) I will have you well bled : And ah ! when you are dead, I'll marry boy Alleyne, and then, and then, I'll marry boy Alleyne, and then •i All ME, HOW BITTER DOES THE NORTH ^\ ^ Ir>D BLOW. A dolorous dream. All me, how bitter docs the north wind blow! Whither, thou lonely lassie, wilt thou go, In satin slippers, on this sloppy snow? I All ME, HOW BITTER. The floods are rising, and the stars appear; ( ro back, go back ! 'twill freeze again, I fear, And, madded maiden, thou must perish here ! " Oh man ! whoe'er thou art, away," she said, " My father, brother, mother, all are dead, Mangled by monsters, crouched beneath the bed. ■ " Our house on fire, my sole resource is death!" I ran : but she outran me, o'er the heath, For miles on miles — at length I lost my breath ! How dark, how dreary was that dreadful night ! With horror, mute, I watched her out of sight, Then kenned a sheltering cot and candle light ! The backward way was fearful in the extreme, I knew not what to say, or how to seem : Would that it were, some fatuus, or some dream. With pickaxes, next morn, our task we plied, And found, in dire distress, that Dirce Meyde, In frozen slush, (that night) embedded : died. SWEET IS THE HOUR. 15 SWEET IS THE HOUR WHEN MAYTIDE BLOOM. (Scene. Totteridge Inn garden.) Sweet is the hour when Maytide bloom Each zephyr blands with choice perfume, And gilds the varying glade ! Yea, sweet the mystic moment's found, When frosts no more deface the ground. But mirth and melody abound In sunshine and in shade ! But sweeter far than flowers of May, Far sweeter than the scented day. That dawn of dear delight, When, overblown its adverse blast. The sun-lit soul enjoys, at last, The fruitage for all vigil past, And basks in visions bright ! Then, if the shadows of life's prime. Its tearfulness and wintry time Be sped or fleeting found — Come, maiden, to partake from heaven. This halcyon day, the light of seven;* Come, to fulfil the promise given, And let the cup go round. [saiah, \\\. 26. 16 IN EARNEST OF FRIENDSHIP. IN EARNEST OF FRIENDSHIP, NOT OWING YOU AUGHT. In earnest of friendship, not owing you aught, This bible, Belinda, for you, has been bought ! No colour sepulchral, in fancy, behold, If cased in morocco, or burnished with gold ! Believe me, though gay in apparel, it wears No raiment, in age, unbecoming its years. Though scrutiny, armed by malicious device, Has studied each feature with eye overnice, Contending with envy to tarnish its fame, No spots to conceal, it has baffled their aim. Its beauty, beloved one, all beauties above, Shall bide, like the tree by the waters of love.* Entreasure it highly, and, would you be wise ? No truth which it teaches affect to despise. Emprize it at primals : and, would you be blest ? Through life, may your conduct its morals attest. I need not, I fancy, though 'twould not offend, Pronounce it a token on which to depend Of all that illumines or all that allures, Or truly, believe me, Belinda, I'm yours. ; Ezekiel, xlvii, 12 ; and Revelation, xxii, 2. YES, THIS, AVE OWN. 1/ I * YES, THIS, WE OWN, IS SUBLUNARY GOOD. (Scene — Dessin's hotel, Calais, 1825.) Yes, this, we own, is sublunary good, Exemption choice from sorrow and from care, Here, Harry,* for awhile, in merry mood, We've chased the woe away, and mocked despair. Tears out of number in the year just sped, Have channelled furrows on each faded cheek : But tears and sighs, as if by magic sped, Seem like non-entities this cheerful week. Yet, ah, ideal are the joys we prize, And evanescent all terrestrial bliss ! Fast burns the faggot which before us lies, And but one night, an inn of rest is this ! Too soon must fitful storms life's ocean urge ! Too soon deform our now serener skies ! Too soon, alas, and sad ! the billowy surge High o'er the wreck of fancied joys uprise ! Oh, may we, ere encased in age's shroud, Review, in retrospect, this gladsome time: So should our sun decline without a cloud, Forecast, we shall, rich produce from our prime ! * The Author's brother — now become a distinguished General in the Bombay Army, and, in the red sunset of a commendatory career, reposing, awhile, under the well-earned laurels o\ military fame, and Mar better) in the soul's sweel retrospect, tor a lite of filial conformity, and of moral rectitude. <• 18 HOW DELIGHTSOME THIS EVEN. In fine, in mercy, may kind Heaven, we'll pray, Grant, the ordeals of all warfare o'er, That, passing well, from this vain world away, Thus we may rest : all inns unneeding more ! HOW DELIGHTSOME THIS EVEN! HOW MYSTIC THE SPELL. (Scene — Steephill, Ventnor.) How delightsome this even ! how mystic the spell Which, alluring us hitherward, hallows the dell, Where the woods and the brook, and the bright yellow meads, And the green undercliff, and the pathway that leads, From yon ivy-capt rocks to this inn, where we find A gay landscape before, and a halo behind, Soft-possessing the fancy, enliven the eye, And array, with glad lustre, the ocean and sky ! All-prize we the day when our destinies, here Have beguiled us this beautiful month of the year: And, while rapt in enfondlings, this scene we behold, Let us, faithfully, nature's fair manual unfold, FROM SWEET HOME. ].9 Still inhaling the boon, which, each moment is given, In the breath of the breeze, by the bounty of Heaven, As an earnest, in mercy, when alien to home, Of an exode from trouble, in raptures to come ! FROM SWEET HOME AND THE FRIENDS OF THE FOND-HEART DEPARTED. (The exode ; a ballad.) From sweet home and the friends of the fond-heart depar- ted, Now, the anchor uplifted, with sorrow we sail : Oh, why, o'er the blue billows, appear we downhearted ? Or, so sadly unmanned, such departure bewail ? Is life's winter eternal ? Must we, then, be fated To pass the mild phases of manhood in pain ? Nay, no ; springs are successive, and, soon, reinstated, We'll hope, in fresh sunbeams, to brighten again ! Where allured by bland zephyrs, the fair guelder-roses Are, fondly, by wreathe of laburnum earest, There is found who, in maytide, delightsome, reposes, And many, full many, no doubt, who are blesl ; i 2 20 DEAR TOM, WHEN YOUR POOR BESSY'S DEAD. But, if faithless or thankless, perchance, e'en the strongest, At noonday, ignobly, may hang clown the head : While the meanest, if meekest, may linger the longest, And flourish, in fruitage, when they shall be dead ! DEAR TOM, WHEN YOUR POOR BESSY'S DEAD. (Or a colloquy under the thorn.) SHE. Dear Tom, when your poor Bessy's dead, Come, tell her what you'll do ? » HE. Do, Bessy ? Tears in torrents shed, And sigh, heigh ho ! for you. SHE. Would she could hope so, darling Tom, But, ah, too fond, she fears, That, soon, some fairy home would come To chase those sighs and tears : And Bessy and her pretty bird Would both forgotten be, For so it happens, she has heard, To many such as she ! I TOLD HIM FOURTEEN YEARS AGO. 21 HE. You wrong me, Bessy, yes you do ; You stab me, like a dart — [Swoons. SHE. Help, Joseph ! to your master go — Bessy has pierced his heart ! [Swoons. (They recover.) SHE. Dear Tom, forgive your little Bess — ■ She only was in play — HE. Believe me, love, I thought no less ! Hurra ! hurra ! hurra ! CHORUS. Then, let us all an hurra give, and raise petitions high That, if in love, we may not live — in bliss we all may die. I TOLD HIM FOURTEEN YEARS AGO. (To one since departed, upon the liirth of an only son and hope- ful heir seventeen years after his marriage, 1839.*) I told him fourteen years ago — He listened to my lay — That, never, since the world began, His Maker had determined, No, To [>ra\ ' rl'iil man, his course who ran In meek obedience to His word and way ! * The late Thomas Kington Bayly, Esq., the banker of Bristol. Requieitcat in pace ! 22 I TOLD HIM FOURTEEN YEARS AGO. Mountains are valleys when He wills To dull the sons of pride : But, marvellously, to the just, Pitfalls uprise to lofty hills ! In Him who trust, though bowed to dust, Mercies encompass them on every side ! And, hast thou, then, that blessing, boy, Thou sigh'dst for in thy prime ? A son and heir, what born to thee ? I give thee and thy Bessy joy ! Oh may he be, choice legacy, And gild the happy evening of thy time ! Nil desperandum ! urged I then, When, first, our friendship grew : For when my heart was fraught with fears, And madded by the frowns of men, Of heaven-trust balms, I found the charms, And told their saving benefits to you ! Hopeful the sequel of our lives, Mistrusts should cease to move : Daughter my boon, son-blessing thine, While fortune to us each arrives, May Grace Divine, around us shine, Knit, each to other, and to all who love. MAY THE MEMORY. 23 MAY THE MEMORY OF THESE OUR BRIEF MOMENTS TOGETHER. (To the same, at the Ship Iim, Brighton, 184>2.) May the mem'ry of these our brief moments together, Be gay to our hearts when their gildings are gone ! When the sorrows of sickness, or age's worst weather, Chase fondest illusions that friendship has borne ! All hail ye bright days, when, with radiance surrounded, Our souls with congenial intercourse glow, Like the furze on the uplands, by which we are bounded, Enrobing with lustre, their thornlets of woe. Should the times become dark'ned, or hopes disappoint us, Or, lonely or loveless, we changes deplore, May each, faithfully mindful of mercies vouchsafed us, Account them as earnests of graces in store ! For, believe me, dear boy, and, in spirit, a brother, I deem it our blessed assurance to be, That all kindness or tenderness dealt to each other, Shall be hallowed, in heaven, to thee and to me ! * * Obiit, July 1846; and lies, inhersed, at Budock in Cornwall. 2 t THE CANTEKBURY-BELL IS BEUE. THE CANTERBURY-BELL IS BLUE. The Canterbury-bell is blue, Whose lovely cells with bees abound : And so, earth's chalices to view Teem with those stings which, touching, wound! Those thoughts but empty are and ill — That wish against the soul conspires, Which bind, like weeds, the upright will, Or bends it down to low desires ! Life's morning, if unsown in tears, May seldom promise evening ray : The worldling's noon is fraught with fears, And dull dejection ends his day. - 'Mid lurid skies and tempest-tost, O'er shoreless seas, his treasure's driven And foundering, at the last, and lost, What but a hell his looked-for heaven ! Be it ours to count as idiot-toys All which allure as lets to mind : To aspire to angel-cherished joys, And voyage in their wake behind ! All earthly longings, soon or late, Fail, without love for God in view : Right, when, to His, subordinate: Wavering in that, to all untrue! GOD EVER BLESS THEE. Id She is the fondest mother — wife — Her light, in darkness, still shall shine- And her's the holiest, happiest life Whose love is based on love Divine ! GOD EVER BLESS THEE! THROUGH LIFE'S VARYING SCENE. (To the same, in Trevethoe woods, Cornwall, 1846.) God ever bless thee ! Through life's varying scene, As wife, as mother, thou deserv'dst the prize : All that the poet hoped for hast thou been : Bear thee this truthful tribute ere he dies ! Ccrtes, he values thy remembered cares'; Thy fascinating love his muse reveals : Oh, count continuous, on his fervent prayers, As on these praises which his heart-song yields. When years roll on; when waning loves be by, Or lonely moments foil thy prcstiged bliss, Then take thee comfort from that minstrelsy, Which left an impress on a page like this ! 26 ACCEPT, DEAR GIRL. HAIL, FOND REMEMBRANCES OF BY-GONE YEARS. (Near the woods of Bohemia, Hastings.) Hail, fond remembrances of by-gone years : Of dear one, from our solaces removed ! Whose soothing influence, rainbow-like, appears, Still shedding haloes o'er the scenes she loved ! Whiles, through these woodlands, privileged to roam, At this late evening of life's varying day, Trace we her footsteps to her heavenly home, And chant her requiem, in this vesper lay ! ACCEPT, DEAR GIRL, THIS FESTIVE EVE. (Scene — Mount's Bay, November 22.) Accept, dear girl, this festive eve The purse of gold which, now I give : Well tutored, by religion's page, To use it as becomes your age ! Though twice seven years have past and gone, Since the bright day when you were born, You've been too much endued with good, To suffer from vicissitude : But eight times seven's last summer's nigh, Since, first, I heard soft lullaby: 'tis the last evening. And I such evidence might show, As 'twould be well, were you to know : But wisdom's grains, o'er sorrow's ground, Can only be, by searching gleaners found ! You, like the bioscope of time, Now, index " youth " while I "decline !" As waves that gild yon beauteous bay, So roll our tale of years away, Till curling on its marbly shore, Each falls, to undulate no more ! Dear Mary, may your course be there, Through every cross you have to bear, Where taught by mother, such as thine, But led by influence Divine, Whatever currents contravene, You may attain, in bay, serene, Faith, hope, and charity's increase, And flow, like billows by, to paradise in peace ! 'TIS THE LAST EVENING OF OUR WALKS A-FIELD. (Scene — Old Roar, mar St. Leonard's, 1845.) 'Tis the last evening of our walks a-field : Our closing hour for retrospective talk ! Come, let us cherish thoughts which comfort yield, And gild, witli lightsome lay, our homeward walk. 28 MAT THE MEMORY OF THIS. Why brood we, sisters, sadsome o'er the past ? Why vain regrets or morbid feelings fan ? The shipman's duty, stationed at the mast, Is, with prospicient eye, his course to scan. Ply we, hence, faithfully, our various task : AVith holy hope, as helmsmen, let us steer ; Soon shall we need no earth-bred boon to ask, And soon, all cause of sorrow cease to fear ! So will our sea-beat vessels reach that shore Where anchor-dropt, in safety we may dwell : Speed we then, warily, our ways before, And bid the tearful scenes, behind, farewell ! MAY THE MEMORY OF THIS, OUR BRIEF INTERCOURSE, EVER. (Scene — Sandhills, Somerset.) To O. P. Cambridge, Esq., of Bloxworth House, the dear and youthful companion at that lovely scenery. May the mem'ry of this, our brief intercourse, ever, Be gay, when the thrill of its impulse be past : And, though Providence will, that our time-ties dissever, May our destinies tend to re-union at last ! For no difference in years can be let to emotions, Which God's preordainments emit o'er our way ; No ! the souls which are blended s in' heavenward devotions, Like amaranth wreathlets, may never decay ! WHEN, FAR AWAY. 29 Let my blessing, dear fellow, go forth, in thy phases, To allure in the wake of God's bliss-giving shine : And, in fine, since thy springtide foreshadows thy graces, May the glow of His beauty engild its decline ! WHEN, FAR AWAY FROM LEYCROFT BOWERS. (To a Nephew, on leaving for India.) When, far away from Leycroft bowers Around your bark the tempest lours, Or dulling thoughts depress, Reflect upon the maytide hours, In sight of Taunton town and towers, Where belle and bloom and greenhouse flowers, In fancy, seemedto bless. But, oh, the kindred friends behind, Who, were they by, would still be kind, Then, cherish in your view : Yes, bear them chiefly in your mind, For, if more fond, you'll never find Those more attached, tho' less resigned To bid tlii- i.<>\(. adieu ! SO FOR THEE, MY TEARS. May mercies ever more and more, Await you on that sunny shore Where love parental is : Yet, reaching forth for things before, Press for a prize " excelsior !" That, when earth's callings, all, are o'er, Your home may be in bliss ! FOR THEE, MY TEARS, AT PSALM-TIDE, HOUR OF PRIME. Lines to the Spirit of the best of Mothers, 1848.* For thee, my tears, at psalm-tide — hour of prime — Were shed, expressive of enduring woe : Which, through each phase of intermediate time, Few intermissions has been known to know ! 'Mid every sunbeam on the brow or breast, Or effluent waft of welfare to its goal, The memory of thy tenderness imprest, Has sobered down and sanctified the soul ! A bud or fruit : 'mid nature's copious balms : Connubial loves : or sire's, or social joys : Thy buried registries, like heaven-rapt charms, Warning from lures, have won from last alloys ! Bemoaned thy loss — a loss earth can't repair, Now, mental mists, uprising, darken day, Re-union's promise glows, in fervent prayer, And, like red sunset, gilds this evening lay ! * She died at Hastings, August 21, 1824; and is inhersed in the family tomb at Hackney. ACCEPT, FAIR LADY. 31 ACCEPT, FAIR LADY, FROM A POETS BOWER. (Lines on presenting a prize pelargonium.) Accept, fair lady, from a poet's bower, A nursling he has cherished with much care : One, perfect of its kind ; but, still, a flower, He feels, must be esteemed, however rare, Ephemeral, like the by-gone hour, Of bridal dower — Ceasing your admiration more to share ; Falling, oblivious : like some meteor-spark, in air ! Its foliage too, though longer it endures : Has but its term : like that which all-allures — Connubial glee — Now, lady, yours ! Your husband's may it be : Outliving many a wintry blast to both : or surging sea! The precious root, who watch and water well, How wise they are, what poet-pen may tell ? The essence this of hopeful buds in store, Teeming with leaf-capt blossoms more and more ! All emblematical, 'tis passed to you: Invisible, like faith, of faith, us token true; For, ;i-- :in obvious moral, from its mould, The souVs futurities, we, thence, unfold ! 32 ALL CALM BE THE RETROSPECT. Lo, when this fondled flower, like love's, at last, With all time's sunlit transiences, be past, Those holy thoughts, which heavenward wishes bring, Shall, from its r/enn, in gay succession, spring ! And, far beyond compare with flowery prize, Produce an amaranth in bliss THE BLOOM THAT NEVER DIES ! ALL CALM BE THE RETROSPECT, DEAR ONE, OF DAYS. (Written at a picnic in Cornwall.) All calm be the retrospect, dear one, of days Enlivened by spring-glow's soft power: For transient, alas, as its life-giving rays, Are the pleasures possess'd at this hour ! The breath we have drawn : the emotions inspired : The thrill of each source of delight : Are fleeting, like meteors, by phosphorus fired, Which dazzle, to darken the sight ! Poor pilgrims, a-weary where'er they may hie, And stumbling wherever they tread, The reverse for vain hope, is the death they've to die, And the doom of the living, its dread ! NOW SOL, IN ARIES. 33 Tis religion alone that can yield them repose 'Mid the trials or terrors of time : It resolves, into sanctification, their woes, Outpouring, in spirit, sublime ! The reward, by Kedemption, is rapturous bliss : Uprooting all tendencies wrong : Hallelujahs, the fruitage of faith upon this, And the service of heaven is SONG ! NOW SOL, IN ARIES, MELTS THE MOUNTAIN SNOW. " Solvitur acris hyems, grata vice, veris et Favoni." — Horace. (Paraphrase to an under graduate of Oxford, while basking in the sunbeams at Stoke-hill, Somerset.) Now Sol, in Aries, melts the mountain snow, And bland Favonian * breezes softly blow ! The creaking cranes the amphibious keels restore — Those cranes which fixed them on the icy shore ; The shepherd with his flock again we see Where meadows glitter from the frostwork free ! There, where fair Sylvia rises o'er the strand Graces and nymph-like fairies — hand in hand — Disporting scintillers, with modest mien, In tuneful tenors, serenade serene : Unmindful of the mists which upward rise Sulphureous to deform the summer skies! * The South-South-Easl Wind. 34 NOW, SOL IN ARIES. The myrtles evergreen, or snowdrops fair, How well become their auburn silky hair ! Dancing as fancy dictates, happy they — ■ Nor lambs nor kids may bleed to make them gay, No Papal rites they need : no pompous priests obey Dear youth : remember death ! With ecpial dart, He strikes the hopeful and the hapless heart ! Live we like men : but, since, alas ! our years On earth, so few : are all replete with fears : Not for the allurings of an hour aspire, But learn to deaden each unchaste desire ! Live, loved exemplar, to a world like this, And slight things present for perennial bliss ! Know, when your closing eyes no beam beguiles : No snowdrop blossoms, and no beauty smiles : When sun, moon, stars, no more, around you burn, And your mild blandishments to dust return, The meeds for virtue will more rapturous prove, In the charmed essences of blooms above, Than warm-heart friendship here, or purest virgin-love ! PART II. NUBSEBY RHYMES, Or odds and ends, for inns and outs : For babie boys, and little louts : With ludal-lays for Pa-as and Ma-as, And saws and says for all ba-bas. " Delightful task: to rear the tender thought : To teach the young idea liow to shoo) : To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind : To breathe the enlivening spirit : and, to fix The generous purpose on the glowing lavas) !" Thompson. !» 'I CONTENTS. 37 Contents of |art gfeo. Dedication to Her Majesty Dogs, cats and donkeys Slick Styles of Ickwell green Old Jack Kid of Hitchin . Vou- and pay. A Sharnbrook tale Blue eyed Joe. Part i. Tipsy Ann. Part 11. Cook and William Rowena and Rowella Picking and Choosing Edmonton Fair Impromptu Cleora and Chloe. A Taunton tale Clara Fisher. Slightly objectionable Verv vexatious. A Brighton story Biberry and Miss Dann . The Ship I mi on fire The Queen is come Uncle Pen of Ipswich Scrubbing blacky. Part i. The happy escape. Part n. The wash-tub. Part in. . Smash. Tart i. Head over heels. I'art [I. PAOE LINES 39 32 41 28 42 22 43 31 45 20 4G 27 47 43 49 34 50 25 51 41 53 42 55 8 ib. 1,1 57 12 ib. 52 GO 33 Gl 20 G2 IS 64 2i ; 65 26 66 36 68 34 (,'!! 29 71 21 38 CONTENTS. PAOE LINES The ride on the pier The convicts and the donkey Mary Mottam and her kitcats Hackney church . The hall-room Lowen Hall Rumble Rivers of Donegal bay Garland and Polinda It is a blessedness to die . Eusebia's history. A Clapton tale lines to Molly Polly Puff A\C had a notion once upon a time The Forbes family. Very pathetic Extract from Aunt Tahethy's will Finale or farewell Total lines 72 20 73 32 74 33 75 18 76 20 77 28 79 24 80 36 82 20 83 60 85 30 87 26 88 60 90 — !>4 24 1,166 DEDICATION TO THE QUEEN. *39 MMC&vMiB m mi pikb. Vouchsafe, oh gracious Sovereign, to peruse, All homage ours, these tributes of the muse ; Humbled, uo better service born to yield, Your home to gladden, or your throne to shield. Still, should your fondlings, thus some hours beguile, Or you or your Prince-consort deign a smile, We would not sigh, though all beside say "nay!" Nor mourn with Titus : " We have lost our day ! " Lady, the muse — all courtier-smiles unsought — She, from thy favour, questor for of naught — Implores thee, redolent of reverent fear, As second-sighted songster, sage or seer, To purchase sequents at thy present's cost, And use up opportunities ere lost ! Lo, changeful phases, soon, oh Queen, must i-'^ne, To tarnish tinsels at !> flew the blue bonnets, and off went the hats! Splash 3plash went the creatures through thick and through thin. Till, dash pasl the waves, to their necks, they ran in! At last, rolling over, they SOUSed them right well: Ami bray to this day, when the story they tell, The don- looked -<» sheepish, they curled down their tails And ae lor the cats, they wen forced to "■<")• veils. 42 SLICK STYLES OF ICKWELL GREEN. MORAL. This tale is well worthy the notice of those Who dress themselves up in a plagiary's clothes: Who act unbecoming, age, station or lot, Or mimic those graces and gifts they have not. Their dupes, like these asses, should publish their fame, To resolve, for its folly, in sorrow or shame : And expose them, as they did, the dogs and the cats, For their pride and conceit, in such bonnets or hats ! SLICK STYLES OF ICKWELL GREEN. Slick Styles was a rebel who hated the Queen : And hooted and hissed her where'er she was seen : " Because," as he said, " I've as much right as she To ride in a coach, or, on horseback to be ! My bed is a mattrass, but hers eider-down, I wear an old rusty hat, hers is a crown : My drink is hard water, hers, Malmsy and ale, She eats of all dainties, I, bread that is stale, It cannot be fair for a poor man to fast, When, queen of a nation, she feasts to the last !" A perk little bird : who him overheard, Chirped cheerily high on a tree : And, then, whistled out, " You lazy old lout, I blush such a rebel to see ! OLD JA.CK KID OF HITCHIN. 43 " Go home, and repent : and pray for content : Be thankful for what is your lot : As well might I mourn, to what I am born, As you for the goods you have got ! " I live in cold air ; and worms are my fare : I'm wetted, by dews and by rains, While you, sad sinner, with home and dinner, Do, really, lack nothing but brains." OLD JACK KID OF HITCHIN. (An Allegory.) •■ The love of money is the root of all evil !" Old Jack Kid— What do you think the monster did? He walked with house upon his head, While his poor wife lay sick in bed, And had been blistered and was bled ! 'Twas in May, When meads and woods were green and gaj Nightingales were sweetly singing: An\< ! t-8 TIPSY ANN. " Sir," he sobbed out in a passion, " Tippling with her, is now the fashion ! " My fortune spent in heavy wet, " My children starve : and I'm in debt ! " Poor fellow is it so ? how sad ! 'Tis alchohol drives women mad ! But are not smoking Joes as bad ? Such as correct their wives or sons Should be perfection's paragons. The smell of stale tobacco fumes Can scarce be borne in sitting rooms, To home's delights, the weed is death : It stains the teeth, and spoils the breath ! 'Tis a wet spunge upon the purse, And lures to drinking, which is worse I It lowers to abject thoughts, the mind, And few who spit are found refined : If unrefined, on earth or Hades, Or Joe or Jim, whate'er the grade is, None can be fit to live with ladies ! Were this the habit of my lout, And I his wife — I'd smoke him out ! A small cigar just now and then, Or pipe perhaps — we drop the pen, Perchance, to take it up again ! Lest we should sing or say of such We love one mild Havannah much ! COOK AND WILLIAM. 49 COOK AND WILLIAM. Cook and the butler came to blows : But what about there's no one knows. Some said, 'twas this thing, some said that, And some, because he skinned her cat ! Some said he broke the crimson dish, And some, that he expressed a wish, She might turn to sugar candy, Since, he said, " she drank the brandy !" Whate'er it be, up stairs she flew, Madly resolving what to do: — To leave the place in angry fit, With turkey roasting on the spit ! And so she did — 'twas much too bad, There being no helper to be had ! The quests came in at six or so, Pinched and half starving from the snow : When, such a state of things to see, And no hot water e'en for tea, Gave rpiite a shock ! but, now a-days, Menials have too much their own ways. Kxeeptions may be to all rules : But morbid-minded-meeting schools, Oft, turn to knaves, who first were fools: And law- w:mt altering it is plain, Before we see good times again. i. 50 ROWENA AND EOWELLA. Knowledge itself becomes a pest, When who nor write nor read are best : And we may rue, some days or others, That we were wiser than our mothers : For, in our education schemes, All sects seem running to extremes, And doze, in watery-brain Utopian dreams. But long-eared bigots still will bray, Though pounded in a mortar night and day ! ROWENA AND ROWELLA. Sixteen years ago 'twixt daughter and mother — Rowena was one, and Rowella the other — There was a most strange and vexatious todoo, Which turned to a bother and hollo-boloo ! But how it all happened we never could hear : The daughter behaved very badly we fear : She tore off the cap from her mother's bare head, And as for her own nose, it frightfully bled ! Well, to make the tale short, in rushed poor old Greene, Who sobbed like a snail, when he saw the sad scene ! Took them both round his arms, to stop the affray. And sighed to the mother, " Forgive her, I pray ! For though so impassioned, she, still, is your daughter, And, madam, remember ! 'tis you who have taught her ! PICKING AND CHOOSING. 51 * ( If you had not spoilt her and humoured her so, But huffed her and cuffed her when wrong she did go, All this had not happened : you petted the child, And so, when a woman, with worry, she's wild. - " MORAL. All parents should learn, from this story now sung, To chide perverse children while yet they are young. For, if they are cockered, or have their own way, They'll lament their mistake when their hairs become gray. 'Tis a truth, in a book, called the Proverbs by name, " A child left to itself brings its mother to shame." No wonder so many M.P.'s are to blame ! PICKING AND CHOOSING. Lo, he comes ! Old Cholo Boloo ! What is it, man, you wish to do ? " I come," he cries, " to seek some wife To be the comfort of my life ! I'm moped to death by being alone: I fitget, fuss: I fret and moan : I've 1"-t my appetite and wits, And must have apoplectic fits ! " The doctors say. unless 1 wed, They'll have me blistered, leeched, and bled, And mustard-poulticed, feet and head!" E 2 52 PICKING AND CHOOSING. Well, sir, we hope to suit you here, If you can give your chosen, cheer — Rooms twenty by twelve to receive her callers, Pin money enough, and one or two squallers : An annual rout ! to begin at ten, And dinners for fourteen now and then. " I'll pledge to do all this and more — " Cholly, Ave'll find you, then, a score ! Here's Motella ; her eyes are blue, But without money : will she do ? Here's Anna Bell with fifty pounds ? Blushing Becky and Mary Llowndes? Doll, Dorothy, and Babby Breece ? Come, placid sir, you're hard to please : " Ha, ha !" he rejoined, " the blue goggles are best : Motella, my beauty, come home, and be blest !" The lovers were happy, yet, if all be true, "What monsters oh envy, oh jealousy, you ! 'Tis a fact that the six put together their heads, And burned the unfortunates both in their beds f There were raked from the embers five bones and one skull, Which were decently buried close by Bishop's Hull. But before this befel, there were born to them twins, Who were taken to Bedford, by one of the Wynns, And, sad story to tell, became boots to the inns. EDMONTON FAIR. 53 POSTSCRIPT. Those vixens pursued them, we've just heard the news — And they've jumped off the bridge, and are drowned in the Ousc ! Oh, how shocking ! It really quite gives one the blues ! Should such wretches escape, our new laws, it is plain, Must be changed to beheading and hanging again ! EDMONTON FAIR. Gracious goodness! What is coming? What a whistling ! what a drumming ! What a pack of simple tonies ! Men in masks, and pigs on ponies ! Monkeys with dogs upon their backs ! And silly souls sewed up in sacks ! Mountebanks with grinning faces, Full of frolic and grimaces ! Stalls, piled with gingerbread and jams, Brawn, bacon, sausages and hams ! Wine, ale and beer, and cherry brandy, And sugar plums, and sugar candy ! And ups and downs, and round abouts, With swings cramful of lazy louts ! Shows, booths, and merry-andrew boys, And discord, harmony, and noise ! Biggie de piggle ! Here's a fair: Ladies on horseback rich and rare ! Carriages ami folks on foot ! Bui who stands there ? You tipsy brute, 54 EDMONTON FAIR. So to treat your poor clear wife, 'Tis much too bad upon my life ! The parliament should pass a law To whip such wretches till they roar. Mi spending youth, in scenes like these, Too often leads to miseries ! Wine-bibbing men weak-minded are at best. And low beer houses are our nation's pest ! We'd rather walk one weary day in prayer, Than waste a precious life in riot there ! An hour well spent, in boyhood's bonny prime, Sweetens the retrospect of manhood-time, And lures the humbled sage to search sublime ! Not for millenniums : tales for itching ears : High-sounding hopes : nor low-distracting fears : No! but th' empyreal prize, which in God's word appears! To lean upon the Gospel truths 'tis best : These are realities'. But, for the rest — The context of all Scripture lore exacts, We count them as imaginative figures, and not facts : Strange are our teachings now a-days : and stranger still our tracts ! Pressing (in virgin-honey pure), apocalyptic wax ! CLEORA AND CHLOE. 55 IMPROMPTU. Poor bird-like Ludolpho : he perched on a tree, And he sighed as he sat, arid, then, chirrupped, " Ah me! q a linnet has bliss, for 'tis blest with a wife, But, lonely and loveless, I waste away life !" A songstress, who listened, soon warbled, "I'm come On purpose, my cherub, to welcome you home !" So he kissed and caressed her, and flew by her side — They prattled, they fondled : they loved, and they died ' CLEORA AND OHLOE. (A Taunton tale.) Cleora and Chloe were ever at play, And kissing each other the whole of the day, But segars, snuffj and brandy with other bad bancs, Disordered their bowels, their blood, and their brains; They began, in their households, to make a sad rout, And, then, went from their husbands, to wander about. In lieu of a bonnet, each put, on her head, A sooty old saucepan as heavy as lead : Rugged blankets, from both beds, they bound round their middles, And danced over Taunton bridge, scraping their riddles. 56 CLEORA AND CHLOE. Two such meny-andrews were never since known, Though many droll ladies still dwell in that town : And misses abound of all sorts and all sizes Like lotteries, redundant of minikin prizes ! Wesleyans, kind folks, who do good on the sly, Called in a physician, spruce, clever, and spry : At the inn at Bath-pool, he was playing at bowls When he heard the sad story about these poor souls. So, off" on the chevy, he started, alone, Through Cheddon and Obridge, and thence to the Tone. And, tracing them duly, o'er meadows and woods, He tripped to the house, which is, now, Mr. Trood's ! He caught them both, hid, in its waterside-bower, And powdering them well, from a sack of fine flour, He blistered and bled them, and put them to bed, And, wrapping in flannel, he kept them well fed : Then, judiciously dosing, with rhubarb in whey, And with cod liver oil, six glasses each day, Disguised in six spoonsful of lavender drops, With columbo root, gentian, and tincture of hops, Well basting their bodies with lime-juice and wax, And pasting pitch plaisters on both of their backs, His patients he cured of their fancies and fits, And restored them, right well, to their lovers and wits, Till, like doves which encoo on some granary perch, They lived their long lives out near Wilton old church ; And, in Mary street, now, should you dig by the stones Of the minister's kitchen, you'll grub up their bones. Where, 'tis said, the arc/^-deacon and others, held forth, That the higher the stock is, the better's the broth .'" VERY VEXATIOUS. 57 To tureens of church turtle we never demur, But loic dishes of solids John Bull-like prefer : A cheer-up and health to all warm-hearted givers, For stiff formal stick-ups are foes to good livers ! They first breed brain fevers, and end with soul-shivers ! CLARA FISHER. (Slightly objectionable.) Clara Fisher : How d'ye do ? " Why, better, sir, for seeing you." Clara Fisher : pr'ythee tell How I may will to make you well ? " Make me well, sir? ha, ha, ha ! I must refer you to mamma." Honoured madam ? " Don't ask me You simple tony. He, he, he !" Whisper, lady— "Hush, oh, hush!" Pray, dear mamma, you make me blush ! What the cause is, you may guess — " May I, then, k-kiss you? "Oh, dear, yes !" VERY VEXATIOUS. Lady Lovegrass, ami gay Major Robin Adair ( 'anli red nut. one May morning, to scent the fresh air. They were bored by a mountebank dressed in sky blue How very vexatious! what were they to do? 58 VERY VEXATIOUS. For they hoped to have had a snug lovechat together — He sang out " Good morning ! what wonderful weather ! My brats are behind us : we shall gallop till one, And with you, jolly folks, 'twill be capital fun. You could never suppose we'd be left in the lurch — A neat parsonage this — what a chaste little church ! Although tiny is Ovingdean, tranquil and sweet, It would sadden the tales of its times to repeat : And, far on o'er the downs, to a stone you might ride, Where a gentleman dropt from his charger and died.* " Good Major, don't frown so : your relatives all Are blest with sweet tempers at Heatherton hall : And there's not an Adair sir, as all the world knows, Who is not well received wherever he goes. " I love you, sweet lady ! for, bless me, I see The whole of one stocking as high as the knee : The mark is M. L. — L for love, M for me ! What a jolly fat calf! what a beauty you be ! " My name, sir, 's Grimaceous : from Gingel's I came, Whence, for making wry faces I gained my great fame. Let us on to yon farmhouse, to buy us some beer, And I'll pay the whole toat for the sake of good cheer : Thence, we hope, you will ride with us round the park walls, To Rottingdean, where, we've to make morning calls." * The stone is marked I. H., June, 1819. VERY VEXATIOUS. 59 Major Robin Adair, he flared up in a passion, And cried, " Off you wretch, for we're people of fashion ! Go you, with your clowns, to your ride and your riot, But out with such rudeness, and leave us in quiet." Lad\ Lovegrass screamed, " Murder." The men came to blows, And what followed Lord Chichester very well knows. Would you learn all particulars ; ring at his bells ; On the road between Brighton and Lewes he dwells ! Or run to Lord Palmerston, now in his glory : A big wig is he, and can tell a good story. Deferential to greatness, and gliding to grace, Although ] tapped by short commons, he plumps in his place, And, by doubling while dealing, turns over Queen Ace ! Beau-ideals transmuting to palpable facts, And square logics to globules, for querulous quacks, Il< , a< alcliyinist, playing the cards of all packs From decadence of Tories, and Radical hacks, And pale Peeler-miasmas, his nitre extracts! Thence, illuding, with sparkles, his fun-loving folks, He pair- off, in wit-ether, liis jocular jokes, 'Till electors roar out, " The whole house is a hoax ! ( rrose feeders, cross breeders, and love-reform spokes! Pure immaculate members: bul pigs in their pokes, \\ Inn in place and position to cossel ami coax !' GO BIBERRY AiND MISS DANN. BIBERRY AND MISS DANN. One, Master Biberry, being born without legs, The carpenter made him two beautiful pegs, With which he contrived to walk many a mile, And on fair loving smirkers, he sweetly did smile : For full of good nature : and beaming with grace, 'Twas pleasant to read his pure mind in his face. But, more than the rest, when he grew into man, One blue-eyed young lady, whose surname was Dann, Esteemed him so much, that she married, and went, To live, with Biberry, at Burton-on-Trent. But once, in December, when, leafless the woods, The clouds raining torrents, it ended in floods. The lowlands were deluged, and waves like the seas, O'erwhelmed the scared lovers, 'till, caught on some trees, They held on, a-moment, a-quirk or a-quiver, And, thence, were borne down, by the bank of the river. The lad, with such legs, a sure footing soon found, And, by them, saved his wify, from thus being drowned: For, holding her tight by her chin and her hair. He drew her ashore with all possible care. MORAL. So, see, it oft happens, that, what we count ills, Are sanctified sorrows, when Providence wills : And earth has not a woe, unless wilfully wrought, That is worthy the pang of a soul-paining thought. THE SHIP INN ON FIRE. 61 But ye Pharisee quacks, with your crotchets and qualms, "Who so horrify sinners, you do all the harms. You should lure them by loving them — that's the bright way To entice them to saintship, and win them to pray. In these days of right reason stern rubrical rules, As repellents to free men, are fitter for mules : For to tight-lace the waist of the body or mind, Is destructive alike to the health of mankind : Oil, how seldom one sensible Christian we find ! THE SHIP INN ON FIRE. (Scene — Brighton . ) The house is on fire ! and what shall we do ? To jump out of window, love, never must you. The silliest act you can think of; the stones Would smash you in pieces, or break all your bones ! In fancy, just gaze on some picture, and sec, From any top window, the fate which would be ; To slide down ;i plank too, 's a dangerous plan: Par wiser, like rats, down the stairs, had they ran; Perhaps, to he singed I iy the Haines: or the smoke, If drawn to the lungs, might have tended to choke: But, wrapped in wet blankets, why, all might be well, And render iinneedl'ii] the toll of the hell ! 62 THE QUEEN IS COME. Who act upon impulse, so says the sweet song, Now and then may do right, nine in ten times, do wrong ! And, dig deep as we will, there is naught we can find, That equals the treasure, of presence of mind ! The gay folks upon foot, go, wending their way, Unheeding the troubles of others each day ; But the world still abounds with its fools and its knaves — These run to their pastimes — those rush to their graves I THE QUEEN IS COME. Soldiers are marching to Brighton town To guard the lady who wears the crown ! The bands are blowing trumpets before, And charity children line the shore : The magistrates are all excited, Hoping to be C.B.'d or knighted, And every brain becomes inflated Like unto kittens consummated ! Why what a clamorous shout and rout ! For what on earth, may it be about ? Thousands have pushed the women away ; The townsmen shriek, and the parsons say, " Take care, pious Mam, of the church we pray V Here She comes ! * Beat the drums ! THE QUEEN IS COME. 63 Our gracious Queen, in chains of gold ! Bless us ! how beauteous to behold ! We love (all reverend love above:) We love her with Cordelia-love ! She really is a downright Brick ; Your word, prince A., we'll take on tick ! You know much more than we may moot ! With such fine lot of babs to boot, Yours is a basket of choice fruit, The whitest figs that can be bought Steeped in a pool of sugared port ! Bells are ringing ! Minstrels sinking, And there goes Fantoccini too ! Holia-bolloo ! oh, holla-bolloo ! Good people all, what is the matter ? What is the use of all this chatter ? Such giddy mirth induces madness : Be ours a soberer search for gladness ! Yes, let us hence, to Ovingdean, Far from all soul-debasing scene; There in its churchyard, rest on tomb, And muse upon the life to come. We're only wise and happy here, When sober-minded we appear : Ami stay the blandishments of sense By rigid rules of abstinence I Most early risers are good men, Bui Lie-a-beds, no1 two in ten. 64 UNCLE BEN OP IPSWICH. 'Tis sweet to pray in balmy bowel's, And bask in beam 'mid fruity flowers : Ah, 'tis the purest pathway man may plod, Which leads, through nature's glows, to nature's God I UNCLE BEN OF IPSWICH. Uncle Ben, it was said, was excessively fond Of a wealthy Miss Patten. She lived near the pond Of a village called Copdock, not far from Ipswich, Where, as he was going, he fell into a ditch ! On the night when he went, 'twas exceedingly dark, And he said to his sisters, " I'm off for a lark." They all counted him crazy, for larks there were none, At past one in the morning — besides he'd no gun. Well : no matter : he went : all remonstrance was vain ! And a shocking bad walk the boy had in the rain ! For the road was all slush, from some previous snow, And dash into that ditch, in his silks, did he go ! But what time lie crawled out, such a pickle was he, What with mire and all sorts of mess, do you see, That he fully determined, from that time to this, He would never lark more after madam or miss ! Had he kept that resolve for the rest of his life, Ah ! and made Miss Jane Trenchard, the grocer, his wife, Content as a tradesman, he wise, and he witty, Had not been the topic of this tearful ditty ! SCRUBBING BLACKY. 65 But the truth must be told — we wont mince the matter — Of that town 'tis the talk, and ladies will chatter — He turned milkman— then tripeman — then sold hay and straw, And then pieman : then coachman — then cabman, what more? Ho, dusto, ho, dusto ! Do you hear that great bell ? Uncle Ben is now dustman, we're sorry to tell. SCRUBBING BLACKY. PART I. There was, once on a time, a poor boy at Kemptown, Taken out of a slave ship, whose name was unknown. But he played on a flute, and so sweet was his song, That it charmed all the visitors wending along. At thy treatment, poor fellow, we sob and we sigh ! AYhy, alas, were you torn from your tropical sky? Now what DO you imagine? some urchins agreed, That to male his skin white they might chance to succeed: So, as soon as 'twas twilight, they coaxed him aside, And hie hande and hi- feet, with their garters they tied. They, then, stripping him, dipped him and soaked him in suds, And then, send. bed, pressed, and pawed the poor chap with their pud -. i 66 THE HAPPY ESCAPE. But it proved to no purpose : for, making him raw, " Ah, in mercy," lie roared out, " torment me no more ! For if black I was born, why all black I must die, Then a task so impossible, pr'ythee, don't try ! " To be pious and pure, is the way, I am sure, To end by being blessed, whate'er we endure. I forgive you this folly, now, let me escape, Since discretion's more lovely than colour or shape. If a prize be awarded to all who are wise, Such chance-medley's pertainments, oh, learn to despise. They, oft, lure men to error, and sorrow, and sighs ! I'm happier by far, with my frizzle-haired head, Than you all, with your beautiful white skin and red, And you'll soon feel the truth of the saws I have said ! " THE HAPPY ESCAPE. PART II. So they gave him his clothes, and he went on his way, And resolved near such noodles, he never could stay. The good youth, by his talents, soon gained twenty pounds In his passage through Lewes and other large towns: At St. Leonard's on sea — a locality new, An assemblage of morbid drones, round him he drew : But, at Hastings, the excitement became so extreme, That he almost imagined himself in a dream. The ladies from chapel, ran down the parade, While the very religious were rapt while he played. THE HAPPY ESCAPE. 67 Quoting-scripture love-ladies by dozens and scores, Rushed devoutly up hill to bring down Mr. Vores : For, 'twas told, that two females, who came from St. Kitts, r Were so highly enwrought that they fell into fits ! And, that, grinding their teeth with a deathy-like stare Were both carried, like corpses, to Wellington Square ! There were three concerts given, and, stranger to say, Four huge bible meetings, two balls, and one play ; Ay, and all these excitements on one blessed day. With his treasure and trunk, he then, rode on to Rye, And there, wished the kind boys, in that borough, good- bye. The rest of the tale we might leave to be guessed, But, perhaps, to narrate it, would now be the best, Since interest excited may not be suppressed. Well: his work was rewarded, for there what he sought, A fine vessel, with settlers, was leaving the port : So he sailed with the first North-east wind that did blow, And arrived, in six weeks, safe at Ksscquibo. A mulatto he married of fortune and worth, And had four little flat-noses, born at a birth : They passed all their Sundays in prayer and in praise, And lived, humble and happy, the whole of their days. But those madcaps' sad late, do you now wish to know ? Just turn over one leaf, and their picture we'll show. As prefaced by one line —'twas, as all Brighton knows — 'I hey were doomed, for two j ears, to rinceouf dirty clothes. r 2 08 THE WASH-TUB. THE WASH-TUB. PART III. Lo, fancy those crazies who scrubbed the poor black ! Lo Phoebe, lo Kate, and that romping boy Jack ! Lo Arthur, and Harry, the children of those Tauntonian poor women Avho went without clothes ! And Ave picture them now, no longer at play, But washing for laundresses every day ! The tub's full of stockings, chemises and shirts, Silk handkerchiefs, petticoats, dusters, and skirts ! If they scrubbed all the night, they could never have done ! Not a moment for mischief have they, nor for fun ! All fishermen send their babes' wraps to be cleaned, From the days they are christened, till when they are wean'd ; And soaping for Church street, to where lodged the Queen, They take in, from the station, right down to the Steyne. Then, washing the vestments of priests, in rotation, They cleanse all the clothes of St. Paul's congregation ! Poor things, 'tis hard labour, though few live in clover : But as for the women who stand looking over, "We think they might just as well aid the poor creatures, So dreadfully jaded, to judge from their features. i ' SMASH. 6'9 My unfortunate Phoebe : you'll strain yourself, there : Oh, for pity sake, somebody bring her a chair. How truthful the saying, as most of us know, That naughtiness brings us to worry and woe, And girls who turn tomboys, to ruin may go ! POSTSCRIPT. The train is come in ; and we hear, to our sorrow, That poor Kate, who fell sick, must be buried to-morrow ! The whole bench will be called to account, it is clear : For the sentence passed on them was far too severe ! But worse cases than this, in the 'papers, appear I "Who rule over men, David said, should be just, And put right ones in power her Majesty must: For the deeds of wrong doers fill men with disgust ! But, if priests prove relentless, pray whom may we trust? S M A S H. PART I. Ah, this comes of riding on horseback you see ! ( )li ladies, poor ladies, how stiff you must be ! High over the cliffs just beyond Iiuttingdcan, Mamma and her daughter, in peril, are seen ! 70 SMASH. The tip of every finger tingles To find them sprawling on the shingles ! Speak ! how could you, man, take mam and miss To such a dread precipice as this ? Tell us your name, you wretch : and how it is ? " 'Twas not my fault," poor Samuel said : " I would I were asleep or dead ! " These ladies came, sir, to my mews, " And said, old Paleface, we've the blues " And want fresh air : we wish to ride " Horses well trained, and you beside ! " I begged they'd go to Shoreham town : " But, no, they cried, we choose the down ; " Newmarket hill : So up they jumped, "And, over the furze, have been famously bumped ! " Below they lie with habits torn, " And my bay mares are dead and gone ! " What can be done ? What shall I say ? " Help me to pull them into Rottingdean I pray ! " A pretty penny now you'll have to pay, see ! How could you, both of you, have been so crazy ? The consequence is, you must, hence, go astride Behind man on his horse, holding fast to his side : A position, methinks, revolting to view, As you gallop through Kemptown — poor ladies, adieu ! HEAD OVER HEELS. 71 HEAD OVER HEELS. PART II. Notwithstanding the fright of the day of the downs, Which cost Mr. Paxton at least eighty pounds, For racing, dear ladies, their love unsubdued, They resolved, through the snow, a long ride might do good, So trotting five miles, they descended by Patcham, And, finding there, fox-hounds, they hoped they might catch 'em. For ladies to do so, why, we can't say 'twas right ; But young sparks, dressed in red, make a very gay sight ! So they cantered and galloped, no, all would not do ! The faster these followed, far faster those flew ! And the frost being intense, and the hills sheets of ice, The three riders "and cattle came down in a trice ! The horse owner escaped with two or three gashes: The In uses were ordered split beans and warm mashes: The young beauty pitched forward, and bumped on her nose, Which bled most profusely as all Preston knows: Bui the mother, more luck)-, fell plump on her head: It was feared, for a moment, the dear one was dead : Bui -In- soon came to rights: a crowd was collected: The red coats all sympathised, sadly affected: And tiling- ended better than could be expected ! 72 THE RIDE ON THE PIER. THE RIDE ON THE PIER. " I'm exceedingly fond, my darling mamma, Of a ride on some animal's back : And so, if it pleases yourself and papa, On a donkey, this morning, I'll pack ! " She mounted the creature : she rode on the pier, And a season of pleasure bespoke : The sun it shone bright, for the sky became clear, And her parents enjoyed the joke. The beast Avas well trained : and it travelled so fast, That no whipping was needed at all : And we're well pleased to tell, that the loved one, at last, Reached her home without fear or a Ml. But ruddy Miss Letsome leant over the rails, On the top of the wind-beaten wall : And, had it not been for a milk-boy, named Smales, She had, surely, been smashed, by the fall ! He caught her betimes, by her ancles, to save The sweet damsel from death and despair : When she opened her purse, and gratefully, gave All the money she had, for his care ! THE CONVICTS AND THE DONKEY. 73 THE CONVICTS AND THE DONKEY. i The man, boys, and donkey went where they should not, And plagues, farmer Giles, soon found out he had got ! They first, took his turnips, potatoes, and peas, And next, pulled his apples and plums from the trees. 'Twas wanton ! 'twas wicked ! what was to be done ? The lads, in their village, called turniping, fun ! Alas ! what misnoma ! what fun can be found, In trespassing thus on another man's ground ? And, lo, what it led to ! the consequence see ! How sad must the end of the wrong doer be ! What mischief's entailed by the wasting of time! From conception encherished, what folly, what crime ! Such youths, as go larking, may find in a trice, How rapid's the lapse from what's venial to vice : To racing, to gaming : to syren-snare glooms, Which, ah, once allured to, all glory succumbs! All manliness, modesty, beauty and grace, And the glow of God^s image expressed in the face ! Debased by whaPs gross, (in such portals of strife,) Is lost the rapt-spark of the spirit of life! How faulty are fathers of volatile mind, Who, -ending such sons as they troublesome find, Too early to schools where examples are bad, Render home, in the sequel, unsocial and sad ! Tin' parents turn cross, and the boys disobey: W hole families mourn : ami their fortunes decay! 74 MARY MOTTAM AND HER KITCATS. The farmer admonished ; but nothing would do ! The more he entreated, more reckless they grew ; Until, with his losses, uprising in rage, He locked them all up — man, boys, beast, in the cage : From whence they were sent to the prison or pound : The donkey was sold — but the convicts were drowned ! MARY MOTTAM AND HER KITCATS. Cats at top and cats at bottom Were the plagues of Mary Mottam ! They never would leave their young missis alone But picked both her mutton and beef to the bone ! They messed all her carpets : they maddened her cook, And her relishes rare, from the larder, they took. If the lassie went up-stairs to steal into bed, They crawled on her gown, and so creeped to her head ; And, when she was tucked up in blanket and sheet, They stole down her night-dress, and tickled her feet I Some said they were fairies, and did as they pleased : They mewed and they purred, and they scratched and they sneezed ! She rose for her breakfast, but breakfast she'd none : For theirs they had finished before she'd begun ! And, having lapped up her last Devonshire cream, She uttered, in anguish, a heart-piercing scream ! .„.- HACKNEY CHURCH. 75 Then, taking up poker, tongs, shovel and broom, She beat them all out of her racketted room : Resolving, from henceforth, she'd better have brats, Than be teazed any more with such tiresome cats, So she married, and Mary, became mother Matts ! MORAL. The moral is this, that, whoever depends On fellows ungenial, can never find friends ! 'Tis a very great weakness to fondle dumb pets I But foibles of feelings engender all frets. For instance — in all things, the excess becomes passion: Such as clawing one's hands: that queer Somerset fashion ! The palm of a loved one, all prize is above : We would grapple a friend, in the folds of warm love ! But such idlers as hold us one-half of the day, Behove us to look right and left on our way, Or to wear tight kid gloves, lest, if caught unawares, Their clammy hot puds prove forbidding affairs ! HACKNEY CHURCH. I sing of the choicest <»f churches below ! Thai temple where heavens ard candidates go ! Wnere penitents, praying for pardon and grace, Obtain whal thej seek for, whatever their case. 76 THE BALL-ROOM. Who worship in youthtide, shall never lament, When they come to grow old, of the way that they went, Though, faint in life's journey, they, frailty deplore, Still toiling in vain till their travail be o'er, The period must come when their portion shall be More sweet than themselves or their fellows may see ! " Lo, they shall be Mine," saith the Lord whom they love, " In the day when I come my jewels to prove ! " As he who obeys his father and mother " Is bless'd in this world, as well as the other, " So all, who, repenting, abide in My fear, " Have hope in hereafter : and earnest while here : " This difference there being 'tween the evil and good — " The one would not worship — the other they would !"* THE BALL-ROOM. From church to a ball-room — reversing the page- We contemplate dancing as now all the rage ! No sooner a child can pronounce L or R, Than figures and attitudes charm her mamma ! So off each noviciate is trotted a-new, Before the old fogies, positions to do ! Malachi, iii, 16, 17, 18. LOWEN HALL. 77 In picture or fancy we see them upstand As stiffened as pokers : with hand joined to hand ; While Mr. Zukelli, upraised from his chair, His black silken feet dances high in the air. He twiddles his fiddle and sings, " Vim, two, tree ! Dat's vel dun Miss Emily : vot do I see ? Miss Mary, doze arms, are like drum-sticks ! oh, Ned, How sadly you stoop ! Emma hold up your head ! I tink, on de whole, dat you seem on d'improve ; To praise my dear pupils is vot I most love !" 1 Delighted, the children go back to their play, And papas and mammas waste monies away : But earth, which we tenant, is full of deceit : We dwell at the cross bar where vanities meet ! LOWEN HALL. Stop, stop those wretched lads ! haste ! run Else they'll murder one another, Their names are Jemmy Lowen, one: The other Tom, a red-haired brother ! From bad to worse the Lowens went, They tenanted yon house of stone; Their time and talents all misspent, They lived in sin, for self-alone ! 78 LOWEN HALL. And now, in debt, turned out of doors, They've passed, o'er Swedish wolds, to pine: With naught to hope for more, because, Cruel, they broke the law divine ! Not so the Lovedays. Truly bless'd, Prospering to purchase what was theirs : They're called, to bless the poor distress'd, And to obtain the widow's prayers ! Early to rise, and oft to fast — Earnests of watchfulness and fear ! This world, they know, is not to last, And so, they'll act like pilgrims here ! They'll find it is not Heaven alone, That recompenses wrong or right : No ! Abraham^ blessing is foreshown Through scenes of sense, by things of sight! For godliness, or filial love, And holy faith, the Scriptures tell, Have promises of bliss above, But of well being here as well!* * 1st Timothy, iv,.S. RUMBLE RIVERS. 79 RUMBLE RIVERS, OF DONEGAL BAY. The cheeriest life that can be spent In this cross road of care, Is, faithfully, to be content With what we find our fare ! No prize which pomp or pleasures waft, Gives joy to human kind ; To self-denial His vouchsafed, And lowliness of mind! Wealth in abundance was the lot To Rumble Rivers given ! But, ah, benevolence being not, The miser mocked at Heaven ! Relentless, and, at woe, ungrieved, At length, when, — sad to tell, — Robbers, the wretch, of all, bereaved. He, unforgivcn, fell ! Oh charity, thou glow of grace, Thou soul-pervading flame — The bless'd, iUumined by thy face, Irradiate thy fame ! 80 GARLAND AND POLINDA. When all that's gross, by fire, refined. Throughout etherials float, The chronicles of what was kind, The Son of Man will note ! * GARLAND AND POLINDA. Young Garland was a goodly man : His eyes were bright and blue : The pride and primest of his clan — A Scotsman, just and true ! In noble deeds his youth was spent : But, when he came of age, All militant, from home he went, War with himself to wage. v o Polinda was his much-loved maid, Who longed to be his wife : But " pilgrim lot be mine," he said, " And self-denying life !" So to Jerusalem he went, Through many thorny ways, Resolved his vigour should be spent, At Palestine, in praise ! * St. Matthew, xxv, 40. GARLAND AND POLINDA. 81 She followed him for aye or no, O'er wildernesses vast : Till (for it seemed determined so) He married her at last ! Blithesome, they led reproachless lives : Though true the teacher's word, That wedders live to please their wives, Who, single, served the Lord ! * Graces, like gold without alloy, Were heritages his — 'Tis filial love engenders joy, Parental blessing bliss ! Still dubious, at Capernaum's site, He sought for help in prayer : And, pleading, in a Mightier 1 * might. He heard this answer there — " Be fruitful, man, and multiply, Primal, 'twas heaven's behest !f All sacrifice 'tis well to try, But, to obey, is best !"J * 1st Corinthians, vii, 32, :]'■). t Genesis, i, 28. J 1st Samuel, xv, 22. 82 IT IS A BLESSEDNESS TO DIE. IT IS A BLESSEDNESS TO DIE. It is a blessedness to die, And feel our frailties are forgiven ! To sleep in Eden : or to lie In conscious trust, to wake in heaven ! From age to age Time's storms must lour, Ere suffering truth its tale shall tell : But hope's glad-consummation-hour Shall dawn, at last, and all be well ! The body which the spirit bears, Dures but a wintry-seeming day : Bides 'mid alternate smiles and tears, To vanish, vapour-like, away ! " And let it vanish !" " Who that's heir To mines of gold, would hold alloy ?" Such was young Churchlove's latest prayer- Ellen's chaste, fond, affianced boy ! He died when twenty years of age : Died on their mirthful-wedding morn ! Fit picture, for this tearful page, Let fancy's finger paint forlorn ! eusebia's histoey. 83 EUSEBIA'S HISTORY. (A Clapton tale.) Their fondest wishes are unwise, And fugitive must prove the goal, Who things of dross and tinsel prize,. And slight the interests of the soul ! In seeking these, how blind to those ! How dead to hope ! what foes to Heaven ! From fatal choice man's misery flows, And one sad error leads to seven ! Eusebia dwelt in Clapton Square : And, like her lauristinus tree, Full long she might have flourished there From fear and frosty sorrow free ! Her daily searching*, then, for grace, Her Sabbath-bliss, the church's praise, Health \v;is depicted on her face, And wealth smiled sweetly o'er her ways ! Bui lured to wed, by wily youth. For beauty, doI for virtue, loved, She dropp'd for him, her torch of truth, And time-rais'd vanities approved ! 84 eusebia's history. Consentient-led a-down the dance Of worldly pleasure, pomp and pride, He, sickening, left her, all entrance, With ten, since dead ones : and then died ! Wrinkled with care, in widow dress, And wan and wildered in her mind, Passing from affluence to distress, Long years, in penitence, she pined ! She came a-foot — the story tells — Once from a -far, her church to view : To bide the calling of its bells, And worship in her altar-pew. But ah ! ephemeral she found The few refrigerants flickering there : Those chimes had lost their charmful sound, And sobs, in psalm, were stays to prayer ! She thought it strange — she found it true — To pulpit theme no promise clung: Nor " thoitlt arise, and Zion view" * Was the anthem chosen to be sung ! " My days just hastening to their end''''* As fitter plaint, was interposed : The place had lost her pastor- friend, f And organ-dirge his death disclosed. * See 102nd Psalm, new version. f The late excellent Dr. Watson, Vicar of Hackney, and Archdeacon of St. Albans: who died in June, 1839, and to whom, on the 23rd, like to the good King Hezekiah, all deno- minations of people, there, did honour at his funeral! LINES TO MOLLY POLLY PUFF. 85 She mused, if, haply, she might take One precious bud from bower a-bough — Of once dear home, a relic make — Nay, no, 'twas nugatory now ! Her tree was gone ! and quite reversed, All primal, soul-assuring, cheers ! Loved ones, who reverenced, were inhersed, And slighters lived imnoting tears ! Thence, monished of unheeded hours, By clouds eclipsing solar ray, Lone, dlnnerless, and drenched with showers, She passed, unpitiedly, away ! At last, Avhen, toiling to her cost, Dull mistress of some infant school, The ligaments of life were lost, And recollection sighs "poor fool!" LINKS TO MOLLY POLLY PL IT. (On her leaving home for school.) Care thee not, love, for changeful hours, Nor cherish causeless fears: What, it bereft of l> samy bowers, Or happier home so lately ours, Vmi augur, from the m\&\ that lours, ( Jontinuoufi flow of tears ' 86 LINES TO MOLLY POLLY TUFF. Believe, sweet love, all shades soe'er, That veil, from joy, our eyes, Sooner or later, as they are, Trials of faith for all to share, Prove tests of Providential care, And blessings in disguise ! Speed thee, then, on, with courage bold, To learn the way to live : For, of all truths that may be told, The prime, however trite and old — Is, " icisdoms gain is more than gold^' Or all which gold can give ! Those minds, where sloth or riot reign, Must fare Arabia's doom : (The sun of life there shines in vain Over each parched unpeopled plain) But, fed by knowledge, like sweet rain. Are redolent with bloom ! How copious are the works of art, Or goods by nature given ! Pure are the pleasures they impart : But, choicer far that incensed heart, Which " choosing, first, the better part," * Is disciplined for heaven ! * St. Luke, x. 42. WE HAD A NOTION ONCE UI'ON A TIME. 87 -WE HAD A NOTION ONCE UPON A TIME. (Interludal.) We had a notion once upon a time We could turn any prosies into rhyme : So, down, in meditative mood, we sate, By poker, shovel, fender, tongs and grate : And thus — invoking Polyhymnia's aid, Numbers unheeding we began and said — Oh, grate, tongs, fender, shovel, poker, yon, Polished automatons, are teachers true ! Purveying warmth, unwittingly you heed, Or chide us in our nakedness and need ! Deducing, from each death-engendering chill, Our countless liability to ill ! Shovel — what lowly sentiments we feel Thou coal-receptory, when we touch thy steel ! Fender — enfolder of all truant fire ! Poker — enkindling what might else expire! Tongs — for the faggot, fitting forceps found, When gas-emitting glow, rades all around ! Grate — thou embosomer of vital heat ! To all your moral saws we bow as meet: Ami, while, fomenting flame, we blow or fan, We own ourselves to be dependanl man ' S8 THE FORBES FAMILY. It chirrupped high : And shook its side : " What, then, am I ?" The cricket cried ! THE FORBES FAMILY. (Very pathetic.) An effort now we'll try, The tragic tale to tell, Of poor young Forbes and family : , Sing sadly, ding dong bell ! Just ten months and a day Had past since he was wed, When Mrs. F., as we may say, Was safely brought to bed ! But, ere a man might cry " Jack Robinson," at most, That heavenly creature heaved a sigh, And then, gave up the ghost ! Her cousin, doctor Kyte, Who sate by her bedside, All paralytic at the sight, Down on the sofa, died ! THE FOKBES FAMILY. S9 Aunt Tabethy, attired In satins rich and rare, With spasms of the heart, expired, Hysterically, there ! In arms, but, ah, in fits, The baby-boy turned blue : When lo, the wetnurse lost her wits, And out of window, flew ! Now Mr. Forbes, tea o'er, And having said his prayers, To take a peep behind the door, Came creeping up the stairs ! But when the bitter cup Of sorrow met his sight, He bawling, brought the servants up, And seized a knife outright ! »' That knife he plunged in Just where his lungs did lie : Buried the handle in his skin, And, dreadful, so did die ! The men and maids all ran : But could not run away : For why ? ah me ! their race they won, By dying, all, that day ! The coachman — broke his neck! James l< :i j» to weep ! 2 !! w ::; ?. " Above, beneath, across, around, they fly! A dire deception strike- the mental eye! £" :, ' :: "£ By the blue fire, pale Phantoms grin severe! Shrill jaundiced whisp'rings wound th' affrighted ear, Dim Spectres dance !" SavcKjp. '■'••.. ■{•:... ••!•:•... .... ... : v:-... ••/}. .55. : :: : ... .5*. .55 ■ •■■■..\-"'y'- •'.''••••'.'.••• ■•••.•/.:•••:/..••■ ■•'■;.•.■• ■•;••.••■ •■•;•■.•••■:■■.••• ■■■■:■■.■■■■:■;■■■ ■:■•.■■■■.••■.■ •;.■.•■•■ ■•::;:: •;'•'•':•■. ... ■>;•.. .55- ■{•:•..■■•:■ •■..••..•'•.••... ..■;'.■.'.■■ ■ ■'■•:•. :'••■';• •;'•••■.•••. .•■;■■■•:■••.'•••'.• :'''•':•;'•••': •••;/. •;..• •;.■.••• •:•'.• •■:••.•■• ■;•:•■• '•• ••:••.• •:.;• x :,|! :: :!! ' v v A GHOST STORY. 99 A GHOST STORY. There was one person, and but one, in all the hundred of Penwith, in the extreme and far off west of the county of Cornwall, a region, in the Druidical records, out of humanity's reach : and still at the antipodes of rarifying influences There was but one person, at the period to which we allude, who dared to express any doubt, as to the co-existence, the pre-existence. or the existency at all, of certain supernaturals, or electrical immaterialities, to wit Invisible spirits — Ghosts — Apparitions — Sprites — white, yellow, and reddish blue Shadows with human faces, forms and voices — Greyheads of spiritual horses, with dolphin's tails — Bulls with bats' wings and leather- looking legs — Spectres, Fairies and Phantoms — Imps, Goblins, and huge Horsegodmothers with hebone arms — or, lastly, of some sort or other of those myriads of undis- tinguishables, which, not having clay consistencies of their own as we have, but, borrowing them for bad purposes, from birds, beasts, bats, insects, and sea aneinonies, and, upon extraordinary emergencies, from old maidens too, when over-fond of tittle-tattle, tea, and table-turning, and not, over orderly, but carniverous-like : were reported to haunt, by millions, trillions: multiply by billions, and divide by two and a-half; then add 1>.">,.'>-- to the quotient, and Leaving oul the cyphers, substitute units in their ii '_' 100 A GHOST STORY. stead — all the dark places of the tellurials, and the vacuums or hollows in the serials, and all the bubbles of the liquefactories from the froth of the wave to the un- settlements of the soapsud We repeat, there was but one: and that one was the then Mayor of Penzance or Holy Head ! This incredulous being, now without other name for remembrance than Walter somebody, since no record exists of who he was, but only, alas, and ah me ! of u-hat he was, was cut short, it seems, in the midst of his career, at least so the legend maketh oath and says, by those very influences or some of them, whose existence he denied, and whose potentials he disputed : as a solemn and awful warning unto all the future recorders, clerks of the ses- sion, mayors, magistrates, alder- and common council-men, town clerks, burgesses, beadles, watch or policemen, and all other — the numerous infragrades, subordinates, would- be's, and lesser fry, until they merge into the countless nonentities of commow-place men, of that and all other, ancient township, corporation or headland of intelligence, and aristocratical desideratum-ism, to beware of his fatal twist or turn of temper, which, originating in contrary- ism, innate, or pre-existent-sin-ism, or some other male- volent seism or ism, settled down into the depravity of shutting those eyes of the mind which were made to see with : of stopping those ears of ditto, which were made to hear with: of locking those jaws of idem, which were made to masticate with : and, lastly, of compressing the pores of those brainular developments whose expansive agencies become as illimitable as the concaves of ether : if permitted to skim, with polyhymnian accompaniments, the long, mazy, etherial wake of meteoric hallucinations, or the convexities of unfelt and unappreciated idealities. A GHOST STORY. 101 But why, me ! what a mist we are in ! how dark the room has turned ! the candles ! Price's patents ! tenpence the pound ! the very best ! there is no doubt about it, not the least ! look at them ! did you ever see ! do -stir the lire, and make some light ! what is taking the coals ! -Cannels, as we're living men ! they blazed yester- day, cracked liked squibs this morning, and now — rake out the bottom bar, make some draught ! not the least use, by Fatima ! we shall be all on the feel for each other in a moment ! Listen ! a clumping noise overhead ! don't hear it, do you all say ? so much the worse ! we suspect all un- earthly noises that one hears, and not another ! Two girls once walked, on tiptoe, in the dark: one heard the church bell toll : the other heard nothing but the cricket : and the one's little sister was found with her arm bitten off by a sow on their return home ! There, again ! that's no mis- take ! clump, clump, clump ! no woman's foot that, nor man's neither ! those are not gutta percha soles. Goats go thus upon deal boards ! ai/e, and something else besides — we won't say what ! now we DO hope you believe in some- thing. Bolt, bolt that door — it's ajar, Is it the wind ? no, not a breath ! Afraid ? no wonder! Do not shuffle your- selves together so ! Is that a table or a teetotum, or is our head on the swim? And why that dreadful jangle in the kitchen underground? Not! all the servants, but cook, in bed an hour ago? AVell, this is terrifying news ! do, pray do — you who are nearest to that wretched door, only just gently turn the key ! you little unfeeling wretch, you will not! psha, what is the UBe of keys? bolts, bars, Staples, wooden pins and night bolts arc HO more avail than touchwood in the awful times we are coining upon. It is not thieves, murderers, or any other abominables that we have to tear, now the corn laws are done awav I 02 A GHOST STORY. with, as in the by-gone protection-wrecking and smuggling days ; and we have nothing here to-night to tempt un- lawful. Though talk of murder, we have, by and by, an excruciating tale of mangle and assassination to horrify you with — no, no, not these, but far worse than these, if all be true they tell us ! nay, or even the twenty thousandth part of it ! Yes, yes, we see and we perceive you are all beginning to look very strange. You are feeling crawling sorts of sensations as if cold, venemous spider-legged crocodilloes were running down your backs. Chairs — how do they often appear empty when they are really occupied. That one in the dark corner, for instance ; look at it, we say : would the boldest of us touch it, this moment, with a pair of tongs ? Don't approach the suspicious piece of rosewood for your lives ! Positively without the least stretch of the imagination, it may be said to be making wry faces at us ! Are we not all upon a kind of gunpowder, or something worse? is there not an unseen, an unfelt, an unknown an indescribable something about us— under our beds, above our beds — in the pockets of our very coats, or the innermost foldings of our veriest apparel ? going also in or out of us, like gentles from a mildewed Dorset cheese, or Mel- come regis suet shop ? yes, whenever we open our mouths to eat or to drink, or to gape or to gabble? what do books tell us ? what does experience tell us ? what does old Daubuz say ? what, in a word, do we tell ourselves ? Bang ! it is all up with every one of us ! jump, and make a run for your lives! where, do you say? every- where ! no, no, no, softly, softly ! we must die once : we may as well do so where we are sitting : be merciful, oh, be merciful to us only this once, kind, good sir ! if you please, kind sir — indeed we won't do so again ! A GHOST STORY. 103 Be calm, be calm : it is all over for the moment ! we are safe, thank goodness ! let us rest a-moment until we can recover our breath ; and oh, let us reason, a little moment, after such a fearful excitement IF WE cax ! Those Sadducees, by the by : ah, a thought has come into our head: we were just thinking of them: an infidel set of men, which Josephus, a Romanish Jew, once wrote about — we cannot help surmising that this Mayor of Pen- zance was one of their naturels, or offsets ! As for those rubrical gentlemen, which means jocundi- ties, or red facers, or interliners, who would make all folks read one way, look eastward, because the wise men walked westward, and run to the Vatican once in their lives, as Musselmen do to Medina : they must surely imagine that minds are like belladonnas, all of one colour, and that although phizzes are multifarious, there is a pre-existent one-ness in intellectuals coeval with Adam after the fall. " Honestas," they say, as we read on a tomb at Paven- ham, in Bedfordshire, is truly, " probitas," and, as truly on its reverse, "probitas est honestas." Backwards or forwards it reads the same : and therefore mind must mean spirit, and spirit mind, and you can't make matter out of immateriality. Well, then, they go on to say, what of witches? these and all such like agencies are fabulous conceits. The locality of the malevolents is only, they say, with the gnats and the musquitoes ; and atmospheric air above is the receptacle for supernatural deformities ! Alas, alas, ye schoolmen and text dilutcrs! we can prove from Inspiration, we can certify from truthful indi- cations, that Buch things as these (apparitional as they beseem), have been aboul and aboul before the world began, arc now, and musl be ever afterwards. They 104 A GHOST STORY. inhabit the bodies and the souls of men : yea, fill and im- bue creation ! But let us come, at once, to the story — Once upon a time, upon that ever to be remembered night of a certain November — that frightful, dreadful, scarecrow kind of a night, when truthful tradition tells us that all the hens of Paul church-town crowed at ten and eleven o'clock, as the cocks do at four in the morning ; when the milk came out sour from the Nance Alvern cows, for all the world like green crab j uice : when a tri- angle of blood was seen in the cloud : and Penzance was shaken by an earthquake: when nothing appeared as everything, and everything literally became nothing, or next to nothing: that the then Mayor of that Holy Head was last seen, threading his skiff between a rockly islet and the main, and landing, at half flood, at Mossy hole, or Mouse hole: a cavern which now gives name to a small, cleanly-looking hamlet or harbour contiguous to the spot. This place he was often known to frequent for pic-nics, or pick Nick ! a phrase, though now generally in use all over the habitable world of the Anglo-Saxon race, being essentially a Cornish idiom, to represent contraband excur- sions or personal risks, run at improper periods ; and sup- posed to be a remanet of Druidical rites and observances, in rainy, misty weather, for indefinable objects: or, as some insect collectors suppose, in the times of the Picts, for penances, for omissions or commissions, through Nick, or Satanic influences: or, finally, as necessary self- denials — a corruption from nigh hills, or nihils — or inter- fasts for the well being of the moral man, after the yes- terday's repletion this is a digression ! The translation of a deposition made by Carl Gohun, A GHOST STORY. 105 the said Mayor's boatman, upon his death-bed, at Market Jew, or Marazion, on the morning after the catastrophe (whither, when discovered, he was brought over the bay in a pilot boat), is the only record now extant of the fate of the hero of our unhappy legend : he being never seen bodily alive or dead, afterwards ; nor, to this day, has it been satisfactorily explained — much as they may have bored the earth above, or their own brains below (query). No, not by the most imaginative member of the great Geological Society of Cornwall, in solemn contour of countenance, or serio-comic anniversary of Council, assem- bled — in what stratum of stony or slaty appendages the clayey or coppery particles of his inhersed remains can, by possibility, have been amalgamated. The said Mayor of Penzance must have been a far more important man in his day, than any subsequent Lord Mayor of York, Dublin, or even of London, if to be judged by the anxiety of after ages to retrace in each other, for want of a better, his lineage and line of ancestry. A confidential whisper, it was reported, went its rounds in that then focus (as tradition tells) of backbiting, slander, and detraction : but was soon silenced, in conse- quence of the let it proved to the then customary mode of acquiring wealth in those then outlandish outermosts of the habitable world, that the poor gentleman's married daughter swooned and died in terror, when en famffle, at the sighl of :i rawboned apparition which she saw within Trereife gardens,* in the similitude of her father, whose eye Bockets emitted sparks of blue fire, and warned her again8l holding ill-gotten gains. Now the baronial like residence of the Le Grice family. 10 1) A GHOST STORY. And also that, during a delirium, which preceeded the Lady f Mayoress, her mother-in-law's, own dissolution, the old woman muttered many unconnected sentences to a Dr. Molu, or Moil, a then celebrated medical prac- titioner, as to her having seen her miserable husband, without nose or legs, in a kind of goblin form : and that he made horrible disclosures ! such as it would not have been prudent in any tongue to re-utter if revealed : much less for one so nearly allied, in lucid interval, to have dis- closed ! so, at a meeting of magistrates, whose decisions, even in modern days, have been the theme of much ani- madversion or badinage, the facts were ordered to be ex- plained away as febrile ramblings or ravings, and the matter, by general concurrence, was dropped sub silentio. Her tombstone, or one said to be so, inscribed M. T., or rather M. F., ob : 1617, removed into a mason's yard at the rebuilding of St. Marie's Chapel, is supposed to have been used as pavement for the causeway near the old pier: the hand of time, and the depressing moisture of the climate having rendered the rest of the inscription illegible. The manuscript, in old Danish, being much run by the damp, several hiatusses are filled in italics to connect the sense. The translation is, necessarily, from our very imperfect knowledge of the language, a very free one. THE DYING DEPOSITION OF CARL GOHUN ! " He, my said dear master drove me to Punny Corner,* or the four cross roads, where the refuse skins * Query Pun corner, or near to where surplus (surplice) hides have recently been japanned, to produce uniformity in the colour of sole (soul), heelers (healers), wares and credentials. Read Le Grice's shrewd letters signed Civis, to the controversial and contentious Bishop of Exeter, after his Helston frolics with Mr. Blunt, a hair-brained divine. A GHOST STORY. J 07 of the factory were dyed, when I pressed him to return ; for I had a fearful dream about him : and both our lives mio-ht be lost, as the sky threatened storm we came to ' Newly n, where my son met us with a boat. We reached Mi. -v hole, and landed our food, and then went to sea- ward: but the wind drove us back to the cave, where our friends were to meet us to run the kegs and bandannas. My boy lay to with the boat inside the island. Master then walked up the gullet, and bade me folloiv him'. The tide came up. The storm blew off the boat to sea, and we had no choice but to grope our icay through the mire, in hope to find an outlet from the end of the hole. " We fell into a large cave on our left hand, when master halloed, and bade me follow, I slipt, and stuck in a hole with my legs hanging down : when the place where muster was, became light, and the glare blinded me. Master said, ' Don't fear, Carl, it is only phosphoric light.'' I did not understand. He then cried out joyfully, ' Carl, what luck ! a mine of icealth ! copper, by Jupiter ! ' No,' said I, 'dear master, no copper. Apparitions! apparition of last night !' ' Fool,' said he. 'No fool, master,' cried I; 'we be dead men. Look, master,' said I. 'What? 1 said he, turning pale. ' Carl/ said lie, ' air, Walter wants air, he suffocates.' Said I. ' Six black faces in that corner by v«.ii, by the granite !' ' Nonsense,' said he, ' where arc you?' 'Stuck last in the mud, master! wc shall be on fire,' said I. 'Look, master, look!' I screamed with terror. A hairy monster suddenly pounced upon me, and clawed me till I roared with pain. Master cried, 'Oh, ( !arl, tell me are you mad '.' ' I [old yum- tongue,' said the sprite, and it crawled down my back and legs, patter, putter, backwards and forwards, up and down, till I w;is i I with terror ! then I saw blue and va\ lights dropping 108 A GHOST STORY. down like boiling ram on ray poor head. Master then cried, ' Oh, horrible ! I see the wretches. Hacketty hoo, hacketty hoo !' and he talked gibberish, and we roared lustily. The lights vanished. I saw him no more. I struggled and slipt to the bottom ; the monster fastening on my toes and sucking my blood. " Then I distinctly heard master above moaning piteously. ' Carl,' said he, ' they have got me ! supernaturals ! oh, ghosts, Carl, I do believe, I do believe ! they are lumi- nous ! I see them by thousands ! they claw me, help, murder ! hot pincers ! my nose ! my knee-pans are torn off! my poor legs ! oh, agony ! oh, oh ! Carl, Carl, oh !' then I heard a scuffle ! many blows sounded! master's moans became fainter, and he said " Here a memorandum in old English, in another hand, states that the poor wretch fainted : and rambled so inco- herently that nothing further was elicited fit for detail. He died upon the same day, and lies in the little conse- crated ground upon Mount's Island, near an alder tree, which has since spread over the spot ; upon which the late Sir John St. Aubin, frequently, as he passed to and fro with his beefeaters, cast a pitiful and sympathising eye. # This is all, bearing, at present, upon the catastrophe. A few coins recently collected by an estimable virtuoso of Alverton, are said to have been dug up from under Carl's tree: the initials C. G., were on the box which held them, and which was found entire. * An infidel writer has had the impiety to insinuate, that the above must have been an hallucination or spectral dream (mon- strous) ! that the smuggler had been wrecked, driven upon the rocks, and suffered, probably, a concussion of the brain ; and that the toe-biter monster could be nothing more nor less than a huge hideous crab. Some men have brass enough on their brows to state any fib that a perverse imagination fosters. A GHOST STORY. 109 And an old manuscript from a farm at Boskenna, the property of the Paynters, narrates " That a lad's body, washed ashore at La Morna, in Dec: 1G1: with the initials on his linen C. G,, was interred at Bury an" (sup- posed to be Carl's son) " at the expense of the parish." Ghosts, however, and haunted houses, ever since the period alluded to, they tell us, continue as common at Penzance, and all along Paul town, as blackberries in October, on the Zennor road : or rounded stones along the shore of Morvah. Many are the pleasurable parties which still enliven the lovely localities of Mount's bay in Cornwall ; and the nomenclature of every one of them remains pic-nic — stale pies — cheap treats, or contra-bands ! La Morna is a favourite spot. Its babbling brook is often wended from its rocky gorge or outlet, by blithe pedestrians, up to the very Buryan road, through all its apple groves and glens, mill tail, and other varieties of hill and valley landscape. The Mount is a place of holy attraction. The very Queen Victoria, bless her Majesty ! once came all the long way from " Lunnun town" to scramble, with Prince Albert, up to its citadel and granite chair at top. There is also the uplifted Logan rock, once said to be a natural Druidical wonder, though now degenerated into a stupendous work of human ingenuity: and Tol Pedden Penwith, and marvels of wild Bcenery beyond. The Land's end: the Lanyon Cromlech: Castle Denis, where old Daubuz was laid: Zennor, al -I beyond humanity's reach : Lelant churchyard, where the giants lie in sand: and Trevethoe woods are :dl much Loved localitii lint as for the sea-surrounded rock, with its bleached 110 A GHOST STORY. weed that shelters the little harbour of Mousehole from the south-east gales, it well and truly finds its warm admirers : few, however, care to land at the dreaded cavern in the cliff. The lobster boats pass on, and the sailors drop their baskets all beyond : while they who handle the oars, look away with sheepish eye, from the yawning monstrosity. The horrid hole resembles the capacious jaws, distending wide, of some huge carniverous- masticating sea monster. A fern fancier may chance to hover, in his infatuating folly, near its dark precincts (at some neaptide period), in quest of his favourite varieties, which there abound. But show us the rash man, who, for all the bandannas of the east, or the kegs of a Christian-,sjMn7-loving world, would peril existence, by pic-nicking up the great gullet of that dungeon-gloom ; or, rumble out its bowels for all the imaginary wealth embedded in its vast profundities. There may be the spacious cavern pourtrayed in Carl's report, or there may not. The great Geological Society of Cornwall may have been learned or unlearned in their attempts to trace the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth ! Carl's report may or may not have been an hallucination or a spectral dream. If, however, all be true as he has stated — and who that reads can disbelieve it ? the patter patter of the monstrous toe-biter, with all the accompanying myrmidons of horror, may not be imaginative, but that hyena-like supernatural may patter patter to this very day : and the renowned Walter somebody of Penzance, of the year sixteen hundred and blank, be lying legless and noseless, a crystallized or bituminous martyr to the frolic of a miserable pic-nic; or, haply, by some chemical process to be hereafter under- stood, have become, for the benefit of some magnificent A GHOST STORY. 1 1 1 debenture granting, preference-share-alloting chartered company in copper or in coal,* a tinny lump of inestimable value, beside the granite-founded mass of superincumbent- coloured clay ! As for the initials on the tombstone, in after times, when family feuds ran high, and frets, jealousies and rivalries, and backbitings and detractions, became general, and the third and fifth verses of the fifteenth psalm could never be said or sung at St. Marie's, or at Madera, they became a fruitful theme of composite contention ; since all maniacally cherished a vehement desire to trace their lineage to the unhappy hero of our tristful tale. There was, and ever since has been, a sad hiatus in Cornish heraldic trees ! why and wherefore, we are not now censoriously to say; why, otherwise, the indubitable phrenzy on this subject ? many made the letters out M. B., more M. P., some few M. K., and a clique of the republi- can party M. R. Of the B/s there were then, between Chyandowr and Alvern lane, taking in cross streets, courts, slums, and tortuous alleys, six sets of Brewers, two of linkers, two of Berrymans, two of Baddeleys, four hundred and twenty-four of Bolithos, and of Borlases, Boases, Battens and Brattens, a considerable sprinkling in various directions of Penwith hundred; but as for the P.'s, be gracious unto us! they were as redundantly dill'u- sive as the loveablc children of St. Paul's cathedral, at its great anniversary ingathering in the month of .June ! like the clustering buds of blush Provence roses frolieine-- with tlic zephyrs in Psyche's fondest enfoldings ! like silken humming-birds of flowery ami far-famed Bio ingdale, * Tin- copper miners of England. 112 A GHOST STORY. fluttering on the hiccory boughs of Manhattan's illustrious isle ! like beauteous barberries upon some dependent bough in Belinda's bower of bloom and bashfulness ; or, happier illustration far beside ! like those essenced intel- lectuals all triumphant upon the breast of that napping Gulliver stranger, who invaded their high-blown vested privileges, and tested their vain pretensions to exclusive glory, or to " one and all "-ism as ephemeral misconcep- tions, by his pen of satire, or his Bo ! of breath. There were Pauls upon Pauls, and Pens upon Pens : there were Primaudies : there were Peterses : there were Pascoes great, and Pascoes small; Pascoes little, and Pascoes large : there were majors, minors, and minikins : there were Pearses, Paynters, Pennicks, Procters, Pen- treaths, Pid wells, Punnets, Pummets, Pipers, Pitters, and Pimperwells : there was (in a word) P this, and P that, till one was weary of P-ing, and could P no longer. The K/s and the K.'s were much in the minority, and cruelly they devised each ruse in vain to damp the ardour of the uncelestial disputants ; until, one awful day, when daggers were drawn, and the old town hall was on the eve of becoming, like Whitechapel gutters, one immense pool of Cornish clotted gore, the lilliputian apparition of the very Walter Nobody himself, descending from the gallery in a yellow counterpane, and purple tasselled cap, put an end for ever to the wild affray before it vanished, by intonat- ing, in an unearthly voice, and horrid nasal grunt, while the hectic combatants scampered off in all directions, "I LEFT NO LEGITIMATE HISSU WHATSUMEVER !" But why, oh why, sweet muse, should such a revelation have proved a let to all further research for such affinities? are not ancestral trees, like old Pinaster firs (after a period A GHOST STORY. 113 when races degenerate as they must), unfit for anything but ignition, to enkindle a Christmas blaze, or to en- sparkle bonfires to scare the goblins on a St. John the Baptist's vigil, or upon a St. Peter's eve?* Have genea- logies ever yet been known to bring grits to a Gulval mill, or^ common sense to a rectory? If, considered in a religious light, and a blessing be dependent upon a righteous original, truly well ; but, it* the reverse of this, what do they become but a vain boaster's brag ? A bubble of a rainbow hue to burst in blow or blast ? An annual tax the penalty fur proudful tinsel plume; and abasement, in reverse, the recompense for undue elation! An ephemeral iris of reddening reproach? or a Bella Donna lily, which, pinking on its stately stalk, germinates Upas-like influenees from its bulbous-rooted excrescencies ? In a word, a fool's lunar paradise, reflecting others glories or prosperities upon the weather-beaten brow of a darkening and adverse destiny? Oh, we repeat (and we would reiterate with trumpet- tongue, to all the shallow vaunters of uiiillustrious pedi- grees), then, only then, are the heritages of a good name intrinsically to be eherished, when, like Abraham's, the friend of heaven, they descend, in mercy, upon obediential ami well nurtured issues; and act and react continuously as incentives to deeds, which, inducing God-like emotions, determine, at the end, in assuring and never-ceasing com- mendation unto the called and justified ones in glory! Wlicilicr there be upon the remote headland in ques- l pon these occa ion ii is a silly ami barbarous custom amongst a noodle set around Mount's bay at nightfall, to whirl tarred hoops ami flambeaux in the air; to burn heather on the bills, ami i<> render ii dangerous lor the inhabitants to leave their hon 114 A GHOST STORY. tion, or elsewhere, upon earth's dull surfaces, those un- specifiables, " invisible or dimly seen," which have been poetised by bards, imagined by morbid or nervous sensi- tives, or dilated upon, even by Harvey himself in his meditations on the night, is a query not calculated for the now narrow limits of this little legend, to solve to the satisfaction of its readers : and which, like the problems of the B.'s and the P.'s, in their untoward phases, must prove as indeterminate, since "crede habere et habes" is one axiom, and " crede respicere et respices" is another. But, in conclusion — to be a wee bit serious, and rather in a moralising vein — we shall all (our young friends), do well to read what Paley says, and follow the examples of the wiser descendants (if such there be), of the worthies above alluded to of the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, who may now be pursuing the " noiseless tenor" of their uneven ways on the far western shores of England's illus- trious isle, in honest trade and industrious application, or amid the higher grades of refining literature and intel- lectual developments. Yes, like the elect of all who are great and good, be it ever ours to base our pretensions to fair fame and the good opinion of those around us, if we pretend at all, not upon a long line of dubious ancestors, nor upon reflected radiances from departed brows, but (for our survivors' sakes as well as for our own) upon living evidences of gentlemanlike deportment, and becoming conduct. " In all controversies," says Paley, " where one side is doubtful and the other safe, we are bound to take the safe side." In other words, whenever vain apprehensions about spectral forms or malign influences uprise, to unsettle and mislead us into mazes, where, the moral sense debased, A GHOST STORY. 115 the mind might become enervated, or the spirit unmanned: we should, vigilantly and unremittingly, divert our thoughts, and fix our studies upon those revelations which Scripture lore unfolds of guardian angels from on high. These" are, indubitably, " about our paths, and about our beds, and spy out all our ways," with permissive power, when over-pressed, to release us, finally, from the tlirall of those deadly shafts, those " principalities and powers, and that spiritual wickedness in high places," which go to and fro, in mysterious sufferances, seeking whom they may, through mistrust (in malevolence), or through pride (in sensuality), devour. Let us, one and all, whether in youth or age, labour to fulfil our hopeful destinies, in bonds of obedience, and in bands of Christian love. In docility of heart, and teach- ableness of disposition : and, above all, in faithful fixed- ness of eye and oneness of desire upon that Gospel Light, which can, alone, in our upshots, prove redemptory and availing. These ministering spirits, sent forth to minister " unto all who shall thus become heirs of salvation," will, when happily freed, by the course of nature and God's good Providence, from the corruptions of this probationary existence, translate us into the "bosom" of the best of ancestors, allegorised as — Abraha/rrZs: because the father of the faithful: as The Garden of Eden: because the primeval place of purity: as Paradise: because a -talc of resl from Labour: and as a Blessed ll proceed, on the Monday morn- ing, on tin; road to Cambridge. * The East [ndia tea Company, bo called bj its talented originators. 118 A CURIOUS FACT. But when that morning dawned, a sudden and unac- countable morbid or nervous feeling came upon the mind, which was irresistible, that some serious casualty had certainly befallen. In vain we combatted it (apparently at first successfully) with all the forces of reason and common sense. It overpowered us, however, at the breakfast table, and we deemed it, at last, an impiety further to contend. " You are wanted back, you must return instantly," was the impulse, or kind of whisper in the ear and brain, and involuntarily we rose from the chair, and pulled vehemently the bell. A sinking sensation at the heart (which many have confessed to), followed this singular annunciation ; and, in answer to our interrogatory whether there Avere any morning coaches on that road to London, the answer then was, " Only one from Peterborough : almost always full, which changes horses here, and is momentarily expected to arrive." Paying our bill, and leaving our rosinante, ad interim, under the tender mercies of the ostler, we took the only phi re outside, providentially vacant by the yetting off of a pas- senger at Eaton Socon, and took our leave, intending, at eventide, to return, but (as the result proved), never in all human probability, fated to repose again, at that beau- tiful locality, to the end of time. Never before did milestones seem so tedious : a coach to roll so slowly : a heart to feel so loaded : or an English degree to appear so nautical. Upon reaching, at length, the offices of the Company at noon, we found our people in a state of much excitement : and a messenger, from the Mansion house, apparently in earnest colloquy, at the door. A CURIOUS FACT. 119 Ripe for any disaster, in dumb show, we rushed into the inner offices, when, in answer to our inquiry, "Death? fire ? what ?" a loud hysteric laugh was the first ominous reply. Then, after a pause, "We are glad indeed at your return :, we were all in a state of distress ! what chance, what Providence has impelled you ? the bonded ware- houses were broken open in the night, and robbed of con- siderable property : which, early this morning ( mark the coincidence), while being carried oft 1 in a cart, has, with the thief, been captured, and happily recovered by the watch on duty. "The scoundrel is safely lodged in the cage at the Mansion house: the Lord Mayor has arrived more than an hour ago: the case is now on: all is in perplexity: and nothing can be done without your presence, to identify the property. " Mr. Hobler, the clerk of the court, has desired us to send off expresses to all likely localities to hasten your return : and what on earth to do we knew not, since you I, ft no address whateter behind.''' To be brief. To the Mansion house we walked through a mob of excited people! though hurried, the remarkable coincidence was briefly narrated to his Lordship. Thecase was clear: we were bound down to prosecute. We did prosecute at the Old Bailey, and the thief, although recommended by the jury and ourselves, as prosecutor, to mercy, was inexorably sentenced to transportation for th remainder of his days. Despise not, courteous reader, in any similar phase (if any), of privilege or of probation, impi lses like iih.-i ' 120 A STRANGE RESULT OF A DREAM. A STRANGE RESULT OF A DREAM. Or something rather odd, not ridiculous — the word is mis- applied ! and the former coincidence emboldens the narration of this other, query, what? I dreamt — for Ave must now drop the privileged editor's we — I dreamt I was at some strange church where the front gallery rested upon short pillars, or pil- lars, seemingly, nearly upon the pews ; and that I saw a remarkably tall female chorister descending from above, to the front seats, arranging several children on either side. The service commenced ; and, after the third col- lect, the clerk gave out, and the congregation sang the first four verses of the 98th Psalm, new version ! I was so rapt with the devotional melody, that I awoke in a state of transport, which found relief in tears ; and the effects of the hallucination or vision, operated, in measure, upon my mind, amidst the busiest passages of the succeeding day. Still, like all other dreamy illusions, this was very pro- perly forgotten in its turn : my mind resumed its placid tone, and the concerns of every day life regained their wonted ascendancy. Not very many months afterwards, however, I planned, with a friend, an excursion to Hatfield ; and, when at the Salisbury Arms inn — the ensuing Sunday morning dawn- ing fair — we agreed to walk over to St. Alban's abbey, after an early breakfast, in time to enjoy the church's al way-loved and ever heart-hallowing solemnities. A wish was, thence, mutually expressed for a long detour, on our return to our inn, viz., by way of Welwyn, A STRANGE RESULT OF A DREAM. 121 where the celebrated author of the " Nio-ht Thoughts" lived and died : and where he inscribed upon the garden summer-house, the truthful saying, " Invisibilia non de- cipiunt !" And, passing through a village in our exquisitely beau- tiful ramble thitherwards, at three o'clock, which we learnt was Wheathampstead, I pleaded the propriety of uniting, with the indropping rustics, in the service of even song: and we were politely shown into the rector or vicar's pew. When, upon looking round (as strangers are apt to do), I whispered to my companion that the place seemed, somehow, familiar to me, and that I must have been there before. But, no, I certainly never had; I had never been in that locality ! yes, there I beheld the gal- lery upon short pillars, or seemingly resting upon pews, and the remarkably tall chorister descending from above, ranged her children hither and thither upon the front seats. Then, and not till then, flashed upon my mind the remembrance of the vision, and I turned, excitingly, to my companion, and said, "I never have been here before: it is a dream !" " Nonsense," my friend whispered, " surely you must be mad." "No" (with earnestness and gravity I responded), "I am not m<• set to music PAGE LINES 127 — 129 — 149 28 152 40 158 58 171 8 177 49 I s-> 12 SUPPLEMENTARY. The Excursion, an alliterative interlude I II.,--. i > of bard words Total 1 1 1 1> isc 114 195 — 309 DEDICATION. 127 MMmWBL bl I1B OKKIBD. TO SIR CHARLES MERRIK BURRELL, BART., of knipp castle in sussex. Dear Sir, In dedicating to you, as the lineal descendant of an ever loyal and very primitive family, the following vola- tile productions of a poetic pen, brevity must be accounted all suitable when I explain that although yourself and our mutual noble relatives have been comparatively strangers, in latter years, to my branch of the family, until your recent most kind com- munications and valuable assistances, as to my maternal origin, which Led to lengthened correspondence — and, on your part, exceeding courtesies — in enabling me to esta- blish my paternal lien to certain reversionary property of the Liebenroods near Reading and, although con- sanguinity is very little considered in the fashionable world, without wealth to heraldise, or power or title to consolidate the claim I have been impelled to differ, in sentiment, amid my various humbler phases of unillustrious action, from the prevailing tone of the cold world without, in all its unge- nial influences over primal destiny. For, as I was taughl in youth by th. best of mothers, -o. now. in decline of life, I am led to confirm my previous immature impressions, that, although there can be no 128 DEDICATION. perfect unity in ideas, there is much mysterious connecting bond in blood ! And that an unspotted parentage, when religiously con- sidered — in that blessing which Scripture lore implies as heritable by all well nurtured issues, is of intrinsic value, and more duly to be prized by its privileged possessors, and preserved (as a basis for laudable exertions and Chris- tian conduct), than the alluvial fecundities of countless acres : or than all those engoldened transmutations which deport from the meditation of sublimer antecedents, in inglorious subserviency to the ephemeral allurements of the visual eye. I have the honour to subscribe myself, dear sir, Yours faithfully, The Author. THE BUBRELLS. 129 THE BUBRELLS. (A fragment of a simple but affecting legendary tale, of times long since gone by, attachable to truthfulness.) It was a foggy, foul, dull, dark, cheerless, hopeless, com- fortless evening in the very worst part of the worst and most melancholy month of all Xovembers — at a sad period of dire national perplexity, and humiliation, a general ^depravity of morals, and of indisposition to good: at a period of civil discord, infecundity and doleful individual distress ; when the opaque part of mankind were parti- cularly black, and the religious or papal portion particu- larly loggerheaded, opiniatcd, and Protestant or heretic- tormenting — when the politicals were wretchedly green or radically wrong : or, in their bluenesses and blemishes vituperatively the reverse of right : and even when three- tenths of the credulous or confiding ones, and seven- elevenths of the weak or unreflecting ones, who constitute nine-fifteenths of the whole habitable globe, believed that the Millennium, or some other cnnium, dismal or delect- able as the state of their digestive organs or inner man then chanced to be, must be about to arrive* * Editor's note No. L. Bui it never did then come, nor since, nor is if Likely to pounce upon us until Australia shall be popu- lated or degoldened: Japan enlightened or enwhitened : China converted or deta *taris< d, and various other little-tittle temporals be arranged and methodized, 01 codicils attached, if we may !><• bo hold as to use the metaphor, to the testament of earth's re- mainders or bindei mo I ISO THE BURRELLS. When, after twenty-three hours of cold, soaking rain, and one hour and more of raw, misty "pause" (as the modest man, who stops payment, says), sleet thickly supervened, and a bitter, biting, north-east blast indicated that, before daylight, a considerable white carpet would be spread over all the surfaces of the degree of latitude of the place from whence we are about to begin our lachrymal, disjointing and heart-tristful narrative. There was, at the ruful period in question (happily for us, remote days now !) extensive wastes upon the western road, one at Hounslow, and another at Maidenhead* (Queenstoe). The former was called "heath;" the latter " thicket," both having long serpentine roads or lanes diverging from them in all directions, which were notori- ous central points for assemblages of highwaymen and even of worse characters than they : particularly at those late hours of the evening or night, when weary and way- worn travellers become importunate for the beholding of poplars, always indicative of township or settled vicinage, * Editor's note No. 2. Why that droll name was given to the place is a question often asked by schoolmen, but none seem ever to like to know. Pity 'tis that her kind Majesty cannot be pre- vailed upon to change it to Queenstoe (which we shall delicately do in this narrative), no, not for all Prince Albert can implead by its being so handy to Wine Sour, or Windsor, nor for all its poor inhabitants so devoutly and impassionately pray. For the Avretched Platonics who still vegetate and pine away in its forsaken slums, and look so tristful, shy, strange, and woe-begone, do get so sadly laughed at, on the rails, under the soubriquet M.M.'s or maiden men, by Taplow M.P.'s or em-pertinents, that they are rapidly emigrating from church or meeting, with all their quicquam attinets, to the propinquities of .Slough, in fearful state of frigid and fretting despondency. THE BURRELLS. 1S1 or are on the earnest and palpitating look-out for sign- boards and twinkling evidences of rapidly-attaining shelter and refreshment. And, to complete the annals of that sad phase of time, deaths and burials were in the formidable ratio of seven and two-thirds for each one reverential or legitimate be- getting, indicative of awful depopulation in every moral, lay, or loving locality. Few then cared to travel after the curfew bell. Yet, alas ! it so happened that the worthy father of our young heroine was under this imperious necessity. His sum- mons was sudden: and even so was his foredoom ! His lady, dear woman, became a true prophetess upon that occasion, for she foreboded evil from the journey, although, exactly what, she seemed to be at a loss to divine. It was a sort of indefinable gloom upon her mind, and a weight or misgiving upon her heart, or, to use her more refined and appropriate phraseology " a pewter-pottiness, or crab-crustiness on the left side of her chest;" and, when she suspired, for she had an exquisite lisp — "stay, eweel loof, until to-morrow's light," she was sensible, as though she beheld the thing, that a fatality would certainly ensue.* * Editor's note No. 3. A rerj extraordinary sentiency ilus is which many are subjecl to, and no one ought to ridicule. A premonitary inspiration : an angel-whisper: which even master minds, meaning intelligent healthy minds, may never neutralize or sod-sized room in it, by a late excellent and benevolent man named Liebenrood, whose memory is -till blessed in that vicinity: and whose entahleturc at Tylehursi church is truthful in its laudatory tellings: and under Dora*- —this sister's protection, she was to be tenderly placed until their return. A word or two about tins Dockwray. She had lived in tin family long before the marriage, and had passed through the gradations of better service from housemaid to housekeeper. And amongst other good things, she left, in her dressing-box (] r woman alas, as the resull shows), a capita] for ramoukin, or "can," as she spelt it. which we will insert in a note lor the pleasure of those who do not quite conform to the late Dr. Johnson's Lheory, rliffi ring, I I . from h diurnal practice, -'that the gratifications of the palate 140 THE BURRELLS. are so poor that the most shameless of the sensual herd did not dare to defend them.""* * Recipe for Dockwray's ramoucan — sealed up in a paper appended to the manuscript. " Take one pound and one ounce of rich, mellow flavoured, mild cheese : grate it fine : heat up four eggs with their whites, superadd a little milk and three ounces of Lest dairy-melted butter, stir it all together, thoroughly bake twenty minutes, and admonish cook that liquid snuff is a sorry substitute for soy when she melts butter in the boat. Stand over the woman, however, and remember my adage Faith has no reference to kitchen ware, NOr can be counted saving when 'tis there. By the bye, what a worry is beginning to be with cooks and butlers. I, Dockwray, may not live to see the day, but they who do will rue it." Editor's cpaery — what day ? Note in reply by the printer's boys. We, young chaps, beg pardon: but we will tuck in a word. What day? Our day [ March of intellect day ! Forbidden fruit day ! Infant school nonsensical-knowledge day ! Manianism and morbidity day ! Writing, reading and arithmetical humbug day ! Putting all the aristocraticals, reputables, and ourselves, out of our proper places, and putting those nasty-dirty-little-radical-ragged-rascally- nibble nailers-in day! We be Robert Nelsoners ! Bah to the highs ! bab to the lows! We be the Medios, the Tutissimusses, the Ibisses ! The betwixts and betweens ! Phoebus, Phoeton, the River Po, and the poplar trees ! Beg pardon. Editor's note No. 5. We often wonder if, when Dr. Johnson wrote the " Rambler," he ever had Oxford in his eye. It was always said to be a, fleshly town, even in its matriculating sections and collegiate pales. Pre-existent Keeble, however, that lovely poet — who can peruse bis " Christian Year" and not admire him ? though germinant in his hallowness, even then, like the faculty of music in Seth (in its abeyances), had not advanced into THE BURRELLS. 141 Fataclo, the butler, was a brutal fellow. He was jealous, malignant, ignorant, unprincipled and immoral. Mr. Douglas had been formerly a Smyrna merchant, and had brought the scoundrel back with him from Florence in one of his frequent journeys or voyages from the Levant, where, he met with the Miss Laprimaudaye who had become his wife : a charming woman, tradition tells us, in all senses: possessing much vivacity, sensitive, sensible and devotedly attached where a strong religious sense of duty called her benevolent emotions into fullest play. Dear, unfortunate lady, the little all that can be gleaned, from oblivious harp, of one so good, it becomes a sacred duty to her memory to point, with diamond-pen, upon our faithful page ! The sinister object of her ill-fated journey with her Douglas, was for the excision of a the metempsychosis of puking babyism ! Newman, too, now a father, hut, possihly, no papa, who since wrote so well down to tract No. 89 was neither man nor a-manuensis. Pity they had not read Dockwray, or tasted her delicious ramoucan ! They might, as well as pious Pusey, ay, and all their parasites and satellites, in their altar-twisting and other Popish-tending anilities, have continued sound orthodoxers even now who knows? Bui fasting in an uncanonical sense, or contraband cue (as they say of smugglers), upon the vigils of black letter saints' days, in the dubious hope of re-catching thereby Si. Peter's spirit, which, thej fear, poor souls, the Anglicans have lost, ami in the dread lest they might, eventually, be bedizened, or something, if possible, -ill worse, induced a fret: and. in such dogged da_\s, with loose veni pegs, like unwracked cyder, fermentation nnegarised their sweet or black apple libations: while the crabs of discord innumerable, sown deep, life wild convolvolus, proceed from the countless | i| "I their valuable imprest mi m - 142 THE BURRELLS. hateful worry-purry upon her upper lip. We subjoin the particulars in a note, not to break the thread of this deeply interesting narrative.* Fatado had lonr; while been meditating fiendish mischief in grudge for some detection of immorality, or some supposed affront he had experienced from this excellent but penetrating mistress: and the present opportunity was aptly chosen for accomplishing his suddenly-conceived diabolical project. There had been a gang of gipsies in the neighbourhood for weeks : for the abominable purpose of child-stealing ; and to them he made immediate overtures, which were responded to, as the story now proceeds to show. Little Mary — that was the name she inherited from her paternal grandmother : a woman of exquisite virtue and en- dowments, who, having fulfilled all her duties upon earth, had become a sainted one in a hopeful Paradise, or expectant Eden for a blissful reversion — little Mary was a precocious child and had but just entered her sixth year, an age when memory first developes its impressions. She was of a bland, loveable disposition, tall for her years, and, although a decided brunette, with jet black hair, there was a sweet softness or rather mellowness in her complexion * Editor's note No. 6. A large hairy red protuberance, or hard, angry-looking, horny wart, about the size of a Cornish magnum bonum. It had been greatly aggravated by the empiric nostrums of that dark period of medical imbecility. Take the following for a specimen: — "Tbe black juice exuding from a compressed beetle : cantharides conserve : mustard pulv : the decadence of a sow in litter: and lime juice twenty drops: apply on lint, at bed time, to be renewed every two hours until dissi- pated or returned into the system." THE BURRELLS. 143 that abundantly compensated for the absence of the ever- attractive red and white of Anglo-Saxon contour. And, what was rather remarkable, notwithstanding: she was born with a perfect pair of dark blue eyes garnished with long and very telling black lashes. As for her manners and attributes in general what can be added for one so young? They seemed to be retiring, without shiness : she was modest, and her emotions all foreshowed the soft, sensitive, and warm-hearted gentle- woman that was to be, should her life be preserved: such as to render her an object of paramount interest and regard, or, rather let us say, of admiration and deep seated affection to all such as should eventually be privileged to encircle the hallowed pale of her influences, her sympathies and other — her fascinating endearments ! Afflictions, however, are like the test to gold. They fine the human heart ! These are they which the pri- vileged ones for heaven are exercised in withal; they purify the mind, and wean it from the witchery of all mundane attachments! To cut the story short — she was waylaid in the way! Poor Dockwray was left tor dead, in a dark recess or gravel pit, which skirted that then woodland scene — now become a partly impaled paddock, very near to where an unsightly lodge is now erected, and where -lie was dis- covered in tin- snow, at daylight; hardly sensible enough, lor hours, to render any connected account of the cruel iilt. or of the circumstances prevenienl to the capture of her precious and her beauteous charge 1 The neighbourhood were instantly on the qui vive, and horsemen scoured all the roade and line- around lor many miles : lint, there being no master-mind to direct, nor cool debater to methodize or manage the affair, all became 144 THE BURRELLS. nugatory: and thus it invariably happens with nations as with individuals, that noblest and most virtuous actions are rendered abortive : and vice, in its wisdom, becoming triumphant, the corollary of expectancies is the enervity of despair.* * Editor's note No. 7- Napoleon, in one of his bulletins, with reference to Blake, Castanos and Palafox, before the disastrous battle of Tudela in Spain, says, " Nothing can suc- ceed in war that is not the result of a well-digested plan." Poor Sir John Moore, allured to Toro by the perfidious Morla when at Madrid, found this too true when in full retreat for Astorga : and, at Corunna, in consequence, he barely saved his credit when he lost his life. A similar catastrophe nearly befell our late illustrious Wellington himself, in his retreat and almost flight from the Castle of Burgos, which he had advanced to besiege with insufficient munition, having left Lord Hill with only 20,000 men at Madrid to cope with the Duke of Saguntum and the victorious army which he so ably commanded at Yalentia in his rear. Flushed with the success of Salamanca, the vivas of the capital, and the excitement at the Retiro, he was, for a little moment, lost in an illusion notwithstanding the recent Madden-cavalry miss or panic, as a warning to be wary. He moved his king's bishop's pawn two squares — in other words, placed undue dependance upon Ballasteros who cruelly failed him in the consequent emergency : and it was his pos- session of Cuidad Rodrigo to which he was partly indebted for the preservation of bis disorganised legions : staying, as it did, the French army in their serious operations on his rear, and covering his retreat into winter quarters in Portugal without further molestation. Had Napoleon led the advance from Madrid to Alba de Tonnes, instead of his generals, it is impossible to calculate what the calamitous result might not have proved had he dashed on. Beaten, however, in turn, as all hut Suchet had been, they THE BUERELLS. 145 On the other hand the gipsies, with systematic cunning and forethought, and nicely and narrowly calculating all the chances, pro. and con., had skilfully conveyed their Valuable prize across the Thames near Pangbourn or Purley, the self-same night, notwithstanding the snow storm ; nor had the wretches halted, as it afterwards appeared, except for bare refreshment, until they had crossed the borders of the principality, where all further tracings were, unhappily, lost. We how return to Southcote to narrate its supervening horrors : all consequent upon one fatal journey. And the dismal catastrophe is soon and succinctly arrived at. Suspicion fell upon the hated butler. He made a hurried confession, and decamped in consequence, before daylight on the morrow, by by-roads on foot to South- ampton: and where, on the eve of embarkation for Jersey, in a coaster, upon its waters, he was overtaken, captured, and conveyed to the town jail : where he contrived to strangle himself in the tower: and had a stake driven through his body at the cross roads near the Itchen ferry. The maltreated housekeeper was gently laid upon a lacked tin- prestige of success to embolden them on t<> victory : the morale was deficient, ami for pluck and daring they suc- cumbed to caution, and lefl the hero of A.ssaye unmolested on tin' frontiers. Vittoria. Toulouse and Waterloo liecame his crowning sequels for their mi-- of a golden opportunity, which could not. in the course of human affairs, under such great generalship as his. recur. Admirably he recovered himself from the Liabilities of one false move: and nobly redeemed the single error of warrior existence, in those unprecedentedly decisive illustrations of a matchless mind. Peace to his ashes, and honoured for ever be his brighl memorial. !, 146 THE BUKRELLS. couch and carried home: where multifarious injuries of body, and agony of mind, led to a slow fever, which carried her, in a delirium, to the intermediate state, upon the evening of the fourth day. Revert we now once more and only once for ever to that Queenstoe inn Avith peacock's feathery sign. There the horses, when recognized as from Reading, were soon placed au retour, with the maitre dliotel well armed : two stout ostlers with lanthorns and torches, and an athletic volunteer: who, all proceeding slowly and cautiously, fortunately, upon arriving at the fatal and the bloody spot, heard the low moans of the snow-coated victims, who appeared to be in all the tremors of ap- proaching death. But no, not quite so bad ! for, when uplifted with much difficulty into their carriage and conveyed to Twyford, first for recognition and for medical aid, they both came sufficiently to, to render some details of the robbery, and to render insufficient generals as to the villains who had perpetrated this atrocious crime : and who, four years afterwards, were thought to be the same four men who, for some murder at or near Staines, were hung at Tyburn, after having previously been stretched upon the rack. From Twyford they were tenderly transferred, upon the following day, in flax and feathery litter, upon a bed of poulticed lint, lubricated with purest Florence oil, in a covered van, to their once happy and much loved home : and, upon examination, their wounds, which had sup- purated plentifully, looked kindly, and, it was hoped, might heal. But, horror, horror, horror, and again another horror more ! We wring our hands, and our pen reluctantly THE BUREELLS. 147 performs its office while our duty urges us to the last details ! Although a vast concourse of inquisitive people were round about the melancholy purlieus of that fearful scene as. the caravan drew up, there, all within (except poor Dockwray's heart-rending dying groans, and the madded Kachel's, the cook's frantic screams trying to cast herself from the upper dairy windows, which, unhappily she did, and transfixed herself upon the spikes and mortified) was death-like silence ! And, when, at last, by dire necessity, the frightful and scaring communication was timidly and only half con- veyed to the bed-ridden sufferers, by sobbing sister, and afflicted neighbours (all around the couch) of their irre- parable loss, and the probably horrible fate of their fondled only one — "Better, far better to have been told' - (impassionately sobbed out the dear lady, in throes of anguish, followed by a frightful hiccough or spasmodic affection, which almost choked utterance, and, at length, did quite) "that — at: she— hee was— drow : o\v : ow : ncd : in : the : wee: lie: lire: ded: mo: ho: ln» : oh — (ib : Oat!" The lasl syllable was not articulated! mean- ing, Better, tar better, thai She was drowned in the weeded moat. Then, from an overwhelming paroxysm, and kick- ing convulsions: and that fatal Bign, seeing l>ltn-l<- ./.<. \ the Brummagem orator, ;i regular brick. M 'J 1H4 THE BURRELLS. One comprehensive word describes all of the lady-love that may be now narrated, and enables us to fancy the exceedings in all senses of the pearly little bride : and, as all must appear invidious by comparison, we simply whisper, in poetizing portrayal, belle ! Her attire was much in keeping with her mien and make : as far, at least, as she was at liberty to arrange it : but, being eccentric, as it certainly seems to us in one respect — and we must tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth — since she became the creature of circumstances, we pity while we praise ! Her head-dress, which was considered all attractive in those times, with its dependent ringlets, and is to be again in vogue so soon as ever her kind Majesty can decide upon the choice of colours, was a black Leghorn plait with sky- blue satin ribbon, basket fashion — with broad brim : and terminating slightly a-hoo, in an apex, or twisted point, similar, in effect, to a cornucopia, or Swiss buck's horn: whence a curly white ostrich feather, reclining under her right ear, tipt with silvery spangles or tissue, glittered in the sunny beam. Her slippers were of white satin bound and banded with blue silk, and capt with silvery satin roselettes : while minute emerald forget-me-nots were the intertwining; lapulets for each flowery or flossy decoration ! The curious ties, however, which he fastened with his own fingers thereupon (curious specimens of Raglan castle manufacture), were most admired and merit mention more ! The satin ribbon had all the primitive colours in stripes transverse : dotted in their decussations : with blue cha- racters, so minute, that a lens, except by lovers' eyes, was requisite to decipher the refined sentiment entatooed THE BURRELLS. 165 upon each pretty plait, emblematical of their blissful union. They read thus — " Somni latus, Omni gratus, Cum se natus, Dulce datus, Aut translatus." Which is thus rendered — " Choice gift divine ! Thy times are mine ! A-broad, by day, A-breast, by night, I own, in thee, My heart's delight, 'Till wafted to the heavenly height!" Her arms were transcendently beautiful. Not senti- mentally sickly and unhealthily livid white, nor consump- tively lime-like, like those of too many modern rakish belles. No ! Her fond lover deemed hers, as indeed they Avere, pure perfection ! He determined, therefore, that the admira- tion which he felt, should, upon the nuptial day, be uni- versal ! They bordered on a ruby, or a white-hart-cherry- ubic hue, with wiry tinies or tinissimusses of arteries under both elbows, of verbena scarlet, and, at his urgent request, were, upon the ever-memorable morn, reluctantly on her part, divested of all fanciful and unbefitting drapery. She was, consequently, although modestly enveloped in ;i white veil throughout, married without sleeves other than the narrow shoulder band for the upholding of her elegant and costly dress. For In- Luxuriated in poetic lavs, and ;is he buckled on 166 THE BURRELLS. the golden bracelets which he presented to her on the solemn occasion : in fine bass, he sang, as though beauty were the idol-paramount of his high-wrought fancy " Arms, such as these, are more than herald's boast : They are, thus unadorned, adorned the most !" He constituted his crest, which continues therefore, to this present day, the same in every branch of the Burrell blood A naked arm, embowed, and holding a branch of laurel — both proper ! Jewelled rings upon every finger were the costly hymeneal offerings from the ten lovely bridesmaids selected from the graceful efflorences of the Wye's tributary town- ships. A travelling costume had been prepared of purple satin, bound round with peagreen benticles and barraways* with various suitable appurtenances, and placed ready, upon her toilet against her return from church. But, no, it might not be ! and was, of necessity, with all her rattletraps and his and those of their attendants too, sent on by swift mules, and short cuts, in the chance, by possibility, of crossing them on the road by Reading, upon the second or the third day. For her impetuous fondler, as if foreseeing, and horri- fied at the thoughts of what might follow, would not abide the customary ceremonies of after-wedding affairs : the being stuck up, at formal table, as the star of the dramatic scene, to be stared at, and to be talked at, and to be toasted to ; to be made to talk gibberish, and to break down in the middle : to be taken an affecting; fare- & * Obsolete words — parts of woman's attire! — Cumming. THE BUKRELLS. 167 well of: and, finally, to be cried over as though upon the eve of some excruciating execution: awful dissolution : or some hung, drawn, and quartered disembowelling em- barrass, with all those tiresome, teasing and contingent tormenting collaterals, to wit, as followeth — The " time up, horses at the door " annunciation ! and, oh, next, the scramblings, the bustlings, and the nervous agitations that become reversions. The hcres, the theres and the everywheres of men, maids, and excitable lady madcaps ! the ups and the down stairses ! the backs again and down the middles, like the Sir Roger de Coverleys at a ball ! the dressing-boxes, band-boxes, fermenting fruit jars and sandwich tins to partake of on the road: the high- shouldered bouquets of monkshood and fifty downcast, drooping, bashful flowery besiders for the carriage window ornament : sketch books, portfolios, books of roads, mani- fold writers, Bridges on the 119th Psalm, and other such- like breviaries! anchovy paste-pots and potted bloaters, ticketted " to be used up when you reach your lodgings, dears." Biffins for tiffins, cakes and conserves ! carriage seats: portmanteaus, over coats, umbrellas, camp stools and imperials ! servants' huge galumpuses, and heavy unwieldy sea-chests ! and all in piles upon piles at the great street door, like the unpackings of a steamboat upon a Bristol quay ! and, worst of all, those interminable bags that come tumbling down, nobody can tell wherefrom, or the planet's name, far above nubibus, after being neatened and made ready; and, finally, all those blankettcd, corded, puffed up, and crammed up bulbous-rooted-like abonii- nables of the vile, forgotten, left unpacked behinders of masterses, missises, maidses, and menses whatnots! which, so wilfully, and, we will say, wantonly worry and wirrct the man vehemently throbbing through every pore, vein 16*8 THE BURRELLS. and vesicle to be clear of soundings : and as the late Lord Prudhoe used facetiously to say, omitting the hen and the hus, "Bang out in blue water for the planet wee !" While, therefore, his every finger top, in intense pulsa- tion, thrillingly expressed to her, what only feminine nerve, can, in its subtle refinements, feel: he leapt her up, as it were, into the vehicle from the vestry door, and whisked her off, nolens volens, to the amazing wonderment of the good divine and all the beholders by ! The altar dress inconveniently thus became her sole honeymoon attire for the long intermediate period, prior to the obtaining of their abandoned heaps. But very providently a dear bystander, and we do praise and do laudify sweet woman for her commendable quality in this respect, had, in the spirit of divination, the presence of mind, to toss in, at the open window of the swiftly- departing chariot, her own pocket comb, something else in a tie, and her choice Genoa purple velvet cloak, which covered all, and spared the confusion contingent upon the improvident excitation of the panic-stricken great big boy ! We have only minute space for the detail of her splendid bridal dress, which our sympathizing lady readers must be anxious to know ; it being in black letter, we have trouble to decypher it : and then, as the blue parliamen- tary orator, and black as well as blue he must be, if he ever does so again, declaimed, ever and anon, during his mouthy perorations, when he pleaded in past times, the cause of protection, against the poor man's hungry apolo- gies — "one word more and we have done!"* * Editor's note No. 9. Oh, we do hope so from the very bottom of our souls. For, although we are conservatives, and church and Queenites, and do approve, and do commend those enlightened measures, which, while they allow every man the THE BURRELLS. 169 A rich white satin skirt overlaid with white interstieed gossamer drapery, trailing on the ground, studded with free exercise of his religion, forbid Protestant England to patro- nise Pagan rites, or to be insulted with Papal or priestly domi- nation : shamed with idolatrous processions, or disgusted with mummeries and nehushtans, which degrade and still disgrace human reason in our times in every portion of the habitable globe, and which require the sable cloaks of hateful nunneries and unnatural monkish walls — we do, from our very vitals, pro- test against that accursed legislation, which, for the upholding of a class, would enslave or compromise a country : and render, what should be considered an abstract question as between land- lord and tenant, an open Pandora of injustice and dead rohhery to all — fomenting discord, and ending, in all human probability, in anarch v. revolution and in blood ! * Oh, that our voluptuary leaders of all parties and shades of opinion, secular or sacerdotal, who, in their madding lusts after ephemeral fame, "fools and blind!" influence, by turns, the spiritual or political destinies of those captives to their will who unduly imbibe their wrong impressions, in this our yet great empire, would one and all reverse their impetuses or their impulses: and. practically, evince, for our reverential gaze and bright example, that, as then- can be no salvatory Church of Christ upon earth — be its rubrics or its confessionals what they may — but that, which, by being militant and self-renouncing has the felicity of Supremacy itself lor its one overwhelmingly- limitlesa desideratum — so there can be no curative statesmanship for the queen of nations amidst the isles of the seas, than that which is based upon omni-difrusively heneficent principles, by the immolation of all selfish interests, upon the hecatomb of aristocratical pride : imbued by the one patriotic motive of dif- fusing the vastesi modicum of well-heing and blessedness over an all potential and greatly-understanding people! • The question, since tin above was written has, happily been arranged. 170 THE BURRELLS. cerulean blue roses wreathed with yellow trefoil and art- fully serpentined in seven rows or radiances a la Pro- vence, up to one loupe at the waist formed by a pure diamond embedded in silver leaf, and ensconced with seven rare emeralds, seven rich rubies and seven other precious stones twenty-one in number ! the body, a low blue satin to match, looped behind, in seven plaits of amber ribbon, and coronnaded with seven comattoes* of dapple gray. And, now, condensing, of necessity, sixty-five remaining pages of most excitable matter into a few plain unvar- nished leaves-full of unsophisticated narration, the denoue- ment of the cheerily resolving tale is quickly and readily found. Mr. Ralph Burrell's ancestors had located themselves early in the fourteenth century in Devonshire, emanating, tradition tells us, from a Northumberland family named Birrell: having one, Randolphus, it is thought, before the conquest, for their prized and patriarchal Saxon pro- genitor. That Randolphus, however, who flourished in King Edward the III.'s time, married Sermonda Woodland of Devon. She was a celebrated beauty: and her father Sir Walter Woodland, was standard bearer to the Black Prince at the Battle of Poictiers, and, in her right, by the decease of that old gouty gentleman, he became possessed of great estates at Woodland where he resided. Our hero's father was his great great grandson, and notwithstanding the vicissitudes of the civil wars, had the *•& • The meaning of this word would puzzle a philosopher ! we think it should he tomattoes, or pommatoes, a fruit ! or, possibly, comeattoes, hut dictionaries are dumb. THE BURRELLS. 171 tact, it seems, or rather the good fortune, to hold some considerable estates there still : and the enamoured youth was transporting his charming bride, born curiously on the same month and year as himself, from Monmouth- shire to the Isle of "Wight, for the passing away of the honeymoon. He had surprised and become enamoured of her from the vicarage bower (it is a most romantic story), where she was humming her ditty as below : and harping plain- tive scintillatory notes, like the diamond lights we behold on the visible horizon, when, with our backs to the beam, they are rendered visible to the optic nerve : and whither, in his excursion by the winding Wye at eve, he had fled for shelter from a fearfully superincumbent storm. It seems to have been that same dreadful tempest which shivered the Brecon beeks, prostrated its turrets, and up- tore its stately trees, and reduced various records of the then past to powder or oblivion. MARY'S LITTLE DITTY. Poor Mary has no parent known : No father nor no mother : Poor Mary pary's left alone, Nor Bister Ins nor brother ! But Mary points to good in store Win re love and faith may waft her, And presses on for prize before — The pledge of bliss hereafter. lie listened and he loved! "There was more than morality," he suspired, as he climbed up the cliffs and revealed himself, "there was religion in the lay!" 1 72 THE BURRELLS. Her courteous urbanity, after the first unsettlement, and her subsequent dignified self-possession, were charac- teristical and meet to win his too susceptible bosom ! She felt her safety at a glance, and, pressing him, with maiden delicacy and grace, to accompany her, in her flight through the flashes and big drops of rain, to her kind benefactor's habitation, she assured him of warmest welcome while the thunder growled. It was an invitation which, full of tenderness as he was, he joyfully and gratefully accepted. And see, fair reader, for your own bright pattern, see to what this chaste benevolence on her part, led ! The mighty consequences, oh ! ye unimpassioned ones, for once, behold, of one poor tiny timely act, of loving soft- eyed, bland and melting charity ! Verily, thy numbers, Sterne, are all mellifluous, and thy cadence nectar har- mony. " Hail all ye small sweet courtesies of life, for pleasant do ye make the path of it ! Like grace and beauty, which beget inclinations to love at first sight; 'tis you who open the door and let the stranger in!" She let him in, dear love ! she did, she did ! and sweetly was the nightingale-enchantress recompensed ! AVhile all without was darkness which might be felt, and elementary discord ; within, was all illuminating hospi- tality and soothing attention. To such a night of continuous tempest and tornado the happy people there would not expose the benighted, deluge-stopt, and lonely traveller. Poor fellow, no ! His piteous look was all enough and more, to melt them to compassion ! Small was the domicile : not one spare bed ; so on the very couch of boudoir or libraiy whereon she used to pore and poetise, his cushioned bed avus THE BURRELLS. 173 quickly laid, and the venerable master of the trelliced dome pronounced the vesper of benediction over his , innocent repose ! Days, weeks past on ! How strange ! unasked, he still remained ! He hemmed, apologised, and lingered ! The storm was long since by, and cerulean blue indicated a lengthened calm : Without excuse to offer : he continued on, an apparently welcome guest. At last, as by en- chantment, he became entranced and rivetted to the splendid spot, its bower and its bright demesnes ! and, shortly after, spoke out, manfully, his meaning and his e mind. All seeming difficulties soon subsided, and each emo- tion of false and morbid sensibility sped, like the high hill Malvern mists, at early morn, insensibly and for ever away ! After their planned excursion, the happy pair were to proceed coastwise to Sidmouth, and thence to Exeter, and his parental home ; there to experience the multi- plied endearments of those whom he reverenced, and to obtain those only available blessings which are ordained for dutiful submissions and obediences. In the wake of such blessings, afflictions become sanctified, and the light of the sun of prosperity is as the light of seven days by the hilarity of heart engendered, in the reality of such irradiations. Such was the result of his felicitous tour in search of the picturesque ! The whole affair came oil' in nine-and-twenty days. No courtship should be longer, with admitted mean-, iii this our land of delight and liberty ! Tedious wooings and protracted cooings maj be well enough for turtle-doves and young pigeons, bul they 174 THE BURRELLS. become great bores and sad abominations for rational but impassioned beings, where souls are sound and true. Parents — (we talk not of wretched mercenaries) — pa- rents are too oftentimes at serious fault in this respect ; but as for those stiff prudish maiden aunts, or laid upon the shelf-er-sisters, who, because they have something to leave when they do die, presume to exercise domination (all that immensely long time they do exist, and linger on their death-beds) ; who, having no suitors themselves, tor- ment those who have: who become, as they perversely will, tatlers, busybodies, marplots, searchers, listeners behind doors, spokes upon Avheels, and pigs upon rail- roads — the envious malignants ! they should be made to feel, and they shall too — let us consider for a little mo- ment what — the pointed finger ! thumb, let us say to be more energetic, the thickest thumb of perpetual scorn ! No question could he ask: his honest unsuspecting heart choked all utterances of the sordid kind. Her con- nexions, history, her every all were alike unsought, un- known ! Frantic his passion — allowing no let, it could admit of no delay. As for himself, his name even in those days — (how much more so now !) — was passport sufficient through all the west of England. His grandfather, Sir John Burrell, was long ago dead, though knighted for his loyalty and assistances to King Henry V., in the invasion of France, to which he had contributed (so early as the year 1414) a ship, twenty men-at-arms, and forty archers ; and of whom the wise woman of Kcnnington foretold, " that his issue should commingle with the D 'Allisons and the Percies ; and, eventually, in the maternal line, shine as stars of brightest lustre to an admiring world." His person, portly manners, manly bearing, and love- THE BURRELLS. ] 75 able attributes, were (all-abundantly) credentials, wher- ever he might wander, for warmest intimacies, such as incredulity itself, in bitterest mistrust, might not dis- ' parage nor despise. Its perditrous influences were aliens to the home and hearts of those holy ones who domiciled by the wavy waters of Chedder cliffs and Ross's lovely shores. He saw her in glowing and enkindling beauty at an adopted home, where benevolence had stamped its liveliest impress upon the churchman-pastor's brow ! That priest, that sainted man, that true Protestant in spirit, though then necessarily conformable iu letter to the ruling powers : that were, in the age of intolerance in which he lived — a worthy pattern he for all who despoil pastures in modern days, unheedful of the monition " Watch," like shepherds who cannot understand: and who still say, in vinous somnolency, " To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant;" — he who wasted not his energies, nor damaged his reputation, nor endangered his soul's health by debasing voluptuousness on the one part, nor by demoralising and drifeful controversies, those hateful bars to social unity on the other — this excellent man, we say, found the poor child in destitution, and he took her in ; she was literally thirsty, and he gave her to drink ; and, from her simple and heart-rending tale of recent persecu- tion and ruffian usages — in gospel-promise trust, that, for timely care and transitory appliances, duly made, recom- penses would arrive beyond what earth could yield or sight could see; in saying faith, he took her, all pom- and penniless, as Bhe, seemingly, was, like a lamb, into his bosom like one fallen, into his fold ! In process of time particulars mysteriously transpired, by the confession of a dying wretch whom he was called 176 THE BUREELLS. upon to visit — (but we must hasten to our conclusion) — such as the poor child was unable to disclose, respecting his precious charge ; until, after untiring toil, and difficul- ties all but insuperable, in his way, he was, at length, enabled to make a tolerable biography for the private inspection of the first law officer ere the matter was necessarily to be bruited to the world at large. Then it was — at that critical moment — that young Burrell appeared, and suddenly, a suitor for her smiles by the induction of the following pastoral : which she found betimes one morning — for she was a very early riser (all good people are) — suspended from a woodbine bough in her jasmine and laurustinus bower, now become, ever since Ralph had first surprised her there, her favourite resort. And thither she had transferred her choicest verbenas, and her bowl with the gold and silver fish of which she was so fond, and the Hibiscus Africanus which her lover loved so well ! He had tost upon his couch the previous night, and, opening the casement window of the library, wherein he had lain, secluded himself in the copse behind the bower, in a state of pitiable excitement, drawn features, parched lips, and nervous perturbation. Upon its perusal she fainted entirely away ! The youth burst instantly into a flood of scalding tears : sobbed : sighed : groaned : prayed : and became speechless : then, summoning all his fortitude, he rushed instantaneously and vehemently from his spider-hole con- cealment, caught and lifted her in his brawny arms : rocked her upon his capacious lap with lullaby mellifluous words : and soothed her with softest tenderest attentions : warmed her cold lips abundantly with his hot pouters, applied the restoratives of the fountain and the fan: cried over her as THE BURRELLS. 177 the immortal Daubuz did, in Desdemona's day, before he died away, entranced in love's delicious raptures; and, when herself once more, in joyous acceptance of his tremulous hand, while pressing his moistened cheeks to hers, and reclining thence, as she did (with eyes rivetted upon ;his, hysterically and tearfully), upon his broad palpitating bosom, we leave the enamoured reader to imagine, in the vast folios of the inventive mind, the thrilling sequels of the votive interview. RALPH'S PASTORAL LAY. Oh, Mary, dearer far to me Than Imogen or Lalage To Cambria or to Rome — Hie to the laurustinus bower Where Eos * opes her fairy flower: Why, soft-distilPd the genial shower, Still tarriest thon at home ? Awake, my fair one, and away. For Bether'a harts f begin to play, * "Where Eos opes." Aurora, goddess of the morning, called Eos by the Greeks, is represented by the poets, in a rose- coloured chariot, and opening, with her fairy fingers, the gates lit" the East, pouring the dew upon the earth, and musing the flowers of beauty to blossom where they grow. f "Bethel's harts. ('.Mini's flocks. Sharon's ruse." See the Canticle, ii. 1. 17 ; Isaiah, xxxv, I. 2. "] am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys. Until the day break and the shadows flee away. turn, my beloved, and he thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether." 178 THE BURRELLS. And Carmel'S flocks to bleat : Come, welcome this auspicious spring, Where, blithe, the woodland songsters sing. While zephyrs sport on Psyche's wing, And Sharon's rose is sweet. The wintry blasts are overblown : And Sylvia, in her verdant zone, With pearly gems arrayed — Views Herbifer,* with flowery crest, By dew-bespangling fingers drest, Bare, to the orient light, her breast. And undulates a-glade ! Come, mirthful maiden, and impart Thy gay jocundity of heart : Essenian hours t now o'er, Thou, if my benison thou'lt be, May'st well assure my constancy, Nor fear to heave a sigh for me, Nor love's decline deplore ! * "Herbifer."- A poetical name for the spirit or influence which presides over the destinies of the grassy herbage. f " Essenian hours." The Esseans or Essenes, probably descendants from Rechab, were a holy sect amongst the Jews in the times of Josephus. In subsequent days the term may be appropriately applied to the youths of either sex, who, like Ralph and Mary, in early prime, preferring, under kind tuition, those things which make for peace (before life's illusions alight upon them to allure), retire, awhile, from social intercourse, to in- dulge in religious meditation. To sow those tears for which the promise is, that they shall reap in joy: and to practise those timely and rightful austerities, which impart, in all after life, u ' in:; burrells. ! 79 Reft of society below, Life's but a Babylon of woe, Where doleful reptiles * hiss ! But friendship, virtuous love's ally, Is, like some hallowed fane on high — • A faithful index to the sky, An obelisk to bliss ! Then, Mary, to our Maker's praise, Corne, let us dedicate our days, And ritual altars rear ! How sweet, when halcyon hopes inspire, To attune the hymeneal lyre With little further to desire, And nothing more to fear ! Oh, Mary, dearer far to me Than Imogen or Lalage To Cambria or to Rome — Within my laurustinus bower, Bloom, like Aurora's rariest flower— An amulet for every hour. And angel of my home ! Their nuptials were solemnized and sanctified by the tone to the mind : and relieve it from undue pressure by material objects; subjecting thus, through Grace, the passions to the judgment, and the will to heaven ! * " Doleful creatun Alluding to the Scripture curse against the citj of the Euphrates, the palace of Merodach Baladan. " Their houses shall be full <>)' doleful creatures, and owls shall dwell there and satyrs Bhall dance there." N 1' ISO THE BURRELLS. good man's blessing, who lived some years afterwards, in heartfelt happiness, and died, in peace, in his dear adopted Mary's arms: who (accompanied by her lovely twins Isabella, and Thomas) tended him all befitting attentions in his night of need. With a purse of gold, upon their departure from the vicarage for the altar-solemnitv, where a few natural tears were shed on either side — his we leave our readers to imagine from what rapt source — hers from gratitude — he placed, within her hands, a sealed envelope, which she was to open and peruse upon the morrow, when the ' ■ . -itement of the hour, then on, was by, and reveal the mystery, to the generous all-confiding youth, upon whom her destinies were henceforward so essentially to depend. They continued their course, through Thatcham, Alder- maston, Woolhampton and Theale : but, when almost within sight of the now large, and flourishing town of Reading, which it became seriously imperative they should all rapidly reach : and the horses had been goaded on for this purpose, in a faint hope to obtain changes of linen from their extremely needed piles of packages : the ther- mometer being ninety-one in the shade — however soever they and their highly wrought up and over-fed juveniles contrived, under the very peculiar circumstances, to look so surprisingly decent and dapper as. they did we never yet could learn, and Euclid does not show batchelors may and do make shifts and cut out various other contrivances : but sharp tools and Italian irons, with appurtenances for such unusual dilemmas, hymeneals never own A SLIGHT MISHAP OCCURRED ! A forewheel came off; the horses gibbed: and they were all precipitated to the ground ! THE BURRELLS. 181 The pathetic maiden wrung her flexible wristed hands, and, all, a-kimbo, tragi-comically shrieked ! The pages crimsoned : the lads sentimentally sympathized : and the poor plaintive thin-skinned Italian, in a convulsive tremor, licked the lily finger which protruded from its enkidded embryD-ism, in the fright. * For themselves a shock was felt but that was all ! No personal injury Avas sustained ! And, quickly re-assured, they alighted, after the rumple and role-over, until the necessary reparation (which, they were informed, required two longest hours interval at the least) could be made. Then, leaving their five, bellicose-become, and love-sick susceptibles, in charge of their carriage, the cattle, little gre and the deary debonnaire, he, thoughtfully holding up her rosy bridal train, and wending their joyous-hearted way, at moon-rise, from the roadside grove along an elm- enlined lane upon their right, and thence straight on, they reclined upon a mossy slope, near a small babbling brook, where, beside them, a recently re-decorated moat I man- sion met their view, whose clustering roses frolicked with giddy zephyrs on their stately stems, while lavender, eglantine, and whitest jasmine, lent their super-added perfume to the balmy breeze, unstabled by such playful dalliances. Tempting ripening apricots of a well-weeded garden, bended down luxuriant boughs behind: while meekest lambkins, in new birth, by the side of their dams, reposed in peaceful security before: anil those warbling choristers of the Berkshire groves, sweel nightingales beyond, chir- rupped, in fancy' ear, alluring cadences of feathery affection. lie passed, uxoriously, his muscular arm softly hut ringly, around In.- tremulous unresisting charmi 182 THE BUERELLS. slender, tapering, waxy waist, and sang as a precious serenade, which ended in a rapturous duet, and must be set to music — SERENADE. Dear blue-eyed Mary — wholly mine, As tendril, lissome to entwine Around its graceful, luscious vine, Fond Ralph is ravenously thine ! " Le lew ! le lew ! Sing bonny blue ! (duet) To me — to you, Like honied dew, Sweet love — my love, Sweet love — my love, Sweet love — my love, Is transport true ! " Then kindly, kissingly, huggingly, luggingly, and smil- ingly enticingly, taking from her pearly fingers the all- important manuscript entrusted to her faithful care, he read, to the astonishment of the transfixed and glowingly- ardent lover, upon the daisy-enamelled spot, with mellow- intonation of voice, and with an expression to be pictured only in imagination's most fertile chamber of conception, and not by poet-pen, the following highly graphic, and excitingly absorbing " narrative of the life and adventures of Mary Douglas, formerly of Soutkcote lodge in Berkshire, fron/ llif ever memorable night of her abduction, iii/til I In 1 peri ml of her providential restoration from misery: of her subsequent education, under the roof of the Reverend and of tin very THE BURRELLS. 183 /• ct nt discovery of all particulars respecting the ancestry of that note rick ward in chancer n?* They lived long in a state of connubial felicity, and, in continuous blandishments and reciprocal endearments, perpetuated their mutual graces, and his respected name! Their great grandson Walter still nourished, in after periods, at Cuckfield in Sussex : an estate left Ralph, our hero, by his uncle Gerardus, archdeacon of Chichester, and vicar of that town : the very year which preceded the decease of King Henry VII. This Walter had a large family, but several died young. The granddaughter of Timothy, the seventh son, was married to his Grace Charles Spencer, the second Duke of Marlborough. Wroln Alexander the eighth son, descended Alexander the highly venerated rector of Adstock in Buckinghamshire, father to Peter Burr ell, the late treasurer of the South Sea Company : whose lovely lineal representative and daughti r was Mary, the clear and ever-to-be-lamented mother of the author of these miscellanies. And from his ninth or youngest sou Peter, fame Dr. Burrcll — afterwards Sir William, through his marriage into the Raymond family of Tiverton — father to the present Sir Charles Merrik Burrell,f ;ls u ell as of his elder brother Peter,J surnamed "the fortunate," because of his children's alliances,]: of Langley park, near Beckenham in Kent. * The narrative is mislaid <>r lust. f The venerable member for NVw Shoreham who has now represented thai anci ml borough during fourteen successive Parliaments. \ •■ Because of bis children's alliances." .Mr. Peter BurreU of Beckenham, cotemporar) with bis 184 THE BURRELLS. cousin Peter, treasurer of the South Sea Company, was singularly fortunate in li is family ! They consisted of one son and four daughters. The son Peter (a city man, as well as his great uncle Sir Merrik of West Grinstead) married the Lady Willoughby D'Eresby (a Welch heiress, and daughter of the Duke of Ancaster), who (the tra- ditions of Great St. Helens reveal to us) made the first advances, having been captivated by his exceeding beauty. He became, in consequence, Lord Gwydir, and Lord High Chamberlain by deputy ! His eldest sister had married a com- moner : but, by introducing his three incomparable younger sisters into courtly circles, their fortunes were soon after made. The second married the Earl of Beverley : the third his grace the Duke of Northumberland, father to the present peer : and the fourth, first the Duke of Hamilton, and secondly the Marquess of Exeter : to the great joy of all branches of the family : but particularly of their judicious parent, who in an age of female ignorance and neglect, had devoted his life to their education and accomplishments, and reaped, in their advancement, a suitable recompense for his parental care. £3" The curious reader is referred to the records of that period : and to the second volume of De Brett's " Peerage and Baronet- age," published 1802, under the heads of Burrell : Gwydir : Willoughby D'Eresby, and of other noble families connected with this legendary tale. THE BURRELLS. 185 [Memorandum. — In the month of August last (after the com- pletion of the above narrative) the author of these miscel- lanies (though differing in his political creed from the -worthy baronet), was allured to become one of those 800 privileged Susses gentlemen, who, in this age of parliamentary depravity, congregated, at West Grinstead park, to bear viva voce testimony, as Britons, to the intrinsic value, in public men, of political con- t sistency. Where his relative, at the green old age of eighty-two— the veteran possessor of that fine old castellated domain — (at an ever- memorable jubilee banquet) was gratulated and lionised for his unflinching probity. Standing, as he did, erect (like Bernard Barton's oak), the stateliest of his forest, amongst those 800 clustering ivied-supporters, on that one bright, beamy, bdnnie autumnal day, and aptly illustrating, in propria persona, the memorable words of the immortal Nelson, that, " an uniform course of honour and integrity seldom fails of bringing a man to the goal of fame at last."] 186 THE EXCURSION. SUPPLEMENTARY, THE EXCURSION. ( An alliterative interlude to be enacted with applause when Bombastes Furioso is in oblivion : or upon the revival of dramatic taste and due appreciation of lugubrious phraseologies.) Scene 1. — Castle hill, Hastings. Time, Nightfall. Thunder, lightning, wind, hail, rain. Enter BO : Sill HOLLOWAY HO : AND SIR RUDOLPH RO. HO. Ye lambent wights who mortal weal betide — Ye who, a-mountain or a-maine abide — Unheard before us, unbeheld behind — Tripartite beings, bod) 7 , soul and mind — Why are ye not akin ? Why can ye not be kind? HO. A-rock I rush ! o'er rugged ruins rave ! A-crag, ye airy elves, your counsel crave ! Behold me hatless and but half-attired ; In sense, impassioned, but, in soul, inspired, By fancy fashioned thus — and thus by frenzy fired! THE EXCURSION. 187 BO. Ho, ho, ye spi'ites, precipitous I come ' . Hear me ye deaf, and answer me ye dumb ! Say what, ye powers, is locomotive man But caul or cauldron, canister or can, Jug, pipkin, pitcher, pipe, jar, gallipot, or pan ? no. Man, biped man, he whom the brutes obey, What is he other than a clod of clay? BO. A transient beam from bliss above his boast — Bless'd with a momentary smile at most. RO. And then he goes aghast — and giveth up the ghost ! HO. A little morn, recumbent and at ease As prone to pleasure as disposed to please, He lives, he loves ! I Weeps. BO. Oh, weeper, wipe thine eyes ! IK). He lives, he loves ! | Sighs. BO. ( i ase, unavailing sight ! 188 THE EXCURSION. EO. Alas ! lie lives, he loves ! and then, ah me ! he dies ! bo, ho and eo. 'Tis not, believe us, ordinary zests That charm our senses or becalm our breasts : HO. 'Tis not the silvery sea nor silvan scene : BO. 'Tis not the glories of the glad terrene EO. Nor uplands ever bright nor lowlands ever green ! HO. 'Tis not the barks all buoyant o'er the Hood : BO. "lis not the fretted vault nor fane a-wood* HO. For pearly pools the fish prepared a-glade : f BO. The ruins pendant o'er the gay parade : * Hollington church. f The fish ponds. THE EXCURSION. 189 RO. No, nor the seat * a-cliff for fond Aminta made ! t BO. If mundane minds on pillowy dreams repose, With dreamy phantoms let their beings close : Be it ours to scan, far happier, if aright HO. The joyous magic of pellucid light, RO. Beaming, in imagery's chamber, ever bright ! HO. She flies ! she flies ! BO. Where? show me where, I say. RO. Who flics? IK). The cherub! EO. Whither, and what way? * The lovers' s< :i t . 190 THE EXCURSION. HO. The moon shines bright upon her bosom bare : The dewdrop sparkles on her auburn hair : Behold the mirthful maid ! behold our fondled fair ! BO. I'm mad ! RO. And so, am I ! HO. And I'm mad too ! BO. All mad ? Then what, Dotundus, shall we do ? HO. "Why, I'm for running. Rudolph, let us run. RO. Quick, sir, I follow. BO. Capitally done ! Flint: matchlock: wadding: bullets: gunpowder and gun ! (Scene changes.} THE EXCURSION. 191 Scene 2. — Fairlight downs. Time, Midnight. Thunder- bolts, iceberg*, waterspouts ! Enter aminta. Oh, sad Aminta, whither must I fly ? My breath is disembodied, and I die ! Pursued by madmen 'till the noon of night, By wildering woodlands have I wing'd my flight, And now I can no more ! I'm frenzied with affright ! Farewell, dear father, for mine hour is come : Ran out of life, I'm racing to my tomb! [Runs. Not all thy pity nor paternal care Can more avail thy daughter fond and fair : She's tearing on to death ! she's frantic with despair ! Farewell, dear mother ! loveless and forlorn I'm mad, unmatcd, and my mind is gone ! Brothers and friends, Aminta's soul has sped ! Hunted by human hounds to death, she's dead. [Screams. Coal-: fire: coke: furnaces: and red hot liquid lead ! [Du s. Enter bo, sir budolph ro, and sir eollowai ho. IK). On, Rudolph, on ! pursue our hopeful prize ! Joy sparkles in my heart, my head, my eye Oh, wedded love whal love can be like this? ]f»2 THE EXCURSION. RO. Oh, wedded love ! enrapturing love it is ! BO. Oh, love, oh wedded love, consummative of bliss ! HO. Oh, manhood's hawthorn (May tide's fair perfume). RO. Oh, beauty's incense ! oh, fruition's bloom ! HO. Oh, hope's red damask, blushing in its bud ! RO. Oh, vivifying charm of vital blood ! BO. Oh, brimful fount of joy ! oh ecstacy of good ! Enter phantoms and disappear. HO. Sad tearful thoughts surcharge my sorrowing soul: Life's cordial is embittered in its bowl ! The streaks are lurid of the eastern sky ! I see black spots on every being by, The boding heralds they of man's mortality ! THE EXCURSION. 193 KO. A death-like dullness cramps my withering heart ! t I feel as if my spirit would depart ! The ghosts of darkness shriek, and, shrilling, shout : While sprited spectres dance, like apes about ! Oh, Ho and Bo, help Ro, undone without a doubt ! BO. Bo has too much to do himself to save ! Bo grovels on the platform of his grave ! Bo's quivering lips, glazed eyes and vacant stare, Bo's hectic flush : Bo's stiff upstanding hair, And, ah, Bo's chattering teeth Bo's dreadful doom dedare. HO. I feel as though my liver and my lights Were clipped with nippers by the fiend-like wights ! BO. As houses in a blaze, just so feel 1 ! KO. And I, as though the sockets of each eye Were torn by red hot teeth ! but what do 1 descry? BO. Aminta! it is she! <>li. Ho and Ro! Twice blessed men, and, ah, thrice blessed Bo ! Wake, my Aminta, wake, to your beloved. «» 194 THE EXCURSION HO. No! She's dead, man ! BO. S— s— s- — s — so am I. KO. And I'm — dead too. [Dies. [Dies. HO. All dead ! then what, Dotnndus, shall I do ? I'll bury these {buries them), and in their graves, I'll die ! With my Aminta, at the last, I'll lie, And, now, pure spirit of poor Ho, far from this false world fly ! [He falls into the grave, and ho's pure spirit flies away ! The curtain slowly falls. A dirge or death march is played by the whole orchestra, and the audience remain dissolved in tears until the pantomime. GLOSSARY OF HAUD WORDS. 105 GLOSSARY OF HARD WORDS . «. Unwittingly adopted in these Miscellanies, alphabetically arranged and adapted. AbLUNIONARY -VALEDICTORY -IMPOSITIONARY - OBEDI- ENTIAL. (N. plural.) 1. Vide the Court of Arches. 2. Private immersions which precede the dissolution of the little dears or ducklings, who, had they survived, might still have lapsed into abominable drawbacks from primal regeneration. Amogrifying. (V. active.) The process of dissolving or disuniting gasses. 2. Of liquifying lead for tea paper. #. Of separating lovers. 4. Of amatory correspondence and its con- sequentials. Anility. The state of an imbecile old lady or an arch- deacon in the downs. AroTHEOSiSES. ( X. plural.) Transmigrations of appel- lative Adam. ARCH-ANGEL. (Subs.) 1. A town on the icy ocean. 2. A cardinal. 3. An Irish prelate. 4. A see in a stormy latitude. r>i.i>-BATTENED. (Part.) Made very comfortable indeed. Bedizened. (Part.) I. Uncanoniscd. 2. Fly blown. '3. Full of live matter, but without vitality. 4. \\ ithout the laudable pus of papality. 5. Gentilised. 6. Goosified. 7. Reprobate. 8. Anamarified. o 2 196 GLOSSARY OF HARD WORDS. Below ables. (N. plural.) i. Wellingtons, Bluchers, or Russia ducks. 2. Blinkers. 3. Bloomers. 4. Morrisonians or universal coverlets. Biboe. See note to page 158. Called. 1. See advertisements in the Times, query? 2. Having a call. Connjngs. (N. plural.) 1. Recognitions. 2. Umnistake- able impressions. Curations or Curators. Hodie, Curates. (N. Sub.) 1. Rectors non-obediential representations. 2. Young ladies' impersonations. 3. Cam- bric handkerchiefers or white tiers. 4. Hard working, half paid, and practical divines. Efflorences. (Sub.) 1. Gay debutantees. 2. Timid ex- pectantees. 3. Trainbearers at hymeneals. Florified. (Adj.) Having more flowers than leaves. Gee Hens. (N. plural.) Fixed flats, not globose, nor refulgent : in vacuo. Frippery or Frip. 1. Self-supporting, attracting or globular. 2. Self-creative and ordaining. 3. Based upon its own perpendicular. 4. An embodiment. 5. Having indifferently male or female head. 6. A share in a rail- road. Mangle. (V. A.) To pervert the Fifth Commandment, a la Corban, to secular uses. 2. To tear flesh. 3. To make a collision by excursion trains on Whit-Monday. Metempsychosises. (N. plural). Manufacturers of Dianas, and such-like plaister of Paris wares for Romish altar pieces, and black letter saints adoration. GLOSSARY OF HARD WORDS. 197 Pewterpottiness. (Noun.) 1. A monthly nurse idiom, quaint but full of significance. 2. A master stroke. 3. A misgiving. PiCTS. See note to page 159. In Queen Elizabeth's time they had no forks, but used pics or fingers. '' Propo or Apropos. A chamber utensil. Puking babyism. (Noun.) The privileged and ad- vanced state of experiences of appella- tive Adam after 6,856 anniversaries, ac- cording to Hales, of involuntary innate contraryism or depravity. QuiCQUAM attixets. Vide Moore's Almanac, perti- nentes ad corpus hominis, viz., arms, legs, noses, ears, fingers, toes, et eastern. Qi i vive. (Adj. or Sub.) 1. Alert. 2. Excited. 3. The sensations of those avIio hang upon a coali- tion ministry. 4 In a state of hallucina- tion. Quodd. (N. neuter.) The awful state of ambulation upon stilts over an interminable quag igno- rant of all whenecs and whithers. Serpentine. (Noun.) 1. A species of marble. 2. A snake in the grass or double dealer, who must not be named, high up in the church or meeting house. Trimebes upostasis. (Noun.) Man in the abstract. Unine. (Adj.) Trio in uno, or in uno, ires. Worser. Bad grammar. o 198 GLOSSARY OF HARD WORDS. ADDENDUM. Pre-existent Keeble. (N. singular.) 1. Keeble before he became consistent animated clay. 2. Abstractedly speaking, before he was dreamt about or concepted. 3. Primal or abinitio. 4. Keeble before dandled in Houndsditch ready mades. 5. Before he had a grand- mamma, distant cousins, or other super- numeraries. Keeble, de facto. A nomenclature for a most excel- lent and pious man. PART V. MISCELLANIES. ' A L B II M oi? SCKAP-BOOK. von OMNIUM GATHERUMS OR WHAT YOU WILL. And for others notions or crotchets, refining or amalgamating, and so identifying them with one's own. " [deas Bow from books, our natural food, \ - aliment is changed to vital blood." Hannah More. CONTENTS. 20] t ^entente of fart cjf inc. Dedication New style, or leap year Easter day Ebion Socinus Unitarians proper The Nicholaitans Reflection thereupon The te Deum Address to Emma Episode thereupon The Septuagint The Hellenists Jannes and Jambres Moses Simon the just was a charming good man The feast of dedication .... A<|ii:niiu -rrasquae, or a cataplasm of Columho root (a satire lor the times) Abraham ...... Cyrus ...... Conclusion ..... Glossary for all precedences Total lines PAOK LINES 203 205 27 206 9 ib. 19 207 9 208 3(5 209 — 210 18 211 18 212 30 213 18 214 12 ib. 6 215 10 ib. 23 21(5 17 217 22 219 1049 267 75 270 14 271 ]:; 274 — 1,455 DEDICATION, 203 IDMKGIIIKDl TO SIR JOHN WILLIAM RAMSDEN, BART.: (until recently the youthful m.p. for taunton) These effusions, for juvenile laymen and sacerdotal would- bes, are, primarily, dedicated. BY THE PREDICATOR OF HIS MATURING FAME : in the beau ideal that the animus of the imprint may be undulated by a full onflow of kind response, in much youth-love rational and free-thought inquisition over the precious soul-imbues of all bible-reverencing sympathies. " Childhood and youth invoke the poet-pen : 'Tis labour lost to write" for mulish men ! Diverging ever from pure Gospel-rules, Like circling waves o'er stone-enrufned pools, (Priest-madded) pedant-fops: (professing wisdom) — fools. Cotton's Visions (slightly parodied). NEW STYLE, Oil LEAP YEAR. 205 I NEW STYLE, OR LEAP YEAR. That Pope Gregory first altered the style is most true : For he did so in anno fifteen eighty-two : But Parliament tarried until was begun That odd anno D seventeen fifty-one. The tropical year must be, hence, under heaven, Three, sixty-five, o: 48: 57 ! The years 19, 20, 21, 2, 3 hundred Anniversaries common are all to be numbered. AYhi'ii two thousand and twenty-four hundred we keep, Whether limp, lame, or limbless, we're told we must leap. And at every fourth of centurial year, Stir up our old stumps 'till six thousand appear ! For every six thousand must common become, 'Till one hundred and forty-four thousand 's the sum. At every one hundred and forty-four thousand Wc must drop off' the one day from sleep, should we rouse, and How slippery soever earth's surface, upstand ! It is very fatiguing the race we've to run By such rollings and polings of plaueta and sun. How much we should wish from our hearts and our reins, To be brought to the end of these bone-giving pains ! To jump, waltz, and polk it, is good for young jokers, Bui it nnisi be a bore when our hgs are like poker.-. '206 EBION. And sticking, like bird-lime, to earth, 's a wrong notion, While this toss-about system remains in commotion. So number we, days, and our balance so keep, That we, all, be found looking, before our last leap ! EASTER DAY. Easter day must always be On the first Sunday, do you see, After the full moon which has shone Either next after, or upon The hopeful vernal equinox : Which, in the new style, falls, we say, On March nineteenth, or twentieth day, Counting the time from midnight clocks : Praeteria et nihil vox ! EBION. When Ebion his racings and pacings o'erran, Sabellius, Cerinthus, and Montaenus began, With Artemus, Noitus, and Samosada's good man, Until the fourth century, their wild oats to plant, And would mil. like the Apostle, their errors recant. SOCINUS. 207 By tradition or record, it clearly appears, That, till seventeen hundred and many more years, This sect, amongst mutes, was the tiniest tittle, 'Till Priestly confuted some weak ones a little. But 'twas Belsham and Lindsay, we very well know, Who gave Aspland a cue how o'er Norris to crow ! Because Aspland was placid and Norris was not, And truths become libels when zealots are hot ! Logos means " principle," they say ; or something wise : Which the episcopalian properly denies, Since this, Rev., xix, verse 13, St. John personifies ! Cerinthus kept Sabbath two days in each week, And wrote more in dread of the Jew than the Greek, Teaching notions, we, churchmen, in rev'rence, daren't speak. SOCINUS. Socinus went further than the priesthood of Dan, For he worshipped whom, wrongly, he deemed a mere man. But, wrapped in the robe of antiquity-dress, All kinds of professors their frailty confess. For, grafting their common sense notions with those, They thus become dealers, like Jews, in old clothes ! There is no pin to choose: all are wrong in their angles. Who, garbling the scriptures, to favour their tangles. Jar, each against other, by heterodox jangles ! 208 UNITARIANS PROPER. UNITARIANS PROPER. We never can call any Christians our foes : Without reference to creeds, we're respecters of those, And pity, whom, most, we're compelled to oppose. These germs of Sabellius, who preached, full and free, At Ptolemais in Lybia a.d. 2 — 5 — 3, We as well may allude to : hut what can it be ? His successor, at Antioch, Aurelian deposed, In two-seventy A.D., as some have supposed, When the Roman Ca-tholics were, firstly disclosed. For men, at ease, in sunny glow, In health and wealth, enough, we know, Beseem the theories which these avow. But, ah ! when penury or pain abound, Or, worse, soul, sick'ning from incurate wound, Must not their insufficiences be felt and found ? For, innate sin's consentient slaves, at last, Disposed the lot, which, in the lap was cast.* Or, on the antitype or type must look, And, clotheless, cast away the coverlid they took : f Else, when the seals are broken there, Unless as thinkers on the name, oh, where Will be their record in Remembrance-book ? J Ye wayward teachers, ponder on the text : This life's a meteor ! What must be the next ? * Proverbs, xvi, 33. | Isaiah, xxx, 22; lxiv, 6. I Malachi, iii. 16. THE NICHOLAITANS. 201) Oh, since forewarned of that other, Let us not foredoom one another ! For pre-ordained are notions, and who knows Whether th' elected are the Highs or Lows ? The utmost we may do, is to suppose, And act by every one the part of brother, Whether free mason, odd fellow, or other ; (Eyeing that precious feature on the face — our nose.) One thing we know for very certain — Tug as we will, we can't undraw the curtain. Therefore, the matter, in a mist, we close, To moralise, a little while, in plainer prose. THE NICHOLAITANS Were the followers of one of the seven primitive deacons. These men are censured in the book of Revelations; for they were impious in their doctrines, and licentious in their lives. (Sec Ireneus and iEcumenius's works.) Reflection. Alas, poor human nature! Baptised, renewed, con- firmed, and (query) regeneraU ? whenever (allured by evil impulses) thou becomest, vain man, in any sense or point of view, consentient to innate waywardness in temper, imagination, or conception, how pitiable thy condition, how humiliating and how derogatory ili\ aspects and tin 210 THE NICHOLAITANS. lot ! " Create in us, God, an utter abhorrence of all impurity !" Be this the prevailing aspiration for every vacant moment of our trying tale of time ! Not even the laying on of the inspired apostle's hands, nor all the extraordinary outpourings of the Holy Spirit: not all their recorded ablutions, pilgrimages, vigils, fasts, obe- dientials, privileges, nor penitential and tearful prayers, preserved the primitives, of the elected holy deacon's followers, from reprobation ! Who then is safe? Thou placid and complacent ex- pounder of parables in life's highway : in fulness and sufficiency : or, on the glassy wave, resting upon thine oars, in sunny water glow, who, at the remotest hour of his bioscope of time, may dare to utter the presumptuous assertion, I am he ? Is it the empurpled layer on of hands in lawn, or the poor weak credulous confiding one in such impressment ? Echo answers, " Is it ?" Madded by legend or by lore, Are all who right deductions draw From unsound premises before ! Open the latch At Colney hatch, And for that domicile, such creatures catch ! And, now again, In copious strain Of doofsrel sons Or Alexandrines long, We'll wend our way Through grave and gay, To make the heart right glad, Which, when so crazed, is sad. THE TE DEUM. 211 And say our say ! Ye worldly-minded men, now turn awhile, To hearken, while we use a softer style, Your qualms or tedium vitaes to beguile ! THE TE DEUM. In the fourth century, Saint Ambrose Did the te Deum-chant compose : When, as his convert Christian prize, He Saint Augustine did baptise ! As corollary of laudation It seems a splendid compilation : And as a poesy or prayer, 'Tis fit for worthies everywhere ! To sin-sick souls who use it not, We'll not speak loud as to their lot, But merely whisper while we may, In words like these, you beauties, you should pray ! We pity when we see you lag behind and pout! You had better take monition, and mind what you're about, For some night or another there'll be a ruful row. And " never," must supplant the loving watchword "NOW !" We'll now digress awhile with manly grace, To put in something plaintive iii this plnce. I' -1 212 TO EMMA. TO EMMA. (Tu ne quesiere, sch*e nefas, quod mihi, &c. — Horace.) Seek not, my Emma, how absurd ! The gipsy fortune-telling herd To know your future fate : Nor heed the papal, Romish rules : Who build such dogmas, build like fools, And find their folly great ! Resting on self-denial's prize, Trust thou in Providence : 'tis wise : But all besides is wrong. That, happy, thou (though far or near Thy winter of life's varying year) May'st soothe the circling throng. Blessings : how transient is their stay ! Secure them ere they fleet away : Thine gaiety of heart, Thou mayest, within Amanda's breast, Lull all maternal fears to rest. And genial joy impart ! Emma beware : life's later wiles Bereft of her reviving smiles Her orphans must depress : Prize, then, thy angel-mother's care, And count that, soul-sustaining prayer Which still outpours to bless ! EPISODE. 213 For should it chance you pace that scene, In life's decline where she has been, As if in Canaan's bower, What, but the glow, from long review Of well-paid love and reverence due, Can s;ild that serious hour? EPISODE. (Upon revisiting the deserted locality thirty years afterwards.) Amanda gone and Emma too ! Poor girl : thou'rt spared the long review, Or later hours bewail ! But, poet, privileged, fond maid, To sing a requiem to thy shade, Thus tells thy virtue's tale — Blest, in parental beam to bask, Well didst thou ply thy filial task, Then smooth'dst her bed of death : 'Till, soon, thy span of life being spent, Thou wentest where thy loved one went. In soul-emitted hreath ! Yes, thou ml dead, and Mary too! Thy love to her, and hers to you. 214 THE HELLENISTS. Equal as rivers-run, Continuous through your lives was found. Until, inhersecl in Battle ground,* Ye sisters, sleep, as one ! THE SEPTUAGINT. The septuagint they did translate Anno B.C. two, seventy, eight : They found in Job just one verse more, Which, why expunged, there's no wherefore : At least, so says the German Bos, And we are sorry for the loss : For tell it did of hopeful state Where souls rest intermediate, That is to say, anticipating joys, Provided they were once good girls and boys. And did not waste their times in romp and riot, But, all the while the baby slept, kept cpaiet ! THE HELLENISTS. Who, on earth, were the Hellenists of old? Why Jewish converts to Christianity we are told. * Where a wych-elm has been planter! upon their remain*. MOSES. 215 They gabbled in the Greek tongue, and grumbled against those Who talked in the vernacular or Syro-Chaldaic prose. That was the tongue in vogue, in Judea and Galli-lee, Fram anno D one, to A Domini thirty-three ! JANNES AND JAMBRES. Jannes and Jambres, in old days, Numenius the Pythagorean says, In magic skill, gave place to none. So Musreus, the adopted son Of Pharaoh's daughter (Moses named), Was, by the votes of all, proclaimed The fit detector of such ninnies: (Works of Eusebius see, and Pliny's) To which, 'tis thought, St. Paul, Tim. 2, ( lhap. iii, verse 8, alluded to. MOSES. A word aboul Moses, and tin; Hebrew men of old: Their government was a theocracy we're told. Of seventy aldermen their sanhedrim was, And the general assembly was every man, because They had no M.1V- to pass the magnate's laws. 216 SIMON THE JUST. Their landmarks— for they had no quickset hedges — Of what pertained to each, were counted pledges : And thus, restricted from undue desires, Footpaths were not stopt up to suit the squires : And commons, which, to enclose, our law allows, Were left, in maiden pride, for poor men's cows. But the most wonderful event en record which we read, Is this startling information about Moses' seed ! One feels inclined to allegorise from this, Lest, when we mould, we mould with mind amiss ! His grandson Jonathan, tcho was Gershonis son, To be a par/an priest, teas by the Danites won ! They worshipped idols! Judges eighteen mark, Until the Philistines obtained the ark ! His son Eleazar's offspring, in their prime, Were high in office, it appears, in Solomon's time : See Chron. 23, verse 14, and 26, verse 24: Upon which subject, now, we had rather not add more ! SIMON THE JUST WAS A CHARMING GOOD MAN. Simon the just was a charming good man, High priest, and last president of the clan Called the sanhedrim ; who was alive, And flourished B.C. three hundred and five. He completed the canon, by adding, at will, ( We call them plenary inspirations still, THE FEAST OF DEDICATION. 217 Which whosoever dares to dotibt, From select circles, will certainly be shut out) Ezra, Esther, and Nehemi, Both books of Chronicles, and Malachi ! But, sad to tell ! his follower Sadok, led His sect, called Sadducees, who wrong books read, •^To doubt revivals for all baby-comes born dead ! ! Was not the witty boy excessively ill-bred? And should he not have been well birched before being put to bed ? We greatly fear, the muff, if we had mothered, We should have sniggled, overlaid or smothered ! THE FEAST OF DEDICATION. The feast of dedication, query what ? We'd better know about, the tiling than not: Because, we rather think, some Jews still keep it on, And 'tis alluded to, chap. 10, Saint John. Judas Macca-beus, aa history -ays, .Made it an ipse-dixit-day of praise, At dedication of the temple, in his da\ . When purged, by him, from Epiphanes' profanation: To be kept <>n the twenty-fifth of the ninth month, By all the Jewish □ It doth, from books, called orthodox, appear — (Which, by the by, is a word to base every idea) That it answers to the winter-solstice of our year. 218 THE FEAST OF DEDICATION. And, although institute by merely warrior- will, The rite was honoured by our blessed Redeemer still. Ye, who antagonistic are To acts for anniversaries of prayer As paramount to councils, learn, from hence, Your non-conformity 's a grave offence ! We might say more, but will not, in this place, Since we've a theme, now next, which suits the case, Requiring a considerable degree of space ! AQUJEMERRASQILffi. 2 If) 9)1 q u » ro c r r a 8 q u », (Second edition) WITH CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS AND EMENDATIONS. (OR A CATAPLASM OF COLUMBO ROOT.) A SATIRE FOR THE TIMES. The liturgy of England's church Was left, by Cromwell, in the lurch : But, when king Charles the second came — That merry monarch, with a doubtful fame — Some men of worth their piety displayed: And, while he pandered to his lusts, they prayed. The general thanksgiving they composed, And prayers for all conditions and for parliament proposed. Good hints for altar kneeling were not missed, And several collects they added to the list! The saint's days of St. Barnabaa and Paul, Were tacked on to the rest, or hung: Or, as the papists say of beads '* were strung !" Which, counted up (as might be said or sung). At the discretion of the ordinary, Unless St. Barnabas's clerk '- contrary, ' A church in Westminster from which the luminary of daj is rigorously excluded at the morning hour of prayer, and gas 220 A.QU.ffiMERRASQUjE. Made twenty-seven red-letter days, in all ! So far seemed very right indeed, And not repugnant to a elmrehman's creed ; But, when more lessons from the Apocrypha were taken, Instead of Inspiration, 'twas thought to be mistaken, And confidence, amongst the intellectual ones, was shaken. For what could Bel or the Dragon have to do With well bred little ones who drew Deductions right from inferences true ? Well, when the Convocation meet, should we live to see that day, We'll viva voce simpering sing, and viva voce say — " If you please, kind sirs, do let us have abridgments in this way ! " Chapters, dear gentlemen, in Lent are used, which we may do without : " The second in Ecclesiasticus would make us more devout, " And so would some in the book of Job, which on sun- days, are now left out." Yes, from that holy work of ancient date, We beg, chaps. 5 : 11: 14: 2S: But let it not reproachfully be said The fortieth of Isaiah's never read ! * and candelabras made the wretched substitutes for beamy bright- ness. Wherein also the senseless ceremonials of inflated men, allure, like ephemerals on a ruifled stream, the optic nerves of fishlike flatlings. * Only eleven verses of this exquisite chapter upon the advent, are appointed in the epistle for St. John the Baptist's day. It is never read on Sundays, except by the episcopal church of the United States. Why not? aqUjEMERrasq i . ; •:. 2:2 ] The offices for May and January, (Opinions for using which, in our days, vary) The Bishops of those times, with the ru— brics, ' By Act of Parliament, and King, did fix ; Therefore, until revoked, each such as does disown That act, and contumacious is, might lose his gown ! We wish some loving ^ouls could see these lines, Who dwell near Taunton town. The parliament omnipotent, 's no muff: The Queen, being head supreme, is quantum surf: Wrongheaded prelates hence might hang, if you gave them rope enough. For what can convocation be but Puff ? What but a huge expanding bubble ? A flatus or a painful trouble? An amazing babel-chatter Of schoolmen's most perplexing matter? A ruful heterodoxia — row ? Or, as old Bunyan and the M.D.'s say. a slough ! We really must not give the thing a thought just now : Our little laps would all begin to bark " bow wow !" Exactly like some civil war, The doleful day would surely seem; But (not to indulge in idle dream, Of cataract roar, Or horrid fore) Now — to our theme ! We venerate such ministers ;i- have a holy call: Joyous we fee] when goodly gifts iliilo the faithful fall: Available, like Job's their intercessions are! Heaven bless them all ! ! ! 222 AQU-ffiMERRASQlLffi. And we believe that such abound In Albion-land, a numerous class, But, crushed by penury, alas ! In this cold world are far too often found ! As for the wholesale living mongers, Or carnal-minded curate youngers, What saith Saint Paul? » For men, with ordination voic, 'tis, surely, intra dig : To cram themselves, diurnally, like turkey poult or pig : To float, with eye of mind a-sea, like that dread fish, a shark, Or, blind, like greedy dumb canines, which doze, but do not bark, To leave their flocks, afar from fold, to perish in the dark ; (Isaiah 56, verse 10 — that awful scripture mark !) Alas ! 'tis worse than this, For oh ! to tell of future bliss, As self-deniaTs prize ; And urge on all a daily cross ,• Accounting, (e'en in perennitg,) as gain, not loss, Self-sacrifice : Tho' Dictum greatly wise ! Yet, (if they practise not the precepts which they preach,) " These truths," the hearer cries, " The common life belies "Of each!" But, stay ! Man, secular and lay ! Presume not thus, but to thy poor soul say, Thine own self TEACH! AQlLffiMERRASQUjE. 223 Now, were we bishop and archbishop both on one long summer's day, And could compel refractories our fiat to obey, 'We would disarm Wesleyan minds by revisions in this wav — Selections from our psalter sweet should, first of all, be ■ made, The emotions of the glad or contrite heart to aid : All are not suitable to Christian case, nor need such few ' be said! And, urgent being the need, icith all due care, An evening service we'd compose, of lesson, psalm, and prayer ; Vain repetitions we would disallow, nor read That kill-soul clause in the Athanasian creed, Tho' all that can be apprehended, we would heed ! And " most religious and most gracious," being prepos- terous for to say, We would piously for Queen and Lords and better C mons pray. At Communion, " holy father 1 ' words, we never would omit, Nor enslave our minds to abject forms, for men of sense unfit, • Unwarranted by Apostolic rule and opposed to Holy writ ! To antistrophe, for instance, when the creed is being confest, When we know, full well, the wise men were walking to the west, To say the Leasl we may, is unsoldier-like a1 best. Tho' winked a1 in dark ages, and thought to be devout, To see both sills and sensible.* so face them bout, 1- really quite enough, and more, to make dissenl back ou1 ' 224 MJILEMERRASQUJE. If such be called Atlantic men's devotion, What do saints do on the Pacific Ocean ? Or which way turn red-letter-loving souls Who pass their two St. John's days on the poles? December 27, mince-pie men north — Or the antarctics, June the twenty-fourth ? The difference how miniken with these, Whether black-haired or flaxen, red or hoary ! Whether they're weak while kneeling on their knees, Or weaker standing, in their upper story ! Whether they worship mammon, stocks of trees, Or bow, like bulrushes, at the word glory ! So queer the quilibets of class and clan, We query how far, layman more, may lean on learned man ! We've mused afar on famed Manhattan's* shore : And 'mid Newhaven's groves we've loved to pore : Loved, early loved, in wildered ways to walk, And, where no hearkener listened, there to talk ; Freed from restraints, from mortal eye concealed, To learn those truths which nature's lessons yield. Thence, led to mingle with each grade or kind, Before in knowledge, but in zeal behind, Now with our nobles privileged to be, Now, hand in hand with men of low degree, With Burrell blood of fair ancestral fame, And, Burrell still in everything but name, We've paced, like pilgrim, life's enshadowed sod, Succumbed to destiny, and kissed the rod ! Attained at last, to grand climacteric time, Hitching our memorabilies in rhvme, * New York Island. AQU.ffiMERRASQUiE. 225 We find throughout, where'er our lot was east, Man an anomaly from first to last ! While whirling o'er our western way, With pencil, or with pen, we play. So 'dreamy feel we, as we prose, Indulge we must in trancy dose : Our habit this, to tell the truth, Through every phase, from fun-love youth. Nature's behest who thus obeys, The limit lengthens of his days : i And seers of supernatural light Are sleepers all before they write ! So, until Maidenhead or Slough we reach — good night : And, when past Hanwell, should our brains work well, Their mystic tale, whate'er it be, we'll tell ! THE DREAM. 1. We dreamt, that on one point agreed, We kenned a conn-relation. Babbling the cruel clause of creed W liicli tables condemnation: All, eastward faced, they bent or bowed, Like poults, by oatmeal, crammed, Senseless, vociferating, loud, • Dissenters must be damned '"' Q 226 A Q U MM E K R A SQ U M . 3. Doomed, everlastingly, to wend From grace and glory's wake, Because, the tenets we defend Their marring maxims shake ! Because the Essence of Ideas, Ubiquity or Mind, To periske?'s like them, appears Too full to be denned ! Because the Word personified. Being oneness in their sight, They lay that magic lens aside Which pluralises Light ! Or, owning Light's Triunities, They can't its oneness ken ; Although, with like immunities* They're unit-personned men ! 7. We asked a banker how it was He could be so beguiled? When " why ?" said he : " it is because 'Twas taught me when a child !" * Trimeres upostasis — body, soul, and spirit. See Mason on Self-knowledge, and Genesis, i, 27. AQUJEMERRASQUTE. 227 8. His frowning lady, lank and lean, Cried, " Mark, it must appear, Chapter and verse being both sixteen, The problem solveth clear !" • «- 9. Chapter and verse sixteen indeed We echoed ! Madam, hark ! To cram that curse into this creed, Was never meant by Mark ! ! ! ! ! 10. We paced the aisles like one a-thirst, The sexton's pump to try: But, bah ! it bellowed and outburst " I'm blowed if I knows why !" II. The clerk gave out " 'tis saving faith " To count it condemnation : " The act of parliament so saith, " And so do Con- Woe- cation !" 12. " Besides," chimed Mrs. Wheclabout, " Seism's an awful sin ! " Sixes and sevens at, when out, " We should be ones when in !** <.» - 228 aqujEMErrasqujE. 13. " Saint Athanasius too was he, " Who, church and chapel's head, " Acidulated so our tea, " And bittered so our bread ! " 14. On pious priests we cringed to call, Their dire denouncing done — No go ! They nosed the altar-wall, But answer made us none ! 15. We prayed, dear sirs, don't be like posts, In pity, render reason ! When, lo ! they glared, like mummied ghosts Impaled for horrid treason ! 16. Poor saints, we sighed ! Avert from vow, And many stringents more, Ye literate martyr-leaders bow To idol ye abhor ! Like Moses' issue, when, at Dan,* Compelled, from Truth, to stray, Each holy conscience-riven man Must starve, or, else, obey ! * See Judges, xviii. 30. AQILEMERRASQU/K. 229 18. Vain all their biblical research, Their special pleadings vain ! The withering chill-blow, on the Church, Is beneclictor-bane ! 19. It is the " hurries" of the schools* Right deduce : wrong premise : The felo, but, de se, of fools,-f- And wonder of the wise ! 20. AVe tiptoed stairs to organist, Who growled, all dos a doe, " Oh, Counsel Trent, thro' you we've kissed " Rome's ' rank-secretion-toe !' ' 21. So ho ! we hawed : this muflPs a host Of mind with music-sound! We've knocked the natty nail in post, And our fal-lal-d'-ral found ! * See Dr. Willis's definition of the word when examined as to the insanity of < leor^e III. f St. Matthew, vii, 1, i — " Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged : and with what measure ye mete, it shall he measured to you again." 230 aqu^emerrasqujE. 22. Reason and nature both approve What heavenly lore declares, That dark'ners of the lamp of love Become perdition's heirs ! 23. Distorters of the form and face Of mercies-surety glows, Are spoilers of the germs of grace, And must be beauty-foes ! 24. Though dogmas of our faith belong To salvatory Word, All who anathemise are wrong, And palpably absurd ! 25. Caligulas of monster-crime, And persecutor-rage, Are the saint-blasts of every clime, And pests of every age ! 26. Love is the Lord's propelling lure, Or ladder to the sky, Where interceders dwell secure,* While maledictines die ! * Psalm xv ; Isaiah, xxxiii, 14 to 17; Job, xlii, 10. Anl.EMERRASQU/E. 231 27. Oh bliss-imbounding charity, By gospel-feature faced : Ecstatic he — imbuing- thee, Who is, by thee, embraced ! 28. We woke, when, ah ! 'twas but a dream: There was no conoreo-ation ! But hiss — wiss — wis ! all smoke and steam, And we — at railway station ! PROSY REFLECTION' WITH ONE EYE OPEN. Although we intuitively believe that all, but these exception- i, of this our holy creed, are warranted by scripture texts, it otorious, thai solely on account of its damnatory clauses, the [Jnited Stal of our apostolic church have (for more than seventy years) wisely expunged it from their Book of ('(mi- llion Prayer! Were her gracious Majesty, in the plenitude of her power, by and with the advice of her judicious privy council, to do the pirit of the age tells us it must come to this 'to order its di i all churches and chapel land and [r eland, their colonies and dependencies:" and. ipreme lead of the church, as she undoubtedly is, by one able stroke of her all-willing pen, "to forbid its reprint for all futurities;" her faithful Commons would respond, \i\;> voce, to this her bond of union-giving behest, and both houses of wool and feather convocation fly, canary-like, from their reticulated or bound off, like lambs, from their strait wiistcoal entanglements, and (as dc lunatico-inquirendo-men) whisk away, like Solomon's lo ," or his canticle " harts," 232 aqu .km i'rrasqiu:. upon the mystic mountains of some beatific Bether ! Oxford would brighten up, like an electro-silvered candelabrum in some damp benighted aisle, and the mummeries or cantings of wordy formalists rust away, like fancy frostwork, on some fir-capt tinted beyonder, under the soul-inspiring glow of a life-emitting April sunrise. We should all become evangelical dancers, like exuberant David, and our acrimonious diversities dissolve into ludal assem- blies of tender-hugging kindnesses and kissing regards ! Ay, and where the talented author of Festus is held in honour, even the humblest abetter of so blissful a consummation might obtain the meed of a commendatory emprise. Or, not to harp in pasty prose, Might spiritually bib with those, Of large benevolence's bumps, Who feast on truth's unleavened lumps : While doting bigots die in dumps ! And join, perchance, in jolly hop, On jovial tor-extending top, With fungi highs, and mushroom lows, Ringed by non-con-denominoes : With 1820 port full suff, And 34's more fruity stuff, Or, 47's, which dealers puff, Because they've known it long enough. (Wide awake again.) - Illumined by the vision view, a volume we could write, But we fear, tho' men of Isis must, and men of Cambridge might, Coincide and concur, That some would, as in spite, AQUjEMERRASQU/E. 2oo Slightly demur : Or chant in honied tone or canon key, " Dear Sir, " Thro' these, our old time-reverenced halls, you make a sinful stir ! ",To drop your sparks on powder, thus, is lunacy outright ! " With Pusey, Parliament, and you, " We're in a pickling plight ! " With Gorham, too, " We're in a stew : " But with that Denison — Dotundus take the man !" (To use such horrid word as this, we wonder how they can.) " What dare we do ? " Used up and dried, " Like pilchards at St. Ives,* Plulpotts-f- is laid aside ! " But, oh the church is beaten black and blue! " Where are its self-denied ? " Its chaste : its mortified ? " The salt of earth in whom we may confide? " No doctrine, on the fleece, distils like dew ! " 'Tis all, faith, faith ! or all, alas ! do, do ! " The laying on of hands, is mummery, on the head ! " The spirits of St. Peter and St. Paul, are sped ! " Alack, the loss ! 'J For why ? We take no longer up the daily cross! '* In this dark day, " We neither watch availably, nor pray ! " The motives dubious, of the mosl or all; " We feel how few there are who have tin call, " Of all the multitudes who dine in hall ! • Sec Glossary. | '■ In ;i beautiful episcopal marine palace, called BishopWoe, or granary <>f golden apostolical gatherings, put out, at compound interest, by the meek model of modern controversial benignity." 234 AQUiEMERRASQUJE. " The manna from above, reduced to forms, " Palls on the palate, or engenders worms ! " Well may our Zion, desolating, mourn ! " Our prestige, like the Shechmah of Solomon's fair fane, is gone ! " Is gone ! ! ! ! " 'Tis high ! 'tis low ! " 'Tis yes ! 'tis no ! " 'Tis less than clarion's — 'tis a chicken crow ! « 'Tis this ! 'tis that ! " 'Tis heart— pit-pat ! " 'Tis ultra plus " Or, as they tell of lungs diseased — 'tis pus, " Not laudable, but loathsomeness, to us ! " 'Tis Dickey with us quite ! " Whew ! whew, and why, — Calm Christians sigh, — This christening-parson rout ? This hue and cry ? This all my eye? This scratch-cat row ? This big bow wow ? This surplice fret ? This eucharist-let ? De tali ; 'inter ronare re, Respondere, hom'mem ranum te, Decet, nequaquam, autem, me: This — what be it all about ? The loaves and fishes, must it, then, appear, That weigh far heavier than devotion here ? AQUJEMERRASQU^ffi. 235 Or, shall the startling truth resound from pole to pole, It is man's fleshly lusts enloved, that kill the church's soul? Greek, Papal, Turkish, Anglican, or what? The carnal-minded church of man the Church of Christ is not! Is this, in this our strifeful phase, poor England's luckless lot? Alas ! by brutish* or unlorded factions driven, Antagonistic to first principles — our hierarchy is riven ! Well, then, with timely primings, such as dressers make on vines, We'd fructify our liturgy, and mollify all minds ; We'd take dissenters by the hand, and help them on their way, And win the unitarian men and teach them how to pray. A blessed and a bonny and a beauteous time 't would be, If we could lure all worshippers, on saving points to agree; Who knows but the millennium*!* we > some, may live to see? When matter- may, we humbly hope, be better: Altho' less rubrical, which means red letter. * Sec Jeremiah, x, 21. J According to Hales of Killesandra (the gnat gun 'of our church as to chronology), that of the vulgate is out. in its reckoning, more than 1,000 years: so that, instead of the nexl century being the hopeful vigil or saints' fasl for the seventh or sabbatical thousand of a.m. : the blessed millenary of the biblicals is (i by-gone non est inventus! So much for book-worm and antiquity-conning bores ! So much tor rabbinical twaddle ! So much tor literati nonsense! So much for the wrinklers who fabricate fanciful theories from the chambers of imagery, within their musty, dispeptical libraries, upon baseless blue devil pre- i'ii es, instead of giving their lungs and life-blood full play and healthy exercise \>\ judicious travel or. to use prophetical hyper- bole, by "counting the stars" of mellifluent meditations, and calling each nomenclature by iis common-sense appellative. 236 AQU7EMERRASQU.E. But what enthusiast dreamer this can tell ? For should the attraction of cohesion fetter, Or should an unity in sexes as in sects appear, What hinted Malthus, what the sage Marcellus? And what do one and all old maidens tell us ? " It could not, without self restraints, we fear, " Be well." Poor human nature might suspire, " Oh dear ! " Is this your magnum bonum plum? Is this the belle idea?" Yet, not all grave, all serious to beseem, Shoot we this eddy, to pursue the stream ; There's but one grade, to demonstration thus, From the sublime to the ridiculous. Disordered appetites reject the dish, When lazy Jane has left unspiced her fish ! The moralist, his line who fails to feel, Must chance to enweed his bait, where runs, too fast, the reel ! Vain, to the evil eye is benediction ; And what 's the house of Commons but a fiction ? What but a ragged schoolroom for the Lords ? For men professional with breaktooth words ? With railroad crotchets, and with carets stranger Than Mincing laner's or the Stock exchanger ! Prime would be orators at Lord Mayors' dinners, But, in committees, miserable sinners. On hustings high, pure ballot-rapt confessors ! In lobbies, all, Right honourable transgressors ? Tall lads, suffused with academic glories, Led in as liberal swells, collapse like tories ! AQU/EMERRASQUJE. 237 In maiden declamation, flow'ry flats, E narrow to giants, and regress to (mats ! Now swan-like, with their bows of extra size, Now tame, with puny knots and party ties. Or, should we herbal similies indulge, Rather than trousered weaknesses divulge, The vista what which opens to the view ? Green, while in foliage, but, in blossoms blue ! Some stately monkshoods, but, in shady dells, Beds upon beds of Canterbury-bells. Here, bashful creepers coo hard featured clique- : There, pink verbenas woo the rose uniques ! Here, scented lady-peas, in various walk, Coil round the evening primroses a-stalk ! Here, clythras white ; there, scarlet tom-thumbs too ! And of night-scented stocks, loved flower ! a few ! But, yellows, reds, or whites, tho 1 dotted there, 'Tis crammed with groundsel from, the world knows where ! As peoples' house, it is the veriest slum ! 'Tis powerless, unimpassioned, and humdrum ! 'Tis the peers' vcluti in speculum ! What but to babblings and to blue-bound books, Owe we our dearth of parlour-maids or cooks ? 'Tis, from the plagiaries and tropes it uses, Our clowns decline to brush our hats and shocses ! * Japanned prunellas are our footed fare, And hideous wide-awakes, like cannibals, in consequence \vr wear ! * Sec Glossary. 238 AQU^EMERRASQU^:. In fact, society's complete disruption Conies from its brawls, its briberies, and corruption ! These truisms these, all boroughs, more or less, Even Labouchere's bantling must confess, But we digress ! Descending from the Commons to the bar, In mystics, what anomalies there are ! What sad departures from parental rules ! What wild oat freethought from collegiate schools ! If moral-catechized, obliquely mum, While chambered, sensuous : when enwedded, glum. In fine-spun theses, though, as giants, rare, All punies in the aspirates of prayer : Word-milkless babes, by fruity faith unfed, Their rise-sun lurid, and its set, wired, Sing jubilate, if one saint's in seven, To harp on hades, or to hope in heaven ! As, from the wave upsoars the ephemeral wing, Do, from such spawn or gear, our judges spring ? Their saws, do such at chastening circuits cite ? Or, dooming, do their pleasantries delight? From wefted-web of tare-entailing youth, Do socials seek for justice or for truth ? Decussate magnates ? magistrates ? or what ? Things none may name who know what they are not ? Whirled in a ring no fulchrum which discerns, Of right or wrong, time's fashioners by turns ! No, thanks to heaven ! our justice-lamp still burns ! Of lower graduates, construes may we broach ? Expressive silence, spare us this reproach. AQUjEMERRASQU^E. 239 If (white or black cock — stake we as we will), Each banker-ball rebound to blank-hole still ! Would we balm-worth by Gilead-rule compute ? f Or fig-tree prize, by lusciousness of fruit? Upon all leafless withers, muse, be mute ! • '. Oh stay, lest truthfalls libellous beseem ! Pause, Polyhymnia : nor indulge in dream ! While saint for sinner more than sufferer grieves, When highways teem with chaplain-pitying thieves, And lives are jeopardized by ticket-leaves ! , We've touched the thesis of millennial dav, So now resume our rhyme in livelier lay; Tho' what millennium means, or future's fate, We leave tradition-loving souls to calculate ! Where but one doubtful text, in holy writ, Has its whole contexture opposed to it, We dare not bring our senses to pretend A consummation not a system's end. Whether they prate in prose or rant in rhyme, Schoolmen will twaddle till the end of time : And fangle crotchets from the blood-warped brain. For fame ephemeral or ungodly gain ! Ah me, we cannot, in our hearts be grave When, to illiterate ears, we hear them rave; And, like the scuttles, chased in ocean-brine, Darken the crystals of the law divine ' All spectral draught nrcs from empicturing dreams, ( )r, what, to finites, infinite beseems, It is prophane to ravel into themes ' 240 AQUJEMERRASQU^E. The antipodes, revealing earth as round, Show, palpably, no meaning may be found For bottomless abyss as underground ! And Eev. chap. 20, verses four and five, While intermediates, tell what saints revive — Tell, plainly tell, millennial, none are led, But holy martyred men without a head ! To reign or rule when all beside be dead ! To reign or rule ? Far happier those above Who serve that Master whom they live to love ! Serve, intercessory, in psalm-fed prayers, As ministers of mercy to their heirs.* A second death ? What saith the eternal Word ? In Him, all dominant by saints adored, Our friends, tho' lost to us, " all live unto the Lord" A second birth to righteousness on high ? Yes, blessed be heaven ! on this we may rely — The spirit:-, of the just in Jesus never, never die ! Hail, angel-hope ! which, o'er our death-bed beams, Visions all else beside, all else but lustrous dreams ! Emitting tropes as literally true, What, then, becomes of Gumming or his crew ? * Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister unto those who shall be heirs of salvation ? Hebrews, i, 14. It is worthy of remark that the message in the Revelations, is exclusively addressed, in dream, to the seven churches which were in Asia, or in the vicinity of Patmos. See chap, i, verse 4, and chap. xxii. verse 16. Churches which (although under the author's eve) became corrupt in practice : and now cease to lie. •i AQU/EMERRASQUiE. 241 Hence we unmask the Utopia of all tracts That mould such mystic figures into facts, Or work the bible like a nose of wax ! Which frame an apex throne from speck a-sky, Within the vistas of a nerve-pained eye, Some ninety, or, more likely, nine miles high, When, lo, God's word is — " Ubique, Vm by!" To meek believer, gospel truths how plain, But madding fancies maze man's heated brain ! Our Saviour spake of Eden-rest ti-skies, For prisoned souls awaiting heaven's emprise, But never talked of these ten centuries. Yet as the mites in cheese, so worms in mind, Unsapping substance, mildew reason's rind, While fine spun dogmas addle-brain mankind. By purgatory fable some are led — Fie : faddle : fum ! And so, by misconceptions of the head, This, with a batch by dull dark ages bred. Or dry-nursed by deluded ones since dead, Is fostered still, by fashioners ill-fed, A Baal-ashtoreth at board or bed, For feminines to worship, or to wed ! Sing hi : ho : hum ! Or, rather to be bumptious, and give base to satire- bawl out ! No! Alliteration, here, might sound so so! Alway mellifluous ahould our numbers flow ' 242 aqujEmerrasqu^. 'Tis wise, when angry insects buzz about, To lift the window-sash and let them out ! And, when the fitful scud foretells the gale, To drop the anchor, and enfurl the sail ! Turning from grave to volatile, Then let us try the ballad style, Our Hstless readers to beguile : Why not ? Perchance we may induce a smile, One beamy momentary while, From Leycroft-bower begot : For in the stillness of our solitude, A question rises to obtrude, To find, for this dry theme, one racy interlude, Like « pies all hot ! " Or, as some briefless soul Doth wish at Sessions Quarter, So slice we, sugar-buttered-ro//, To make the mouth to water! 1. We ask and utter oh ! Would darling women, then, Transmute, from faces soft, and so All hairify, like men ? 2. Never no more to smile, O'er cap-case nor trousseaus ? Nor, tedium vita; more beguile, Bv ken of wedding clothes ? AQUvEM ERRASQUA 2io 3. Never to touch on tips Of finders nor of nose ? Impress us with their loving lips, Nor smile away our woes? Enliven with their sense? Refine us from our leaven ? Allure us by their influence, Nor lead us on to heaven ? If really, and if truly so — how ? when ? By an electric process? or, mayhap, Mesmerical potentials in some nap ? Or, put the question as a rule of three, By making, inverse, proposition right : Granting the fact as possible to be, (But not, abstractedly, hermaphrodite) And coin we, in our imagery, if we can, Cosmogonous * A right down marvellous and unwhiskcred man, All metamorphosis, and no mistake ! Then, charactering a whole creation so, An observation, like Sir William Herschel's, take: And view, orbicular,* a ringlet race, Blue eyed, with rosy cheeks, and full of grace, In beardless, and benignant beauty, bright ; Fair amaranthines ! and, to heart's delight, In love and charity a-going to go, Platos and arc.hphilosoplxTs ? Ah, no! • See Glossary. r 2 244 aqu^merrasqujE. It reads sophistical in verse : It isn't terse It is unsecular — 'tis worse — "Tis all but unprelatical we know ! That fish won't bite ! Chaos would reproduce a general jar, And all earth's cables, submarine, would snap ! What breathes profound the Somersetshire star ? Or like the bird of wisdom, what cries Klaipp ? 1. What he who rears his scions rare Or she who sucks the sap? The cupid loving registrar A-hoo on harem-map? 2. The cannot heavenly-minded be ? The will not be devout? The plumers upon pedigree ? Or, wiser ! plumes, without ? 3. What, lowly, do the lawyers blink A hook to deed or will ! Or what do the wee sly ''uns wink* Who hinge upon the hill ? * An exceedingly well conducted college for the Weslevans at Trull. A QTJ M M K R R ASQU M . 2 45 4. What do the magnates, leering down On every peerless pate ? Or what the bailiffs of the town — Or vcights who carry weight?* Commissioners or erudites, In sunshine or in shade ? Who bank or glow in woodland sites, Or glitter, each, in glade ? 6. Bland doctors, devotees who are To common weal or wealth f Or, last, more influential far ! The blessed board of health ? 7. Tis vain, or down, or deane, to try, In hope to solve the doubt: Since Taunton's the epitome Of all the world without ! 8. For savans come, from far and wide, To feast and fatten here, When every highland place beside Is deemed to be too dear ! A pla) (by permission) upon the names of respected towns- men, since departed. 24C aqu/emerrasqUvE. 9. Though Magdalene cur Church tee call Chameleon in complexion, Our four denominations, all, Are units at Election! 10. Each sect has germ for funnery, In crotchet, call, or kind ; And, lank ! we've noosed a nunnery To nurse the feeble mind! 11. And, grand ! a grammar-school we grace :* Where seedlings high and low, On saints' days, as to church they pace, White tassel-hatted go ! Dear boys, they twirl unto the east, Whene'er the creeds they cry,t Without their knowing in the least The wherefores or the why. * An excellent institution conducted with great talent, and highly indebted, under Providence, to the munificence of the truly benevolent head master. f Although found to be a very ad captandum way to collect a musical congregation, the novelty of intoning or wining (like schoolboys at their lessons), our parochial church services never could have entered Anglice into Aspah's or King David's mind. It pains the hearts of lowly worshippers. The 5 1st and other peniten- tial psalms, ought not to be so undutifully dealt with ! may reason and right judgment again become paramount over our once .■'.ctuose councils. - «- AQU^MERRASQU^ 247 13. Nor do the grave who go to pray, Nor high men thin or thick, While low church and poor sinners say 'Tis nothing but a trick : 14. But what it be, if made a scoff, By meek dissenting ken, Why common sense says " leave it off, "And face your fellow men !" 15. It can't be counted piety, Within a house of prayer, To seek for notoriety, Confessionals while there. 16. Our holy church is rent in twain By shibboleths and signs, And (meaning well), if not by vain, By formalist divines ! [The senselessness of this custom of turning towards Smolensko, Omskoc, Labrador, Maynooth, and Lundy island, by some of the provincial peasantry and others, in obscure districts (which the ltomanists or high church party have recently revived and unwisely adopted as their shibboleth, or party token of freemasonry or odd — or papistical fellowship — or Greek church predilection re- pudiated as it long has been l>\ all metropolitan churches 24-8 aqutemerrasqujE. and almost .all well-nurtured and literate Christians) be- comes palpable, if we will but regard it as men with fully developed organs of perception and common brains. Imagine we for instance, as a parallel, a school of first class boys arranged before the master, in a long row, for the due rehearsal together of a Sunday lesson, all, as it icere by enchantment, suddenly turning their backs to their preceptor and their preceptor to them (during its recitation), to the wonderment of their ma'fnmas and little sisters ! It is precisely as indefensible in a congregation of con- fessing Christians. For what is the creed? not a psalm: not a prayer or invocation to the Deity. Nothing of the kind. It is simply a certain set of sentences drawn up by men, to be responded by such, as such, to their fellows when they meet together, as agreeing to the basis of a saving faith ! In chanting the Te Deum, were they to turn (which they do not) : which is an address to the Deity, a splendid compilation of ascriptive praise individually, to the three Divine Persons, and a devout prayer for mercy, help, and grace to the second person of the blessed Trinity, there might be some seemingness of propriety in the act. But no, not really so even then ! for, whatever priest- exalting Jesuits may preach, as to the altared or eastern end of a church, with its paraphernalia of painted glass images or horrid monstrosities, its golden candlesticks, and queer ad captandum ceremonial-whatnots, becoming a holy of holies by such adventitious aids — like the shechinah-ed fane of heaven-elected Solomon — what saith the prophet seer — that inspired evangelist ? the dying martyr Stephens' tes- timony what (as to such-like adjuncts) for all luminous- minded futurities? " The light of My countenance is, ever- nore, translated, from the meanless brick and mortar formu- AQUJEMERRASQU^I. 24i) laries of tain mans devices, to the poor and contrite spirit of the devout worshipper of Christ!" Upon whom the eye of Supreme beneficence continually looks, as the only fitting temple or tabernacle here beloic for Its celestial adoration ; as^ also for the due advancement of Its Sons ineffable and immaterial glory, throughout all the revolving affinities which encircle the icide-c.rteuding halo of II/s pure sacrificial love ! Isaiah, lxvi, 1,2; Acts, vii, 48, 49.] 17. In politics, they called us, blues, To do as big 'uns bade us : But, won to common sense-like views, We're, out and out, free traders ! 18. For blut s, we found, were all but green, W'lwn fiatted down with yellows: So (fond of good things) we've brought in Two vension-treating fellows ! 19. All prostrate, by protection-prate, We pined, like Persian pages: But now, — Conservators of State — We run erect, like sages ! 20. Once, Turkey liens, a-shy, in coop, By bug-bears sore dismayed,* We stride again, all COck-a-hoop ; On platform and parade ' * In reference t<> the late wretched war with Russia. 250 AQUJEMERRASQUiE. 21. We hail the dawn of right ideas, And patriot measures hug : Not to be gulled by Maynooth fears, Nor diddled by humbug ! 22. In politics, as well as creeds, Each one some hobby prizes : Then to defer to other's heeds, As men excelsior, wise is ! 23. Begat in dissimilitudes, And, ah ! with dubious end ; Amid this world's vicissitudes, Man must on man depend ! 24. We all are placed in jeopardy ! None is, in notion, right ! His best is but a parody ! His magnum but a mite ! 25. His sojourn, like a Noah's dove ! Ephemeral his fame ! And all, but evangelic love, Is nothing but a name! AQLVEMERRASQU.^. 251 26. As privileged electors, we Enfreed ourselves from factions ; Finding professors fair to be, We weighed them by their actions ! 27. And so, when times were out of joint, We leant on toried-tower ; 'Till, cloven-footed on one point, Its owners fell from power ! 28. But still, in many instances, These manlies we prefer: We praise them for consistencies, And pity where they err ! 29. They represent the greatly wise ! They represent the good ! Their veins were strung with valorous ties, And streamed with noble blood ! 30. They've parted vigorous prestiges: But, as the bird which dies,* All vital in its vestiges, They'll, like thai winged one 3 rise! • The Phoenix. 252 aqujEmerrasqujE. n I, Processional, to purity, Abeyant, while in dust ; Quickened their essences shall be, And live again they must ! 32. At horticult'rals, we've a few Of Psyche's fairest flowers : But oh ! for onions — when on view, There's no such vale as ours ! S3. We also eye such giant fruits, As must astonish ghosts : And egg, for breeders, bigger brutes, Than Cochin-China boasts ! 34. Geologists — we've routed out Of bone-ies such a crew,* As Moses never mused about, Nor even Noah knew ! * The museum, which does great credit to the committee and contributors, is a monster room for antediluvian skulls, skeletons, and excrescences, and for various behemoth boneular substances of the dead and gones from very long before a.m. one, down to a.d. 18564. aqu^merrasqujE. 253 35. Anatomists — such coated crust We've carved from innate sin, That proves we co-existent must With Adam's soul have been ! * 36. And we deduce that matter germed, Long ere the drop of man : In other words — to speak more learn'd, Before the world be^an ! "o* 37. But we define not heaven nor hell, What high or low appears, Since the Australians, well we know, Reverse our crude ideas ! 38. And that which is our zenith here At twelve, or noonday light, Reverts to nadir, it is clear, When at the noon of night. 39. We, hence, in sense and reason show, To each who lives and learns, That the above and the below Are unconcepted terms. • Sec Glossary . 254 AQU7RMERRASQU7E. 40. That mist and mire and mess we meet When we in fancy tread Upon the stars beneath our feet, Or those above the head. 41. And were our earth to melt in air And we enfill the span, Our whereabouts or here or there Must mad the mind of man ! 42. We're likened unto lunatics, In daily fear of fall : In fact we're in the funniest fix, For we're not fixed at all ! 43. As for our brainulars and blood, Or what to eyes appear, We're so demented by earth's mud, We can see nothing clear ! 44. We've doubts, if crude consistencies, Though wrought by certain rules, As well as erst existencies, Have ultimate? or thules ! aqu/emerrasqujE. 255 45. Nor can we (though great facts we ween, As Somersetshire men), Conceive the sympathies between An eggship and its hen. 46. * But what they be, or what be not, This fact of Taunton's true, — That such begetting or begot, No corporate body knew.* 47. Thousands we've buried in the drains, And bored in every quarter, f 'Till not a sovereign more remains, To wash the silt with water ! * Since the days of bloody Jefferies, the ancient Roman city of Taunton (or a tun in the river Tone), lias degenerated into an uncorporated town (which means Mayorless, without a stomach), consequently there is not found within the borough boundaries one single turtle; although, in its crowded cotes, it reckons 15,000 precious ring doves or cooing members. It is a lovely locality, and teems with kind-hearted people of all religious deno- minations. Like most other places, it is very fructiferous in Smiths and Joneses: and lias really (upon the whole) more than its ' AQUiEMERRASQIMS. 257 53. Although three weeklies teem with chat, And sundries more than sati* ; Anomalies on these or that, We print and publish gratis ! 54. A jail, with amplitigenes, For i, thorn frailty's found ; And divers rum indigenes We grub from underground ! * 55. A hospital 's for wen or wound ! Markets for farine food ! Pig-butter, sells ten-pence per pound ! And cow's, eleven, and good ! 56. And so we sing, long live our Queen, All loyal men are we ! And, when earth's other sights are seen, May All, our secings see ! * An antediluvian forest is said to exist below the prison walls : and marvels of wild scenery beyond ! Our geologists are sanguine enough to hope to rout out hades by bonk or by crook, under the stratum, if I to use their own words) "they have but nerve and rope enough," and the weather continue, as it does now, to favour the operations of these praiseworthy and indefatigable diggers. Should they happily succeed, Taunton \\\\\ become quite a curiosity shop, and the down trains will be crammed with virtuoso itinerants of all ages, Bexes, sorts and sizes, to the enfilling of our numerous and capacious inns and countless " tra- veller ' rests," and (lie begetting of mayor, aldermen and greatly needed corporation would be a sine qua non for such a bonny avenue tO Miss. 258 aqujEmerrasqute. Incontinent confession ! And which, to serious minds must seem digression ! Yet, what the volatile opine, Or, still account as fun, In lengthy alexandrine line, We'll demonstrate, of different tendency, before- before we've done ! The laity we never would allow To live, ad libitum, as they do now. A daily discipline God's word ordains : And men immoral, whom no rule restrains, Must penanced be, by penalties and pains ! O'er all who their prerogatives abuse, Churchwardens must have potencies to use, (Or those whom both dissenters and the church may choose) We will not mince the matter ; must we try Again- — the village stocks, white sheet, and pillory ? We must do something ; what with rails and wire, We're rushing on to warfare, ills, and ire : And, if our fair ones be but left behind, each house will be on fire ! Unless, indeed old adages we learn ; To steel, flint, matches, tinders too, return ; And cease, those sinful luctfers, for evermore to burn ! *Hpostn)pi)£\ Oh, woman, born man's goodliest gift to be, His treasury of blessedness : to thee, These latter lines are all hyperbole ! For lo ! unmated, and unloved, we miss All heart-ecstatics in a state like this ! AQUiEMERRASQILffi. 259 We, if insensate to thy chastening love, Lose pure derivatives from beams above: And ah ! by fond enfoldings uncarest, As non-obedientials, wink and blink uublest! Lure we to glades of pleasurable glee ? Tune we less tender string, then ; lighter key Might wend, from sterner thoughts, to melting minstrelsy! While wide-awakes Might make mistakes, Like suicidals sorry : Or one who bakes His dough unkneaded, and unturned his cakes : But this is alle-gory ! Then, now, what next? Ye Lowth or Pearson proselytes; to you we look, Who abstract notions from some abstruse book: By secondary meaning sore perplext. Who hebrewfy the common sense of each translated text. And, fain, would Btartle Midi as, reading, run, That, it' plain English the} confide in they're undone 1 ( lease, deacon-sirs, to pun ! Nor after foxes hunt, nor bares ' Nor trimmers place for pikes, nor -nan- ! Nor count it fun To fleece the feathery tribe, a-field, with dog and gunl 3 2 '260 AQtLffiMERRASQUJE. Nor go, with belle, to ball ! For, ah, to talk all sorts of tiny tell, And waltz with slim-waist lassies, ye must know full well, Is neither protestant nor proper way for passing time at all — That, is to say Whene'er your ruling passions wend that way ! Should you be innate bards, (None but the innate excel, Do not attempt to versify before you learn to spell) The game of whist at cards, And chess as well, We gladly countenance just now and then, Or any harmless treat, but, when You lose your tempers, cease to play! Better, in such extremes, by fai*, at home to stay ! All innocent delight, And relaxation of the soul, is right ! Immortal as the precious mind may be, One can't be ever reading to satiety, Nelson's practical piety ! Beresford's groans, Dry thoughts on bones, No, nor the textual work of Nayland Jones ! Sinbad the Sailor, Jeremy Taylor ; Psalms for shakers, Qualms of quakers, No, nor of poisons put in bread by bakers ! Queen Caroline's trial, Thesis on self-denial ; aqu^merrasqive. 261 Lines upon hades, The siege of Cadiz, No, nor, recherche, shocking tales ! about- T/iose seven deadly sinful, And mischief -making, brimful Neighbour — reputation — kill ( The creatures crush we surely will, Though they're beneath our notice still). those nameless naughty ladies ! * All to be had from day to day, At the nice shop of Mr. May : Or that of Barnicote, they say, And civil Abraham's over the way. At Sutton's, orthodox and sound, And Braggscs, beautifully bound, Or (pictured) at the railway found, And lady-gossip archery ground, In fact, in every reading-room around ! With various catechetical And also arithmetical Question and answer rubric rules, Adapted to the comprehension, ( )r the minor mind's dimension, Of our infant-loving schools ! o • Iii Beveral inland townships, the initials of these valuable members of society form the ra lii of Beven poetical compounds ; viz., Ew-lambs ! Ba-lambs! Lam-kins! Lams-fry! Wry-mags! Mi g-worm ! and Mud-lark ! A.nd, to acl or personifj the words, becomes now quite a fashionable evening Frolic for the voung people 2 1 12 A ( J D . K M ERRASQ U M . But, as for galopades ! Oh, Sirs, such truant faux pas of the feet For holy white-cravatted men, Who bear the pretty babbies on the wrist (To puke and then Return them to the tabbies to be wiped — and when — Cried oner by the motherlies, and kissed) — As Christians sweet ; Are most unmeet When grinned upon, by lumpkins, from 6o-windows in the street ! ! ! Ah, too ! (not to be prosaical, Profane nor pharisaical,) To Eden-friends, what a tremendous sight, Peering, thro' ceiled roo£ in vision bright, To see black-coated he-bones, at the noon of night, Prancing, like rampant steeds, h-main and might ! Politely, if you please, In pity to your lady-loves we say, (Those warm admirers of tall poplar trees) Far too exciting exercises these From such perspiring anticks, walk, oh ! walk yourselves away ' So far in play ! Yet one word more — kindly allow — We never were more serious in our lives than now Of such as went before, Learn not the heathen way ! They thought, by multitude of rites, And burthening ceremonies re-enacted o'er, To shoot beyond the ireful shore AQU/EMERRASQLVK 2Go Where fell perdition lay ! So did the proud phylactered wights, In time's more direful day, When, from their self-elating heights, Cliided for vicious appetites, Like Lucifer the pen of inspiration writes- .1 Alas ! " How fallen they !" Thrice happy those who, trained by tender care, Heed, in their hallowing primes, the house of prayer ! Whether, as secular, their paths they plod, Or, sacerdotal, — ministers of God ! Whate'er their countries, creeds,* or callings be, They are the landmarks for eternity ! Thro' all the phases of revolving years, Bright the assurance of their grace appears ! Unharmed by party, pressure, power or place, They are the elected of the human race ! And, e'er obedient to the Spirit's call, Its dew of blessing is their earthly All ! Self-chastening, self-denying to the end, They lean and look to .J BSUS as their friend ! Their strength apportioned to their day's decrease, They reach time's limit, ami depart in peace ! To such the heritage of hope is given, For, whiles they love on earth, they I'";' — they In; /',,/• Heaven ' • -'In every nation, lie thai feareth God, and worketh right- eousness, is accepted of Him;" Si. Peter's inspired assurance to devout Cornelius! See A<-t> of the A.postles, highs or lows: Jews, Greeks and non-denominoes ! Lei Turks devout siill worship :i- the) please, ami do Bhow mercy t" those poor < 'hinese ' -64 AQUiEMERRASQUiE. Lastly, while doggrel verse excites or calms, One solemn word we wish to add about our singing psalms. In reason and in conscience, they are wrong, Who write or cite, irreverent rhymes, or chimes for holy song ! With jargon slang, Or nasal twang, Who cause our tongues to jingle : And heark'ning ears, When clerk appears, With grating tunes to tingle : It mads and sads Our village lads, And fills the heart with ires, To whine, in pain, The metric strain, Which chokes our countless choirs ! Priests, for their pets, print hymn-books now-a-days : Or, from old version, horrid messes make ! Bah, bah! Most are. Hard bake ! Stale cake ! Tou2;h muffins ! Sour stuffings ! Left-bits ! Love-dits ! ( Jon-amores ! Sin- sores ! Crack-jaws ! Great bores ! Sleep-drams ? AQU.EMERRASQU.E. 265 Namby-pams ! Rhyme-shams ! Crusty-crams ! But neither inspiration-gelatines nor jams ! Still, though devout attempts of some, excite our praise, Poor, by compare with Asaph's lyre, all other would-be lays ! Say, what so rapturous as the Hebrew muse, Which, winning warms : or, softly warning, woos ? Oh precious anthems ye, from childhood, wont to use ! In the dread city of demoniac strife, On His last night of liberty and life, fn Zion's psalms, our Saviour carolled there, Where, ceasing-song, imbued sustaining-prayer, And, ah ! man's sinful soul engaged His suffering care ! Ye, who in seraph-wake, your way would wing, Whate'er events God's providence may bring, These melodies in prose, or versions pure — ■ be it your privilege to sing.* The version of Brady and Tate, as a whole, is exceedingly will done. The 10? t li Psalm is an exception, where the polities of King James II.'s times warped the paraphraser's mind, as will he seen by comparing the metre of the 40th verse with the Prayer-Book prose. Stemhold and Hopkins, in their 18th, 100th, and 125th psalms are excellent. Take this as a specimen : — •• They who do place their confidence Upon the Lord our God only, A nd liee to 1 Inn for their defence, I n all their Deed and misery — Their faith is sure still to endure, Grounded on Christ, the corner-stone : Moved with no ill. hut standetb still Sledlast. like i" the Mount Ziou ! And 266 AQU-ffiM ERRASUQJB . Enough about our liturgy and preachers — Now for our lack-brain schools and morbid teachers ; Where, indiscreet, the feeble mind is turned, And much is taught that ought not to he learned. What must we think of such ? We quail and quirk, Whiles we predict the fruitage of the work : Rustics, unfitted for their lowly stations ! Servants, unsuited to their situations ! Prompted each arch, unwashed one, that one meets To shove us from the pavement of our streets ! Abjects inducted to invade our purses ! Deprived our hospitals of virtuous nurses ! Unmanned our would-be sailors for the war ! Raised up, from slums, logicians for the bar ! And ragged urchins from earth's veriest holes, Called forth as curators of precious souls ! The base uplifted from their wonted tether, And heaven-formed ranks and grades compressed together ! Satan, our primal curse, our tempter still, Makes power subservient to his danmate will ! The tree of knowledge, so become our food, He galls the sap of, and empoisons good ! Transformed to angel as our canting friend, To revolution's bluffs these teachings tend ; Must England's downfall be the doomful end ! Oh Heaven ! that ruin, for Christ's sake, forefend ! And, as, about Jerusalem, The mighty hills do it compass, So that no foe can ever go To hurt that town in any case — So God indeed, in every need, His faithful people doth defend. Standing them by, assuredly, From this time forth, world without end." ABRAHAM. 267 ABRAHAM. Thou religious-minded Exeter man, good bishop, what say you ? That Abram was Terah's elder son ? Xo, sir, it is not true. Altho' named first, my well beloved, Ilaran became first pated When his papa, thou dear divine, was 70 years created. Abram and Nahor, lovely seer, then married Haran's lasses, The doings, in those patriarch-days, would, now, be deemed nefasses, By sets of simple tony saints, and cliques of M.P. asses. For the best piety a man can pay, his dying poppet, wife, Is to wed sisters, one by one, when she has left this life ! And had we twenty such in tow, and each, in turn, would die, Unto the very last dit-to, the point in law we'd try, And, baffling all, bu1 common sense, the bishop's bench defy. We mean, with food, of course, enough, for all our freckled fry ! And Houndsditch ready-mades, full suff: and beds whereon to lie ! To hear fools prate, night after night, their twaddle is bo bad, Within the House of C aons' walls, it almosl drive one mad ! 268 ABRAHAM. Some literate six-feet lanky lads, or Leviticus-loving men, Know less about moralities than old aunt Gibbard's hen, Which addled all the eggs she laid, and spoiled the pancake paste, So these, by parsoned obsoletes, their flowers of rhetoric waste. It merely says you may not, man, while wify is alive, (Chapter and verse being both eighteen) her witching sister wive. You overpress, by legend lore, the vessels of your brains, And, medically, so derange the system, by such strains, That soul-paralysis reveals the bitters and the blanes. While saving truths are set aside, as age's fitting toys, Or blotted, as their school-themes were, when truant- loving boys, They're reckless of those mystic cares, by which Immanuel sought them, And mutter namby-pamby prayers, such as their mammies taught 'em ! ■& In smatt'rings of theology, they give themselves vast airs, Yet scruple not to feast on pork, and jug their hunted hares! For, if, really, Hebrew laws, imperative, all, are, When a man dies, and leaves his wife without one hopeful heir, His brother is, in duty, bound, there may not be a doubt, To take and wed her, at her will, however he may pout, Or how the wife he has at home her furbelows may flout, And wonder what her holy man is going to be about, As bigamist or trigamist or good-for-nothing lout ! ABRAHAM. 269 (At Deutero. xxv, verse 5, 'tis clearly so made out, Therefore verse 9 should warning be to chaps who've got the gout !) For xxi, verse 15, shews or shrives That pious souls did, sometimes, wed two wives ! You strain at gnats, you do, you do, you narrow-minded elves : But, winking at illicits too, your corbans are yourselves ! Oh, did you con your bibles more, and, less, erratic hobbies, You'd not expose such mulish ears within your library lobbies ! And, pigs, as are such epicures as poach their neigh- bour's Krds, The grossest of all voluptuousness, is, to eat up one's own words. When Terah 1 oO years had whilcd away of life, Abraham became the younger son by a second loving wife. Sarah was Abram's father's granddaughter, reverend pastor, hear, Not daughter of his mother — So 'twas very clear, • He was a wee-mistaken, when he said, in fear, " I am her brother." People, if nervous, cannot be too cautious in what they say: But many, from sheer shiness, tell white lies every day ! Great allowances should be made for wanderers in this u ay ! Especially at white-bait feeds, which close the M.P.- session : For, by the same Latitude of orient expression, Lot, hi- nephew, was designated in a like confession ! 270 CYRUS. Of Ab-ram, "high father" is the English translation: But Abraham means, u father of a very great nation." Father, in Chaldee, is the particle Ab, But, great, in the same dialect, is, for rhyme sake, Bab. In what we say, we now, in reverence, show, All debt of gratitude, to Hales we owe : Much that he wrote about chronology, however's, vain : And his long note, which we cannot quote, On the last verse of St. John's gospel, proves him to have been insane. That text (by some uncertain author, said to be), Our common senses tell us is hyperbole ! We'll paraphrase another lay, from the works of this great gun, And then, with the vein of volatility, we'll positively have done, Since we have passed the age or page, for frivol and for fun. CYRUS. Cyrus, by Xenophon's account, was a downright brick, But Berosus was so extravagant, we cannot give him tick, Darius was his uncle and father-in-law too, But Gobrias and Gadetes, they, the king, Belshazzar, slew ! Laboro-soarchod had, of jollies, a brief joy, For he was made a mincemeat of, while he was but a boy! CONCLUSION. 271 The widow of Darius, who was, therefore Cyrus's mother, Nabonadius, the viceroy, married, in preference to any other. From Cyrus, his son-in-law, he revolted with his wife, Who took both him and Babylon : but spared the rebel's life. From the Medes what horrid cruelties the Babel gentry bore, As predicted by the prophets one hundred years before ! Such massacres of mortal men to read, is very grating — See Jer., chap. 50, 42; Isaiah, xiii, 18. NOW, TO CONCLUDE— Lest, haply, harp unstrung, Should tell of primal songs too lightly sung : Lest, wishful to induce the youngling smile. Or sorrower's tedium vitro to beguile, We lapse, at length, into a doubtful style ! ^ c prudes and formalists, we proudly say, Here, on our themes, look mildly as you may, Where'er by humour, wit, or fancy fed, Or e'en by love for information led. We've seemed to neutralize our truthful strain, By gildings which allure the gay, but give the priesthood pain ! A- foralljeste which bay religion's rules, Or laugh, which proves, alas, the laugh of fools, 272 CONCLUSION. Whether for censure or laudation e'ei', Forefend it, Heaven, that such should be our snare ! 'Tis worldly wise, when critic foes are found, To walk all warily on grave-yard ground. For, in the Word of life, strange records are, Truths, for weak minds to jangle at and jar, Truths, which beseem opposed to lore's pretence : Truth, paradoxical to common sense. Hence, countless comments, and sectarian tracts : Twisting those scriptures like a wick of wax ! While into dark extremes, dull papists fall, And make the bible a sealed book for all ! We read, to patriarch, caved, in fear, forlorn, Moab and Amnion's mighty hosts were born ! For centuries long they Judah's race defied, And revelled in their bastardies of pride ; Oft, from the extremes of ill bright graces glowed, Full oft, from pus of spirit, mercies flowed ! Till from Uriah's relic, LOVE-imbued, Has germed man's glory and eternal GOOD ! And, on guilt's status his salvation stood ! ! Though marvellous, solution's found in this — In putrid particle pure essence is, A nd, from sill's bane, conceptious-ang el-bliss ! So laid into the lap seems Adam-lot, That, without Satan-imbue, heaven were not ! * * This seems to be the gist of the author of Festus. Pity, sad pity ! that the reverential love which the then youthful poet and philosopher developed to the fifth behest of a recompensa- tory Heaven, seems so unaccountably in abeyance throughout, as to its third positive essential enactment to the well-being of all mortality ! CONCLUSION. 273 To chaste-rapt minds alone such themes belong : So, lest Ave harp, as airily, too long, Muse, touch from hence a tenderer chord Sing hence a holier song ! 274 GLOSSARY. i GLOSSARY For all precedences. Actuose. (Adj.) Having strong powers of acting. Amplitigenes. (N.S. plural.) All sorts of crotchets and contrivances. Anomalies. (N.S. plural.) ]. Contradictions. 2. De- viations from common rules and customs. Antistkophe. (Verb active.) 1. To wheel about dogmatically. 2. To become shy in con- fession. 3. To turn one's back impolitely upon well-bred people. Apothem or Apophthegm. (N.S.) 1. A remarkable saying. 2. A truism. AqilemerrasquvE. (Query.) Greek and Latin: see Hermanus Bos on Exod., xv, verse 23. A tonic application. Co-existence. See Pre-existence. Bluffs. (N.S.) Precipices. The Melancholy moun- tains in Connecticut end in bluffs near the town of Middleton. CoSMOGONOUS. (Adj.) Any thing relating to the rise or birth of renewed materialities. Exordium. (N.S.) The proemal part of a composition. Klaipp. (A proper name.) A celebrated phrenologist. Indigenes. (N.S. plural.) Natives or peculiars to any township or locality. At Marazion bay, in Cornwall, forests have been found be- neath the alluvials at low water. GLOSSARY. 275 Orbicular (Adj.), Orbicle (Sub.). 1. Apex foot-fixing over a rotary rotundity. 2. Relating to Hades. Pig-butter. (N.S.) Obsolete — vulgatim, lard. Pilchards. (X.S.) A delicate sort of herring. At St. Ives, in Cornwall, they salt and press them down in tubs, for his Holiness and the Cardinals. Pre-existence. Of Jubal-Cain it is expressly said that "he was the father of all such as play upon the organ," but his descendants icere merged in the flood ! The germ of the faculty of music (though dormant or in abeyance), was equal/// in Seth's line as in Cain's, otherwise, through Noah's issue, it could not be continuous and progressive as it is : and Jubal-Cain merely personifying an ab initio principle, becomes an apt illustration of our Adam-co-existent life. Vide Jeremiah, i, 5 ; and Hebrews, vii, 1 0. Quilibets. (N.S. plural.) 1. Superstitious rites. 2. Diseases of ideas. 3. Tubercles of the brain. It is recorded of Dr. Johnson that, he always walked out of a dark passage backwards. Sin uses. (Plural.) Bad grammar. Hodie, gutta percha soles upon japanned prunella toppings. They are found convenient for all Somerset gentlemen and other literati of goodfamily, who, owing to the emasculated state of the house of Commons, and <>tl/ri»;ht garland, let me close my song. Tutored by thee, hence, poetry exalts Her voice to ages, and informs the page With music, image, sentiment, and thought Never to die ! The treasure of mankind : Their brightest honour and their truest joy ! Thompson's Seasons. CONTENTS. 279 >* Gjonfynte of $art JjJfe, It is a bright and bonny day Early Rhymes, 1806 The morning was bright, and the life-blood light Afar, in space and ether's gloom . Oh, for the abodes of bliss above . The watchman wakes me, and I'll doze no more I kenned consumption by its hectic flush . Weakest of all believers: thou who ploddest I sigh, since, now, my musing mind Lo, evil came, with vengeful spite Another cycle's sped away! Hail schoolboy-anniversary for rigs! Oh, for the chaste, though chilling waste! Ah me, liow many a tear I have shed ! Oh, God of mercies, hear our prayers The gaieties of Bight deceive All hushed be life's tempest : all calm be its sea! How strange, bow unaccountable it seems How various are the phases of the year li will be well : for, lo. God's covenant's true Arise from slumber, shine: nor speed thy flight FAOE LINKS 281 42 282 16 283 48 286 24 287 35 288 139 294 37 2!).-, 16 290 20 297 36 299 24 300 19 301 54 303 28 305 32 306 32 308 24 309 :v.i 310 27 312 24 313 37 280 CONTENTS. But one note more : one luted lay ! How happy they, for Eden, who depart ! How holy are extempore prayers ! Preserve us, gracious God, this day ! Could we, with seer's eye, perceive Let the loud trumpet sound ! (Elegiac) Whither, wanderer, wilt thou flee ? Spring after spring returns, and flowery May 'Tis sweet to see the summer sun, soft-setting in the west .... Total lines PAOE LINES 315 22 316 40 318 3G 320 10 ib. 22 321 17 322 12 323 15 324 20 941 IT IS A BRIGHT AND BONNY DAY. 281 IT IS A BRIGHT AND BONNY DAY (Scene — Silsoe, in Bedfordshire.) It is a bright and bonny day — Blithsome the path to plod — When, dead to things of sense or sight, Along some lone-sequestered way, The soul's delight, From morn 'till night, Is found, in meek communion with its God! The distant hills, in radiance dress'd, Upsoaring wishes raise, Where — skylark, chirruping on high, Inspires the animated breast. "With tearful eye, Beyond the sky, To look, for perfectness, in angel-praise ! In youth-tide, 'tis the choicest time To court th' alluring beam : To entwine devotion round the stem: And, show forth, blossom-like, in prime, That eye-bright gem Which graces them, Who count lite'- airy nothingness, h dream ! 282 EAKLT RHYMES. How tew, alas, such times as this May retrospect afford ! When, at maturity arrived, Or, lost his ante- dated bliss, Man owns to have lived, And, vainly, grieved, O'er length'ned years, at distance from his Lord ! The mischief, 's in the bud concealed — The evil, at its core : Perfume the virtues would impart : But, all the roses they might yield Sin's insect dart Corrodes a-heart, And fruitage, in reversion, is no more ! Oh, taste, and see how good it is, To pass one day in prayer! Serenity of mind the prize — What, though a world of wealth you miss ? Lo, all that lies Below the skies, With this, is less than nothing by compare ! EARLY RHYMES, 1806. Winter returned — descends the fleecy snow, And, o'er the wold, its bitter blasts reblow ! The woodland glades no longer are outspread With lively foliage, but, all beauty sped, Fecundity and flowery dress are dead ! THE MORNING WA.S BRIGHT. 283 Will winter ever last? no, surely not ! A spring must soon revolve, and, soon forgot Will let and damage of the north wind be : The balmy breeze shall lull the billowy sea, 'Till autumn o-lows in greenness and in glee ! ' And thou, lorn man, whose doom is here to drink Libations of depression : learn to think, That, still, reposing on thy God, thy trust, What time thy body re-dissolves in dust, In peace, in paradise, repose thou must Until the joyous resurrection of the just. THE MORNING WAS BRIGHT. (Scene in Connecticut. Time, evening.) When, diverging, heyoncl Meriden, on the Hartford road, to the right, through the defiles of tin- Melancholy mountains so called, April, 181 (i. The morning was bright And the life-blood light, At N cwhaven, worthy of song — When I left the sweet scene Where refreshed I had been, And sped, like hope's pilgrim along. How oft I surveyed Through each backward glade 284 THE MORNING WAS BRIGHT. Its eagle-rock, towering in air;* And, reluming the sight With its by-gone delight, The church turret, a-distance, so fair ! Young health was before : What needed I more ? Mistrust had been exiled behind. What are milestones to one Who, of lets, augurs none, To hinder the march of the mind ? Give glory, a-heart,*f* Ere yon beams depart, To Him who's the strength and the stay ^ For, like stray-lamb, at last, The right turning is past, And, six miles, I'm out of my way ! Why did I presume ? What an hour of gloom! What danger, at nightfall, appears ! Fir-capt are these hills : And their loneliness fills The desolate spirit, with fears ! No lodging place found, J And clay-cold the ground, • Its eagle rock. A romantic tor or headland in the vicinity of this exquisitely beautiful locality : where Golf and Wadley, two of Charles the First's judges, were secreted, when denounced by his successor, Charles the Second. t Jeremiah, xiii, 16. I Jeremiah, ix, 2. •* THE MORNING WAS BRIGHT. 285 To faint, is a triumph to foes ; I have walked with my God, And am strengthened to plod, To Middleton inn for repose ! Who fellow-men shun, Must commune with One, Who, loved, is th' Inspirer of prayer : They'll, else, find, to their loss, Having mountains to cross, They'll stumbling, lie down in despair Not so with the soul, Though rough billows roll, Or darkness 'tis doomed to endure : For a-sea or a-shore, When earth's light is no more, Its trust and its refuge are sure ! * • Isaiah, 1, 10. Middleton is a fine township on the river Connecticut. The Melancholy mountains, appropriately so called, terminate in a bluff, near this place. These arc to be avoided by the pedestrian. by his Leaving the Hartford road at .Meriden. The author, how- ever, passing, sub silenttO, was at serious fault. Railroads are now become the traveller's delightful mode of transit, then as el sewhere in America. 286 AFAR IN SPACE, AND ETHER'S GLOOM. AFAR IN SPACE, AND ETHERS GLOOM; OR, HEIGH-UO ! (" A cloud received Him out of their sight." Acts, i, 9.) Afar, in space, and ether's gloom, From temple, tenement, or tomb : Reft of each fond dependency, What must poor man's reflections be? When earth a twinkling star appears, His hopes, oh, what ? ah, what, his fears ? Its penalties or pleasures by — Did I fulfil my destiny ? If " no," resounds dishonoured dust, " False one, or faithless to thy trust," Fixed be thy fate : go, recreant, go, And wail, in never-ending woe ! Should " yes," respond the still small voice — Light of the life that's left, rejoice ! Thine the reward and not the rod, On to th' infinitudes of God ! To be, with such as sped before, Angel of million systems more ! Is frailty, by frail man, deplored Throughout his life? thus saith the Lord — OH, FOR THE ABODES OF BLISS ABOVE. 28< " Repentant sin shall be forgiven :* Mercy's the attribute of heaven ; And he, whate'er his creed, is blest, Who looks to me ! then, does his best !" •* OH, FOR THE ABODES OF BLISS ABOVE! Oh, for the abodes of bliss above : The rounds of liberty and love, Of light, and life, and glory ! And, rolling through enspangling spheres, Oh for the thrill of angel-cheers, To chase earth's vain-imagined fears, And chant Redemption's story ! Oh, for the song that never tires: The glow which prompts seraphic fires : The spirit-moving measure ! Doxologies, for graces given, To Ilhn who rules in highest heaven : Where one day's light, " the light of seven," Reveals our long-sought treasure ! But, ah, to gain that golden shore. Requires our utmost cure, and more — A self- renouncing spirit ! No epicurean-minded man Who scorns fidelity to scan, Its sacred region ever can Attain to rest within it ! * St. Matthew, \ii. 31. 288 THE WATCHMAN WAKES ME. For heaven's but hell to mundane minds : The soul that sad disrelish finds In prayer-fed hymns below — The peace of those empyreal ways Where happiness consists in praise, And sweet will worship crowns the days, Can never, never, know ! In lordship o'er each creature thing, Ere privileged such songs to sing Sublime, in fane of bliss — Blend we, in choir, diverse ideas : Submerge, in faith, our time-fed fears ; And lave the channels of earth's tears With prelibates like this ! THE WATCHMAN WAKES ME, AND FLL DOZE NO MORE; OR, BODY AND SOUL — A COLLOQUIAL REVERIE; OR, " PAST FIVE O'CLOCK AND A FROSTY MORNING !" " Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." St. Luke, ix, 23 ; St. Mark, viii, 34. " Rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." St. Mark, i, 35. SOUL. 1. The watchman wakes me, and I'll doze no more: For 'tis injurious to the body's health, THE WATCHMAN WAKES ME. 289 Which, if enervated, the spirits fail, And, of all mystic beings, man, most strange, Must suffer more or less in intellect ! The first sound sleep now over, I'll arise : No longer rest ought nature to demand, Refreshed as by a nutritive repast. 'Tis as pernicious or to doze or dream, As to partake of highly seasoned dish When we have feasted on substantial fare. The brain's ideas, for hours, are disarranged : A listless indolence pervades the frame ; The noblest work of heaven becomes unmanned, And, for paralysis, the soil's prepared ! 2. A moment's resolution is enough ! Come, let me stir, since consciousness returns, And something seems to whisper, " Is all well ?" Yes, all is well, I answer; still it pleads — " Nay, if thou art not as thou wouldest be, House from thy couch to be as thou desirest. Thy resolution thou shalt never rue ! Is sweet serenity of mind thine aim? Secure it by this salutary means ; Or, is assurance in thy fellows' sight, }\y indolence, debilitated they? Up, ere the dawn, and, joyous, hope to own, With mien erect, in silent eloquence, Thine own superiority of state! Arise, oh sleeper !" thus I press my heart In language as impassioned as was theirs Who, Gentile votaries they, to Jonah spake, When, by :t tempest tost, the prophei dozed, i 2<)0 THE WATCHMAN WAKES ME. While watchful shipmates trembled with affright, " Arise, oh sleeper ! call upon thy God !" * BODY. 3. 'Tis not a case in point, the heart replies ! No crazy cabin, rocked by storms, a-main, Is here beheld : nor harsh discordant yell Of fearful mariner is heard afar ; But all without, though snow-encapped, is peace: And, with exceptions few, the rule is — rest, Around, for high or low, for poor or rich ! Soft, ere we move from this our snug abode. Of what utility, oh, let me urge, Can it be construed by one's common sense, To have to rise before the world's awake ? Say, why annoy the household with the noise Which rattling drawers or creaking shoes induce? Why not accustom nature to a nap A little longer 'till the light returns? Creatures of habit, why should he be deemed The better Christian who is earlier up ? Besides, without a candle or a coal, At this late season of the varying year, And, in a cruel climate, such as ours, With show of reason, may it nOt be said, " Bed, soft warm bed is better place by far !" Why shiver and why shake, as needs we must, By taking on us thus such daily cross — For cross indeed) it must be owned to be — Without apparent usefulness f<< plead ; * Jonah, i, 6. THE WATCHMAN WAKES ME. 291 And adding to our burthens cough and cold, Asthma, lumbago, and — what not besides? It really seems most monstrous step to take ! When young and vigorous, nature's child requires A full long furlough to recruit his force, Exhausted by an over ardent mind; Let old ascetics rise who cannot rest, And make a merit of necessity, While, with their chattering teeth or palsied palms, Benumbed with cold, in cloisters lone, they pray, And rail against the blessings they renounce : Morose in manner, or in spirit proud : Abusing worldlings — by the world abused : And, haply, to self-latent frailties blind ! Therefore, unless some argument be urged, More just, and weightier, than the plea or plaint, To doze a little longer I ordain, And sweetly snooze, a-season, ere I rise ! some. 4. Insensate man, all impotent to wake — All powerless his prostrate energies to use — Subject to death, while dozing or in dream — Although untossed by tempest on the sea, May be upborne on passion's fretful wave, And discomposed by ill desire's rude blast, E'en on his pillow soft, or curtained couch ! Wherefore who dozes, or a-sliore or sea, Whether the way\v:ird prophet, or the sloth. In equal ratio, jeopardises life, Unless awakened by tin- bosl without — . 2 292 THE WATCHMAN WAKES ME. Unless alarmed by the voice within, Which, kindly, whispers, that the flesh is weak, And tells vitality its foe is nigh ! 5. Then, call on God for victory and grace : Plead not thy youth, for, " as we sow, we reap," Nor hope to reap, if seeds remain unsown ! " Who sow in tears, alone, can reap in joy !" And, should faith's health-germ flourish not a-field Before the solstice of such hour be by, No roseate flower shall decorate its folds, Nor balmy perfume spent the fanning breeze ! Beneath the parching heats of autumn sky, Life's gay expectancies will quickly fade : And all which follows is a wintry blast, Where every embryo-influence succumbs ! 6. Arise, oh sleeper ! call upon thy God ! Life is a state of trial and of toil, And rest perennial's only had in heaven ! Yes, if we take not up our daily cross, In youthful years, in diet or in dress, In will, in temper, and in use of time, In wishes and in wealth, or what pertains To fellow-men — disciples we may be, But not of Him whose mild behest was, " watch!" By self-denial, in our hours of prime, We learn base wants or longiiiffs to forego, And dull each passion with its pleasure plea. <- THE WATCHMAN WAKES ME. 293 7. Oh, manly candidate for glory's glow, Born for far brighter boon than sensual prize, Shun deportations from thy gladsome goal, And follow in the wake, which guides to good ! 8. Renounce effeminate ease — thyself enrule ! War to the knife, against sin's iron host, And be the hero- Inker-man, in mind ! Fear not or wearing cough, or worrying cold ! For, more susceptible we're found to be By cossetting ourselves, than, fearlessly, Exposing our frail bodies to the blast ! 9. Say, what more simple than a tinderbox T' illume thy chamber for the chant of praise ? Or, if too delicately bred for this, A lucifer how readily obtained, To offer, gaping man, an instant flame ! A fire indeed ! great folly ! rise enwrapped In flannel or appropriate wintry garb, Debilitated man; nor fear to annoy Thy household with the noises that thou namest ! Wash: and anoint thee, primed with incense prayer: And, lastly, thou bed-ridden wretch get out! (He slowly rises.) 294 1 KENNED CONSUMPTION. I KENNED CONSUMPTION BY ITS HECTIC FLUSH. (A fragment.) I kenned consumption by its hectic flush, And febrile livid lips, and shortening breath ; And lobe of lung upcoughed at weary night ! Poor maid! she loved him with a fondler's glow, And had she wedded, it had all been well, And beauteous progeny prolonged her joy ! But he, then circumscribed in narrow pale, Poor in appliances that gender pride, And straitened in the affluence of desire, Her prudent sire repelled the proffered suit, And doomed, unwittingly, his duteous, fair, Devoted daughter, to a ling'ring death, Himself unschooled to brave the lordling chide, By giving sanction to what soul approved ! Was sorrow, then, a two-edged sword within ? Rived it the pained recesses of his heart, When, o'er the downs, weeping, he, last, beheld Her, who, awhile before, had sung and smiled? Or, what the cause, why, on those furze-capt hills, Six tedious months before her tragic end, One luckless eve, as out he rode, he fell, An awful instance of a sudden doom! His faithful steed found standing by the spot, Where, still, the moss-crowned granite rudely points WEJdtEST OF ALL BELIEVERS. 2D5 A moral to the hind recumbent nigh,* And a monition, that " who runs may read !" Alas for thee, poor Susan ! matchless maid ! And, ah, for thousands more, in state like thine ! ' Thy will would not run counter to his word, To which obedient, thou art sealed for bliss ! Baffling his last-applied medicaments, Sir Gilbert sad, exclaimed, " The case is new,-f- No treatise found for such complexity !" And Xorthill's tablet, o'er thy virgin tomb, To mask the fretting truth from village ken, Is made to tell its fable to the few, Who, at its portal, tender, contrite prayer ! WEAKEST OF ALL BELIEVERS: THOU WHO PLODDEST. A parody. (From Harvey's Descant upon Creation.) Weakest of all believers: thou who ploddest, Beneath a sense of sin, thy mournful way, Conflicting with temptation's rude assaults, While, ceaseless they, though watchful or asleep — Gird thee with gladness, and thy grief unrobe: * See note to Nursery Rhymes, Pari II.. ••Very Vexatious." t The late Sir < Klberi Blane. ■ 21)6* I SIGH, SINCE, NOW, MY MUSING MIND. For, lo, Immanuel, touched with tender care, Thy sore distresses sympathizes still ; Mighty to help and merciful to hear, He lives — thy heavenly advocate to prove ! Why should uneasy doubts depress thy brow ? Or why conflicting cares thy soul subdue ? Come, change these sighs, for cheerful notes of praise ! Thine anchor He, 'mid tribulation's storm, He'll prove thine intercessor in thy need: And — hopeful, animating, rapturous thought — High, in eternity, thy Guide to bliss ! I SIGH, SINCE, NOW, MY MUSING MIND. ELLIO. I sigh, since, now, my musing mind Those cheerier scenes present, Where, with the loved I left behind, My time I spent ! Well did those scenes my griefs beguile, And, warring, once, with woe, I basked in manhood's beam, awhile, In manhood's glow ! ETHERIO. On, Ellio, on ! such plaints as these Are hurtful to the heart ! Lo, periods, still in store, may please, And peace impart ! . <. • LO, EVIL CAME, WITH VENGEFUL SPITE. 297 But, should they not : or, if rehearsed, Should hopes delusive prove — Should love fraternal lie inhersed, On ladie-love — Make not a sunlit clime thy care : Press forward : home despise ! For, death's a requiem to despair, And, heaven, the prize ! LO, EVIL CAME, WITH VENGEFUL SPITE. Lo, evil came, with vengeful spite, And guttered out the Gospel-light ! Then, of the pampered sloth, in bed, Touched the left shoulder, and thus said — " On eider-down, repose on me : I, thy enchantress born to be : Consentient, at thy natals, found, To my wrapt blandishments be bound: Avoidance none: sleep safe and sound !" " Oli, listen not to subtleties like this !" Sighed the unwelcome winged-one from bliss: " Awake, and burst the embrace, thou chrysalis !" Ali, qo ! withoul sustaining prayer, How could availing energy be there! 298 LO, EVIL CAME. WITH VENGEFUL SPITE. Abased, the captive-led became A cypher, or a nameless name ! Napkined, he let his treasure lie, And lost life's opportunity ! The fatal crisis came at last ; When, probatory period past, Overt the burthen of his breast, Presumptuous sin was manifest ! And when time's trump shall knoll its knell, He'll sink into perdition's well ! His lot, in hades, apprehensive woe, And, thence, Gehenna's torments doomed to know, Such is the end of all, who, from God's presence, go ; In devious way, Then watch and pray : And, weaned from pelf, Renounce thyself! If dust the prize, The spirit flies, And, ah, thy hope -germ dies ! But, loose to this, Life, in transition, is a birth to bliss ! ANOTHER CYCLE'S SPED AAV AY ! 299 t ANOTHER CYCLE'S SPED AWAY! (Reflections at the Octagon, Plymouth.) L Another cycle's sped away Since youthtide's choicest holy day : When nature's chastest flowers were sought To be, by faith, to fruitage brought. When scripture-texts which came to mind Left pledge and promises behind. When ways were beamy, skies were blue, And as for fears, away they flew : Hail memory of that time of mirth Which gave, to bland conceptions, birth ! One cycle then complete since Heaven Birth, and hope's beatitudes, in grace, had given.* 2. Shadows of death, o'ercasting shrouds, And, "after rain, returning clouds," Emitting soul-depressing fears, ( n'lir, at life's eve, to close its years. Like harbingers of fretful cast, For dread realities :it last. They limit to a sinking sun, Time for review of what is done. * A cycle is twenty-eight years. 300 HAIL SCHOOLBOY-ANNIVERSARY FOR RIGS ! Thence, bending to receive the blow, Which falls, to lay self-credit low, 'Tis owned, 'twas sent — that mercy-ray, The soul, in its extremity, to upstay ! HAIL SCHOOLBOY-ANNIVERSARY FOR RIGS! (The twenty-ninth of* May.) Hail, schoolboy-anniversary for rigs, And hats embowered with gilded oaken-twigs ! Rare holiday for pastime, on parade, Or on the glowing mead or woodland glade : With martial staff which hedge-row might afford, And kerchief-banner raised for Charles restored ! Hail, days of manhood : occupied in prayer, Afar from city-hum, or syren-snare. Where verdant lanes allured to inns of ease,* And sweet poetic thoughts outpoured to please! Not holidays but holy days become, Meet as preparatives for day of doom ! * Lovely and oft-frequented localities north of London, di- verging from the green lanes in various directions within the radius of" ;i twenty-mile, long summer day ramble. • OH, FOR THE CHASTE, THOUGH CHILLING WASTE ! 301 Hail, eve of retrospect, now all is o'er, For pilgrimage no stimulants in store : When doors are shut, and millstone's grind is slow : And who beheld, are dim, or, loved, are low : Opaque, all hail ! Reflector of that light, Which, turned upon the sinking soul Relumes its sabling light ! •* Oil, FOR THE CHASTE, THOUGH CHILLING WASTE ! (" But now they seek a hotter country, that is, an heavenly." HehreAvs, xi.) Oh, for the chaste, Though chilling waste, Where heart-sobs eke in tears ! Where, longings lost, All loves are crossed, And paradise appears ! Oh, for the bliss, Derived from this, Choice state of withering will, W I iere, flitting breath Derive- in death Immunity from ill ! 302 On, FOR THE CHASTE, THOUGH CHILLING WASTE ! Before each day, Bounding away, Uncounting cost and time, Sweet is the walk Where spirits talk With essences sublime ! But, luring world, Why backward hurled, Thy recreant victim man? From thy soft home, Ah, let him roam, Eternity to scan ! Heaven's would-be sage, Why keep in cage, Like linnet, for thy song ? Thy pleasures, pains, And loss, thy gains, Why perpetrate such wrong ? Away ! away ! With thee, to stay, And pander for thy meat, Is worse, I cry, Than agony — Thou fowler of deceit ! Than evil thought Should harm me aught, I'd cross the boundless sky : ' AH ME, HOW MANY A TEAR I HAVE SHED ! 303 Than dream of sin Should wound within, A thousand deaths I'd die ! But, thought of ill Man's heart will fill, And poison reason's boAvl : And dreams, oft, must, Distress, disgust, And mortify the soul ! Spirit of air, My will is, where The prize of life is won : Earth — am I yet, "Within thy net? Jesu : Thy will be done ! All ME, HOW MANY A TEAK I HAVE SHED! (A psalm of remembrance. Scene — Potter's bar.) Ah me, how many a tear I have shed Over the dying and over the dead : Fur manifold phases of fitful time Have rolled since, here, fir.-l. I progressed, in prime ' 304 All ME, nOW MANY A TEAR I HAVE SHED ! Then walked I, like pilgrim, abjuring earth, To be born anew, by a better birth : Walked, with a will to discover a way, That might wend on, from darkness, into day ! But, since that beholding, what changes have been, What fears, what depressions, what winters I've seen Whiles, likened to evergreen, flourishing still, Upstay'd through all conflicts, I'm kept from ill ! Dead or dispersed all companions of youth, Those, taught, by Thine ever-sustaining truth, Are proofs of promise, that, hoping in Thee, Thou wilt, from all error, their souls enfrce ! From harm, Thou preservest Thy servants, O Lord ! True to the letter of Thy holy Avord : Though thousands have fallen, they stand alone, Uninjured a hair : unbroken a bone ! * And, lo, in their upshot of days, they find A ray uprise to illumine the mind : That straits there are: (may the way be this:) Where the pass of fidelity ends in bliss. Though lonely and loveless the paths they plod, The steps of the lowly are seen by God : And, when the time of probation be by, Their defeats shall resolve into victory ! * Psalm xxxiv and xci. 4 ' OH, GOD OF MERCIES, HEAR OUR PRAYERS. 805 OH, GOD OF MERCIES, HEAR OUR PRAYERS. (An universal prayer for all conditions and contingencies.) Oh, God of mercies, hear our prayers : To Thee our thanks are due — Or, at our close of earth-born cares, Or, varying life's review. When, called from solitudes or sighs, As aliens, or in youth, Turned we*-to Thee with tearful eyes, Soft-trusting in Thy truth ? Through weal or woe — distresses sore, Or fears of ills unseen : Till toss'd, at last, on age's shore, Thou knowest what we have been ! * Though issue be — though no avail May dawn on future days — To Thee, we, yet, commend our talc And dedicate our lays ! Oh, since no work which we design, May plead before Thy face: Since naught but righteousness divine, Can quicken into grace — * "Put me in remembrance: lei as plead together: declare thou, that thou mayesl be justified." Isaiah, xliii, 2f>'. 306 THE GAIETIES OF SIGHT DECEIVE. We look to Thee alone, O Lord ! That, when the trump shall sound. Awaking, fearless, in Thy word, We, faithful, may be found. For innate sin, no lentenfast, Nor flow from crystal flood, Can cleanse, continuous to the last — No ! nothing but Thy blood ! So cleansed, so freed, Thy spirit by : In songs of ceaseless praise, Thy work of love, well tell on high, And marvel while we gaze ! THE GAIETIES OF SIGHT DECEIVE. " Too low they build who build beneath the skies." — Young. The gaieties of sight deceive : Earth's flowers and fruits decay : For lack of these, its worldlings grieve, For these alone, they pray ! Oh, had they looked, with eye of faith, Beyond this low terrene : And "heard what 'tis the Spirit saitk" How different had they been ! • <• THE GAIETIES OF SIGHT DECEIVE. 307 Their thoughts reproved: their hopes inspired: Their passions reined and ruled : They had, by glad incentives fired, In heavenly lore, been schooled. Theirs it had been to sacrifice All that allures the breast : And, contritely, to fix their eyes On their Redeemer's rest ! He lived to die: He died to live : He came, below, in love, To urge us for His prize to strive — A second birth above! 'Tis by renouncing what is wrong, And won to what is right, We're trained, on earth, for angel-song, And framed for heaven's delight ! Supremely happy to obey And praise their present Lord, There, ministering spirits, they* Fulfil His will and word ! Pearls are the gates, and gold the street, f And gay the fane of bliss, For all, who, penitently, meet,]: And, for that state, slight this ! § Hebrews, i, M. f Revelation, xxi, 21. J Isaiah, lvii, 1.5 ; Ixvi, 2. § St. John, xii, 25. x 2 308 ALL HUSHED BE LIFE'S TEMPEST. ALL HUSHED BE LIFE'S TEMPEST: ALL CALM BE ITS SEA ! (A corollary.) All hushed be life's tempest: all calm be its sea ! May light, out of darkness, relumine the lea ! O'er prospects delightsome, hence, freely, to rove, And bask, at life's eve-beam, with what we most love ! The vision how hopeful, with which, to be fired ! Such good far exceeding deservings desired ! That grace, in its issue, which frailty outran, Resolving, to glory, in mercy to man ! Depressed in his vigils, full oft has he sighed, " All prayers are unheeded : all suits are denied : All spring-blooms are blighted : and, graven to grieve, I'll wail, in the wide-wold, can such dry bones live ?* " A faith so imperfect, as mine must be found, In this land of shadows, can such keep its ground ? Shall hearts that are fearful, Thy manna-love have ? Or, dubious believers be raised from the grave ? »" " Oh, Thou, by whose quickening spirit and word, We all stand regenerate, breathe and are heard — We'll sing to Thy name: for each transit from ruth, As redemptory test, is the token of truth. Ezekiel, xxxvii, •'!. HOW STRANGE. 309 " A pledge, too, for those who reverses endure, Yet hope against hope, that the promise is sure, That, though, by all beings, abandoned they be, They may not be, ever, unfriended by Thee !" * •* HOW STRANGE, HOW UNACCOUNTABLE IT SEEMS. (Lines written upon Ash Wednesday.) (" Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?" — Isaiah, lviii, 5.) I. How strange, how unaccountable it seems That, feeling, as he must, the insufficiency Of everything he views or calls his own To yield him that delight which mind approves, Man should still prize — in latest hours the same — The fleeting present with its toys and treats : And rest content with visionary joy, Benighted, in the labyrinths of sense ! 2. How strange, that, with his trite experiences, And knowledge of life's sad vicissitudes — Its by-gone pleasures, and deceased desires, He, in ephemera] wealth Or healthful glow, Himself should wed to gay deceivings still, And prove regardless of realities, While Loitering, faithless, to the calls "f fate. Allured by idols of perverted eye, Corrupted heart, and sin-enslaving world ! 310 HOW VARIOUS ARE THE PHASES OF THE YEAR. 3. Ah, might he look with sapient mien, beyond Some quick-revolving tale of thirty years, And turn his present into retrospect — That due position for the upright breast — His folly found, his fault would be forgiven, No fast day needing to reclaim a soul Once prest by passion, prejudice, or pride ! 4. He would become regenerate and renewed : And find his festival, in lowly thought, Contrition's tears, and hate-subduing love, Far sweeter than in madding scenes behind, Now viewed as alien from the hope of heaven ! 5. The sigh, the sob, of penitence assured, Resolves, by prayer, to carol-breath of praise : Exalts the man of clay from sorrowing cares, And proves, on earth, an antepast of bliss ! HOW VARIOUS ARE THE PHASES OF THE YEAR. (Lines written upon St. John the Baptist's day.) How various are the phases of the year — Those chroniclers which chide us or which cheer ! HOW VARIOUS ARE THE PHASES OF THE YEAR, oil The calendar of Christian saints inhersed, Or Salem's, since Melchisedek, the first ! What goodly bioscope for eye to ken ! What glossary of guidances to men ! For magnet-mind, what glade of glorious gaze, O'er holy, happy, and enrapturous ways, In which each hero has so played his part, That we might stamp his impress on the heart : And, with the impetus to right preferred, AVe, most, might profit, where we, else, had erred ! 'Tis sweet, when tears soft-flow from pressures by, To pore o'er lives of treasured sanctity ! That ray streams sunniest to the nerve of sight, Which gilds the wake of their rcrial flight : While, like the spark electric, on the wires, Our beings are imbued with rapt desires ! Voice, from the wold — to pride, replete with wail — Voice, from the holy hills — thy birth we hail ! Oh, great of woman born : boldest of bold : Thy vigils are the hallowedst we can hold! Blest harbinger, of grace and mercy's glow, Thine is the meetest model man may know ! His fittest fulchrnm on whose base to rest, Ere looking to thy Lord of life Abiding, like thy namesake, on His breast ! 312 IT WILL BE WELL. IT WILL BE WELL: FOR, LO, GOD'S COVENANT'S TRUE. (Lines written upon the sands at Teignmouth.) It will be well : for, lo, God's covenant's true : Howe'er appearances its facts belie : However vacuous be the tristful view : Howe'er eclipsed, by fears, faith's galaxy. Long life and length * of days, vouchsafed, in love, " Well's" the correllative from bliss above! Let evil's ambient ocean, fitful, roar, Or Satan's conclaves -f press the crowded span: Let potent powers-f- wage fierce relentless war To undermine the rock of erring man — Obedience, on her brow, that seal retains That grace must re-assure where Jesus reigns ! Yes; torn to pieces, by the ruthless rage Of principalities, - ]- whom angels dread, 'Tis, when thou needest most, thou dost engage, Poor man ! the sympathies of Him, thy Head: And all but ruined, drowning, or to die, " Lord, save, 1 perish," is availing cry ! * Deuteronomy, v, !<>'; Ephesians, vi, 2, o. f Ephesians, vi, 12; Romans, viii, 38, 39. • «. ARISE FROM SLUMBER. 313 Then, saddened by the sense of being undone, And, dashed thy self-raised deities in dust, Hymn hallelujahs to thine Holy One, And constellate magnificates in trust ! Sin, ambushed, * droops, when peons reverent rise, And, in te, Domine, speravies,-}* dies ! ARISE FROM SLUMBER, SHINE: NOR SPEED THY FLIGHT. (A FAREWELL TO CORNWALL.) " AVoe unto us ! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out." Jeremiah, vi, 4.) " Arise from slumber, shine:" nor speed thy flight! Oh, sacred muse ! but lend thy flickering light ! Relume, a-moment, mists which urge the gloom, And gild our later lay, as vesper for the tomb ! Ah no ! no verse may more avail, Nor minstrel voice the ear regale : \ur holy song the soul inspire: Nor echo lend her liquid lyre: Nor Herbifrr, with flowery crest, Enfondle dewdrops on her breast ! * II. Chronicles, xx, 22. t Psalm \wi, in its Latin nomenclature. ol4 ARISE FROM SLUMBER. Nor Psyche, fluttering in the brake, Woo sportive zephyrs on her wake : Ourselves, who sang to passers by, We soon, must cease each lullaby. Must cease poetic glades to tread, Ourselves, to number with the dead : Ourselves, to time, to bid farewell : Ourselves, to knoll our funeral knell ! And glide away From cheerful day, And breezy blow, And matin-glow, And influence bland, And flowery land, And manly mien, And sky serene, And lark's salute, And shepherd's flute, And limpid wells, And downy dells, And coo of dove, And ladle-love, And fairy-face, And angel-grace, And lore below, and light above ! Ah, drop thy silver trump ; forbear to sing : Muse, touch no more, thine unstrung, tuneless string ! BUT ONE NOTE MORE: ONE LUTED LAY ! 315 BUT ONE NOTE MORE: ONE LUTED LAY! (Ayritten in the garden-bower of York house, Penzance, 1850.) , : I- But one note more : one luted lay : One, for time's latest holyday ! One, ere we quit this quiet scene, To muse on what, behind, has been ! The mercies of departed hours ! The long-beholding of these bowers ! Their belladonnas : autumn's pride : Their cly thras : evergreens, beside : Anemonies, with rainbow hues, Fed by the frequent Buryan dews:* And — redd'ning most, as nature's rains descend — Their fuschias-f- — emblems of the just man's end ! t But one note more : one silvan tune : One thankful song for blithsome boon : For merry meetings in our hall : For banquetings and birthday-ball : A ud full sufficiency for all ! * Buryan. A village on the Logan rock road, and consequently (when at Penzance) in the wake or eye of the humid western wind. f The fuschias here grow, as well as the idrangias, to an un- usual size: and bloom mosl freely, when the weather is open (as it usually there is) late in November. J Like a red spring evening after rain is the sweei decline of innocency's stormiest day. 316 HOW HAPPY THEY, FOR EDEN, WHO DEPART ! S. One more, and chief- — reflection clear ! Crowning each phase of every year — For daily bell to chapel's matin prayer,* Which led us willingly, to worship there, And reap faith's foretastes of receptaries rare ! HOW HAPPY THEY, FOR EDEN, WHO DEPART ! (Lines, written in 1852, upon the death of Wellington.) How happy they, for Eden, who depart, Their hours of opportunity when by — Who, having played each well-appointed part, Aspirants are for holiness on high ! When, all which tenant all, away have sped, And time itself is numbering with its dead, They, when the quick'ning spirit calls them home, May wake, in fearless trust, to greet the day of doom ! Their risen Lord, confessed 'mid sorrowing way, Or looked for, thro' temptation's strait'ning pass, No more illumes by faith-reflecting ray, But glows, like fervid fire o'er liquid glass ! * St. Paul's chapel. A neat little oratory at Penzance : built ;it a cost of <£3,000, by the present perpetual curate of St. Mary's. Esto perpetua ! ■! HOW HAPPY THEY, FOR EDEN, WHO DEPART ! 31 7 Supreme, o'er starry spheres, in glory's gold,* Their Judge, in all His beauty, they behold — -f- An alibi, to justify from sin :% To ope Heaven's pearly door : and fold contrition in ! They fought a battle for undying fame : They wrestled against evil, and are free: And wert thou, Wellington, illustrious name ! Born, for such rapt prerogatives, to be ? Torn from the snare, the terror, and the tear, For ever ta'en from warfare and from woe, They rest assuringly, in title, clear — " They enter into peace :" to paradise they go ! Thy gay regalia, hero, hence beseem, Though dazzling militants in lurid light, As coruscations from some lustrous dream, While wending, in electric flame, thy flight ! " Pris'ner of hope," yet those credentials are, To all triumphants o'er a world like this, As heraldries of rare revivals there, Where the correllative, for righteous course, is bliss ! Accept thy country's tributary tears, In dirge funereal, or, in lay of love : Accept that pageantry, which poor appears, To eye emblazoned by the beams above ; * "Who among us shall dwell with rvi-rlasting hurnings?" Isaiah, xxxiii, 1 I-, (thai is) tin: soul-sustaining Slieehinah, or the Messed presence of < iod. f " Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty." Isaiah, xxxiii, 17. \ Or evidence that the mind or will were in another locality to the scene of temptation, and aon-consentient to the operation of evil imaginations or satanic indwellings in the human heart. 318 HOW HOLY ARE EXTEMPORE PRAYERS ! Hence, all expectant : at the dread upraise, Thine be the wreath, for Christian warrior-wear Their cross-bought crown : their diadem of praise ; The immortal prize for iNTERCESSOR-prayer ! HOW HOLY ARE EXTEMPORE PRAYERS ! (Leycroft bower : May, 1856.) " Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." St. Matthew, vii, 20. How holy are extempore prayers ! What peace to them belongs ! Glist'ning, in chaste contrition-tears, They gladden into songs ! Like gleams within the trellis-shade, Or glitterings o'er the grove, They gild the dark-brow's dewy glade, And 'lume the lid of love ! Who would not cherish, could he know The thrills their yearnings yield ? Seek, early seek, the mystic glow, In chamber, church, and field ! Seek (choice prerogative of grace, Where socials are combined), Seek it in friendship-born embrace, Or maiden-fondled mind ! HOW HOLY ARE EXTEMPORE PRAYERS ! 319 Seek it at youthtide-hallowing hour, When glory fires the breast : Or, virgin-rapt, in beauty-bower, With beamy sun-hope blest ! Oh, prize it more than heart-caress Of man or damsel dear, O'er sands or surges limitless, Where none but Heaven may hear ! Seek it, by supernatural aid, Where sin reverses right : Ah, when, by fellest fear, afraid, Seek soul-revert to light ! *»* So prayer-reflex, in every phase Of wildering- world like this, Will sparkle bright, through seraph-praise, In ecstacy of bliss ! When time shall cease, as God has willed, Or star-lit skies be past, Their golden vials, odour-filled By prayers of saints, shall last ! * * Revelation, v, 8. 320 COULD WE, WITH SEER'S EYE, PERCEIVE. PRESERVE US, GRACIOUS GOD, THIS DAY ! (A dictation for a seeming emergency.) Preserve us, gracious God, this day ! Guide us in all we do or say ! The secret springs of woe or weal Hang on all impulses we feel ! Oh, Thou, who, still, in each distress, Hast, timely, brought some boon, to bless, Now, at this crisis, phase, or doom, With Thy right hand, availing, come ! Come, for His sake, to whom we look : Nor blot our brief memorial from Thy book ! COULD WE, WITH SEER'S EYE, PERCEIVE. (Lines, presaging, or prevenient upon, life's latest vicissitudes.) Could we, with seer's eye, perceive, The future's continuity of woe : Or how, who loved us, were ordained to leave Sire, husband, brother, lonelily to go — We feel we should, Each boding day, Abstain from pamp'ring food, And watch and pray, Or intonate an Essene-song, ere wanderers and away ! -f LET THE LOUD TRUMPET SOUND. 321 But, sad to tell ! Although man fears, too well, Some undefined evil hovers in his gloom, And, dubious, as he ever seems to be, of doom, A strange fatality impels him still to doze, And he's found prostrate in the midst of foes ! Remember, Lord, the kindness of our youth:* Oh, keep, in each distress, Thy covenant of truth ! Let not the wiles of Satan us appal : But still preserve Thy penitents from thrall ! The Watcher's words at Galilee, approve, And, His last plea and prayer on Calvary Resolve it, Lord, in love ! LET THE LOUD TRUMPET SOUND. (An elegiac rhyme, August,]! 812.) Let the loud trumpet sound — Rejoice ! rejoice ! In praiseful cadences, exalt thy voice ! Thou, who (attuned to sing) I [ymnest orisons to thy King, In lofty strains — Thy Maker's name adore ! For Edward's agonising pains, * Jeremiah, ii, 2; Nehemiah, xiii. 31. v 322 WUITHEK, WANDERER, WILT THOU FLEE. At length, are o'er, And his freed spirit, now in Paradise, Laments no more ! Upon his poor remains, Some aromatic odour pour : A flow of tears must, hence, suffice : Then, let us vie, in quest of some device To dissipate the plaint 'tis fruitless to deplore : We, all, are hasting on, to his eternal shore ! WHITHER, WANDERER, WILT THOU FLEE? His last moments. Whither, wanderer, wilt thou flee ? Every travel ends in tears ! Born in sorrow : doomed to die : Youthful hopes dissolved in fears : Why plod, at last, that beaten plain Proved, by experience, to be vain? " Woe is me," the sire then sighed, Tossed as 'twere on ocean's brink: Riven by its roaring tide : " Save, Lord, save me ! or, I sink !" We looked : he beamed : we looked again : He passed from time— AN UPRIGHT MAN !* * The author's father, Charles Hiett Hancock, Gent., of the Stock Exchange and Clapton : ohiit. 1 Sept., 1816, aetat. 50, be- loved, respected, and lamented, by his family, friends, and con- nexions. SPRING AFTER SPRING RETURNS. 32 o ' SPRING AFTER SPRING RETURNS, AND FLOWERY MAY. Spring after spring returns, and flowery M;iy: But these, with all they promise, pass away ! Hope is a light-capt ensign on a hill, With rays revolving at th 1 allurer's will. Each rising ground we gain, the goal seems nigh, But, o'er the intervening vales, we droop — Bird-like, the wounded wing : then drop, and die ! 2. Faith, as a lambent flame, 'till life be o'er, Flits, in assuring hallo wness, before : Impels attractive : and, depressed with gloom, Proves the soul-quick'ner at the with'ring tomb, To bud like mystic rod : or, rais'd from this, Bloom, to fruition, like the prophet's trees : Medicinal, and soul-sustaining these, Enrapt, in watered rosaries of bliss!* * Ezekiel, xlvii, 12. v t :>24 'tis sweet to see the summer sun. 'TIS SWEET TO SEE THE SUMMER SUN. (Finale, or reflection. Scene — Rottingtlean windmill.) 'Tis sweet to see the summer sun Soft setting in the west, When all the work of day is clone, And nature lulls to rest! But 'tis a far serener sight, And cheerier to the view, When faith reveals its even-light, And finds no more to do ! Day-clouds, obscured the solar ray : Heart-plagues, the saint reproved : Heav'n's zephyrs, wafted those away : Its mercies, these removed ! Rejoice, ye lowly, at the scene : Cease, apprehension's tear : Darkness and death may intervene, But life must reappear ! The sun, again shall rise, to illume : Lone pilgrims on their road : Grace, gild the pathwall to the tomb, And glory, guide to God ! ■••..** PAET VII. PSALMODY, " Iu swarming cities vast. Assembled men, to the deep organ, join The long resounding voice : oft, breaking clear, At solemn pauses, through the swelling base: And, as each mingling flame increases each. In one united ardour, rise to Heaven ! "Or, if you rather choose the vernal shade, And find a fane in every sacred grove, There, let the shepherd's flute, the virgin's lay, The prompting seraph, and the poet's lyre, Still sing the God of seasons, as they roll!" Thompson. CONTENTS. 327 .. *. djontcnfa of fart fea How blest is the man How choice is the sacrifice The dawn of the morn Lord, Avho, though inhersed I walked through the glade How peaceful the aisle, Lord At cock-crow, uprising I went to my window My song of lament A new psalm of praise Total lines PAOE LINES 329 18 ib. 10 330 10" 331 24 332 26 333 18 ib. 18 334 16 335 20 ib. 30 202 PSALMODY. 329 PSALM I. 1. How blest is the man who regardeth the Lord ! Whose trust is reposed in the work of his Saviour ! 2. Whose eye is upraised to the things unbeheld, And whose heart, led to hope against hope, is enlarged 3. Who, walking through darkness, accounteth as light, The processional path which His gospel approves ! 4. He shall flourish, like flowers, on alluvial fatness, Where heats are abated by abundance of dews ! 5. He shall blossom, like rose-bud, by bowers of beauty, Where, evergreens gladd'ning, anemonies glow ! 6. When storms roll around him, his mien is assuasivc : When billows assail him, his rock is unreft. 7. hi straits, he, in fulness, is still found sufficient : In shade of despondence, he sings reassured. 8. While, who err, thro' voluptuousness, lapse into folly. And wav'rers in discipline, arc counted unblest. .9. For bonds, in obedience, are holiness-love-links, And the watcher, in prayer, is the truster in Christ ! PSALM 11. 1. How choice is the sacrifice, made at the altar; Where the future is purchased by that which is seen .' 2. When all that is transient is lightly esteemed: Whilsl prizing the promise of pleasures deferred ! .*!. 'I'll.' -lory reflected, through faith, as the mirror: Revealing those jewels which charity yields! 4. Vouchsafe, Thou Internal, whose look is reviving: That the wise, in discernings, Thy favour may find. 330 PSALMODY. 5. When frailty is fullest, and weakness overwhelming ; When period for further repentance is past — 6. When every appliance has proved unavailing; And each tentative tried, has exhausted its force — 7. The hide of the leopard remaining en-spotted : The hue of innateness, imprest in the fault — 8. Great Lord of the contrite, the abased and lowly ! Keep all for Thy kingdom, whose watchword Thou art ! PSALM III. 1 . The dawn of the morn is the hour for devotion : And the vigour of youth for the service of God. 2. All fervour of feeling is felt by the wary : And the freshness of health, by who wait for their Lord. 3. Ablutions and tears teem, at matins, with treasures : But deferred vesper-anthems decline into dreams. 4. Who waste opportunities, weigh not their chances : Who halt, on their courses, attain not their inns. 5. How hapless the worldling, who grasps at earth's holdings : Succumbing, as autumn reveals his decline ! 6. His hope is a web, which the chafing-leaf rendeth : The vigil of death tolls a knell to the sloth. 7. Oh ye, who are favoured by calls of the Spirit, Obey the behest which that Spirit imparts ! 8. For, Lord, all who seek Thee right early, shall find Thee! Who uprise in Thy patience, shall rest in Thy peace ! PSALMODY. 331 ■ PSALM IV. 4. Lord, who, though inhersed, shall upstand from the tomb : When thou shalt descend on the wings of the wind ? 2. When they who, through pride, are debased unto hell : Oh who, for his rest, shall have dwelling in heaven ? 3. Even he, who has trusted, unseeing Thy tests : W T ho, believing Thy promises, toiled for Thy dues. 4. Even he, who has travelled Thy strait-ways in faith : Upstayed, by Thy scriptures, through trials and tears. 5. Even he, self-renouncing, who took up that cross : Which pertained to his circumstance, temper, and time. 6. Who, watchful to strengthen the things that were weak : By abstinence, stayed the diseases of mind. 7. Who returned good for evil, forgiving the fault : And righteousness wrought for the life of his foe. 8. Who never disparaged his betters nor like: Nor judged, upon dubious debate, to condemn. .9. Whose life, in the flesh, was repellant to wrath : In all reverent glide, through the wake of Thy love. 10. Who, feeding the hungry, and clothing the naked: Who, soothing the mourner, and chasing his sigh — 1 1 . Fulfilled, though in frailty, his lot of probation : To find, at Thine advent, munition from fear; 12. And dwell, in Thy presence: 'mid burnings eternal: Where life-bread and cup of salvation are sure !* * Psalm, w ; [saiah, xxxiii, 34, &c. 332 PSALMODY. PSALM V. 1. I walked through the glade of the woodland in rapture : I sate, on its slope, at the vista of glow : 2. I wended the glens of the streamlet, a-mountain : I ate of the cresses which bordered its bays. 3. I laved at the font which was curtained with crystals: With mosses enamelled, encircled by ferns. 4. Where roses were white, like the lilies below them : Whose leaflets disported with scintils of light : 5. And I poured to the angel of grateful emotions : Libations of praise, from the on-flow of prayer. 6. There was stillness beside me, and radiance around me: The song of the pebbles, though liquid, was low. 7. No bird Avas a-bough, nor a bee on the woodbine : No murmur a-forest, nor hum from a-far. 8. But sad thoughts and a death-chill, by magic, came o'er me : And, in fear and in faintness, I hasted to flee. 9. For the signs of the evening betokened ill tidings : The howl of the wolfling was heard from the wold ! 10. And, why halted I, amid sunlit illusions? Sighed I, passing by, to recesses of shade. 11. Oh, Thou, who, pervading the regions of glory : Abasest those powers which press down the soul — 1 2. Protect, Lord, as meet : the elect of such agents : As treasure Thy truths, and rely on Thine aid : 13. For man, whom Thou madest as heir to salvation : When tempted, is much to be pitied or prized ! PSALMODY. 338 PSALM VI. 1. How peaceful the aisle, Lord, that leads to Thine altar Or pew that admits, in Thy presence, to pray ! 2i- In outpour of spirit, to plead for Thy mercy : To call to remembrance, and sing to Thy praise ! 3. In fane, that, alluring, relumines the lowly : Like beacon a-hill-top, the darksome in dell ! 4. As phantom of night-dream dissolves in the sunbeam : So sadness exhales in the courts of Thy praise. 5. I followed the traces of her who was lovely : Her smile all attractive, how meek was her mien ! (J. In psalm or hosannah, her features how glowful ! In prayer, how persuasive ! at preaching, how rapt ! 7. She loved to inhabit the house that is holy : Consistent her conduct, her death-bed was peace ! 8. Vouchsafe us, for Christ's sake, the calls of the Spirit : To follow Thy saints to their transits to Truth : J). And so teach us, militant, Lord, to obey Thee : That we fail not, triumphant, to dwell in Thy sight ! PSALM VII. 1. At cockcrow, uprising, in storm-tide of winter: Disordered by dream, I betook me to prayer: 2. And mused, whether brain, so afflicted by fancies, Were by diet, disease, or ill-angel oppressed ! :|. Then, innate corruption being traced to childhood: Pre-existence of soul was the tlmle of thought. i Each action ofhearl being adjudged by the motive \ll wordsofthe lips \>\ the impulse of mind— 334 PSALMODY. 5. Is man, I exclaimed, an accountable being : Awake or asleep, for imaginings vain ? 6. By love or abhorrence, a still voice responded : For problem so fearful, solution is found. 7. And the tear that, thence, fell, was a spell for the sorrow : 'Till the gleam of the morning regilded the brow. 8. Grant, merciful Parent of contrite creation : That, by abstinence, all that opposes Thee, staid — 9. Those, taught by Thy Word, to account Grace, prevailing : In will, word, and work, with Thy will may accord ! PSALM VIII. i . I went to my window where stars were enspangling The hemisphere dark of the limitless sky, 2. And rapt by their splendour, 'mid rether depending : Lost trace of by-vision, in galaxy-glow. 3. A-t winkling, thence vanishing, earth, whiles revolving; O'erwhelming all optics in countless emblaze — 4. Profound was the marvel, but void, like the inquest, On phases of mind, 'mid ephemeral shine. 5. Oh Thou, whilst enfolding the comets of vastness : Who poisest each atom that tenants the dew : (!. Or, searching all secrets of measureless concaves : Regildest the plumage, or hoarest a hair — 7. In pity, invest with the breath of Thy beauty : The spheres of man's spaces, through cycles of care : 8. Yea, in mercy, regenerate Thy likened, though lapsed : And, again, unto glory, Thine image reflect ! PSALMODY. 3'35 PSALM IX. X. My song of lament, " I have laboured in vain !" Must this be the theme of my latest of lays? 2. The crests of faith's primal-found uplands, attaining : At night-fall, must glaciers perplex with their glooms ? •*j. When, hopeful, regarding or ensign or taper : As signal perspective of blissful repose — 4. Must fathomless Rowings, with rapids of peril, Betoken, in faintness, mischances between ? 5. Oh, Thou, who, ordaining the changes of season : Keversest the dictum of " Let there be lio-ht !" (J. Yet, nervest the weary, in darkness, desponding : While looking to Thee for renewal of ray — 7. Vouchsafe, mighty God ! for His merits, who saved us: And showed us, for mercy, the recompense true — 8. That, whelmed by anguish of spirit appalling ! Where tortuous declensions discover the snare — .9. If, averting our eyes, to review our advances : Our habits, we find, were long-sufferings in love — 10. We may take to the stream, under promise of pardon: Ami dissolve, in the assurance of light unto life ! I'SALM X. 1. A new psalm of praise to [mmanuel, I'll Bing: The Redeemer of man from corruption's enthrall 336 PSALMODY. 2. Whose presence, impelling the lowly, in praying : Now prospers, as perfect, the motive to prayer, 3. That, when all which is transient be past, it may prove To the glory of God, in the mansions of bliss. 4. In Him, who Iieversor of error, by truth : Through the pang of the cross, gave the pledge of the crown : 5. And, for frailty atoning, by dire depression : Merged ratings of wrath into mercies-reglow. (5. Ah, who can portray in conception, the grandeur : Of, where angels in image, as equal is man ? 7. Like spirit to minister, son of redemption : Responding, in chorus, their plaudits, in sky ? 8. Singing, " holy, thrice holy," in ceaseless rotation, " Holy, thrice holy, Triunity, One. 9. Holy, thrice holy, hosanna, the bridegroom ! Son of man, hallelujah ! in glory, amen ?" 10. Alas, not for mortal, in chastest attainment: Much less, if defiled, for the unworthy in clay — 11. Can it, e'er, be conceived by heart, through the senses: Or its ecstacies semblanced by viols a-verse. 1 2. But, freed from earth's pressures, in paradise resting : Ye saints, who, through suffering, by faith, overcame — 13. Be your theses, for triumph, as poesies luted: For who skim, in your aspects, the wake of your way ! 1 4. And, oh virgin mother, whose mystic conception : As the heir-loom of heaven, is the hope of the whole : 15. While its halo encircles all, called, of daughters : May the light of its Lordship the adopted of sons ! PAET VIII. ■ PARAPHRASE. " For mo, when I forget the darling theme, Whether the hlossom hlows, the summer ray Russets tin- plain, inspiring autumn gleams, Or winter rises in the Maekcning cast, Be mj tongue dumb: may fancy paint no more, And, dead to joy, forget. m_\ heart, to beat." Thompson. ...;.•.;..•.•.;.., . ...-'.■'■..•'.•:• •>;•..-■.■;-... ... •;.■. •;.■ ■* "•.'.'••• CONTENTS. 339 ■ <$fltrfatfa of $art <%E When Zion's sinners madded or a-maze . . 341 21 Comfort ye, comfort ye, seer, saith your God . 342 44 ' Where's the divorcement bill ? that witness where ? 344 42 Ye seed of Abraham, hearken to My word . 346 30 Rejoice, oh ban-en ! thou, who didst not bear . 347 54 Ho, every one who thirsteth, come . . 349 54 Thus saith the Lord — Ye wandering sheep . 352 48 The righteous pcrisheth : his hours depart . 35 ! 10 Thus saith the High and Lofty One . . ib. 24 Oh, that, redemptory, Thou the heavens wouldst rend 355 46 I'm sought of them who asked not for Me . 359 78 Who hath believed the report we made? . . 362 53 Total lines . . . 504 /. 2 WHO SHALL DWELL. 341 WHO SHALL DWELL WITH THE DEVOURING FIRE? Or become a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem. Isaiah, xxxiii, 14 to 17- When Zion's sinners : madded or a-maze, Quail at the dire unquenchable emblaze : When gnawing fears its hypocrites surprise, Or wasting flames emburn the slanderer's eyes — * Lord, who shall dwell on holy hill above,t High, in Thy lumined shechinah of love, Freed, by Thy presence, from perdition's ires: Enrapt in rayful and refining fires, And rest in righteously-attained desires ? 'Tis he who walks, in holy faith and fear ; And prays uprightly to Thine hearkening ear. Whose stores no lawless gains nor goods enfill : (Of bribes, his hands and heart abhorrent still,) Who's deaf to tempter-snares: and blind to deeds of ill! t He, firm, shall dwell: unreft by flood or flame: His rock-munition being his Saviour's Name ! His bread of life,§ his flow of mercy sure, Though all be lost beside him — he's secure — White-robed at watered font: and, by His bloodshed, pure!|| Entranced by far-beholding, heaven is his: ]IIS KING ITS BEAUTY: AND ITS GOD HIS BLISS! * Si. .Mark. i\, |:|, II. Psalm w (as the exposition of the whole). t St. Matthew, \ii. 12 ami 21. fj St. .John, iv, I I ; \ i. .") I . || Revelation, \ii. l I to l ; . {42 ' COMFORT YE, MY PEOPLE. COMFORT YE, MY PEOPLE, SAITH YOUR OOD. Or the salvatory adaptation of the Gospel to all recipients. Isaiah, xl, 1 to 11, and 27 to 31. Comfort ye, comfort ye, seer, saith your God, My people, borne down with the weight of My rod ! Her warfare accomplished, and pardoned her crime, Advance, and proclaim to the men of thy time, The Saviour of Zion approaches to bless Jerusalem, saddened with double distress ! The voice of the Baptist who cries from the wold, Prepare ye the way of the Lord of the fold ! Wide o'er the lone desert, upraise on the sod, A highway of grace for our king and our God ! (Each valley exalted : each hill levelled low) Make crooked paths straight, and the rough, plain to go ! For beauty and brightness shall beam at His birth : All flesh shall behold Him who tenant the earth. As told by His prophets, or taught by His Word, The dead shall revive, on the day of the Lord ! The germs of all beings shall rue or rejoice, And — wicked or worthy — awake at His voice! The voice that said cry : then, asked, what can I cry ? Responding, itself, with a soul-aching sigh — All flesh is as grass, in its flowery perfume: The flower, it fadeth, and death is our doom ! , ■ C0MP011T YE, MY PEOPLE. 343 All herbage must wither : all fruitiness fail ! Tis the Word of our God : His Word shall prevail ! Yet, Zion, high-mounting, uplift the glad voice, And shout to the cities of Judah, "rejoice I' 1 For, lo, thy Immanuel, with strong hand and arm, ' Vouchsafes to enfree His redeemed from harm ! He cometh, His flock, like a shepherd to feed, To bear in His bosom, and, lovingly, lead ! Why sayest thou ! oh Jacob, I've journeyed in vain, Unseen by my God in my peril and pain ? Can facts not convince thee, nor prophecy prove, That, Lord of all life, He's supremest in love ? The Author of nature no weariness fears : In faintness, He nerveth : in hopelessness, cheers ! While such as the cross of His counsels deride. Fall, utterly fall, in ephemeral pride, Who watch and who wait for, esteeming, as true, The grace of His gospel, their strength shall renew Like eagles, upsoaring, Bach suffering saint, Shall run and not weary, And walk and not faint ! 344 where's the divorcement bill? WHERE'S THE DIVORCEMENT BILL? THAT WITNESS WHERE? Christ, rebuking the seed of Abraham for their infidelity, up- cheers the depressed believer: but denounces all reliances upon self-righteousness, and indwelling pride. Isaiah, 1. Where's the divorcement bill? that witness where Of your repudiated house of prayer ? Or ye yourselves iniquitous — for aught, Which of My creditors of Me has bought ? What but your vast enormities, behold, Her veil and votaries have rent or sold ? Why, when I came, was there no watchman by ? Why, when I called, no voice that could reply ? Is My hand short'ned that it cannot save, Redeem from death nor ransom from the grave ? I, who exhaust the waters with My wand, And strew their mouldering tenants o'er the strand ? The heavens, with blackness, lo, to clothe, I come — Come to enshroud in sackcloth and in gloom : My tongue inspired, in mercy, to impart, A word, in season, to the wounded heart ! A-morn instructed or to chide or cheer, My God attunes My sapient ear, to hear ! My gracious God revealed to Me, His will : 1 fell not back, but pressed, obedient still : where's the divorcement bill ? 3-45 My back I bent, My cheeks to them I turned Who scourged, smote, tare Me : and, in spitting, spurned ! And, still upheld, I'll face them when defamed : "Assured, by heaven, I shall not be ashamed. My Sire is by, to justify Me there Where, left alone, My deadliest foe I'll dare : We'll stand together, and, together, plead : My God's My guardian in My night of need : •^ And all who doom Me, on My dying day, Of garment-fretting moths must prove the prey ! Then, where's the man, who, lowly, fears the Lord ? Hearing His voice, who keeps His holy Word ? Yet walks in darkness through this vale of tears Where nor a twinkling star nor taper cheers? Still let him trust courageously in Me, And stay upon his God in misery ! Oh, Judah, compassed witli the sparks of pride, Since, ever faithless to your would-be Guide, Ye choose, perverse, the path of mad desire, And fan the. lurid flames of passion's fire, Know ye, for this, My judgment, it will come, And, dreadful, at your death, shall be your doom 34() YE SEED OF ABRAHAM. YE SEED OF ABRAHAM, HEARKEN TO MY WORD. (The things unseen do not deceive : on credence hangs salvation.) Isaiah, li. Ye seed of Abraham, hearken to My Word — You, who would follow truth, and seek the Lord ! Regard the rock ye're hewn from, and review The hole of pit from which your greatness grew : Him with his spouse (your ancestors confessed), Primal, I called alone : increased, and blessed ! The Lord will comfort Zion for his sake — Comfort her wastes — those wastes, like Eden, make ! Her desert, where, 'tis sung, the satyr sighs, Will deck with flowers like those in paradise : Joy and gladness shall therein be found : Praise and the voice of melody abound ! Oh hearken unto Me, my people dear, Ye Gentile lands too, lend your willing ear ; For, lo, the Lord, a gracious law will write, His judgment resting for His chosen's light ! His truth is near : His arm will quicken dust, The isles shall wait, and, on that arm, shall trust ! Uplift your eyes, yet privileged to breathe : Behold the orbs above : the earth beneath ! KEJOICE, OH BARKEN. 3 + 7 Those, like the smoke, shall vanish all away, t And this, alas, like garment-worn, decay ! Yea, all that tenant all, themselves shall die, But My salvation's to eternity ! Hearken untb Me, ye, who know the right : The holy, in whose heart My law beams bright : Fear ye not those, nor for their chidings care, Whom moths shall feed on, and whom worms shall share : But trust that Power, whom, righteous ye shall prove — The Author of unceasing life, grace, liberty and love ! REJOICE, OH BARREN! THOU, VV r HO DIDST NOT BEAR. The amplitude of the Gentile or Christian Church: their safety : their deliverance out of affliction : their fair edification, ami sure preservation. Isaiah, liv. Rejoice, oh barren ! thou, who didst not bear, Break forth triumphant, and thy change declare! Cry aloud, thou, who travailedsl qoI with child, Cry, virgin, cry, ersl woful and reviled: For nunc, reveals the blessed Source of love, Than wedded wives, thy progeny shall prove! Enlarge the borders of thy tented land, And, wide, the curtains of its dome, expand ! 348 REJOICE, OH RARREN. Spare not thy cords, but lengthen them at will, And, although strong, their stakes oh, strengthen still For, right and left, thy prosperous offspring led, Shall Gentile lands and cities waste o'erspread ! Fear not confusion nor the hectic flame : For never more shaft thou be put to shame ! Depressed in prime, thy griefs thou shalt forego, And widowhood's reproaches cease to know ; The Lord of Hosts, the God of earth is He Surnamed a Saviour and a Spouse to thee ! Called when forsaken, and, in spirit, grieved, Nor, as a wife of youth, by youth received, In little wrath, and, for a moment, moved, My face was hidden, or My frown reproved ! But tender mercies, and eternal, too, Thus saith thy dear Redeemer, " I'll renew !" I've sworn that waters shall no more prevail, Nor thou, My chosen, My rebuke bewail ! No ; mountains may depart, and hills remove, But kind and constant shall My pity prove : My covenant of peace, to Noah given, Is thine on earth, and shall be so in heaven ! Oh, tossed with tempest, and afflicted found, And cold and comfortless the horizon round, Thy decked foundations, on salvation's day, With colours fair — with sapphires, I'll inlay ! Agates thy windows, carbuncles thy gates, And pleasant stones encircling thy estates ! HO, EVERY ONE WHO THIRSTETH, COME. 349 Thy duteous children shall be taught of Me : ' Great shall their quiet and assurance be ! In righteous deeds, and sanctified by woes, Thou, too, established, shalt, in peace, repose! Far from oppression : for thou shalt not fear : From terror freed, that never may be near ! Behold the impious and the slaves of lust, Who congregate to aggravate the just — They, should they rise, thy spirit to appal — In quick succession, for thy sake, shall fall ! The smith to forge and waster to destroy, I, who created both, will both employ ! No weapon, formed, by their devices vain, Shall prosper, or have power to give thee pain : And every tongue of false-accusing men Thou shalt have grace fore-given thee to condemn ! Of all who serve, in lowliness, the Lord, Lo such the heritage, and sure reward ! HO, EVERY ONE WHO THIHSTETII, COME! The primal call, and consequent predication of redemptory and availing iniluenees. [saiah, Iv. No, every one who thirsteth ! come — Your constant Shepherd calls ye home 350 HO, EVERY ONE WHO THIRSTETH, COME. Where living waters rise ! Come, buy and eat, yea, come, and buy My wine and milk abundantly — My pleasures without price ! Why do ye spend your money so ? Why waste your labour here below? And, e'er, an hungered, pine ? Come, list attentive to My voice : In fatness, let your souls rejoice, And feast on food divine ! Incline your ear and come to Me ! Hear, and, like David, ye shall be With life eternal blest ! His covenant of mercies sure To endless ages to endure, Shall be, by you, possest ! For Jesse's son, My people's pride — Their righteous governor and guide — My witness born to be — Shall call a nation now unknown : While aliens run his right to own, Since magnified by Me ! Seek ye the Lord while He is near ! Call ye upon Him while He'll hear ! And quit the path profane ! Abhor imaginations ill, And walk obedient to His will, His favour to regain ! HO, EVERY ONE WHO THIRSTETH, COME. 351 Oh, let the unhappy hope in heaven ! His guilty thoughts shall be forgiven — His madding curse removed ! The Lord of David and of love AY ill deign to bless him from above, His penitence approved ! For, Jacob's God to Judah says — Far different are My thoughts and ways From theirs whom earth allures : Yea, high as heaven from mortals here, So wholly opposite appear My purposes and yours I The rain and snow enrich the ground That all its tenants may abound In bud, or seed, or bread : And, lo ! the Word that I respire Shall, thus accomplish My desire, And prosper where 'tis sped ! The mountains and the hills shall sine, When praise and peace, to you, I bring, And every woodland hail ; While, still of grace, a sign to give — The fir and myrtle tree shall thrive, A iid thorn and thistle fail !* * Genesis, iii. Is. 352 THUS SAITH THE LORD — YE WANDERING SHEEP. THUS SAITH THE LORD— YE WANDERING SHEEP. The Argument. Righteousness of life and devotedness to God shall he recom- pensed hy pure and everlasting pleasures in the heavenly sanc- tuaries of praise and prayer and hlissful adoration ; without respect of persons, sects, or creeds : while ruin shall overtake the indolent, voluptuous, or carnal-minded expounder of God's holy word : however orthodox his theories or veritable his deductions. Isaiah, lvi. Thus saith the Lord — Ye wandering sheep, Do justice now and judgment keep, For My salvation's near ! My statute of redemption's sealed : And, soon, my righteousness revealed, I will, in power, appear ! Blest is the sage — or sire, or son, Who, well, his duteous deeds, has done, And praised his God, in prime ! Lived unpolluted in the land, And, fearing Him, refrained His hand From cruelty and crime ! Allow ye not the alien child, In following Me, if undefiled, To sigh, " The Lord, I see, Hath left me utterly ^alone !" Nor let the sorrowing man bemoan, " Behold a sapless tree !" THUS SAITH THE LORD — YE WANDERING SHEEP. 853 For, to the sorrowing, thus I say — To such as keep the Sabbath-day, And pure and upright are — Within Mine house, they shall receive A better boon than earth can give : Or sons or daughters share ! Those aliens also to requite, Who deem My service a delight, And do as I ordain — Them, to Mine holy hill, I'll bring, And elevate, with saints to sing In joy's seraphic fane o Surnamed for penitents, " of prayer," Contrition's tears I'll treasure there, And, from the Heavens, behold ! I'll seek the leper, lame and blind : Yea, every outcast will I find, And foster in My fold ! But My behest, ye beasts obey : Ye, that, ill-field, or forest, stray Come, to devour the slain ! For, dumb as dogs that do not bark, The blinded watcl in, in the dark, Account all vigil vain ! My covenant they cannot know. For, greedy, after gain they go, A nd, still, lay nj> in ston ! ( 'nine, sing the idiots, fetch us wine: And, Full, un couches we'll recline, To feast, to-morrow, more! \ \ 354 THUS SAITH THE HIGH AND LOFTY ONE. THE RIGHTEOUS PERISHETH : HIS HOURS DEPART. The blessed and happy end of the true believer. Isaiah, lvii, 1, 2. The righteous perisheth : his hours depart : But no beholder layeth it to heart ! The merciful are summoned hence in prime, From ills contingent, and the tearful time : Yet none consider well, the inference sublime ! The just and generous, at their journey's close, Shall, on their pillows, peacefully, repose ! Yea, though oppressed with penury or pain, While mourn surrounding intimates in vain, Shall sleep ; in blissful hope, to wake, in Heaven, again ! THUS SAITH THE HIGH AND LOFTY ONE ! Evangelical blessings are promised unto the penitent : but, to consentients in error, is threatened remorseful and unending woe. Isaiah, lvii, 15 to 21. Thus saith the High and Lofty One, Whose name is, Holy, on His throne — I, in infinitudes of space, Dwell in the high and holy place, OH, THAT, BEDEMPTORY. 355 With him of lowly contrite heart, Spirit-revivings to impart. Averting wrath, lest endless wail Created flesh should cause to fail I frowned, when avarice did abound, Or frowardness in will was found : But, won by self-denying way, I come to comfort and upstay ! To him and mourners, as before, My leadership and love restore. Fruit of My lips, by which they live, My word of peace, to such, to give ! To heal their wounds from ire or ill — For, when to sin, consentient still, The wicked, wakeful or asleep, Tossed like the tempest-troubled deep, Cannot, in ruffled conscience, rest : Below, unloved: above, unblest: In flood or flame : a-sky or sod : There is no peace, to the apostate: saith my God ! Oil, THAT, REDEMPTORY, THOU THE HEAVENS WOULDST REND! The -I' wish church prayeth unavailingly for the illustration of (lull's power: and complainetfa under the pressure of continuous temporal affliction. [saiah, Ixiv. !. Oli, tint, redemptory, Thou the heavens wouldst rend! Amain, in might and majesty, descend ! A \ 2 356 OH, THAT, REDEMPTORY. ( )nce more, woulcTst cause the mountains to flow down, And us, Thy creatures, with Thy presence, crown ! 2. As, when the fires burn, the waters boil, That Thou, the proud, wouldst by Thy Spirit, spoil ! Thy Name immortal to Thy foes would'st make, And doom the obdurate of the earth to quake ! 3. Like as of old : when, mightiest in the midst, Unlooked-for deeds and terrible Thou didst: Thou earnest, creative, blessings to bestow, And madest mountains, at Thy mandate, flow ! 4. For, since the world began : since men have been : Nor ear hath heard, nor, ever, eye hath seen, Save Thine, oh God ! the wonderful reward, Prepared for him who looks unto the Lord ! 5. Remembering Thee, and truthful to their trust, With joy Thou meet'st the merciful and just ; And, e'en in anger, when our errors grieve, Thy pity interposes, and, we live ! 6. But, ah, unclean, with baseness, we abound, And all our righteousness as filth is found ! Fading, as leaves: our works of love decay, And vices waft us, like the wind, away ! OH, THAT, REDEMPTORY. 357 There's none, alas ! who calls upon Thy name ! None stirs himself to celebrate Thy fame ! Consumed for sin, in vain to Thee we sigh : Thy face Thou hidest : and, behold, Ave die ! 8. Yet, now, oh Lord, the Father of us all, Ourselves the clay, we, Thee, our Potter, call ! Stamped in Thine image, as Thy word decreed, Thy hand has fashioued, and Thy Spirit freed ! Oh, be not wroth against us very sore ! Remember, Lord, iniquities no more ! Behold Thy people prostrate at Thy throne ! See, we beseech Thee : we are all Thine own ! 10. ( )iu- holy cities: dreadful is their doom ! ( )ur Zion is a wilderness become ! And the loved temple which our prophets praised, Is levelled low ! Jerusalem is razed ! * I I. There stood our altar: there, our house of prayer ! The fane, our fathers worshipped in, was there ! * The temple or daughter of Jerusalem alluded to the lower pari of the hills on which the city stood; whereon thai temple, as well as Solomon's palaces, were erected, lis mystical meaning is, in the secondary sense, as our Lord portrays, " the temple of man's materiality." 358 OH. THAT, REDEMPTORY. But, burut with fire, its Shechinah is gone, And, for our palaces, laid waste, we mourn ! * 12. Wilt Thou refrain, and hold Thy peace for ill ? Wilt Thou, oh Lord, afflict Thine Israel still? * * # ■* # 7p *Jfr 7p ^* *F * Shechinah, or holy fire, means the Divine presence, which so gloriously irradiated Solomon's temple at its primary dedication. When the glow of will-worship ceases, the light of God's countenance is instantly withdrawn. Prayer then degenerates into concupiscence, and all chaste beholdings and desires become opaque, disappointing and soul-depressing to the heart and vision of the earth-entranced and wandering-thoughted votary. " Its shechinah is gone !" A God of judgment and of jealousy was typified under the mysterious dispensation which then ar- rested the eyes of the beholders, at that primal hour of temple praise, and the accompanying bloody rites and sacrifices of the law, became, to them, its lurid decorations ! Christ, however, was the Shechinah of the second or Herod's beautified sanctuary ; and the gospel of reconciliation its reful- gent glory ! The serpent of Moses, Hezekiah brake to powder, in Isaiah's time, signifying that the symbol, well apprehended by the wise, had had its day ; and that the hour was come when the brazen charm (which had become an object of idolatry) was to be re- placed by that immensity of mercy which, for all futurities, was then foreseen and testified ! The Messiah is prefigured, in the chapters following (which conclude these paraphrases) as the promised substitute. Pro- mised, through the prophets, in all previous ages, and revealed, as such, through the Apostles, finally, by our risen, glorified, and sin atoning Lord ! i'm sought of them who asked not for me. 359 r I'M SOUGHT OF THEM WHO ASKED NOT FOR ME. The Omiiipotent's reply to complaining Israel. Isaiah, lxr. I'm sought of them who asked not for Me ; And they who sought Him not, their Saviour see ! I said, " Behold, behold me," when I came, Unto a nation called not by My Name ! To Israel's house, repellant to their prayer, Thus saith the Lord — rebellious race, forbear ! To you I've spread, from morn 'till night, a-main, Mine arms to bless, but spread them, e'er, in vain ! Me ye provoke continually, Avhen by, Yea urge to anger by your perfidy — Ye, who, in garden groves, to mammon turn, And incense, on illicit altars, burn ! The tombs ye tenant, and the graves ye fill, And dwell inherse, because your deeds are ill. The flesh ye feed on is unfaithful food: The wine ye thirst for is with harm imbued: Whiles, like the lambent smoke, or flickering light, Ye stand apart as holy in My sight! Lo, 'tis revealed, I will not silent be, B ut deal in wrath, sad recompense, to thee! Yours and your sire's iniquities rehearse, And for your mountain-wasted odours curse: 360 i'm sought op them who asked not for me. Since, erst, on hills, ye have blasphemed My name, Your youthful crimes shall prove your age's shame ! Yet, as new wine is blessed and treasured e'er, Thy remnant, Jacob, shall My favour share. From Judah's handmaid, Israel's Rock I'll raise, My mountain's Pillar and My people's Praise ! Sharon and Achor, barren, shall be blest, And there, enfolded, shall the faithful rest ! But ye are they, by Satan's wiles beset, Who, God forego, and heaven, His gift, forget ! Preparing tables for the troops of lust, Who pour libations to unhallowed dust ! Wherefore, ye wayward, deaf ones, and ye dumb, The slaughter-sword your death-doom shall become ! And, therefore, lo, the Gentiles shall rejoice : Eat, drink, and sing with elevated voice ; While, hungry, thirsty, and consumed with care — Your self-reproaches agitating e'er, Anguished with vain repentance, shall ye sigh, And, howling, writhe, in speechless agony ! Slain by My lips, and cursed in your fall, I'll, by another name, My servants call : That he below, who wills to bless or swear, May, by the Lord of truth, that will declare ; His tale of tears, his time-ward sorrows o'er, Hid from Mine eyes, and ne'er remembered more ! For, lo ! regardless of the former's fate, New heavens and earth, I come to recreate ! ! i'm sought of them who asked not for me. 361 Come, with resistless arm, from bliss above, Mine own to bless, to beautify, and love ! With plaudits rapt, Jerusalem shall ring, And her redeemed, with tongue of triumph, sing ! In her, in them, with praise, I'll reappear, To soothe the mourner's sigh and chase his tear. No vile deformity of days shall rise, Deformed or vile, from hades to the skies : No still-born babe : none faithless from the first, Nor sinner at his centenary curst ! * Their folds or fanes hers shall inherit e'er, And eat the fruitage of their vineyards there: They shall not build, nor wasting vigils keep That aliens may inhabit or may reap : For Mine elect, like evergreens, shall thrive, And, in perennity, in pleasure, live ! They shall not sow in tears, nor toil in vain, No, nor parturiate in sighs or pain : But, with their gracious progeny, shall prove Heirs of the Blessing, from the Lord of love ! Before they pray, responsive I'll appear, And whiles they are thanksgiving, I will hear ! The wolf and lamb, in those regenerate days, Shall dwell together, and together graze; * Louth, and all annotators, miserably fail in yain attempts to expound the prophet's meaning to this mosl inexplicable and untranslatable paragraph, [saiab evidently refers i<» a state of things prevenienl to the consummation, or the end of time, when our Saviour says, " Neither can tins die any more." 362 WHO HATH BELIEVED THE REPORT WE MADE ? Straw, like the bullock, shall the lion eat, And mountain-dust shall be the serpent's meat : Wolves, lions, serpents, on My holy hill, Nor lambs, nor bullocks, nor My saints shall kill ! WHO HATH BELIEVED THE KEPORT WE MADE ? OR, CONSUMMATION OF THE ROLL OF PROPHECY, IN FAITHFUL PARAPHRASE FOR MEDITATIVE HOUR ! " Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed !" Isaiah, Hi, 13 to 15, and liii. Who hath believed the report we made ? To whom's revealed the Arm outstretched to aid ? Extolled, exalted, and exceeding high, My prudent-dealing servant, Avho descry? With form and visage, marred beyond mankind, Failing one fellow parallel to find, His doctrine, like the dew, all realms shall bless, While kings, in mute astonishment, confess. He, like some tender plant a -field, is found : Or germ of shrivelled root from joyless ground ! No symmetry is seen of form or face, Nor winning lines of beauty nor of grace ! Despised : rejected ; man of sorrows deemed : -* WHO HATH BELIEVED THE REPORT AVE MADE ? 363 Unworthy to be reverenced or esteemed : We hid our faces, and, as shamed ones, seemed ! We judged His sorrows, agonies, and scorn Were for His own, and not for our sakes borne : Yet 'twas our sin — our wickedness alone, For which He came, by sufferings, to atone ! For peace He bare our chastisement of blame, And, for our healing, felt the stripes of shame ! All we, like sheep, have left the upright road : Each one has wandered from the ways of God : On Him was laid the iniquity of all : And, on His shoulders, did our burthen fall ! Yet, when afflictive pressures were entailed, He opened not His mouth nor doom bewailed ! As sheep at shearhouse : lamb to slaughter brought, Silent ; before His foes, He pleaded naught ! Betrayed: mocked: scourged: to death, from judgment, led, Imprisoned : on the cross, His blood was shed ! ! ! Cut off, in healthful glow, from fane and fold, How shall His generation e'er be told? Who, for transgression of His people slain, Hare, to stay wrath, the intensity of pain? Still, though, with reprobates, condemned to die, lie, in the rich man's sepulchre, did lie: Because He never did an act unmeet, Nor, in His mouth, was falsehood nor deceit! It pleased the Lord to bruise His soul within. That a full offering might bt mini, for .--in ' 36*4 WHO HATH BELIEVED THE REPORT WE MADE? That, seen His seed, He might prolong His days, And His good pleasure prosper in His ways. Soothed with the travail of His soul, in sight, He, in His ransomed issue, shall delight ! That, cleansing by His knowledge, the impure, He may the Called and Justified allure ! Therefore, His portion, He, and spoil beside, Shall with the Deity Himself divide ! For why ? Though His the Essence of all breath, His spirit He hath poured out, unto death ! Numbered with all transgressors since the Fall, Our God has borne our sin : Has intercession made : He has redeemed us all ! ! FINIS CORONAT OPUS. PAST IX, 3Up Cfjests upon g>elfcBemal* WITH AN OCCASIONAL PRAYER. axh HADES; OR, THE HOUSE OF MANY MANSIONS. With Prolegomena and Episode. (\ serious rhyme, for the new year.) Addressed .'111(1 dedicated to the Young. SECOND EDITION PREFACE. 36i LAY THESIS UPON SELF-DENIAL. " Austerities and mortifications are means by which the mind is invigorated and roused : by which the attractions of pleasure are interrupted, and the chains of sensuality are broken." — Dr. Johnson. EXTRACT BY WAY OF PREFACE, From Burnett's History of Charles II. 's Times — 1661. Character of Archbishop Leighton, son of him, who in Laud's time, for having written " Zion's Plea against the Prelates," was condemned, in the Star Chamber, to have his ears cut and his nose slit He was accounted a saint from his youth. He had great quickness of parts, a lively apprehension, and a charming vivacity of thought and expression. He understood Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and excelled in theological learning, and in the study of the Holy Scriptures. But, above all, he was possessed with the highest and noblest apprehen- sion of Divine matters. He bad no regard t<» his person, unless it was to mortipi it by a corn) 'i at low diet, that was like a perpetual fast. He appeared to have the lowest possible thoughts of himself, contemning wealth and reputation, and never was heard to utter one idle word. His whole life was strict and ascetical, and free from moroseness and sourness of temper. lie never censured others for non-conforinil v, since, as he said, there are 368 PREFACE. diversities of tempers, and it is every man's duty to limit his restrictions or inhibitions to his own. OTHER EXTRACTS. " Every man must take existence," says Dr. Johnson, " upon the terms it is given him. To some men it is given on condition of not taking liberties which others may in- dulge in without much harm." " The measure of our progress towards Christian per- fection," says Nelson, " must be taken from those restraints we are able to lay upon ourselves, and from the conquest we sret over all sensual desires." " Feeding to the full," says the same pious author, " betrays us to loose mirth, and pampers the unhappy disease of our nature, which our chief business is to cure and conquer." " The only objects of religious self-denial, are our sinful and disobedient appetites in a strict sense of the word ; but denying innocent appetites is necessary, to enable us to succeed in the arduous undertaking, for our appetites are only moved by pleasure, and if we gratify them in all instances where we lawfully may, they will, by long use, acquire such power, that it will become difficult in us to deny them anything. And our blessed Saviour has pointed out, in impressive language and by his own example, the importance of this exquisite virtue." — Ibid. "Abstinence if nothing more, is, at least, a cautious retreat from the utmost verge of permission, and confers that security which cannot be reasonably hoped by him who dares always to hover over the precipice of destruc- tion, or delights to approach the pleasures which he knows it fatal to partake. Austerity is the proper antidote to PREFACE. 369 indulgence, the diseases of mind as well as of body are cured by contraries, and to contraries we should readily have recourse, if we dreaded guilt as we dread pain." — Johnson. " The completion and sum of repentance is a change of life. That sorrow which dictates no caution, that fear which does not quicken our escape, and that austerity which fails to rectify our affections, are vain and unavail- ing." — Ibid. " But suffering," says Miss Carter, " is no duty, but where it is necessary to avoid guilt or to do good, nor pleasure a crime, but where it strengthens the influence of bad inclinations, or lessens the generous activity of virtue." And, in conclusion, Rousseau well observes, that " To attach ourselves but slightly to human affairs, is the best method to learn to die ;" while Shakspeare lays it down as a truism, to depress all authorship, that " It is easier to teach twenty what 'twere good to be done, than to be one of those twenty to follow one's own teaching." i. :• 370 A LAY THESIS UPON SELF-DENIAL. % Ciu0is From the Gth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, and the 17th and 18th verses. " When thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face ; That thou appear not unto men to fast, hut unto thy Father which is in secret : and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly." " I wept and chastened my soul with fasting," said the broken-hearted and penitent King of Israel, (Psalm lxix, verse 10) and in Psalm iv, verse 6 we find him praying, " Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us!" Upon whom, however, does God lift up that Light? Isaiah tells us in the last chapter of his blessed prophecy, " Unto this man will I look, saith the Lord, even unto him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at My Avord." And what is it to have the Lord look upon us ? It is verily to enjoy life and all things. His countenance is to the soul, like the sun to the flower. It shines away evil as the heavenly orb dissipates darkness, and as that colour- eth so it beautifieth. On the contrary, when He hideth His face we are troubled ; we become the victims of spon- taneous error, we spiritually decline, and " the things which should have been for our wealth " resolve for us " into occasions of failing." In like manner, when the solar rays are averted, as in A LAY THESIS UPON SELF-DENIAL. 371 winter, all fruitiness fails, all herbage withers; and des- , ponding nature drops her "sable veil"* and dies. " In Thy presence is the fulness of joy. 1 ' " In Thy presence is life !" These precious sayings of the Psalmist are appreciated highly by each devotional heart, and shall be bountifully experienced by every contrite one, in his pathway to purity. They are truths which are incontro- vertible, and assurances which never fail. Fasting, considered as a chastening of the soul, in order to eradicate pride and sensuality, and to induce lowly and i penitent affections, and amiable and loving tendencies, is found to be, through grace, the blessed means to conduct us to the presence and favour of the Almighty, by impart- ing energy to our prayers, and refinement to our medita- tions ; and so, to become a presage, to the sanctified heart, of pardon, peace, and joyful anticipation. Indeed, our blessed Lord lays so much stress on the duty of self-denial, as a habit of the mind, and not an occasional or periodical mortification, as the Iiomanists vainly account it, that lie plainly tells us, that if we do not take up a daily cross, that is, adopt day by day, and year by year, a circumspect, watchful, and self-renouncing rule of conduct, we cannot enter into the kingdom, or in other words, into the com- munion or beholding of God; and to this agrees the saying, "strait is the gate, and narrow is the way," because so few so very few, are found to adopt the rule, as a clue whereby to discover the opening. Turn we then at once to the scriptures, the same our Saviour read and instructed us to search, and also to the * Sec the beautiful litters of the late Lord Nelson's father, wlieii.it Bath, to his Bon at sea. "J03 sparkles," he writes, " in every eye, and desponding Britain draws back her sable veil, and smiles." 372 A LAY THESIS UPON SELF-DENIAL. records of His faithful followers, first regardful of what those have done, who have been favoured with the sunshine of God's smiles, and assured with the sustaining evidences of His approbation, and, thence, strengthen our eyelids, for the blaze of that light of beauty and of blessedness, which, under all consecutive trials and afflictive providences, shall operate as a holy charm, to wend us on, in the same righteous wake, until we become rapt in the reality of such halcyon illuminations ! Seven instances out of many, seem sufficient for the argument ! First, that of Moses, with whom God, once, upon Mount Sinai, spake, " face to face." Upon two occasions we find that for forty days and forty nights, he did neither eat bread nor drink water. He fasted and he prayed. His was a life of self-sacrifice, a state of pleading and of intercession for his people, and a brilliant example of devotedness to his Redeemer, during a tedious and a lengthened time of difficulties and of bereavements ; until, attaining at the last, the land of promise, he died, beholding but not possessing ; hoping against hope ; even for the fruition of a heavenly Canaan, and an eternity of re- compense in glory ! Secondly, that of David, called, by the voice of inspira- tion, " the man of God's own heart :" named also " holy David;" and why? because, even under temptation and in sin, his motive had ever been, as he saith in his 16th Psalm, to " set the Lord always before his face. 1 ' " My knees," said he, " are weak through fasting ; and my flesh faileth of fatness" (cix, 24). At midnight he arose to prayer and praise, and the habit of his soul was to seek the Lord, through life, with all his heart, and to study His loved precepts continually, that he might thus himself attain A LAY THESIS UPON SELF-DENIAL. 37o to that peace he promises to others in his 37th Psalm, ( written at the close of his career) as the cheering reward for " keeping innocency and taking heed unto the thing that is right," or as we Christians now read it, for looking unto Jesus until the end. Thirdly, that of Daniel, the "man greatly beloved" who, when very aged, was still found mourning for his fellows in captivity, as well as for himself. Upon one urgent occasion, during "three full weeks, he ate no pleasant bread neither came wine nor flesh into his mouth :" and the principle of his life, from the context of Ins precious historical prophecy, appears to have been similar to David's — " to set his face unto the Lord his God, to seek Him by prayer and supplication, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes," hoping by such appliances, to cause God's face to re-illume his ruined sanctuary, that thus, in accordance with His holy word, " the ransomed of the Lord might return to Zion, with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads : that they might obtain joy and gladness, and that sorrow and sighing might flee away."* Fourthly, that of St. John the Baptist, than whom, " no man was greater that was born of woman." His, though a short career of little more than thirty years, was one of penance and of fasting, and, preaching the doctrine of baptism and of repentance, he was found the faithful reprover to obedient ears. What his disciples, what even Pharisees were found to do, we may accomplish, and although our degenerate training.- and habits let and hinder us in such a march of glory as was his, they will ever be found the happiest among men, who are enabled, through grace, to love the teachings of this harbinger of hope, and act becomingly. * I .li.ili. xxxv, 10. 374 A LAY THESIS UPON SELF-DENIAL. Fifthly, that of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, "a devout man, and one who feared God with all his house, who gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway." He was habitually a fasting and a self-denying man, even before the blessings of the Christian covenant were miraculously dispensed to him, in recompense for intregity so tried, and for piety so established. " Four days ago'' (said he) " / teas fasting until this hour" Sixthly, that of St. Paul, the chosen vessel of the Lord for the propagation of His gospel to the heathen world. He tells us, in his epistles to the Corinthian converts, " of his fastings often." Not satisfied with occasional or lent- tide vigils or abstinences, his whole life, which, prior to his conversion, had been that of a rigid Pharisee, " after the straitest of his sect," was, after that miraculous event, dedicated absolutely to his Redeemer : and he died at the end of his travels and of his tears, a martyr's death, that he might be decorated, at the consummation, to the glory of God, with a martyr's diadem. Seventhly, and lastly, that of our blessed Lord Jesus Himself, who, in the days of His flesh, and while taking upon Him our nature, in order that He might know our sorrows, and the force of Satan's malice, by His own sad expe- riences, previously to overcoming that fell trial, by which He wrought salvation for a ruined world, fasted forty days ! " This kind" (alluding to the miracles He worked), said He, " can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting." He left us plain directions for performing these appropriate actions in an available and acceptable manner, set us an example by His life and death, and, committing Himself unto Him who judgeth righteously, bore our sins in His own body upon the cross of suffering and of shame, that we, being dead unto sin, might live unto righteous- A LAY THESIS UPON SELF-DENIAL. 375 ness, through faith in Him, as our new and spiritually adopted Progenitor, and so become, in the house of many mansions, inheritors, finally, of His joy ! It is, however, indicated to us, in one record of His truthful sayings, what danger we are in, even in our best endeavours, of being impelled by vain motives, as was the case with many of the aristocracy of Judea called Phari- sees, " They disfigured their faces, that they might appear unto men to fast. All their works they did that they might have glory of men :" might obtain the light of man's countenance, and not God's. God was not in their thoughts. They had no eye to His glory : all their hope centered in their own. They knew not the depravity of the human heart, the force of innate indwelling sin, nor the power of malignant and soul-destroying Satan. Trusting in themselves that they were righteous, they looked not unto the Author and Finisher of faith, the Alpha and the Omega of being; therefore their prayers became lip-labour, their fasts were fasts "of strife and of debate," and (like the formalists and rubrical idolators of modern date) all their almsgivings proved ceremonial and unavail- ing! They lapsed into presumptuous error; and, when the hour to test the soundness of their theory or practice came (corrupt imaginations based upon self-conceit, long consented to), they were led on to deeds of vindictiveness and blood! Tiny firsl rejected, and then barbarously slew their reproving, but would-be redeeming, Lord: and so, became, unwittingly, the miserable instruments, in pride, to conducl all contrite and humble proselytes, from the first Adam, even unto the last,* to glory. * " From the firsl Adam." As Christians believe the work of Redemption to have beet ;i fact accomplished, so the people of God, ah initio, confided in it ;i> n facl in reversion (a veritj to 376 A LAY THESIS UPON SELF-DENIAL. To fast, is to abstain or to restrain, from the motive of love to God, which is, in other words, an utter abhorrence of all evil ! Who fasts habitually from sinful thoughts, tempers, and compliances, is the truly consistent and self- denying Christian. Fasting has therefore not merely reference to the dieting of the body, nor the abstaining partially or wholly, at stated intervals, from the bountiful provisions of Providence, having health or appetite freely to enjoy. This, in a multitude of cases, argues the worldling, if carried into extremes, would, in the changed state of society, and in ungenial climes like ours, have a tendency to disqualify men engaged in daily routine of active and wearisome employment, for the due fulfilment of the duties of life, whether as pertaining to God, their fellow-creatures or themselves; and he deduces thence, with seemingness of rationality on his side, that no fitting rules can, in hereafter ages of the world, be laid down in this respect, for the ever-varying phases, locations, and circumstances of frail mortality. Debate the matter, notwithstanding, as the voluptuary, or even as the man of reason may, fasting, indubitably, pri- marily implies all this in a greater or less degree, as the cases, from Holy Writ recited, fully prove ; but (let it be conceded) with this proviso, only as a means, even in such cases, to an end ; and each man's conscience may best determine the sum of votive curb to be imposed upon himself, for his own peculiar necessities. A vast deal more than abstinence from food is surely be) : for it is written, " Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad." Thus, us a principle of faith, redeinptory influences become to all Adam, in the appellative apprehension of the term, from first to last, equally availing. A LAY THESIS UPON SELF-DENIAL. 377 signified by habitual fasting ; for well and indignantly ex- claims the philosophising poet,* Deem'st thou there is a power In lighter diet at a later hour ? The beautiful and compendious illustration of the text, is found in the 58th chapter of Isaiah, wherein the prophet concludes his incomparable lecture, by revealing to us, through the spirit, that one way of keeping a fast accep- tably to the Lord, is, by " not doing our pleasure on His holy day." To fast duly then, is to live and die in a continual state of watchfulness and of preparation for a better world, by habits of self-control and self-denial, during this short probationary chrysalis of existence. He fasts most availably, who most repudiates every arrogant and wrong imagination : who curbs his appetites, opposes his will, restrains his desires, rules his temper, mor- tifies his impulses of mind, "refrains his tongue from evil, his lips that they speak no guile, eschews evil, does good, seeks peace, pursues it;" whose walk, like the same prophet's when barefoot, is a daily and continuous itineration Avitli God, as seeing Him who is invisible, and who, having dis- covered the depravity of his own heart, marvels at the magnitude of the involuntary distress, and sighs abashed at the sorrowful rcvcalment ! And thus, led on, step by step, to account himself as "the chief of sinners," who denies himself ever and anon, in things lawful, that he may not encroach upon things forbidden, nor germinate incipient or pre-existentf transgression, by consentiences * Cowper's " Expostulation." I Error or contraryism to the law of God being innate, and iis bud, seed, or essence, being in •m,/, our principle of vitality. 378 A LAY THESIS UPON SELF DENIAL. in thought, of matter or of mind. His habitual early uprisings (for no true Christian can be late in bed) are precious fastings ; such, too, are his lyings down : His meals, his exercises, his ablutions, his meditations, his prayers, his alms, his heart-depressings, are all alike based, upon the self -renouncing principle, and upon faith of that promise that " whoso hateth his life in this world " shall inherit that existence which is better far than tins, and which is also eternal ! Such fasting as is thus implied, has a tendency to human- ise and soften the heart, and not to harden or to deaden it ; and to induce those tears of integrity, which are treasured in the vials of God's regards. It allays the tumult of all angry and contentious emo- tions, and settles down the soul into an unending calm. " The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness cpuietness and assurance for ever." (Isaiah, xxxii, 17.) On the other hand, when fasting begets fretfulness or moroseness, disparagement of others, or self-esteem ; when the scriptures likewise informing us that our heritage of corrup- tion is from Adam, and, as is therein emphatically expressed, (Jeremiah, i) " before formed in the flesh (belly) we are known of God," the doctrine of man's pre-existence as coeval with that of his first ancestor, becomes an indubitable truism to all common- sense believers. And by the teaching of Hades, or an inter- mediate state (allegorised as Abraham's bosom or the garden of Eden) of CEons in reversion, and of the equality of man at the resurrection, to that angel or spirit (which is his glorified minis- ter during bis earthly trials), a prefigurement is demonstrable for all, who are "the called," of progressive intellectual being, " eis ton aiona." The subject, hence, opens illimitable vistas of the antecedences as well as of the futurities of all rational creation, filling the contemplative mind with awe, until it becomes, like the astrono- mers', lost in the immensity of the meditation. A LAY THESIS UPON SELF-DENIAL. 379 it adds no wing to prayer, nor fervour to song, nor grace to charity, it ever argues tares existing amongst the wheat, and indicates imperfection ! There must be moral as well as physical defect in the inner man, some sad infirmity uncorrected temper, satanic indwelling, or latent fault at heart ; from whence arises a misgiving as to the purity of our motives, and the piety of the end proposed. Our Lord tells us, in the text, that, Avhen we fast " we are to wash our faces and to anoint our heads." We may read the admonition variously as we will ; but, read it as we may, we are, indubitably, to avoid all outward signs or ostentatious appearances of virtue ; and (scrupulously cleanly in our persons, and in our attire neat) we are to fast, not as men pleasers, but doing so as unto Him who judgeth righteously, and from whom alone we are to look for virtue's blessing, and fidelity's reward. In a word — we are so to walk by faith, through this mysterious round of difficulties, and of spiritual diseases and distress, that we fail not, finally, through the grace and sanctifying influences of a sought-for holy One, to attain the meed of approbation at an all-discerning and disclosing day! For, to conclude — Self-denial is to the soul of man what floodgates prove to a resistless tox'rent, wasting its alluvial availabilities amid the dark tortuous chasms of some howling wold. It arrests the perditory rush of all impulsive passions; and, as the proud waters, by countless ducts, are thence, skilfully led. to irrigate and fructify an otherwise dry ami desolated table-land: even so, by it- various vivifying and restrictive ordinances, are those benevolent effluences ruddy wrought, which lade the golden-budded tree of life with fruit lor meat, and garni di its salvation-crowning bough- with leaves lor medicine! 380 A LAY THESIS UPON SELF-DENIAL. May the ascetic rules, then, of the church militant here upon earth, become the basis for laudatory action to each youthful candidate labouring for the rest of the church triumphant in heaven ! Even of that universal church, where credences are not various, as the conflicting tenets of bigotted sectarians, or of crotchetty and conceited school- men ; but where theories are for ever void, amidst the glow- ing adjudication, for faithful and fellow-loving conduct ! So that, when we come to die, it may not be for us, like vain professors, with a feeble hope — like that expiring taper's flame that flits in the gloomy chamber of our dissolution, to render the distress more palpable — based only upon a Saviour's commendatory prayer "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do !" but with the apostolic fervour of feeling, " I have fought a good fight !" Not for forty dags, each spring-tide of each gear, have I imposed upon mgself Lord, a sorrowful restraint from pleasure, appetite, and will: and mg perennitg of life has been a carnival offollg ; but — barring periods, alas too long! of error and of infirmity \ mg existence has been, in the main, a lent — all to mg God ! Then, indeed, and verily indeed, like the holy Roman centurion, in the certain coming night, to each and all, of darkness and of necessity (according to our dear Redeemer's truthful promise conveyed in the words of the text), " Our prayers and our alms," as well as those denials, which, through the influence of the Holy Spirit, induced them, shall be so had in remembrance in the sight of God, that " our Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward us openly," Avhere, " in His presence, there is fulness of joy, and, at His right hand, pleasures for evermore !"* * Psalm xvi, 11. AN OCCASIONAL PRAYER. 381 AN OCCASIONAL PRAYER. Grant, O Lord, that in all our sufferings here upon earth, whether from the world without, or from our evil hearts within, Ave may trust entirely to our Redeemer's merits for our sustentation. And, whilst we duly use Thy va- rious means of grace, whether in the true spirit of fasting, almsgiving, or of prayer, oh ! let us never depend upon these our poor, weak, and unavailing endeavours, without Thy Holy Spirit's aid ; but, like the favoured " prisoner of hope, 1 ' beside Thy cross, only upon Thy gracious promises, and upon the revealed evidences of Thy sweet mercy, through the same, Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen. To which may be suitably added, as a compendium, or corrol- lary for the whole, an abridgment of the church's beautiful col- lect, appointed for the even song, or service, for King Charles the Martyr's day : — Almighty God, whose righteousness is like the strong mountains, and Thy judgments like the great deep, so teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto u'isdom ! And grant, that neither the splendour of anything that is great, nor the conceit of anything that is good in us, may withdraw our eyes from looking upon ourselves as sinful dust and ashes; but that, according to the example of Thy blessed apostles and martyrs, we may press forward to the prize of the high calling tliat is be- fore us, in faith and patience humility and meekness, mortification and ."(//-denial, charity, and constant perse- verance, unto the end. And all this for Thy son, our Lord Jesus Christ, his sake, to whom with Thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world mthoul end. Amen. 382 PREFACE. HADES; OR, THE HOUSE OF MANY MANSIONS. PREFACE. Extract, by way of Preface, from the Works of the late learned Dr. Hobart, Bishop of New York. The doctrine of the separate state of the soul in the place of the departed between death and the resurrection, being expressly revealed in the oracles of God, should become an object of our most earnest faith. It resolves all doubts with respect to the condition of the soul after the departure from the body, and before her reunion to it at the resurrection. The soul is, during this period, in a state of conscious- ness, either enjoying a foretaste of future bliss by antici- pation, or tormented by the apprehended pangs of future misery after the judgment of the Great Day. It is calculated to fill the bad with dismay. It cuts off the hope of a moment's intermission after death. In the presence of spirits, wretched like themselves, they dwell in the dark region of the departed, apprehending the summons which, uniting them to incorruptible bodies, will bring them to the judgment-seat, and to that dread sentence which will consign them to the Gehenna of tor- ment — that lake of fire that burnetii for ever and ever. PREFACE. 383 The doctrine of the place of the departed, is full of con- solation to the faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus. It assures them that, in the long interval between death and the resurrection, while detained from heaven, they shall not be deprived of a foretaste of its glories. In being delivered from the burthen of the flesh, their souls shall be (in some sense) with the Lord Jesus, the rays of whose glory sanctify and cheer the paradise of His saints. Here they shall enjoy perpetual ' f quietness and peace," anticipating their consummation of felicity, both in body and soul, in God's immortal glory. Why then, Christian, shouldst thou fear to die ? Thy soid is not, for a moment, to lose that conscious- ness which is dear to her as her existence. The darkness of death is not, for an instant, to cover thy spirit. Closing thine eyes on this world, thy soul opens her joyful vision on the delights of the garden of the Eden of God ! And Paradise is but the introduction to that Heaven, where, thy whole nature perfected and glorified, thou -1 i:tlt taste the fulness of joy and be for ever with the Lord ! 384 PROLEGOMENA. PROLEGOMENA. * And Job died an old man and full of days. Even it has been written, that he shall be raised up again with those whom the Lord (Jehovah) raiseth up (at the last day). Septuagint, 1709 Edition. Lambertus Bos. Frankfurt. The intermediate state between death and the resurrec- tion cannot be angel bliss, for angel bliss is active minis- tration. The hosts of God " rest not day nor night." The Holy Ones are Watchers : and heaven is pictured as a rapturous eternity of ever-glowing glory, and of never-ceasing song. Neither is it a purgatorial state — for purgatory implies probation, and there is nothing in Scripture to warrant the idea, that a disembodied spirit can any longer be operated upon (through the medium of the senses) by the domination of evil acting upon its material tie. The notion of a purificatory progression therein for casual, venial, or indeed for any earth-bred error, or of the avail- ability of intercessory prayers or monetary masses for the repose of the dead, is so incredible a fiction, and so revolt- ing to common sense, that it surpasses wonder, and indi- cates a shocking prostration of reason in man's carnal mind, when so large a portion of professing Christians, in the Romish church, are found to countenance such an unwarrantable and unscriptural dogma, and to bow to this modern goddess Diana of priestcraft and cupidity on the one part, and of Ephesian-like lay credulity on the other. Hades is the place of the departed. It is called in PROLEGOMENA. 385 Scripture The Long Home — (man goeth to his long home, Job) — the Place under the Throne — Eden — Abraham's Bosom — Hell — or Paradise, a place of fixedness, and not rotatory, therefore irrelative to time, for Ave read of a great gulf fixed, and it is ever represented, as a rest or sleep to those who lie, by the ordinance of Supreme Intel- ligence, awaiting the audit of the resurrection-day. Our blessed Lord, all whose sayings are significant, in urging the Jews " to search the Scriptures, since in them they thought they had eternal life," distinguishes the day of judgment, in like manner as we do in our Collect in the Burial Service, from the Eden after life's close upon earth. Speaking of the former, He emphatically says, " when the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory." But "to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise" implied that intermediate place, both to His agonized fellow- si irt'erer then upon the Cross (and to Himself), where He went and preached (as it is written) to the spirits in prison, viz., that Hades, where David, " who is not ascended" to this day, dwells ; but from which, when He (the Lord) shortly after, ascended, in the clouds of heaven, as " the first-fruits of them that slept, His (that is, Christ's) soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see corruption." And, finally — in the parable of Dives and of Lazarus — FTc induces the idea to our minds, of a "bosomed rest" on the one part, to the elect and saved ones ; and of a hell or febrile tormenting statu quo to the reprobate on the other — an anticipatory prospect or hope to those of bliss, and an apprehensive forecasting to these of irremediable depri- vation. Heaven, then, and Gehenn;i arc (he revealed ultimate^ - < 386 PROLEGOMENA. of man, but Hades or Paradise their prevenients only to souls departed; "come, ye blessed," or "depart, ye wicked," being the call words, or the cast away, for the one finality : but " he shall enter into peace," or, " their worm shall not die," * the prophetical illustration of the several conditions of the righteous, on the one side, or the unprofitable, or of transgressors, on the other, in the fixedness of intermediate location. (See Isaiah, lvii, 2 ; lxvi, 24.) See Dwight's Theology, Watson's Churchman's Sunday Even- ings on Ascension Day, and Broughton's Futurity. (Cadell, Strand, 1768.) See also " Mortal Life," by A. Copland, a well-written work of Theories and Fancies. * Bishop Lowth, in his note upon the last text, as to a de facto Gehenna, is palpably mistaken. The Gehenna of the prophet can only apply to an intermediate state, or an apprehensive torment ; for, in alluding to the new heavens and the new earth in this and the preceding chapter, he speaks of the child dying an hundred years old, whereas our Saviour, alluding to the resurrection of the dead, says, " neither can they die any more." Again, the prophet alludes to the then subdivisions of time — "from one sabbath to another," and of the rotatory state _ or phases of the moon " from one new moon to another," both im- plying the continuance of what we, in our finite state, denomi- nate time, in contradistinction to eternity, or to the consumma- tion to which the Angel in the: Apocalypse alludes, where he assures us that there shall be thence time no longer. The theory then about millennium, is unscriptural, and the dogma merely of a schoolman's overheated imagination ! The 20th chapter of Revelation, verse 1, is wholly metaphori- cal, and can have no reference to the globe called earth. The ancients, judged only by the circle of the horizon as to^ its rotundity,'and when St. John dreamt of the " bottomless pit ," he could have formed no notion whatever of the Antipodes ! See Psalm xciii, 1. Leycroft House. Taunton. HADES. 387 HADES; OR, THE HOUSE OF MANY MANSIONS. There is an intermediate place, Before man's final day of doom — To meek expectancy, of grace — For apprehensive minds, of gloom ! Of hope or fear the impellent power Springs from the retrospective scene, Which lights or shades the coming hour, And varies as the work has been.* They rest or sleep, -f- all warfare o'er, Conscious j -diverse, § as Truth ordains ; But till the spheres shall be no more,|| That dormitory state remains. * Revelation, xxii, 12. f I. Thessalonians, iv, 13, 14 to 17; St John xi, 11. I The opinion of the Jews in our Saviour's time as to Hades was essentially this — a region allotted as a place of custody for souls, in which, or to which, angels were appointed to guide or guard, — had and good, with a gulf between, being visible to each other, and still interested in the well-being of those endeared to them while on earth, and left behind— the one rejoicing iu the expectancy of future good, the other sad with the apprehensive- ness of judgment ; this intermediate; place tin v called either I [ell or the Bosom of Abraham, as the case might be. Our Saviour confirmed this opinion when he addressed Ids discourse upon Dives and Lazarus to such consenticiices ; des- cribing their souls as seeing, bearing, knowing each other, ami conversing — happy or miserable as their lives had been — and anxious about the fate and fortunes of embodied man. He (that is, the soul of him) that believeth in me (said He) shall never die. Con- sciousness therefore essentially remaineth to the disembodied spirit. § St Luke, xvi, 23, 24. || Job, riv, L2. 2 388 HADES. When alternation is unknown, And all revolvency expires, Then the eternal purpose shown Will justify the saints' desires. Each, knitted in re-union, knows The end, determined ere begun — Ere shouts proclaimed time's mystic close, From morning star or angel-son.* 'Tis legend or unscriptural talk To predicate an instant heaven : In lambent light the witched ones walk, And pastors vainf to such are given. In dream or thought, conceptions pure As sentient pleasures thence begin — A second birth, from fall secure. Or bland immunity from sin. But till the dawn o'er quick and dead, J Till resurrection's dread array, None linked to Adam can be led To " welcome " come, or " call away." No matter there how long they lie, A -germ in disembodied breath : For centuries what, when hence they hie ? Trillions, how transient after death !§ * Job, xxxviii, 7. t Jeremiah, x, 21. X Acts, ii, 34 ; I. Corinthians, xv, 51, 52. § II. St. Peter, iii, 8. HADES*. 389 Mid cycles long must comets blaze Ere suffering Truth its tale shall tell, And fearful signs and sights amaze All who on orbs successive dwell. Yes, vast materials must combine, And countless essences mature, Ere system-suns shall cease to shine, Or terrene ages to endure. Iniquity shall first abound Ere " principalities " succumb ; But no intelligence be found To hcraldize that day of doom. As spark electric skims a-sky, As robber reaves the hidden hoard, As eartlupuakes crash, as whirlwinds fly — So is the advent of the Lord ! Faint not, ye humble ones of heart, If seraph sound be nowhere heard : Though all the stars of space depart, Not so God's covenanted word.* Adjudged by that, as "robed" for gracef Or heir-ship service at His throne, To you the brightness of I lis face, E'en in abeyance, is foreshown. * St. Matthew, \xv, 34. t Revelation, vii. 13 390 HADES. The heavens shall pass with thunder-sound, Melt elements with fervid heat ; But though no place for these be found, Lo, ye are made for mercy meet ! Upon his cross the credent thief, His Rock of Ages seen beside, Found antidotal-balm for grief, And death and Satan's darts defied. Strong in that hold where now he turns, Prisoner of hope,* he rests secure ; And, when the Shechinah emburns,t He'll stand in soul-munition sure ; Like to the bush embowering fire, Yet found its freshness to retain, Or as, unharmed by idiot-ire, The furnaced three on Dura's plain ! J His antepast within the skies Is better boon than earth had given ; His is the promised Paradise,§ And his the warranty of heaven ! Yes, be the fault whate'er it may, Tread, at each turn, the step he trod : No wrong's without a remedy To creature, or creator-God !|| * Zechariah, ix, 12. f Isaiah, xxxiii, 14, 15, 16, and its correllative or lovely illustration — Psalm xv, 1, 2, and xvi, 11. | Exodus, iii, 2 ; Daniel, iii, 27- § Luke, xxiii, 43 ; I. Peter, iii, 19. || St. Matthew, xii, 31. HADES. 391 His contrite anguish then sufficed For sin to man, by suffering shame ; But Hwas his looking unto Christ* Gave him acquittance from the blame. Departing hence, there's naught to fear, An Evidence in Him who see : Before their Judge, when they appear, That Judge but blest Redeemer, He ! 'TVs His atonement-charm which cheers ; All hopes without it are unsound: Without it, vain as Esaus tears Shed upon Edoni's thirsty ground !f Vain all attempts by forms of clay To make dishonoured, perfect man — Boast of morality who may, Or of election prate who can. In daily cross is heavenward-wake ; But fools, by flattering unction fed, All salvatory means forsake, And die idolatrous instead. Man's carnal mind is Satan's hold — Perdition looms when cherished there ; They wisely war who battle bold Hy watching s, fastings, and by prayer ! * II. Incus, ix. 28; \ii, 2; Titus, ii. ia f Genesis, xxvii, 34 ; Hebrews, x ii. 17. •392 HADES. Yet dread those damnatory dreams Which fondling hopes, enfoster fears ; Oh, turn from self-sufficient themes ! Nor lend to schoolmen itching ears ! For naught enfrees from evil's snare -& To innate sin's consension won : Once captive to the Prince of air, Without Immanuel, man's undone! One untoward act, if once allowed — One thought assented to of ill — Levels the Babel of the proud,* And renders reprobate the will. The will depraved, no skill can cure — f No penance purge — nor hyssop heal — No lents nor via Us render pure, Obedience justify, nor zeal ! Capernaum ! What of all beside ? Ah ! what of all who mock like thee ? Ignite with prejudice or pride, Their sparks enkindle misery. \ No LAMB without a blemish found To bleed for them when rocks are riven — Wake they to hear the trumpet sound ? They wake !!!§ — to outer darkness driven !!!|| * Daniel, iv, 30, 31. f St. John, viii, 34 ; Jeremiah, xiii, 23. \ Isaiah, 1, 11. § St. John, v, 28, 2!) ; I. Corinthians, xv, 52 ; I. Thessalonians, iv, 13 to 17; II. St. Peter, iii, 10. || St. Matthew, xxv, 30. HADES. 393 But there's a space within the sky, Fraught with a prelibation-bliss, For faith, and hope,* and CHARiTY,f Between eternal life and this ! # # * # # Ye suffering saints — ye favoured few — Ye sealed ones, on your Saviour's side — These saving truths, unveiled to view, Oh, in their verities confide ! Affianced, freed, and faithful found, — Yours the prerogative of grace To stand erect 'mid ruins round, And meet your Maker face to face ! Fear not, ye little flock a-fold ; 'Tis His good pleasure, in His love, His Work, once magnified of old, To beautify in bliss above ! Then patient wait His tarried time, Though stillest, smallest, voice be mute ; For many periods perfect prime — And countless sunbeams ripen fruit ! And chant ye, while ye sorrow here, Or at your dreaded death-doom shout — " Though worst befal, wc will not fear; Let chaos come, wc dare not doubt ! * Hebrews, xi, 6. t Sl - Matthew, xxv. 34, 35, &c. 394 hades. " We on Thy truthful word will dwell — Will on thine OATH of mercy trust ; Thou can'st not leave our souls in hell, * Nor lose our atom-germs in dust. " Thou wilt Thine image, man, restore, Where naught rebellious e'er revives — Where flesh and blood -f- nor grieve Thee more, Nor Satan with his Master strives. " To Thee the Lights of Life belong ; And thrilling hosts, redeemed from thrall, Shall, rapturous, sing their ceaseless song — Glory to God the All in All ! $ " An-ecstacy, embreathe, oh BREATH! A-choir, imbue the armied§-sky, A-skout, ' where now thy sting, oh death ?|| A-heaven, where, grave, thy victory?'"** * Psalm xvi, 10, 11. f I. Corinthians, xv, 50. + I. Corinthians, xv, 28. § Ezekiel, xxxvii, 10. II Isaiah, xxv, 8. ** I. Corinthians, xv. 55. EPISODE. oi)5 EPISODE TO PAET IX. As a corollary to the whole of the previous miscellanies. " Oli, then, in thy youth, heseech of Him AVho giveth, upbraiding not, — That His light in thy heart, become not dim, Nor His love he unforgot ! And thy God, in the darkest of days, shall he Greenness and beauty and strength to Thee !" Bernard Barton. Heirs of those hopes which it has been the Author's desi- deratum to enkindle, and made by the mercies of heaven, capable of attaining to such rapt realities, how happy would it be for the young, now entering upon their cane?' of trial and temptation — how happy, indeed, for the world at large — if Christians, ceasing to agitate their hearts in contentions about the mysteries of our holy religion, were, one and all, in early prime, to make devotion, not the poor and unimpassioned "progeny of abstract specula- tion," but the warm and vivifying effusion of a benevolent soul ! — If they would more heed the dying injunction of Solomon ("to fear God and to keep his commandments"), avowed by one greater than Solomon, as well as by Solo- mon himself, to constitute "the whole duty of man !" ( Ecolesiastes, xii, 13; St. Matthew, xix, 17.) If, remembering the saying which is written, " I will have mercy and not sacrifice," they were, not only to believe "that Christ Jesus came into the world to save Burners" (as Saint Paul hae assured us), but wen- more willing than they are to follow his pattern of humility, by accounting every one, himself, as chief i 'A96 EPISODE. Thrice happy if, in lowliness of mind, " each were to esteem others better than themselves," and, remembering that " the end of the commandment is charity or love, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith un- feigned," were to put on " bowels of mercies," forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, and " following peace with all !" Life is too short, and the work of our salvation much too arduous, to afford us sufficient time to loiter on our way to pry into the secret things which belong unto the Lord our God ! " It is only those things which are re- vealed that belong unto us and our children for ever !" How wise, then, must it appear to avoid all those contro- versies and foolish cpiestions which, engendering strife, prove eventually a let to the charms of Christian fellow- ship, and a bar to the effluent charities of social life ! We should, one and all of us, then, dwell socially and cheerily in our several phases and circumstances; and sectarians, of every denomination, learn to harmonize in the essentials, however fated (by primal conceptions, the prejudices of education, or by early association), to vary in the circumstantials of religion. For what are faces but ideas personified? And none but idiots can imagine an unity in the one, where there is, of necessity, such manifest variety of feature and expres- sion in the other. " As we know not what manner of spirits we are from ; so as for our pre-existences, who can fathom them?"* The responses of the plurality of Christian appellants would then cease to denounce woe against the unhappy Ebionites of old, and would pity, rather than consign to * Sec Glossary, page 275, under Pre-existence. EPISODE. 397 perdition, the mistaken Unitarians of the present day — names which, now wrongfully classified with those of Marcion or of Magus, sound discordant in every modern ear, as such, but theirs who — whether wilily or no, the author knows not — exclaim " We hear !" and the charac- teristics of which, like those of the Sadducee, appear as if ensanguined in the sight of every eye but theirs who — whether presumptuously or no, he does not pretend to determine — say (St. John, ix, 41), "behold we see!" As the fruitful Ganges branches in all directions, and each torrent, however devious in its course, reunites at length in one great ocean, so Christians of every sect, who, " looking unto Jesus" the Author and Finisher of our faith, obey the golden rule of life, " of doing unto others as they would be done unto,"* and who lead those self-renunciatory lives which His holy Gospel imperatively enjoins — however they may wander awhile amid the mazes of error — shall centre eternally in the infinitudes of felicity. For " as the Sabbath Avas made for man, and not man for the Sabbath," so religion was intended for his consola- tion, not his curse : as it is written — " His bane and antidote arc both before him!" — Addison. Fearlessly avowing this to be the gist of the episode, he frankly and freely determines it to be the corollary of his Church of England creed. For, to conclude : Order on chaos, good on evil, happi- ness on misery, will emanate as surely as the bright lumi- nary from below dawns on the dismal clouds of night — as "the day-spring" from on high on the sunless vapours of despair ! * St. Matthew, rii, 12. 398 EPISODE. Order ! Good ! Happiness ! What more ? Eternity ! These are soft-sounding terms, and, to the accordant ear of faith, sweet harmony. The afflictive dispensations of heaven, which are, in effect, but streamlets from a Marah's (bitter) font, shall temiinate in a wide expanse of " living waters," which the true Israelite may sip at pleasure, and, from the wound of the rituals or of the rod, derive the salutary and abundantly-redemptory influences of the Gospel covenant of grace and mercy. Turn we, then, to the Rock of Ages, with penitent and faithful dispositions. Seek we the kingdom of God (that is) His empire over the soul. Toil we to obtain, above all other things, the heavenly benison. Avoiding error by a career of practical fidelity, we shall find, to our comfort as we advance in years, and to our consolation at our death-bed hour — in time as well as in eternity — that He who enjoyeth supreme felicity Himself dispenses eventually His blessing on His chosen. Thus, and thus only, in our ascension from the grave and gate of death, as well as from the wilderness of death's afflictive shadow (that is, our troublous and probationary existence here below — Psalm xxiii, 4 ; cxxxviii, 7), we shall be enabled to tell, from sweet experience, that our descent a-down the hill of time, like that of humiliation, was safe and easy, and that the " roaring lion" at its de- clivity, or in the lonesome valley at the base, was chained.* Even in that happy Home, where, " with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven," it may be ours to sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb, washing * See Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. EPISODE. 399 our robes, and making them white in the blood of the , Lamb, and praising God, and saying — " Great and Marvellous Are Thy Works, Lord God Almighty ; Just and True Are Thy Ways, Thou King of Saints."* * Revelation, xv, 3. PART X. B A N D M REFLECTIONS INDUCED HV .,.•—.;.-. SOLITUDINAL ITINERATIONS. % I # | I l LLED FROM A LITTER OF SPASMODIC TROSIES.) "With Thee is the fountain of life: And, in Thy light shall we see Light!" Pa dm xxxvi, !». D D CONTENTS. 403 <§m\tmh 4 JJarf fc Blood for food — Is it binding on us not to use it ? What is saving faith ? Crotchets — Electricity, query what ? Contraryisra in thought, query ? The aboves and the belows, query ? The cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night Ten aphorisms Four tidy maxims Rules for conduct Peroration Total lines 405 — 406 — 408 409 — 410 — 411 — ib. 4 413 4 ib. — 415 — 8 D D 2 BLOOD FOR FOOD. 405 BLOOD FOR FOOD. Query. Is it binding, for ever, upon the Gentile or Christian world, to abstain from the use of it altogether for food ? Scripture texts which have a tendency in the affirmative — Genesis, ix, 4 ; Acts, xv, 22, 28, 29. Those which would seem to have a negative tendency — Luke,x, 8; I. Corinthians, viii, 1 to 13 ; x, 23, 25, 31. Bishop Horsley's remarks are worth referring to, though rather dubious or Jesuitical ; but, notwithstanding all his pros and his cons, a difference of opinion must ever prevail amongst those who think at all sensitively upon the sub- ject, unless some further revelation should dawn upon us from on high. It seems clear, from St. Paul's epistle to the Roman converts, that there is no creature unclean of itself; but, that, to him icho esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean ! " All things indeed are pure, but they are evil for that man who eateth with offence." " He is happy who condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth." He is reprehensible, who, eating, doubteth : " because he eateth not of faith, for, whatsoever is not of faith, is sin!" Paley's is good advice, upon the whole, while so much perplexity or obscurity pervades the curious question: especially since it is so easy to comply with the letter of the prohibition which Noah received for all after ,.-■, by not having our poultry or other living creatures intended for our necessary sustenance strangled. />'/,, fore to (I, alb ! 406 WHAT IS SAVING FAITH ? " In every question of conduct," says he, " where one side is doubtful and the other safe, we are bound to take the safe side." What is meant, therefore, by eating with faith ? Paley says, " eating with a full persuasion of the lawfulness of the thing." But suppose we eat without thinking on the matter, and err in ignorance with an unawakened conscience, what then? ECHO ANSWERS, " WHAT THEN ?" WHAT IS SAVING FAITH \ When the late Mark Sprott was asked a certain thing, in his examination before the peers, he replied, in his broad Scottish accent, " My lud, this is a varie long winded question ?" What answer does Hales make to the above ditto, before we venture upon our oavu: we mean Hales of Killesandra ? He tells us, and tells us truthfully, " that as the faith of the Israelites was a full trust that their bites should be healed, only by looking attentively on the brazen serpent, so the faith of Christians is a full trust or firm persuasion that their sins shall be forgiven, by looking to the atone- ment of Christ upon the Cross." It is, therefore, he very sensibly observes, " a pure act of the mind, independent of works performed either before or after : which, by antici- pating, gives a subsistence to future blessings as if they were already existing : and a firm persuasion of their cer- tainty as if they were actually seen ! " WHAT IS SAVING FAITH? 407 But now, to answer in another mode, and in our pecu- liar and very original way. Saving faith can best be construed, when duplex in its characteristics. That is to say, that, to become available, we must not only believe fully, that, what we say will come to pass, will come to pass: but also believe, without a doubt, as to the fitness and necessity, or the entire accordance with the Supreme Will, of such dictum, predi- cation or prophecy of our own. The illustration of this train of thinking or of judging, is found, or rather let us say, we fancy it is found, in the narrative of the fig tree, so prominently, and so very re- markably put forward, in the gospels, for our edification, and comforting discernment. There appears to have been some degree of dubitancy in our Saviour's mind from the term "haply" (see St. Mark, xi, 13 to 22), as to the fitness or necessity of its producing, for His sudden and momentary craving for food, untimely figs ! " The time of jigs teas not yet.'''' Cer- tainly (wc will not presume to say, consequently), cer- tainly, no fruit teas found : nor, from the context, did He absolutely require it for His snstentation; and, yet, we are perfectly warranted in supposing, that "prayer and fasting," the only means by which miracles may be wrought (see St. Matthew, xvii, 21), had been, in this instance, as in all prior instances, duly exercised ! But, no doubt whatever existing as to the necessity of the curse absolute, denounced upon its barrenness, there- fore presently, that is, before the day then on was by, that self-same fig tree withered away ! Then, upon the spur of the moment — upon thai ever to be remembered and exciting morrow : and thrilling with Godlike-glow at tin- ostensible verity of His denunciatory 408 CROTCHETS. dictum, He turned round to His privileged company, and said unto Peter before them all, " Cephas, have faith, such faith as this, in God!" It is the means, by which, not merely a distant hillside shrub shall wither or shrivel at a word : or even, mountains at will, can be lowered into the profundities of fathomless oceans, but it is the fiat, for an universe to come into existence, on which alone to be sustained, and finally, in the consummation, to cease again for ever and for evermore, so materially to be ! CROTCHETS. (Or crude interpolations, while reposing upon a flowery river bank, and preparing to appear, in print, and in publicity.) ELECTRICITY. QUERY WHAT ? May not, what we are now discovering of electric poten- cies, solve many phenomena respecting matter conclensated in, or amalgamated with, what we denominate the nervous system, as associated or identified with mind ? That a charged wire should emit speech, as it were, by imprint, from all ubiquities to their antipodes, on a spheroid, back ito the primals of such ubiquities, in the twinkling of an eye, or, without reference to time, is a sufficiently startling theory : but more than this, it is become an indubitable fact. But, how awfully fearful the notion, thence deducible, as of the thoughts of the heart : that the same mysterious and indefinable principle, spark, agency, or what not ? CROTCHETS. 40!) emitted, if we may so speak, from the battery of man's sinful and perverse consentiences, instantaneously tells, through all infinitudes, his would-be course of depraved and pcrditory action (unless mercifully restrained), to Him, who, in the lively and lovely language of inspiration, is said " to weigh the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance !" CONTRARYISM IN THOUGHT. QUERY ? What, admitting for argument, the universality of way- wardness, in greater or in less degree, is the deduction which Scripture lore unfolds to the anxious but subdued inquirer ? Is the destiny or doom of the thing created — whether still-born or brought to its final phase of temporal action — contingent upon fore-ordainment to eternal life so called, or rather conscious being, Avhether of a salvatory or pcr- ditory character (as far as what we define bliss to be, or its reverse, bears upon the cpjestion)? In other words — to the being called or uncalled? Grafted or ungrafted? Compulsatorily elected or left alone? Blessed, before conception, Jeremiah like (i, 5), or cursed, aborigine, like Pharaoh? Reprobated or ap- proved ? Letted against error, or allowed, by freedom of perverse will to continue, ad infinitum, to be the victim of spontaneous evil? Again. Let us but admit one moment's mental exist- ence hefore conception. This we ////is/, if we accounl holy Scripture, inspiration, mid read if teachably as we ought. Levi's, for instance, who, as in that nomenclature, conse- quently person, or appellative adjunct, was or existed, a& Levi a priest, in the loins of his lather.- fathers father, for many generations before, when Melchisedeck met him, thai is. 410 CROTCHETS. Abraham — the mind then becomes the culprit, and our poor weak material tie, crept up of earth or gasses, ever wast- ing and ever successive until its dissolution (which, in our naughtiness, we are so prone to condemn as a malefactor, to the block), is found and felt to be merely an involun- tary machine or a satanic-excited automaton : an ac- quiescing accessory, after the damnatory deed or fact. The notion;, if worked out by a sensitive being, must produce some considerable amount of perplexity : and we do not much add to the solution of our difficulties, even by admitting the abinitio pre-existence of the corporeal germ, that is to say down to Adam's date, because, query, what prior to that period? which, however, as we know not, " what manner of spirits we are individually of" or from ; is a question which no rester upon his bible has the privilege to ask. The idea, however, under certain due limitations, is strictly warrantable : and, if made serviceable to the cause of religion by foiling the deist in his sophism — by de- ducing, thence, the imperious necessity of extrinsic aid, that is to say, of some adoptive or regenerative, or atoning extraneous principle or personification for that, which, antecedently to having been begotten or become a trimeres upostasis, had a bias to think wrong, there seems to be no subject more worthy of the meditation of a Chris- tian philosopher, or philanthropic minded, and salvatory expectant man. THE ABOVES AND THE BELOWS. Chairs of state : thrones : heavenly Jerusalems, and a host of Scripture et creteras, what can they all be but hyperboles or mediums of arresting the visual eye from gross idolatries, and of adapting infinities to finite sense- lessness ? TEN APHORISMS. 411 THE CLOUD BY DAY AND THE PILLAR OF FIRE BY NIGHT. To the Pharaoh of infidelity, the great mystery of god- liness, or his lurid repellant, " the cloud by day," is, before him, the prophetic stumbling stone or rock of offence, so that his chariot wheels drag him heavily on to his soul's damnation : nolens volens, or as a compulsory volunteer. But the same principle, behind the believing and true Israel of God, becomes his lucid propeller, " his pillar of fire by night," that Immanuel of unfailing mercy, which shall quicken him, through all the mazes and profundities of the dark abyss of time, to the blessed shores of halcyon immunities from satanic oppression and the captivity to crime ! TEN APHORTSMS. 1. The sigh of contrition, is the chase-dog to Satan : and tears of integrity abductors from guile. 2. A youth-phase of praycrfulness is the assurance for godliness: and juvenile self-denials the key-stones of arch- tncnts, for the soul's alluring beacons to rest upon as guid- ances to a senility of purity and an exode to peace ! 3. Tlie dawn of the morning is the hour for devotion : and the moments of meals are the time- for self-masteries ! 412 TEN APHORISMS. 4. The canker of an apple-tree indicateth substratums of gravel: so the boast of experiences, the indwellings of conceit ! The perfection of man, in his present state of proba- tion, should be love to the Creator above that to the creature : but, at the same time, devotedness to the well- being of the creature, for the Creator's sake. One line's sufficient to express our prayer — Thy will be mine ! to follow Christ, my care ! One rule alone's enough to guide the way — Happen what must, God's high behests obey ! While wariness gaily hies, preveniently, to gainfulness, it is the character of indecision, like sloth a-field, to doze and dream. It mocks and mourns ! 8. As in mystics, so in materialities, the casuistries of the sceptic, however decussated, are too palpable to require the dew : the autumnal gossamer, in warp or woof, weaves liner web. 9. If affiance upon others be denotive of inferiority, incre- dulity is ever found, still more, at fault: and, to its unto- wardness in secular affairs, is ascribable all that straited- RULES FOR CONDUCT. 413 ness which is felt, in after life, in the circumstances of the many, and that mendicity which maddens mind. 10. However eccentric or erratic man's progressions may have proved, their upshot cannot be altogether infelicitous or unprivileged, if he have left some grateful shadow behind him : or reflected one touching token or testimonial of decided affection, during his hours of probationary existency, from the Blessed Essence of orbicular Ligiit ! FOUR TIDY MAXIMS. Thy latter end rememb'ring : in humility abound ! Know all about thy sinful self: and merciful be found ! Before thouVt generous be just: but, being just, be so! And do to others as thou wouldst thyself be done unto ! RULES FOR CONDUCT. In the golden hours of prime: " before the days come :u id the years draw nigh, when thou shalt sav — I have no pleasure in them!" Morning. Rise instantly thou awakest, if a reasonable hour and well: and, if thou hast convenient access, to river or to 414 RULES FOR CONDUCT. bath, indulge, in all seasons, in ablutions of refreshment and of healthful glow. Read the book of inspiration with much heed, and, weaning thy mind from all manuals of devotion, offer, tearfully and extemporaneously, the effusions of thy purer spirit, in prayers and in praises to the Most High. Entreat, that, when all of thy present become the re- trospect, thou mayest be permitted to look back upon that retrospect with complacent eye. Let every invocation be sanctified by intercession for thy fellow-men : particularly for the transgressors, if any, to whom you owe a grudge: and be the gist of each rapturous thrill for spiritual rather than for temporal ad- vantages: for the creation of a soul-abhorrence of evil far more than for the acquisition of precarious and uncer- tain good ! Impress, above all things, upon thy youthful breast, the conviction, that man's well-being every way, depends upon obedience and conformity to all the behests of Heaven, from the sole motive of love paramount, to the Supreme in glory : But, since the assurance of temporal, as well as of eternal recompense, is ordained to depend upon the com- mandment with promise, or upon filial-like conformity to the mind of Christ, " grave it for ever upon the tablet of thy heart :" and account it, in its veriest signification, as that " godliness which is profitable unto all things," and which, under due discipline and self-control, shall prove the lever of thy immortal soul from its prostration in baseness, unto the highest altitudes of beauty, in the purities of bliss ! PERORATION. 415 Day. Practice self-denial, and the more numerous the acts the better ! Practice it continuously in diet : in temper : m will: in wishes: in everything. But if observed, and you become, or fear to become, an object of jest or admiration : avoid, for the moment, doing that, which might, uncertainly, become a subject for ridicule on the one hand, or for commendation on the other : And, whenever fated, if so ever, to walk unhappily or depressingly, in darkness or in confusion : still, constantly itinerate, unflinchingly, and indubitably, in Faith: — Hop- ing against all hope ; in fullest trust and meekest expec- tancy, of recompensatory though reversionary re-illumina tion in a glad futurity of refulgent glory ! Night. Examination: Thanksgiving: Repose! PERORATION. From the venial mistakes of attractive volatility, we fear, lesl we become profoundly in error, if we revert to the extremest antipodes of all repellent gravity. "Medio tutissimus il>is," therefore, lie our motto, upon this -till open folio for the final number of our tenfold effusions How to fill up such a folio, however, as a compendium of the whole, become^- the cogitative question ! " Courteous reader," as Francis Moore, physician (now in his Becond piis), illustrated: neatly written : duly title-paged, prefaced, indexed, and super-indexed: inter-sectioned; revised; emendated: cor- rected: punctuated: interlineated : dedicated: and none i i 418 PERORATION. but Dotundus himself can possibly not see what be- sides to sit down tamely : tacitly : suicidally : and ab- stractedly -unreservedly : and to have the whole of our probationary existence, compressed (like the pilchards in the bottom of the great Cornish barrels at St. Ive's, ready salted for an Italian market) into one short folio ! ! ! ! when it ought, at least, to be spun out or diluted, into four, five, or even six huge unreadable quarto volumes, and then shelved as decently and decorously by our noble maternal relatives, the Saxon race of the Northumberland Burrells, as Dwight of Newhaven in Connecticut's " Complete System of Theology," now, everywhere, is- We are, really, so overcome with the humiliating and the horrible proposition, which we ourselves, on be- half of ourselves, have thus originated : that we feel our goodselves and our precious selves, sufficiently prostrate, not only, at once, to drop the poesy pen, which, probably, we, at length, for ever do : but also, to lie down, for due inlay, between the leaden foldings of a five- feet-ten- inch coffin, in our paternal sepulchre at dear old Hackney. Leaving, therefore, so onerous a task to any such kind and congenial one as may tread hereafter lightly, and, we pray, mercifully, upon these our skeleton-like surfaces, or remains: we draw the Grecian painter's veil over the embarrass, and bid that one, and every one who has a spice of sympathy or of originality, affectionately, farewell ! With our warm-hearted and still youth-glow wishes, for their individual and collective welfare: and for far better success in their future lucider compilations for PERORATION. 419 generations unbegotten (but co-existents in their mystic embryoisms, or antecedencies), or for their own fair fame, than we may be warranted in anticipating — with all due humility be it spoken — from these our comparatively poor and feeble-hearted performances. I I N I S. LONDON ; F. Shoberl, Printer, 51, Rupert Street llajmarket UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Form L9-50»i-ll,'50 (2554)4-1,1 THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA t/w ANGELES PR Hancock- 1+Z22 Gaieties anH H35g gravities for hoiv da •« PR h739 H3£g UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 370 136 I; , .