I I! '" w* CAT ° ini i iij 1 THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES l&ecoUecttong an& Inflections DURING AN" OCCASIONAL WEEK-DAY LOUNGE IN n "&* i, : ,, Recollections an* Reflections DURING AN OCCASIONAL WEEK-DAY LOUNGE IN rtsfoC §§§)dffj< . m, RE03UFF SM'L iCTEI L <3 41 CONTENTS PAGE. Salutary Meditation 9 Decorum Enjoined 18 External Influence 26 Fancy's Freak 29 Maternal Devotion 30 Histrionic Souvenir 34 The Infidel 35 Early Associations 38 The Apparition 41 Fatality 44 The Robin 47 Impressive Discourses 61 I would not live alway 63 Monologue on a dead child 70 The First Innovation 71 When would you die 75 The Mammonist 77 Fancy's Sketch 86 The Present Moment 93 The Citation 103 Omnipresence of the Deity 116 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS &c. SAIUTAEY MEDITATION". rpO saunter in uninterrupted meditation through the Gothic Aisles of an Ancient Cathedral, is rarely, if ever, unattended with beneficial results; and not amongst the least influential, is the certain strong inclination it creates in almost every mind to think — to think upon itself ; the wonderful ma- chinery of its own constitution, with the miracu- lously formed trunk which accompanies it in all its whereabouts; the source and current of its present existence; and, perhaps not least or last, the grand mysterious future which attaches with unerring certainty to every Son of Adam — that Eternity B 10 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS, ETC. either of bliss or of woe, which it would be wisdom in us if we guarded ourselves from the surprise of its awful harbinger, Death, by constant and sincere preparation of prayer and watchfulness. The first feature in this mural picture, which checks the wandering vision in its interesting ram- ble, with meridian sunlike blaze, is the exclusiveness with which here repose the lineage of the gorgeous Dives — for no Lazarus has dared to lay his tattered loathsome blanket here. Next is the majesty and holy silence which absolute seems to reign o'er all around, and the calm and subdued atmosphere that pervades the whole of this beautiful Gothic Structure — animates the half-conscious soul with the whisper of sin — a self-convict — and disposes it to a pensive com- munion with its Maker. The mural tablets which point the ashes of Denmark's King's descendant, the pious founder of this sacred pile — the Bishop and the Dean — the IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 1 1 Prebend and the Canon — the Merchant Prince and those of mid-degree — the coward and the brave — the aged and the young — the serious and the gay, which everywhere invite our attention, assure us that those, to whose memory, pride, respect, grati- tude, or affection have dedicated them, once were, as we are now, of like passions and infirmities, the uncertain tenants of a frail tenure, who perhaps had stood and cogitated upon the same hallowed foot of earth, which we now cross in ease our legs upon ; or when in life's infant spring they, like us, were gently led by a mother's tender hand, and for the first time devoted a quick congenial ear to the soul-soothing chaunt and Heaven-inspiring organ, (whose truly grand and imposing exterior is unequalled in the kingdom,) imbibing the first faint impression of Holy inspiration, for " are they not all ministering Angels," and music's power was then, as now, truly mysterious in its operation. And although death has closed the ear of the sleeping occupant from flattery, whose character for every virtue is emblazoned with the skilful chisel 12 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. of the sculptor, which we now rest our astonished eyes upon, with wonder how so much worth could ever die! so attached is falsehood to this world, knowing with what sincerity she is beloved, that we see she pursues a man to his very grave, and is loath to leave him there ; for, regardless of the indecency of desecrating the sanctity of the spot, she too frequently impresses her most ardent affections upon the fair bosom of that pure white marble which surmounts his heedless head, where the least recorded of the sleeper's fame would pay to his memory the best earthly compliment, and would stifle recollections of the ignoble past, which now take second birth from memento's busy pen, dis- turbing his omega pillow, deranging the folds of the sepulchral robe of, perhaps, a repented sinner, and making the dead to walk vividly before our un- welcome eyes a second time. Of the many specimens of memory's tribute of affection, for beauty in design and composition, two in particular here contend in quiet struggle for the palm of oneness in excellence. The one, for IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 13 exquisite pathos in idea and expression, is the Rev- VVm. Mason's lines on the loss of his wife, who died at the Clifton Hotwells, March 27, 1767, in her 28th year. " Take, holy Earth ! all that my soul holds dear ; Take that best gift, which Heav'n so lately gave : To Bristol's fount I bore with trembling care Her faded form ; she bow'd to taste the wave — And died. Does Youth, does Beauty, read the line ? Does sympathetic fear, their breasts alarm ? Speak, dead Maria ! breathe a strain divine : Ev'n from the Grave, thou shalt have power to charm : Bid them be chaste, be innocent like thee, Bid them in duty's sphere as meekly move ; And if so fair, from Vanity as free, As firm in friendship, and as fond in love. Tell them tho' 'tis an awful thing to die, ('Twas ev'n to thee,) yet the dread path once trod, Heaven lifts its everlasting portals high, And bids the pure in heart behold their God." The other is from the life-breathing chisel of Bacon to the memory of Mis. Eliza Draper, aged 35, — Sterne's Eliza — and needs only to be looked 14 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. upon to be appreciated, and there to discover that that which has no tongue will speak with most miraculous organ its own tale. Two other beautiful specimens of the sculptor's chisel exhibit themselves in the north and east aisles, one is to the memory of Mrs. Elwyn, who is seated in the posture of perfect resignation, the face of which is exquisitely beautiful, and is esteemed to be a good portrait of the lady; but, unless the observer assists the artist by his position, this figure will, as closely as can be desired, be metamorphosed into the resemblance of a maniac in the depth of despair. The other is a full-sized figure of a female in the attitude of prayerful meditation, receiving from Heaven its blessing and reception, and is to the memory of Mrs. Isabella Middleton. " Eternal sunshine rests upon her mind, Each prayer's accepted, and each wish resign'd." Upon a pedestal, behind which stands Bayly's faithful bust of the Laureate Southey, — a native and IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 15 distinguished honor to this city — who, with that peculiar thirst of the Poet's soul for mind painting, appears loath to suffer so sublime a subject as that prostrate before his creative vision, to escape the fire and scope of his inspired genius to ignite into flame — a flame whose gleam should infuse a light and warmth into the dark and cold recesses of the benumbed lounging sinner's soul, to come and closely imitate her. A slight glance from reflection's eye will shew us that here all have arrived safely at the destined terminus, after the many hazardous and circuitous routes, lines, and stoppages, which they have tra- velled and encountered in their journey, through this mixed vale of shine and lower, smile and tear, irrespective of the guage, broad or narrow, and if they " awake up after THY likeness they shall be satisfied with it." Here will prominently be seen that there was no royal or special train appointed for their accommo- dation, nor was the time table re-constructed for 16 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. their convenience. No first or second classes were submitted for their approval, but where the return passes are eternally forbidden: all — all slumber in the same common truck appointed for humanity by the One Great Director, awaiting the last shriek of the last engine's arrival with the last long train, when the passengers shall deliver up their respective cheques on that awful platform, Heaven s gateway, to HIM, the Chief Superintendent, who is not mocked and cannot be deceived, and who shall, after receiving them, direct each the road to his appointed home. Alas ! how does such submissive humiliation awaken mirthful thoughts in the Philosophic Christian's mind, of the fantastic tricks which these same sleepers once fed their notions of greatness, virtue, and importance on, when condescending to tread this probationary mundane sphere, in .* compliance with its terms, as other human bipeds did, when time was that their orisons would have made the laws of gravitation available to their vanity, to enable them to soar midmay twix't IN THE BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 17 Heaven and Earth, to escape the noxious exhala- tions of the vulgar poor; making the reflecting man to laugh aloud, while Angel's weep in silence. Querie, " Did they ever say to Corruption thou art my Father, and to the Worm thou art my Mother and Sister?" Job 17. And who can, devoid of pity, look upon this certain end, this solemn lesson, and see it prove so ineffectual in restraining many living of the present day from the monkey antics which they so incessant play ? One cannot but think that such derisive freaks are indulged in from a spirit of malevolence as being the only satisfaction to be obtained for the mortifying as- surance of the Psalmist, " That they shall carry nothing away with them when they die, neither shall their pomp follow them." Nor silent is this noble and cunningly groined roof, which magically towers above our wondering and inquisitive eyes, offering a secure asylum to the chattering daw and mimic starling, recalling to the mind the effusion of the Psalmist : — 18 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. " The Birds more happy far than I Around thy temple throng, Securely there they build, and there Securely hatch then - young. DECORUM ENJOINED. FT! HE ingenious carving of this ancient roof's key- stones call up Endor-like, the witching fancies of the brain of the long passed decomposed designer; and tell of the vast crowd of human souls which it has looked down upon and courted with warm welcome, free ingress and egress to its portals, which so many have applied to satisfy the yearnings of wanton curiosity, and some to quaff the loud organ's intoxicating draught in the spirit-stirring Handel hallelujah chorus, and others less moved by " the pure milk of the word," to indulge their auricular fancies with the political pseudo-gospel outpourings of some popular divine — perhaps that " mad wag, Sydney Smyth," during whose Pre- bendal residence, it was with difficulty that standing IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 19 place for a child could be obtained inside the choir, and which seldom failed to reap for the late Sub- sachrist a plentiful harvest ; whom scandal has accused of supplying his pockets generously with sawdust, to render mute the otherwise discordant notes of half-crowns and shillings from interrupting the harmony of the service. While there are some, who with vacant stare and deafened ear rejecting the voice of the charmer, survey the whole sublime with mute indifference ; casting back with indignant derision the mantle of humility which the sanctity of devotion so warmly offers them, to cover the nakedness of their de- formity and affectation — whose attendance savors rather of habit than the spirit for devotion, lolling in the stalls with a decorum becoming that of the tavern or the market, disclosing most eloquently their more agreeable connexions ; and the self- consciousness of being as distant from their temporal element or position of propriety, as they would be remote from its character were they fully equipped with all the appointments of a Field-Marshal's 20 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. uniform, while vividly their features speak that they suspect all which they hear and see to be a cunningly devised scarecrow, to frighten them into a less questionable course of life than they at present lead for others wordly profit ; so ineffective is this sublime and beautiful Liturgy — this compound extract — this Latria and quintessence of all musical sacred worship upon their cynical and uncongenial senses, for they look, but they see not; they see, but they ponder not ; they hear, but they regard not; except with the apparent mixture of pity and contempt for the foolish lips that can pour forth such twaddle as "We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge." Not for a moment fostering the fascination of a doubt of our perfect equality in the house of God, still we cannot but observe that much of this inequality of behaviour is indebted to the indis- criminate disposing of portions of the congregation, by the late Verger placing those in stalls, who with more grace would adorn the benches outside, and so vice versa. IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 21 If there is one portion of the Church's sublime liturgy more exalted in its language, and charming in its character, of addressing the Great Author of our Being in praise than any other, and which should command the profoundest attention and most strenuous exertions of the human heart, and every human sense to the deepest prostration, it is the Te Deum, for in it the accommodating swell, long cadence, and sonorous peal of the rich-toned organ, united with the shrill pipes of the youthful Choristers, completes the excess of serious ecstacy, and assists the disposed heart to fully weigh and realize every word and every idea in its extremest essence, casts a mortuary cloth over everything mundane in the soul, and inspires it with a sense that it is speaking to its God, which, on the con- trary, the moiety that the Parish Church metes out to us, precludes and deprives us of. Here, to the most unobservant eye, it is visible that there is a gross absence of that suitable behaviour due to the Mother Church, which would not escape reproof in any village one, or meeting 22 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. house ; and what makes such indecency the more conspicuous is, that there appears to be rather a redundancy than an inefficiency of the external elements necessarily attendant on public devotion and decency in decorum ; for it is no unusual scene to witness five of the Clergy officiating, and whose venerable and dignified deportment should, at least, command a different respect from the followers of traffic life, — some suddenly relieve themselves of all consciousness of their own identity, by taking upon themselves the office of the Priest after the general confession in repeating the Absolution ; and like- wise at the conclusion of the service, instead of receiving the Benediction with grateful holy silence, condescend to bestow it. Now this conduct is deserving of no title — if not of ig- norance. It is to such few disturbers of the beauty of holiness, that Cathedrals are indebted for the fuel which feeds the fire of dissent, and the popular notion against them "that there is no devotion in the Cathedral or its Service." The doubtful resemblance in the features of the present times to those of the Laudians, are fast vanishing IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 23 before attentive observers' visions, who see them so stealthily creeping on us, till the counterfeit will resemble the original picture so closely, as will shortly render difficult to discern a difference, and which should awaken in every true Protestant bosom, the most jealous feeling against the appear- ance of negligence, indifference, or disaffection to the service of our Church ; for the Lynx eyes of the Tractarian, which is unceasingly watchful upon us, will suddenly surprise us as Delilah did the ears of Sampson with " The Philistines are upon Thee ;" and then they will be observant of little ceremony in compelling us to sing a song in a strange tongue, whether we have or not our harp strings strung to accompany us. But how delightful it is to view the sublime contrast with these silent scoffers, and those arrayed in the vestal garbs of chastity, and distinguished by every feature of pure devotion, who are being led like lambs to receive their Heavenly insignia fixed upon their frontlets, there to relieve their sponsors from their sacred watch and trust, by open declar- 24 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. ation of their faith "that they know that their Redeemer liveth," and which they, in their Christian natures turn, will have the same delightful office to perform upon their future infant progeny. Nor least of all that is interesting within this sacred fane, are those infant surpliced Choristers, those little earthly Cherubims, which daily make these aisles to echo with chauntinu; forth their Maker's praise to the well-inclined heart, for they provoke a lively disposition to follow in their service ; and as enticement to the task, sufficient is the encouraging invitation of our Saviour, " Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven"; and it is not for want of the present amiable Precentor's just disappro- bation, and wholesomely interposed check to their professional attendance on secular assemblies — yclept re-unions — that I regret ; I cannot always hold them in the same exalted estimation, but I culture the hope, that his exertions will not always be fruitless, or meet with the opposition which it has so unworthily encountered. IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 25 And, although the Holy Communion enclosure, which is so exquisitely, elaborately carved, is by far too sacred a spot to be profaned by hasty observation of any but an inspired pen, as being the most holy of all sacred places for pouring out the purest spiritual oblation of the heart, I will entreat excuse for my pen, by adapting the expressive thoughts of a celebrated French poet and Protestant to it, M. Alphonse Lamartine, as expressing its sublimity of character, " The en- thusiasm of Prayer is a mystery between God and Man, and, like modesty, it throws a veil over the thoughts, and hides from our fellow-creatures what is only intended for Heaven." Alas ! how many of the vast multitude, this sacred canopy which for seven and a half centuries have watched the Autumn leaf to fall in, does it now behold ? and how few will it ever see again ? paints a solemn picture of thrilling interest for the contemplative mind to take repast upon — gone ! gone to their last home — " to that bourne from whence no traveller returns" — where no pliant c 26 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. sophistry, logical or metaphysical, can disturb the great important fact, of where they are, from thence to that awful Rialto, where exhibition of their passports will be demanded by HIM, who is of purer eyes than to be deceived by the flimsy rags which blind the vision of mortal man. EXTERNAL INFLUENCE, A moderate attention to ourselves will shew us " how every locality has its peculiar power and property, and will make us more sensible of our tacit submission to external influences. How wonderfully powerful are the charms of music upon our senses, at times, and particularly upon our memory. How many an incident of earliest youth, which has slept in quiet, in the dark depository of forgetfulness for fifty years, is in- debted for its resuscitation to some trifling strain in music, some by-bye catch or nursery ditty, giving IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 27 portraiture afresh to our memory of the very place, features, guise, and dress, of the lips of those who soothed and caressed us in our infancy ; even the ting tang of the distant village church of our youth, is not deficient of its powers in painting to the life each casual occurrence associated with that village Sabbath : so now the soft symphony of this majestic organ, stealing o'er other fancies, beguiles me back to scenes of monastic days, when this sacred roof gazed down on other ceremonies than it now displays. Hark! I hear the Vesper bell, Pealing forth its solemn toll, Inviting sinners, come and kneel, And acknowledge HIM, Lord of all. I think I see the suppliant Nun Off 'ring up her rosary prayer, Beseeching HIM who may be won, To ease the soul and bosom's care. I think I see the knee in bending, Of Priests, in all their orders grave, 28 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. Prayers to Heav'n devoutly sending, Each sinner of their flock to save. I think I hear soft music stealing Gently through each gothic aisle ; Where souls indulge each sacred feeling, Aloud to Heaven for sins bewad. Now faintly dies each softer strain, In thund'ring shouts the chorus ring; To Heaven's gate, where eternal reigns, Of Earth-of Heaven-of kings-THE KING. Hark ! I hear the requiem chaunt, Softly float its sacred strains Toward the realms of Heaven's fount, O'er a brother's dear remains. I think I see the lamp suspended, Which faintly shows the dark recess, Where all the sleeper's glory's ended, And peaceful there he lies at rest. I see the turrets of the Ivy Tower, The gloomy yew's sepulchral nod — Inspired— the soul with all its powers, Proclaims this scene— thy house O God. IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 29 FANCY'S FREAK. A S it is not improbable that I am not that solitary chronicler, who has had to encounter the difficulty of introducing a light and ridiculous subject amongst others of a serious nature, with that unobjectionable delicacy of style required to secure him from the imputation of striving to produce deformity, where beauty and the agreeable should be the object aimed at. Yet where the deed holds no fellowship with the heart's intention of being so, I hope that I shall be exonerated from the suspicion of such an error — or be considered offensively profane, by recording here a fact, which though elevated by position, is rendered miserably low by association — and which still remains to be authenticated by the curious, who search after things that do not concern them. When seated one Christmas day evening, some twenty winters past, within a few feet of the cloister's entrance, inclining to the southern corner and listening to that long and thrillingly beautiful 30 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. symphony to the anthem of Handel, " There were shepherds abiding." The wandering of my eye, like a straying sheep, was suddenly arrested by a most remarkable illusion, viz : on placing, with the eye, the top ball of the extreme right hand back small minaret ornament of the organ, in a line with one of the angular joints in the ceiling, you will have one of the most characteristic portraits of the celebrated Joe Grimaldi ever witnessed off the stage. But I refrain recommending its discovery to those whose serenity of feeling for the full en- joyment of sacred music is liable to be disturbed, or who are not proof against any obtrusive recollections of Joe's memorable song of " Hot Codlings," which caused the Prince Regent to so enthusiastically encore at Drury Lane. MATERNAL DEVOTION, TN a recluse, called " The Pen " or " Newton's Court," how full an assurance of pure love there is exhibited to the mind of the meditative IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 31 young, on each Palm Sunday, in the beautiful disclosure of the ever still burning flame of a mother's affection for her child — that love which knows no sleeping ember, and which pours out itself with costly profusion in the rarest offerings of Flora's brightest children, o'er the silent tomb of a temporarily sleeping child, " Henry Peel," (nephew of Sir Robert) emulative of the variety with which the fair Ophelia adorned her father's grave, and responding beautifully to Isaiah's question, " Can a mother forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion upon the son of her womb?" PS. Immediately over this court is a secure dungeon, with its prying chamber, each of popish origin, in the arch of which, through the assistance of a small eyelet hole that commands a convenient optical survey of the entire nave, choir, and chancel, the abbots of old — those shrewd ac- quaintances with, and keen observers of, nature — scrutinsed in secret the proceedings of their inferior orders — from which my creed suffers no reduction 32 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS, ETC. but becomes rather strengthened in its conviction that there were nuns in those days. If fact should be cousin-german to certain inferential attentions, far from that disinterested nature associated with the Platonic species, in some of the attendants here now-a-days ; that same eyelet hole would not be found as useless as a Theodolite, minus its reflector, in assisting some persons in detecting certain little — little what-d'ye-call-'ems — which rather exceed the bounds if not of civil, at least of religious liberty — liable to connect themselves with their domestic peace, i.e., if they have any regard for, or possess such property. There are such human failings, which by a strange perversion of moral technicality, are called amiable weaknesses, that are powerfully visible here at times — but should they be delusive (as perhaps they are,) the only excuse that can suffice is, that Fops only are those who strive to rival the monkey in his antics — and frequently are tolerably IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 33 successful, and which has finally cancelled a doubt that I have long entertained, whether monkey imitates man, or man the monkey. " He who has but impudence To all things else has fair pretence." It is possible, there may be a secret pleasure in the bare courting of the suspicion of possessing a dishonourable failing, at the sacrifice of another's virtue — but there is no reliable scale established, by which we can ascertain the altitude, which some men's vanity or folly will soar them, to seek notoriety — Reader, don't even whisper to yourself, " I wonder who this pertinent and cautiously framed inuendo refers to, perhaps to some empty headed coxcomb who is never thought or dreamt of, but when he intercepts our vision, or he must mean some something, somehow, somewhere, relative to somebody that is not wholly in ac- cordance with the sanctity of God's house, but he is so obstinately mute, and won't tell us who or what it is he means — Oh ! if he could but know 34 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. how much I wish to realize the exercise of the immediate privilege of our gender — curiosity, that unfortunate bequest transmitted us from our mother Eve, he would not longer so tantalize me by indulging me with suspense, the good-for-nothing creature compels me to draw my own inferences, " that there are persons who attend service here for other devotions than those called sacred." HISTRIONIC SOUVENIR, A T a short distance from this interesting spot, obliquely facing each other, repose two sons of Momus, Mc. Cready and Powell— two authors, actors, managers and patentees of royal theatres, for dramatic entertainments, who were eminent in their day for " keeping the table in a roar," whose hearts were profusely inflated with the most generous and kindly feelings ; and to each of their memories, as we silently pass their resting place, we may bestow Sterne's epitaph, "Alas! poor IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 35 Yorick." Here they lay who once provoked such numbers to mirth and merriment, " completely chapfallen," awaiting the grand crash from the orchestra, which shall summon all actors on the stage, when the curtain shall rise for the full performance of that awful drama, whose pre- paration has been announced for nearly nineteen hundred years, and in which each actor has chosen his own important part. And, oh ! may each of us, with them, like Mary be found to have chosen that good part, in which we shall appear so perfect as to insure the approval of HIM, whose criticism will be impartial and just, and draw the applause of that angelic audience who have been so long waiting for our appearance and reception. THE INFIDEL A S perhaps there is no place where the heart of man is laid so purely naked, or is less secure from the wiles and unseen attacks of the devil, or the most talented of his satellites, than in the RECOLLECTIONS AM' REFLRCTIONS ETC. s.inctuarv of his God — for in proportion to man's resolution tor purity of holy meditation, so is the virulence and perseverance of Satan exercised : •■ rherefore lot hint that thinketh he standeth take hood lost ho tall." Besides ho is the most punctual and vigilant attendant of any who frequent a place tor sacred worship: and. alas! how low there are who have not found it to their sorrow so. While 1 was engaged in contemplating that logical quotation from Ortgen, " Ho who believes the Scriptures to have proceeded from HIM who is the author of Natwn may well expect to find the same sort of difficulties in it. as are found in the constitution of naturo." introduced so effective!? on the marble slab which recounts the pre-eminent qualities of the great author o( the analogy in the constitution of nature. (Bishop Butler of this Cathedral) ami while amusing- myself with the doubt, if the Jewish Sailduccos of old were familiar with the writings o( this eminent Grecian Philosopher previous to their avowal, •* that there is no resurrection." my abstract IN THE BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 37 meditations were suddenly arrested by a voice from behind me, " a curious fellow that Origen sir, Do you think that he always understood himself? Think you that such writers believe all that they pen ? Is it not possible for the human mind in its full health to believe in fiction ? Is not fiction and what we call truth synonymous ? Is there any reality? and many more unseemly and infidelic observations clothed in exquisite Ignatius Loyalaic drapery, which soon discovered to me that I was in the society of a disciple of Rousseau, or one of Satan's Arch-Bishops, he also much doubted if I could tell him " from whence I came ? where I am ? and whither I shall go ? to which I replied in substance as follows — "Where Man came from, Man's reason will or cannot tell, So secret the Composition is of him ; The Earth, the Air, the Sea, are taciturn as well, And mute are the Heavens of his origin. "With no secondary cause will I ought to do, But where Iflrst sprang from, th' first of Gen'sis will shew. And where we are, needs not remain a puzzle, Though sage has writ, there is no real existence, 38 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. That life's ideal, and all we see's a juggle ; From such lab'rinth seek the Bible's pure assistance ; Then should our being here, remain so great a doubt, Then where I am — 'twere time that I found out. But where we shall go, is the grand important theme, And Faith whisp'ring, points to some blissful state, Where all is real, and neither day nor midnight dream ; "Where Peace, Love, and Joy will be the Christian's fate. For there dwells not either sorrow, doubt, or woe, And there's the place where I must strive to go. There is that bless'd abode, man's eye can ne'er discern, Nor can his carnal heart, its glory least conceive ; HIS book declares, whose leaves we so heedless turn, As though device it were - written to deceive, It was — It is — and most truly will be where, I hope tee neither fail to meet the other there. EAR17 ASSOCIATIONS. w ITH the exception of Eliza Cook's attachment to her mother's old arm chair, so beautifully THE BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 39 portrayed in her pathetic poem of that name, mine challenges a warmth for the old trapping- shorn stone pulpit that stands in the nave alone and forsaken, like the last rose of summer, or the stone which the builders rejected ; and each ac- customed time in my strolling past, it seems to invite me to a tete a tete, to canvas over the reminiscence of the many eminent Divines which it has assisted in its day, to breathe forth the gospel's truth with such purity and fullness, and whose features live and as clearly pass before my mental vision as Banco's lineage glided before that of proud Macbeth. It was from that solid mass of carved rock that I, in my childhood, listened with pleasureable attention to the exposition of the gospel from the celebrated Dr. Chapman, who, " although as pure as ice and as chaste as snow," escaped not the calumny of suspicion of indulging in those unlicensed delicate attentions to a certain lady of pious memory, which in another sphere of life the color of the cloth would not excuse a man from certain necessary 40 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. risks, closely connected with the prudence of previously making his last will and testament. Also to Dr. Blomberg, the facetious foster- brother of George IV., whose proficiency on the fiddle proved the great bar to his efficiency for a closer alliance with the bishopric of Hereford ; for upon Lord Castlereagh suggesting to George III. his issuing his conge d'lier to that chapter in his behalf for the vacant mitre, His Majesty exclaimed, with his usual prelude, " tut, tut, tut, what, what, what make a bishop of a fiddler ! never do, never do, never." Another was Dr. Randolph (cognomened Pump- thunder,) the royal mitre-disappointed chaplain of George IV., whose sincerity of confidence was tested with such a deficiency of credit to a D.D. in the Queen Caroline letter affair, and screened from an unenviable brilliancy that mitre which fond hope thought to purchase with it, — nevertheless his fine stentorian voice, nobly brave, open, and generous countenance, commanding stature, and action in IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 41 delivery, most particularly of the Lord's Prayer and the ten commandments — combined to make him look, in every eye, every inch a Bishop. THE APPARITION. A remarkably singular circumstance is connected *" with the progressive rise of Dr. Blomberg in the church. I shall therefore take permission to relate this extraordinary instance in his biography, and, as far as my pains have been exerted to trace the truthfulness of the narrative, I feel both easy and indifferent as to its success or failure in securing the credence of my readers, having the story as recorded in the Doctor's hand-writing in my possession, and runs nearly as follows. " When the English forces were in possession of the island of Martinique, in the seven years' war, there was a Major Blomberg, who was detached from head quarters to a distant part of o 42 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. the island. After he had been there for some time, as Colonel Stewart was in bed at head quarters, Major Blomberg suddenly entered the room in the middle of the night, dressed in his regimentals, and advanced to Colonel Stewart's bed-side, who, greatly alarmed at his appearance, exclaimed, ' Blomberg! how came you here without leave? I thought you were at another part of the island with your detachment.' The Major replied, ' Don't be alarmed ; I have leave to come here, but I am no longer alive. I died yesterday at seven in the morning, and am now come here to beg that you would take care of my little boy, who is in town ; and, when you go to England, I desire that you would see him put in possession of an estate which he has a right to, and the writings relative to which are in a private drawer in an old chest, in a house in Yorkshire (naming the house), and this 1 most earnestly request of you, as my last wish and desire-' He then disappeared, leaving Colonel Stewart in the greatest astonishment, but that gentleman directly called to Captain Mounsey, who slept in the same room, and enquired if he IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 43 had seen Major Blomberg, to which that officer replied, that he had not only seen him but had heard every thing he had said, which he repeated to Colonel Stewart, and they both made notes of the event. The next morning they mentioned it to their brother officers, who treated it as a ridiculous thing, or as an invention of those gentlemen to impose upon some of the young officers ; but a few hours afterwards advice was brought, that Major Blomberg had died of a violent fever in quarters, upon the same day and at the same hour as had been mentioned by Colonel Stewart. That gentleman directly took the child under his protection, brought him to England at the conclusion of the war, and circulated the event so that it reached the ears of the Queen, (Charlotte) who interested herself in behalf of the boy, and afterwards made him one of her pages. Colonel Stewart lost no time in accomplishing the other part of the deceased Major's request, but going into Yorkshire repaired to the house, which had been pointed out and desired leave to examine a chest of drawers which he described, and in a 44 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS, ETC. private part thereof lie found the writings in question, which he was allowed to take with him. A lawsuit was commenced against the possessor of the estate to which Major B. had declared his son to be entitled, and of which he was finally put in possession. He afterwards took orders, became chaplain to the Prince of Wales, married and settled at Burrington, in Somersetshire, and was appointed to a Prebendal Stall in this Cathedral. The story being mentioned to Mr. Blomberg by the gentleman who gave these particulars, he confirmed as far as his knowledge of the circumstance extended. FATALITY, A S there are many persons in life who can boast of their success in tracing the source of their obligation to the blind and fickle goddess, Fortune — some to their position at court, some to the delusions of the theatre and concert-hall, some to the fancy ball and fair, some to the civic medley IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 45 assembly, some to a stroll upon the sanded beach, some to the romance of a plaintive love ditty, breathed from Italian casement in the cool twilight of a summer's eve, assisted with the ringers' magic touch upon one of Collard and Collard's best grand squares ; some to the rustic fete, and some to their lineal pretensions to honors and wealth — it was reserved to this holy Fane to present me with a partner for life, from one of Eve's best of daughters, (the confirmation of which was performed by the Dean, Dr. Beeke) whose respected and venerated parent, that bestowed her on me, had been the Ecclesiastic legal adviser to its chapter (in succession to his father) for more than half a century, the tablet to whose memory is affixed adjoining the aforesaid Pen, and his remains repose in the churchyard : the philosophic distich at the foot of which was found in his pocket-book after his decease, in his own handwriting. " Oh! from the grave may holy lessons rise, And careless trirlers as they read grow wise." 46 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. Whichever we are indebted to, Fate or her sister Chance, for the enigma, there certainly does appear to be no independency in our actions in life. The result of each intent rests so much upon the will or caprice of another, and the means requisite for affecting either party depends upon that unseen, unsought for, stimuli, necessary to provoke them into action — we cannot make a sale or a purchase without the other consenting, clearly shewing the fact, that man is only an agent for another. — Another who ? Another what ? Who is that other ? Again, looking at the strange inconsistences which hourly present themselves to our reason, in the public and private affairs of an anti-barbarous age, we are induced to ask the question, Who it is playing this game, wherein man, philosophically and individually considered, appears to have no substantial interest ? For instance, where such demoniacal schemes were laid for the commission of the grossest attrocities during the reign of terror, in France, '92, '93 : actions so infernal IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 47 in their character that must have astounded the very perpetrators themselves upon reflection, to ask, " Of what manner of spirits they were ; " while those revolting ones of June, '48, merged all differences of opinion, political and social, between the whole press of France to stifle and confine their circulation within their own walls. THE ROBIN. B EFORE the present Dean, Dr, Lamb, disco- vered that it illy-accorded with the taste of his classical eye and caused it to be removed, the pre- sent modern antique wooden pulpit was surmounted with a pretty ornamental spire, frequently reminding the eye of Bristol's High Cross; and, during three years of the Precentorship of Mr. Barker, the pinnacle of which was as constantly occupied, during the sermon, as the Sunday and the sermon came, by a little sturdy robin, who carolled forth his noontide song most melodiously, most melan- choly, during nearly the whole of the discourse. 48 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. This little red-vested chorister as regularly took up his autumnal and winter residence here as the Prebends did theirs in their turn, dependent for his providential meal to the attentive scattering hand of the venerable verger, and his scientific little rivals the choristers, on whose music-books he would perch and boldly peck, with grateful flippant wing, the stealthily doled out crumb, regarding neither Dean nor any minor functioned one. Since the junction of the two sees (in 1836) of Bristol with Gloucester, it is as rare a circumstance to have our attention diverted, or our curiosity indulged by the corporial appearance of a live and healthy bishop here, as of a robin, except upon special official occasions, and these resemble the visits of Heaven's angels — few and far between, suggesting a burlesque paraphrase, like the Irish- man's potatoes, " thick but mighty seldom." The following lines were composed by an esteemed departed friend, who a short time prior THE BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 49 to her decease, kindly opportune presented them to me for this little work. TO THE ROBIN. Sweet bird thy notes so querulous and wild, Raising our thoughts to Heaven from things terrene, Proclaim aloud to sin and sorrow's child, The tidings glad of Peace and Hope serene. Art thou a guardian angel hither sent To hover round us at this house of Prayer ; To warn the thoughtless sinner to repent, And bid the contrite spirit not despair. Sing on sweet bird, and with thy gentle strain Recall the memory of brighter days, Or lend thy wings to reach the ethereal plain, "Where Saints and Angels chaunt their Maker's praise. Mem. — Perhaps there are few Cathedrals that can exhibit such high pretensions to efficiency in all its appointments, with the exception of two stalls — as regards the clerical ability of its members — and the chastity and superior style of 50 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. its entire musical service, in performance, as this Cathedral. And it is by no means the most desirable situation, in which an author's opinion may place him, when he imposes upon himself the task of dispensing for the benefit of favorites where his own interests are likely to be affected by his prescription. Mr. Caley, our talented Precentor, as regards theological erudition and charming manner of conferring with the heart upon its most important affairs, it would be very gratifying to see replace Mr. Harvey, as Canon, were he translated into the possession of a mitre — but I could wish that particular head-dress to be as distant from his cranium as the Pleiades are from mine, if, conditionally, we are to lose Mr. H.'s occupancy of our Cathedral pulpit. An exceedingly additional benefit the church would derive, if the intrepid, hard-working, conscientious, and pious minor canon, Eccles. James Carter, and the Precentor could immediately supply the stalls of two useless Great Guns — those wealthy mute pieces of heavy ordnance, who have not fired a shot from their battery at his Satanic Majesty IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 51 for many a year — for it is of far greater import that our Church should be freed from the scandal of pampering the stomachs of rich incapables, than of being too sensitive of giving umbrage to two unusefuls — men who reap where they do not sow — (thereby doing good service to the Church in due time and of much need) and I do not suspect that I should be one fraction out in all this ciphering, if I were to add, that such alterations in our temple would make every countenance beam with a halo of intense sa- tisfaction, in all the stauncher devotees of our regular congregation. It is not, I believe, even winked at, in any Church in Christendom, save the Established one of England, where clergymen are paid exorbitantly high for doing nothing — beyond that slavishly laborious exaction (the just remuneration for which has not yet been accurately computed, that would even distantly approach their reasonable valuation) the reading of the ten commandments and that portion of the Gospel appointed to follow the 51 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. Epistle, in the Communion service, eight Sundays in the year — and it would add but little enormity to the casting up of this sum of abuse, if they were permitted to read them over eight consecutive times on the first Sunday in residence, thereby approaching Dr. Johnson's preference, who, when solicited by a village governess to hear her school of infant children read their various exercises, observed, " let the pretty little dears all read together ma'am, it will then be the sooner over — as it is by no means impossible that similar abuses assail other Cathedrals, 1 cannot restrain my pen from saying, that next to the exclusion of the Jews from Parliament, we should remove such unworthy labourers from our Christian Protestant vineyard — they cannot be called teachers, for they explain nothing beyond their own inefficiency. It is not impossible for a man's zeal in any cause, which he advocates with the creed that it is a laudable one, to so charm his footsteps out of their common track, into a labyrinth composed of any thing but violets — and which a short IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 53 residence in, will convince him of its close approxi- mation to the briar, the thistle, and the nettle, and which leave him not even the insipid exhalation of an expiring blossom to regale and comfort him — therefore the idea is not so very distant from my suspicions that I risk a probability of being assailed as worthy of many an uncharitable epithet which sophistry can suggest, viz : that I am a selfish, avari- cious, musical gourmande , who would monopolise in the Cathedral its magnificent peculiar service — compressing the circuit of its celestial echo, within its own native narrow hemisphere. But, despite the charge, influenced by the heart's sincerest prompter, conscience, I will assert, that amongst the recent innovations in the Church, none are more deserving of reprehension than the introduction of the full Cathedral service into the Parish Church. Let the General keep his place, and the Captain and Subaltern their situation, and all will go on har- moniously down to the rank and file. Nothing short of the introduction of high mass can be more remote in propriety from that primitive purity — that unostentatious family parish union in sacred 54 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. worship, than to permit the beneficed pastor, who conceits that he has a finer ear or voice for music than his clerical neighbour — or some latent wish for notoriety, to foster this gift at the sacrifice of his Church's ancient unvarnished decorum, thereby revolutionizing its quiet form of Sabbatical service, by the introduction of a highly scientific musical composition, alike incongruous and uncongenial to the ears of half the spiritually disposed part of his parish — a course which, if persisted in, will prove but two successful an evasion for driving the ab- original quiet church-goer to the conscientiously dissenting sanctuary, where no pluralities, sine- cures, or capricious liberties, are permitted to disfigure its sacred office. We cannot easily dispose ourselves to believe that the parish church is envious of the privilege enjoyed in the theatrical world, where Old Drury and Covent Garden have thrown aside the chaste English Drama, for the filching and mimic imitation of the classic opera and volatile ballet, (very suit- able in their own domain, the Theatre Italien.) IN THE BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 55 The mitred recipient of several thousands per year, and the paternal guardian of a diocese, is at fault for permitting such carte blanche in- dulgences in his licenses for christian spiritual entertainment — If he is principal manager in a province, he should be careful not to allow one branch of his establishment to infringe the patent of the other, without assigning some orthodox reason for doing so. P.S. Every Bishop would also not find some portion of his morning airings during a certain season very unprofitably exercised, (destitute of all fear of contradiction) but most properly employed, were he unexpectedly to give the meet a meeting occasionally, where a pastoral run of his eye o'er the field would disclose to it, that attached to this church, of which he is premier shepherd, and the Queen its Faith's Defender, there are certain sur- pliced Nimrods — vigilant hunters after anything but straying sinner's souls — who grossly abuse their Maker's service and the sanctity of their holy office, with their lips, " I come to do thy will 56 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. O God " while their hearts burst with the bar- barous horse-squall of tally-ho ! yoix ! tally-ho ! Such indecent laxity in the clerical selection of employment for leisure time or amusement, might be suggestive to the speculative mind of the lucrative use of any loose capital, and were it not for its infamous character, we might wish it every support and patronage, viz: — the pub- lishing in a first-rate style, after the order of the Royal Agricultural Society, a mezzotinto engraving of a full field — the scene for mere expression — say Badminton lawn, and the better-horsed riders being illustrated with faithful portraits of the holy Evangelists and Apostles well equipped in all the modern meet paraphernalia of the Fox- hunt; the fore-ground occupied by Will Long, answering various interesting interlocutory enquiries, of the names and qualities of the new accessions to the hunt — interspersed with a few innocent and refreshing anecdotes: "Him on the bay Cob is a splendid chap, Mr. St. Luke sir, and them three gents chaffing one another, (contemptuously IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 57 disregarding the injunctions of the third com- mandment) the one on the black gelding and t'other on the grey, is Squire St. Matthew and St. Peter. The last was once a slippery cove — he was too and no mistake — swear to anythin or nothin. That'n on the roan mare is a reg'lar run-avay, one Mr. St. Paul, — a desprate bold fencer — sticks at nothin, an somethin is of no consequence to'n — met wi' a reglar tarnation spill t'other mornin, takin a double ditch wi' a prettyish quick-set hedge — coteh'd his off leg in a bit o' pollard, an run a stake pretty nigh two feet in his boss's chest — I thought both on 'em was done for. He was took to Squire St. John's, and next mornin afore breakfast I went to see un, and there was he shure, like a brick, only lyin in his bed, wi' his head as snug in bandages as a fox in earth, so that a stranger could hardly know'un like. He says to me, says he, ' Bill, I be as glad to see yer, as if yer was my own father,' an I think I seed'n wipe his eye — for he'd node me a sight o' years — ' Don't be lazy, old feller,' says he to me. 1 it, just put yer precious eyesight inside that E 58 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. ere cubboard, and I shall werry much mistake if you dont see a bottle of brandy there, and I shall be werry wexed arterwards if you dont draw the cork, an we'll just see what a glass o' short tastes like afore the doctor comes. I had a drop afore this mornin an I'm not a bit the worserer for it, old feller,' says he — Not a mausel on it, says I, like that—' Well Bill,' says he, ' I'll give yer coorsin and fox-huntin — there's nothin like it in this world,' says he, ' an I'm shure (here fill another go, Bill,' says he) ' there'll be nun on it in t'other,' says he, (and after making a slight reference to his eyes, having not the most distant allusion to anything beneficial to, or to be coveted by, them) an I dosn't care a if my Bishop do hear on it,' says he, ' for I'm reglar entered on the 'stablishment, an they can't take away my livin for fox-huntin so long as I keeps a curate — -an him slap up to his work. By the bye, Bill,' says he, ' how's my mare ? ' Well I was in hopes that sixth glass o' yourn might have made yer, Sir, forgett(h)erish rayther, said I, but hownsoever what must be must be, an if yer IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 59 must know all, why we wus a foced to cut her throat this morning. Mautification took place an then a hoss is of werry little use not to no one, says I, just like that, an just as I was mentionin yer name, Sir, in the stable, I'm blest if she didn't prick up her ears an turn her head round (an diein all the time) just like a waking lamb that had lost his dam — lookin just like a christian, an the tears began to run down her poor cheek — an then pullin the sheet up over hisn — he sighed — ' she cost me a £150 Bill.' " And this was the touchingly acute sympathetic epitaph of a Christian clergyman o'er the remains of a noble animal, whose lingering death is indebted to his inhumanity and highly indecent sport. In the most strenuous and clandestine of all my enquiries, even among their bitterest enemies, I have not been successful in discovering in all the sects of religious Dissenters, including the Roman Catholic, one clergyman of their flock, whose recreative amusement throws openly such a sorry 60 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. reflection upon his cloth, and insults his Church and its congregation by indulging in the brutal sports of coursing and fox-hunting, as the surpliced teacher in the Established Church. It is this unbridled abuse or the Christian office — coupled with the quiet innovation of the Protestant Church's service, that must ere long rend that Church in twain, which no mortar but that tempered with the crimson stream of human caloric can ever reconstruct in its pristine purity of Protestant architecture — that Heaven-built erec- tion which future ages may weep over, for our negligence and apathy in allowing the enemy to sow such tares, with such impunity. Inch by inch each light abuse steals on ' Till all her christian beauty's fled, Her children left their loss to mourn O'er religion's soul, then lost— then dead. IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 61 IMPRESSIVE DISCOURSES. JOVV livelily my recollections burn of the time that, in that present wooden elevation, I heard Dr. Randolph preach the impressive and tear- starting discourse upon the young — the beautiful — the good — Princess Charlotte's death. Silence moved not — she stood fixed in jealous nervous apprehension of disturbing even herself, and although the most attentive, she was the only un- moved at this consummate flower of pulpit oratory. In this same wooden elevation the handsome Prebendary, Henry Ridley, delivered in his high poetical style an unique discourse upon death — the exquisitely beautiful imagery, which he illus- trated his sublime and heart-touching effusion with, were suggested by the recent bereavement of his most beloved — his wife — and hope inspires the thought, that pure and holy love which was un- broken here, never will be disjointed in Heaven's sphere : — and lamentable indeed it is to the his- torian's pen to record, that a few years afterward 62 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. he forestalled the King of terrors by separating the union of his carotid — or else scattering those brains which it had been his delightful care to foster and cultivate for the spiritual benefit of so many hungry ears and thirsty hearts. It was also in the same spot that I heard that " mad wag and wit," Rev. Sydney Smith, administer, (on November 5, 1830,) his severe castigation to the Bristol Mayor and Corporation (previously to the passing of the Reform Bill) upon their questionable use of the public trust confided to their charge, and, prophet-like, he foretold their approaching downfall, with a handwriting upon the wall of something more substantial than the phosphoric hallucinations of a fanciful brain, which they were besottedly loath to read, and too refreshed with self-confidence to then believe — so failed to set their house in order. It was from here that he scattered, in his peculiar and dignified manner, his magnificently lucid deductions from Job, " I would not live IN THE BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 63 alway " — the impression left with those who heard and felt its influence can never be erased from their memories, however resolutely they may be inclined to close their ears from wisdom's still small voice, for in every step we take, the uncertain and unsatisfying result of all sublunary things of time and sense, constantly passes the pathway of our mental vision — angel-like before the ass of Baalam — and the certain certainty that the grave will be the be all and the end all of all mortality, is no less obtrusive upon my occult philosophy, suggesting the following doggrel impromptu. " I WOULD NOT LIVE ALWAY." JOB, 7 chap. NO ! not always here— I would wish to live, Tho' this world's Heaven, would shower all her lap can give. Weigh her best behests ! You'll find them gilded toys, Yeilding nicknamed Peace — No shade of sterling joys. Her brightest treasures drag with them their mete of cares, And smiles they often wake - too frequent sleep in tears. Their rouged lips of joy — prove base deception's net To him who lasting bliss — from them shall seek to sip. 64 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC On a sleepless pillow— the merchant lays his head, Dreading morning's dawn— may make his a pauper's bed ; While whisper thundering gales, in his anxious ear Your freighted barque has sunk, close on yonder pier. That last gust — has closed your mercantile career. See the thrifty trader— with well-eramm'd golden purse, His ulcerous lungs and limbs he's daily forced to nurse; Nor will its bright contents, subdue the loathsome curse. Or p'raps diseased mind— compunctions visitings in trade — To live, he wishes not - to die, he is afraid. Nor Patrician's ermin'd robe — would I court to wear, Too oft the villain's mask— the harlot's painted gear. Such parents bring charm-birth, the thoughtless to deceive, Then how in such a womb— shall ever Peace conceive. The Crown drags with it a deep and mental weight To him whose head shall guide the chariot wheels of state. Oft does its wearer, in deep secret, deeply sigh For peace of Cottage life— to throw the bauble by. Lounge thro' Frienship's mart— how bland the stalls are laid ? T' invest a trifle here, one need not be afraid, For Truth and Love— appear the only stock-in-trade. Just lose your purse— you'll /wr/ the stuff which Friendship's [made. THE BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 65 Then not always here — I -would wish to live, If this world's Heaven — no purer pleasures give, Since her best hehests— prove such base decoys, Yeilding fiction's Peace — no shade of future Joys. But I would ahcays live— where rest can never cease, Where every moment's life — is Eternity of peace, Where the foot of sorrow never dares to tread, Pride and ostentation can never raise its head ; Where all is truth and life— where there shall be no dead. Amongst the more recent gems of pulpit mental sculpture, submitted not to the carnal eye, but to the vision of the spiritual heart, from this same sacred tribune, I will venture to introduce mention of, without the materials to flatter or the desire to appear inviduous, but with the prayer to invoke their publication, Dr. Musgrave's (the present Dean's predecessor, now Arch-Bishop of York) luminous and gorgeously clothed description of the GREAT ONE— THE I AM— and his attri- butes (August 6, 1837). Also (on Good Friday, 1844) Dr. Lamb's rich and affecting picture in 66 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. brilliant relievo of the Court cortege, judgment-hall, and trial, with the verdict and sentence of our Saviour — the necessary official guards and witnesses then in attendance at that all-important oyer and terminer. So adhesive became the attention of some, that it would have been difficult to awaken them from the illusion, or to dissuade them that they were not present spectators in the court — and, like the sailor in the theatre pit, who with a hasty shrug to his trowsers and an uncharitable comment upon his eyes, was so absorbed by the cunning of the actor, that he leaped upon the stage to the rescue of the honor of the chaste Desdemona, from the infamous tongue of the demon Iago — Indeed the whole of the Dean's discourses have been unique, rich, morceaux, and if he had ever to encounter a difficulty, it must have been when striving to produce what is com- monly termed " a so-so-ish sort of sermon." Where lives the intellectual epicurean, either of Dissent (of which he has many admirers) or of High Church principles, that ever retired from his pas- toral board dissatisfied, or even went empty away. IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 67 The distinguished Commentator and translator of " the Phenomena and Diosemeia" of Aratus, perhaps was never more happy in pathos of delivery and sublimity of subject, while approaching the human heart, than (on Sunday, June 10, last) in expounding St. Paul's profit and loss text, " To live is Christ and to die is gain ;" it was one of those sort of balance sheets, to cypher which would have bother'd many a master, but that of Corpus Christi, Cambridge, to produce that quotient, which drew from more eyes than one pair a natural current, whose course's inclination down the cheek, approached in speed that me- dicinal gum which the trees of Arabia are wont to so generously distil and drop. The domestic drapery with which he dressed this subject — in a season of more than usual uncertainty of life, (the rapid strides of that pestilential white horse cholera) — was touchingly sublime beyond any description but that of his own pen. And although the last discourse to be men- tioned — it is not the least worthy of admiration — 68 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS, ETC. was the production of the present favorite star of this Cathedral — Prebendary Harvey's unique oral daguerrotype of the exquisite beauties which compose the little infant child — its innocency, its simple elegance, its prostrate helplessness, its heaven-born smile, its wonderful influence upon the otherwise unapproachable heart of man, and its unmistakeable genuine sincerity and love — the only breathing emblem of worldly truth. I feel sensible that I am bestowing by far too poor a description of his convincing powers, should others who have never blessed themselves with the felicity of hearing him discourse, think me extravagant in my award, by applying to him a scanty portion of the property devoted to Madame Roland, (the unfortunate political admirer of Robespierre,) by M. Lamartine ; and I shall only fear the accusation of changing his golden ex- pressions into copper representatives, when saying, " he has a tone of voice which borrows its vibrations from the deepest fibres of the heart, and which is harmoniously modulated to its finest movements — the tone of it, is the charm to IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 69 emotion, and his thoughts are the medium of persuasion " to those whose hearts are spiritually inclined to listen, when wisdom speaketh even in her softest whisper. Each of these pulpit effusions were unrivalled chef d' ceuvres of theological eloquence, excellence, imagery and beauty, indeed they were those trans- cendant emanations of the christian's heart, that the chalice of my contentment refused to overflow upon, from the lurking about my dissatisfied soul, of two restless wishes, viz : — that all the world should have heard them — and also to have witnessed the close resemblance to a second Pentecost, which their wonderful effect could not fail to have universally produced upon that portion known as the rightly reflecting world. 70 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. MONOLOGUE ON A DEAD CHILD. I knew her as a flower of the spring That had ta'en the start of the year, The loveliest bud— the prettiest thing, Destin'd to make the life of man dear. I watch' d this beautiful bud in the sun, Such bright beams emit— of beauty and worth, That I envied of Adam that happy son Which gave such a flower, such beauty and birth. Summer came on— its beauty increas'd, Its petals more fragrant became, I breath' d on its lips— half wish'd its release, To bloom in an orb, more worthy its fame. Whiter stole on, like -a thief in the night, And pluck' d from this flower its beauty and bloom, While the dawn of next morn, proclaim'd to the sight, This flower prepared for its bed in the tomb. In tears I knelt o'er the bier of the dead, And wafted a prayer to heaven sincere, That rays which on earth were deny'd her to shed, Might beam in the realms of Heaven's bright sphere. IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 71 THS FIRST INNOVATION. TT was between the years '25 and '30 that the ideas of the Chapter running in a congenial current with the Poet's creed, that spring would be but gloomy weather had we nothing else but spring, took occasion to evince its sincerity by reducing the theory to practice, viz : to suspend the five minutes musical voluntary which followed the psalms, and which was not only a very innocent delightful entertainment to the congregation, but it had the charitable effect of bestowing a little breathing time to the minor Canon, to prepare him for reading the first lesson, which perchance may be the seventh chapter of Numbers (the longest in the Bible). This apparently unimportant innovation in the Capitular was committed during the Pre- sidency of Dr. Beeke, the then Dean, whose conduct doubtless acts as a precedent for the discreditable attempt at pilfering in the music's service, by the Chapter in the present day, causing much unseemly schism and provoking general dissatisfaction — viz: the discontinuing or forbidding 72 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. the Precentor and minor Canon chauntine: or intoning; any portion of the Prayer Service, which has regularly and decently been performed from the eighth Harry's reign. It was also about the same period that the Chapter required a sermon from the minor Canon on each Sunday evening — which perhaps was a wholesome exaction, for it seasoned his proficiency for a preferment to a poor curacy or a scanty living (the richer ones thrusting themselves into the digestive apartments of the less inferior clergy) and ultimately may be instrumental to the converting him (provided always, he lacks not the required influence) into a Right Reverend Father in God, but there is no foreseeing how it is that lawn folds itself with such dexterity, dignity, and ease o'er some mens shoulders — and it would be a delicate disposal of ink and paper to attempt a rational calculation on the same here — nevertheless it is a lamentable fact to reflect upon, how ingeniously the world is nose-led in its estima- tion of the requisites necessary for making a wealthy Rector, giving a stall to a Canon, and placing a mitre on some men's heads. — " There IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 73 are more things in Heaven and Earth Horatio — than are dreamt of in your philosophy." The musical voluntary, I believe, was considered by Dr. Beeke to resemble too closely a circular of the organist's, to display his proficiency for instructing young ladies in the same art of charming the auricular sense ; but Mr. Corfe's fame, as a perfect master of that celestial science, is too universally spread to need the aid of such expediency ; therefore with more reason it may innocently be restored. It may not be inconvenient here to remark, that although Dr. Beeke was deeply skilled in the use of numerical figures, (for most part of the government schemes in the money world were much indebted to his genius for their success, and were concocted at the Deanery by him and Lord Bexley, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer) he was so lamentably ignorant of metrical sounds that he would never have obtained the lowest degree for music in any college in the universe ; F 74 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. he had the poorest ear for music perhaps ever known, for he assured a departed learned friend of mine, who was upon the closest terms of intimacy with him, since they were at " Oriel " together, that he scarce discovered any difference in the composition of " God save the King " and an Irish melody. Nevertheless he was an enviable and brilliant exception to Shakespear's character of the man who is insensible to music's power ; for pulse- blood beat not warmer or quicker to time — though secretly — in the cause of charity than did Dr, Beeke's — his heart suffered not his hand to draw a distinction of metre, 'twixt infidel, heretic, or Christian, when distress pleaded in their cause. Such a property in the human heart would outweigh, in christian estimation, a whole theatre of fiddlers, and an army of dealers in fanciful fiction (poets). IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 75 "WHEN - WOULD YOU DIE X A LTHOUGH a too sensitive knowledge of the degenerate state of man, may engender in us a wish "not to live alway ;" still, seeing the generous profusion of the beautiful which nature so gracefully festoons in rich clusters all her paths with, either in the plain, the valley, or on the mountain's brow, to assail with her fascinating influence each faculty of sense at every step we tread, provokes a lingering wish to stay a little longer, and to evoke certain plausible reasons not to die to-day. We feel so loath to leave this native house of clay — or as the Psalmist more beautifully and pathetically expresses my idea, " O spare me but a little, that I may recover my strength : before I go hence, and be no more seen." I would not die in the youthful spring, When all the world looks gay, Like some discontented moody thing Who feels no charm in May, 76 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. Too rich those luscious scenes of bliss, Warm revel in this mind, To leave a sphere, e'en frail as this, Or Joy in Death's sleep find. Nor would I, in Summer's golden day, When fruits and flowers smile, Where fragrant Groves, in their best array, Fond lovers haunts beguile. Oh ! for thee — for thee — I fain would live, Nor from thy paths would hie, If thou no more of breath would give, Than thou bestow'st the Butterfly. Nor when Autumn laughs with her rich hoard, I'd court to be entomb'd, 'Twere mad t'view such wealth— then indulge A wish to be consumed. But when Winter, with her mantle lin'd, With age diseas'd — Death's welcome token When friends prove false -and the Soul's resign'd, And the Heart's entirely broken, Then — Then would I die. IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 77 THE MAMIKONIST, A brilliant specimen of the poverty in quality, and the diminutiveness of proportion, which the human mind is subject to, particularly in those whose constant care it is to cheat the world's eye, and who mostly strive, to conceal their liability to the infection, discovered itself to me while attending as a spectator the funeral obsequies of a distinguished soldier and nobleman, in this Cathedral (October 9, 1846,) and which ceremony, although modestly grand in itself — commanding the sym- pathetic attendance of many General Officers, equipped in the blaze of full military uniform — it was deficient of that gorgeous display which might have been the reasonably expected concomitant on so rare and solemn an occasion, as that of the entombing an uncle of one of the most popular and polished dukes of the day. He was a man, who in life was an ornament to it, for in him were concentrated all the elements which completed the gentleman, the soldier, and the Christian. But alas ! — though he claimed descent from the Plan- 78 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. tagenets — his pecuniary escutcheon quartered not with the rich monarch of Sardis, nor appeared he to inherit any hereditary interest in any codocil attached to that Grecian sovereign's will. It was close to the hungry jaws of the patiently waiting vault for its apportioned meal, that I was addressed (not in the most subdued voice) by a genteely clad stranger, who I afterwards learned was a tolerably wealthy retired tradesman, but who had retained that which no disguise, save the transit of five generations, can effectually con- ceal — the peculiar tone of thinking — cunning — and the accustomed lingo of that industrious order. The truly solemn ceremony performing, subjected him to no restraint from his worldly calculations ; and as hopeless an experiment would it have been to attempt to caress the feline affections or pro- pensities out of the natural internal policy of a young starving Tom Tabby towards a hapless straying mouse, — or to extract the tortoise-shell from the chemise of a healthy mother of six kittens, by a recitation from " Aikenside's Pleasures of IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. iV Imagination " — as to seduce the current of his early associations into a more wholesome channel of reflection : for he observed to me that he knew his Lordship must have been poor as a rat, and must have cut up very lean — left no fat sir — no fat — or he'd not have kick'd the bucket at Weston, you may ticket that for a truth; for had he the " tin " he would have cashed his checque from Brighton or Hastings or some such grand watering place. " Oh ! what a god is gold, that it is worshipped in baser temples than where swine do feed/' Now if any mental feeling exhibited itself more clearly to the intellectual vision than another, it was this superlative worship or idolatry to riches in this man ; and inclines us to wonder that such a reasoner could ever grant permission to a man of substance, breathing his last any where short of the palace salons of Windsor or Buckingham, enveloped in richest stole upon the velvet lounge; or if summarily called upon by his Creator to render an account of his stewardship in the public 80 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. highway, that the fates, by a happy combination, should have managed convenient arrangement, that the pavement should have been strewn with gold cloth or ermine to receive in his fall the carnal golden ball. This man must have been one of those un- fortunate self-misguided victims, whose creed is established in the honesty of the degenerate means used, by which little men are insensibly surprised into great ones, by the influence of large houses, localities, civic recognitions, and external appear- ances upon weak minds — who resolve to beguile the honest eye of their fellow mortals by masquerade ; and it is such as these who rob so successfully the confiding heart of the poor man of his better reason. — He seemed to compassionate any man who respected virtue in poverty, as one who illy- appreciated the right end for which, in his eyes, wealth was given. I could not but think what a profitable study it would be to man, for his pro- tection from such well-disguised fraud upon his senses as this character. We here see what a low IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 81 tli in king man is — how earthly he smells — how worldly the touch of his palm feels, and to what a paltry quality he is indebted for his little greatness. Upon my questioning Reason, why a vulgarism, so deeply rooted in some men's minds, should still breathe toleration in this progressive age of Christian knowledge, as to esteem and value their neighbour (who is wholly unconnected with them) by the class and standard to which they belong ? she significantly importuned permission to retire, and left me meditating upon the miserable price which a man of commerce attaches to a fellow- creature's worth, however distinguished he may be for virtue, who has not a heavy balance lying at his banker's to his credit, or one whose connection with trade is not delineated by the most prominent family features. — A feather accidentally thrown upon the apparently motionless surface of the streamlet, will disclose to us the secret direction of its current; so will a little attention to those with whom we carelessly converse, expose in vivid 82 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. nakedness the composition of their minds and hearts, which have with such scrupulous care been decorated for the world's negligent eyes' approval. It is an axiom, true as mathematical fact, that riches possess this exclusive property — the vulgarest composition that has pretensions to humanity — the most unlettered, uncouth-mannered clod, however low the patois of his tongue and vulgar the sen- timent of the heart, secures by their possession a passport to any circle in society — can command the purse-proud cit's — that mock patrician — knee come suple, to bend and vow regret it had not cultured the honor of such superior acquaintance earlier ; particularly where such polished parts, and where every enviable virtue so securely has lain concealed : so paramount is the affection of man's idolatry in favor of this qualifica- tion, that its strength is only equalled by the reckless indifference to the means used to obtain the god — however base — for they expel with in- dignation every Christian virtue for his reception. IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 83 Two of the least inoffensive abortions, the pro- ductions of riches, were the sending a public pugilist and a railivay gambler, of doubtful reputation, to what is esteemed (by millers) the best seconds in society, i.e. the parliament house, which leavened their admission to the tables of those, who by a shameful prostitution of the Queen's vernacular, are called the nobles ; added to which, the linking of the arm of the jew with that of the professing Christian — so that this much desired sophism, called wealth, coming in conjugal contact with man's palm, unconfines a monster which proves to be that one the scriptures have surnamed, " the root of all evil." Even Froude, the sceptic, (whose blasphemous book, " The Nemesis of Faith," was publicly burned at Oxford in March last) speaking of riches, has the courage and sympathy for fallen man to say, " Oh ! what a frightful business is this modern society — the race for wealth — wealth — I am ashamed to write the word — wealth means well-being, weal, the opposite to woe — and is this 84 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECT' IONS, ETC. money ? — or can money buy it ? " And what — many many years ere I read Froude's opinion — I have often reasoned on, that upon the most careless average for the making of a single rich man, thousands must have a life-long tide of misery to float their bare existence upon. I have, with a sorrow not to be described, in my day seen so many deplorable specimens of humanity, in the worst stages of its nature, which were solely indebted to the agency of money for their hideous distortion from the beauty and humility which surrounded their less wealthy fellow- mortals, that I have been suddenly seized with a chill and tremor when I encountered the atmosphere of a suddenly rich man, knowing how soon the consequent spawn of his heart would be let loose upon society — arrogance and insult — and par- ticularly so the unfortunate individual, who devoid of that divinest attribute and Heaven's essence, substantial unseen charity, wallowing in almost fathomless wealth ; who limits his condolence to his poor fellow-creatures by the bare response, to IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 85 their yellings of nature for their wretched apology for existence — " I have nothing for you," that has oft provoked me with the spirit of purest prayer, to wish that God would, in His mercy for the salvation of souls, and the preservation of mankind in one uninterrupted bond of fellowship and love, devise some less destructive stimuli for man's chase after in life; and to destroy from the face of this beautiful orb, a circulating demon that cankers at one blast the holy tendrils of filial and brotherly affection — an idol possessing such infernal powers, that runs the wheels of Juggernaut off the line of superstition into the tunnel of eternal shade, and my prayer has received great discouragement from HIS divine declaration " that it will be easier for a camel to pass through the needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven." How frequently has the possession of wealth given birth to the tyrant — endowed the slave with insolence, ingratitude, and pride — shattered into infinitesimal atoms the sacred cearments of family ties and affection, and strengthened the arm of the spoiler and oppressor — has even made the 86 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. balance of the law to hesitate — to turn. But I must forego all claim to the credit of portraying the beauties or deformities which humanity is subject to, when remembering that incomparable secular work of him who possessed a Shakespearian insight to humanity, " Samuel Warren's Description of Titmouse," the most detestable of the human family, embodies all that I can advance of disgust at the savage in his human form. FANCY'S SKETCH. (( TF you have ever experienced the mortifying misfortune of having mislaid an article, its place of concealment is very likely to suggest itself to your memory during your prayers" — said a highly esteemed friend and an eminent divine to me one day, clearly indicating the liability of our religious devotions to secular interruptions — and how truly he spoke, for frequently has the most stringent resolutions to confine my thoughts to serious me- IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 87 ditation, during the performance of this Cathedral's sublime style of addressing the Almighty, been arrested in their course, when, for the indulgence of a refreshing temperature in the heat-oppressive summer months, I have sought a resting retreat on the old oak bench in the south-west corner — the musical epicurean's favorite spot, directly facing the front entrance — by the sudden heaving in sight of a little convoy of blufT swarthy West India captains, who, after various tacks, glide into each other's wake for this harbour of devotion on the top of an ebb tide ; (half way through the Litany) on a Sunday morning's calm — some part fellowship on entering the dock gates for their favorite berths, while some will steer for the northern basin (aisle), and after fixing upon their moorings, nearest to the most convenient crane for shipping their cargo of spiritual instruction, will anchor on the benches in the offing of the vestry door. How frequently, I say, have these hardy children of the ocean, while disturbing other thoughts in 88 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. me, gave birth to sublimest contemplation ; for these were the men " that see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep;" and their cheeks beam with gladness because they are at rest, for HE has brought them to the haven where they would be. With the countenance of one, how vividly is instantly associated your faithful messenger and go-between, and his last interview with your earliest friend and schoolfellow, who years ago had lounged with you this silent transcept, and whom he had left in a distant hemisphere, some four thousand miles from whisper — and from almost all save friendship's close communion — simmering in bodily exhalation beneath a tropic sun; perchance superintending his sugar plantation, or strolling listlessly the favorite glade which fringes the banks of his coffee mountain ; whilst fancy in her flight wafts you to his side, where with magic's gentle tap — resembling the compliments of the sheriff — you announce your arrival from the distant hamlet of his fatherland, after which in mutual jocund mood IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 89 you scan over scenes long ago betide, from boy- hood to the present moment — within the one-third stage of eternity — the characteristic and capacious straw parasol which ensconces his fine philosophic modelled head, and his light flimsy wardrobe, pro- vide subject for mirthful comment and comparison ; or perhaps indulging in full satiety, from his Venetian balcony, the soft and modest zephyr of the eventide breeze, that gently salutes him in her migratory pass to his native distant shores, while he is surrounded with an indigenous gem, once Jamaica's cheeriest, brightest lass, his Jirst love, the now darling partner of his bosom and homestead, and a tribe of hand- some infant portraits of himself in sombre rosewood tint : with the lightning's wing his warmest wishes speed to entertain you, uniting themselves with substantial generosity in extravagant profusion, to bless the reunion of an absence of many many years, shedding a grace and lustre o'er your welcome, which stamps assurance' impress doubly sure upon your heart, which, although in silence, with eloquence its sensibility will impart; redoubled now are his heartiest remembrances of the various G 90 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. trifles floated on the broad Atlantic to his door ; and prominently amongst the assortment is the little scotch terrier, sent two voyages ago — the dog's sincerity and attachment, with his skill and industry in adjusting rats' affairs, however deranged, among the sugar canes, are not omitted in our fanciful colloquy with each other. But not the least affecting is his friendly enquiry, " and is the old lady, your mother, yet alive ? " commands a tear which art can never substitute, or memory scarce survive, and would not be an ill-suited corollary or companion group to Joseph's question to his brethren " Is the old man your father still alive? " but that they with joy exclaim, " he is" while I respond in sorrow's faltering accent, alas ! she is no more ! Ah ! the poignancy of that momentous moment of a mother's terrestrial flight, is a scene peculiar to itself — it stands isolated out from the rank of incidents of reality, and awakens a son to a greater consciousness of the possession of the great mystery — life — either in pleasure or in sorrow, it is unique — it has no resemblance, save that, of a portion of yourself clandestinely IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 91 stealing away ; it is the vortex, which in the twinkling of an eye, swallows up the Eden of all earthly idolatry, and pierces each avenue of memory with a continuing flying arrow, which finds no resting place or destination, till it traces out your own heart. This painful part of the reverie, like a dissolving view, dissipates itself into a huge blank — leaving the mind to wonder what and when, will be the next dart of affliction shot from trouble's quiver for your serious attention and digestion. — Return we to the arrivals. Here will two of these sons of Neptune haul to, side by side, yard-arm to yard-arm, and with measured time keep their trusty watch to join the sacred loud response — taking occasional advantage of convenient intervals to enquire into each other's biography for the past six moons — what passage the other had — how many days home — what freight, full or half — number of cabin passengers — any patients for Dr. so-and-so for he stumps up like a Briton ; all which out of place importunities, suddenly receive a laconic check from 92 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. the one addressed, whose moral constitution savors more of a pious mood, but who is not quite the Chesterfield in the art of matrimonizing courtesy with religious devotions, without risking the sus- picion of reproving his comrade indirectly " I'll tell you bye and bye" — said he, — " we beseech thee to hear us good Lord." Nothing daunted by this gentle rebuke, the first captain pursues his voyage of enquiry, " How many turtle bring home ? " &c. &c. The peculiarly profane though trite union of the cross question with the sacred response, being for a considerable time continued between them during the litany, was of too serious a character to be lightly introduced here, although true in fact, must exonerate my pen for its omission. Such was the solemn character of thoughts and conversation which painfully assailed my ears at intervals, during the most efficient portion of our beautiful Liturgy, and which strengthened my long fostered convictions that these aisles should not be at the promiscuous liberty of the public — but IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 93 reserved exclusively sacred, as an accommodating transit to the choir ; then no sucli profanation of God's temple could by possibility take place without attracting the required attention of the proper functionaries, whose notice would speedily check a repetition of such abuse of devotion. THE PRESENT MOMENT. A S every thing around us is eminently calculated to entreat us to a reflection upon the past — and not to neglect a thought upon the future — surely there can be nothing very preposterous in our meditating upon the issue of the ante-past, that always consuming, ever enduring, space — the present moment ! which is a simple little ex- pression, that so frequently escapes our lips with such carelessness, that many may well conclude it is impossible to ascribe any thing important with it, particularly so great an one as our everlasting 94 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. peace. But if the enquiring mind will honestly weigh it in the scales of serious reflection, methinks the time will not be long, when it will determine that this simple sentence should engage the entire tenor of our thoughts and life — its importance will be found to be vast beyond human casual concep- tion : and who will be so bold as to contradict me, when I say, that all our life is composed of the present moment ? How guarded should we be in the disposal of the present moment, in thought, word, and deed, for the one soon becomes the parent of the others, when once acknowledged or forfeited to the present moment. The thought begets the word and the word the deed, and entails upon the unwise disposer an eternity of misery, creating a present moment that will never be effaced from the memory till the latest moment of time. That fatal moment when we persuade ourselves that Those who would thrive, must think no uses vile, The object gained — the deceiv'd may weep or smile. The present moment I hold to be the most IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 95 important one during a man's existence in this sublunary state, — perhaps the present moment seals our earthly happiness, or stamps our future doom of misery for ever. It is the present moment decked with its tinselled mantle, that lures a man from the paths of rectitude and virtue — the painted Delilah of the day — that seduces him into a soft repose, and which, when awakened from, makes him too sensible that the abuse of confidence, tortures the mind more than open violence, and provokes him in all sincerity to address his own treacherous heart thus : " For it was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it, neither was it he that hated me, for then I would have hid myself from him ; but it was even thou, my companion and guide, my own familiar friend, even while taking sweet council together." And the present moment may be the bright harbinger to everlasting happiness — the guardian angel to eternal bliss. Oh ! how should this last-named present moment be worshipped with the warmest aspirations of a sinful heart. 96 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. " Thou in the morn, my voice shalt hear, And with the closing day, To Thee devoutly I'll look up, To Thee devoutly pray." Alas ! why do we put off till to-morrow what we may so easily execute to-day ? Because we lay not sufficient value and importance on the present moment — the cares of this world are too apt to engage our present thoughts and moments, Hope deludes us, and avarice directs our conduct. It is the ardent love of the present moment and the false affection for the future, that regulates the business of the heart's pursuit. Oh! how many there are who live in abject misery, and some few who revel in the gay garners of worldly splendor, who cry in their unsatisfied hearts, " If it had not been for that sad delusive then present, now distant, moment, I should now be what, I shudder to think I am not. The witcheries of life, and the fashion of this world, which took such fast hold of my enslaved senses and haunted my, till then, untainted heart, has caused every moment of its IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 97 beating since, to be one uninterrupted rosary of human misery. What of worldly riches would I not give as a sacrifice, to redeem the peace of that once present moment, which I, in my rage and folly, so hastily pawned for a little moment's false pleasure ! — Covetousness. Oh conscience ! thy rebuke hath broken my heart! Oh ! how brilliantly do such meditations de- lineate each subtle path, that has directed our feet from childhood to youth, from youth to manhood, even to the present moment. The very chiming of those Sabbath bells of our youth, sound touchingly distinct upon our present ears, as though the present were the then present happy moment of our life — even the remembrance of the sweet simplicity of our youth's apparel, the neat unostentatious carriage of the person, paints a lively portrait of the innocency of the happiest of happy days — those of our youth. Nor does the mother's tender kiss, the father's fond embrace, and brother's heartfelt care, dwell second in our memory. 98 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. They bear a charm no tongue could ever tell, And breathe a glow— the heart alone can feel. Then no artful dress nor meretricious decora- tion of the house or person, to render them more seductive and attractive, engaged our then artless thoughts. To trim the white clymatis and train the fragant woodbine around our humble cottage lattice, were the only ornaments and office of our youthful idle hours. " Those were the days when I washed my hands in innocency." If that once delusive present moment seduced a human creature to barter his undying soul, what number of present moments will he require to ascertain what he can give in exchange for his soul's return ? This is a theme paramountly worthy of every present moment's entertainment. The ghastly forms of the past moments, are sufficient to make each hair upon our heads " stand on end, like quills upon the fretful porcupine." Oh ! what a host of truth- telling witnesses — what an army of sorry-looking acquaintances would all our past moments make, could they at once become corporeal and, arrayed before our guilty eyes, pay us a morning's call — IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 99 their very features would identify their prevailing sin, and supply the sound of language, to reveal the atrocities of their hidden deeds of darkness. Such a picture could only be surpassed in force and magnitude of horror, but by a regiment of naked living human hearts set in file before them — How appalling would be the meeting, how icy cold the embrace and salutation, and how awful must that moment be, when the one begins to disclose what it once knew of the other. " What tales they could unfold ! " But what mind could conceive a more hideous dockfull of culprits. Though there is no graduated scale of folly, by which we may be guided in our use of it, to shew us how high or low we may go, to produce the greatest possible amount of human misery, or least quantity of human inconvenience in the longest or shortest space of time, yet innately we, one and all, estimate folly by its consequences and magnitude at the time. The rashness of a present single second, may exceed in magnitude the designs and schemings of a foolish month — 100 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. therefore fly from the present moment's temptation to folly. If thine eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee — but much wiser it were to fly from the object of temptation that lures thine eye from virtue. Trust not thyself with the cup that holds the snare to entrap thee — parley not — touch not — taste not — think not of the forbidden thing — for this also is covetousness, which is idolatry — be constantly thanking the Great Ineffable for all his mercies and afflictions, praying that each may be sanctified to your profit in every of his visitations. Let us contemplate for our instruction the situa- tion of the wild and maddened present moment of the drunkard, gamester, adulterer, and scoffer; the assassin of female virtue; the parent misleader; the brother deceiver. What thoughts would com- pose his prayer? What language delineate those thoughts, when in his sober senses, at the last, then awful present, moment — his death pillow? When the unseen beam shall suspend a mirror before his startled eyes, that shall reflect the IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 101 portraits of all the past secret moments of his life, with greater truthfulness than ever Photography or Daguerrotype has portrayed the human face. How will he curse in his heart — not loud, but deep — that fatal once present moment ? The very thought makes the blood to curdle, and the heart to sink a depth below the lowest deep. All! all that he can then exclaim will be, " Lord ! what shall I do to be saved in the day of thy wrath and fierce displeasure?" How many a fair-featured face, that now is clothed in all the habiliments of apparent joy and gladness, has the canker-worm of deeply-rooted grief gnawing the once innocent and healthy recesses of its heart, the fatal consequence of some once cherished present moment's covetousness, for the evanescent baubles of this mortal life ; the delusions of which that fatal mirror will some day strikingly reflect. Oh ! how painfully affecting to that sad heart must be the reflection, upon that sublime exclamation of Job, " Oh ! that I were as in the days when God preserved me, as I was in the days of my youth ;" (or David,) " Oh ! that I had stood in awe and 102 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS, ETC. sinned not," had communed with my own heart upon my bed. What horrors accompany the meditation of the past moments of such lives ! What awful scenes of the future do they disclose to the heart of him who lives in the present moment ! and when he reflects upon the amazing joys that God has laid up for him, who has used each present moment according to his word, has walked uprightly, and hath not dealt treacherously with his neighbour; constantly feeling the essence of that beautiful ejaculation, " In all time of my tribulation, in all time of my wealth, in the hour of death and in the day of judgment, good Lord deliver me." May he not infer that ear hath not heard, eye hath not seen, nor hath human heart conceived, the store of misery and torture which his Creator has laid up for him, who has dis- regarded and treated with derision and contempt the present moment, without his flying, in the present moment, with uplifted heart and fervent prayer to Him, " unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid " — and who gave His Son as a ransom for all IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 103 the events of our past, present, and future moments, assuring us that they all shall be blotted out of the remembrance — as though there had been no moments — of Him who has said, " he shall be saved, who truly repents and believes by faith and works in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." THE CITATION". nnHERE is a trite saying amongst men, " that what the eye sees not, the heart does not feel " inferring, that deception in itself, is not to be so much despised, since it is not deficient or incapable of ministering insensibly, comfort to its victims — It is the quick knowledge of duplicity and chicanery, that renders our acquaintance with them so pungently unpalatable, and which the moral darkness of their indulgence makes so pleasant and agreeable. I have often thought 104 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. that some titles, or nicknames, were added to some men's patronymic, for other purposes than those professed by their inventors and benefactors, to meet the universal eye of mankind ; and recent experience has shewn to me that I was not always wrong in my castings up — the essence of which distinction, being so inconsistent with common sense, and so remote from the literal and moral interpretation and claim to them by the favored recipients, awakened my slumbering attention to this species of exquisite deception and fraud ; and I conceived that the error of possession was suffi- ciently glaring to be readily discovered by some men, whose consciences were not perfectly seared against public and private judgment, to induce them to wonder what had prompted fate or any of her emissaries, to select them for the object of their mirthful entertainment — to play off their undeserving fantastic tricks upon, bespattering them with figments — chimerical characters, on which they have not the remotest lien, any more than they have to a suit of apartments at the back of the moon — and suspicion suggested to me, that IX BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 105 these baubles were convenient curtains resorted to by crafty politicians aforetime, who have made the vanity of the human heart and the weakness of its head their careful study, and who have honestly entitled themselves to the degree of A.M. for blinding so skilfully the eye of the parent Reason and her offspring Fact — to hide vice and let virtue shift for herself. How frequently do we read of the " most noble" attached to a name, which if the little syllable of ig, in some instances, were prefixed to the adjective, would bequeath more truth and justice than would be agreeable to the digestion of the indulger in the residuary part of the title ; another member of society is patented " The Right Honourable" who has not more legitimate right to it, than the humblest honest factor or chapman breathing in trades' atmosphere; another is established " His Grace " — what means grace if its connection is legitimate with all who lay claim to the title ? Another is rigg'd a " Knight," the greatest burlesque of all — and the highest of n 106 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. modern satires upon ancient chivalric associations, played upon one who does not take the joke or see the insult offered to his common sense — and which must prove a puzzling problem to Garter King-at-Arms, to cypher the exact value of, (and find the difference, if any, there is between the real Royal patent Knight and the sham one, which plays hobby-horse in city processions, whose privilege is granted by the mayor,) and who would as readily tilt a lance with a live knight-errant, as test his strength in a wrestle with an express train at full speed — Such inventions are only sufFerable hoaxes, which the politesse of the age permits, but the belief in which, is only confined to the unthinking vulgar. Again, another whose patent, though limited, is not expired, is registered " The Right Reverend," and by observing a de- clivous system, others are termed the " Reverend," and why one should be suspected of greater pretensions to reverence than the other, where conduct and requirements are tested by the same standard, remaineth unto this day, not so great a mystery as it once was to me. IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 107 But alack and alas ! for the purity of worldly honors, that Tuesday, the 27th of February, in the year of grace, 1849 — the fulfilment of Robert Fleming's prophecy, — and of Victoria llth, should have been a day appointed for shaking the creed and withdrawing the veil, which superstition has so ingeniously suspended before eyes, which, till then, had believed in the truthfulness of the application of distinctive worldly titles; and oh! that this office should have been reserved by fate and its agent, The Right Rev. Father in God, by Divine authority (and his own peculiarly good luck) Lord Bishop of £8,000 a year and of this diocese, to effect ; and also to convince the reflecting looker-on in matters of Ecclesiastical polity, that Deans and Chapters are really composed of flesh and blood materials, subjected to certain in- firmities, arising from an unfortunate derangement in the laws of nature, a short time after the formation of our maternal parent Eve, and which some factors and merchants and such inferior orders of society, would feel concerned for the rising of a certain radiant refreshing tint upon their cheeks, entitled by conscience, " a blush. - ' 108 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. It is far from being an easy problem to some capacities, to numeration quickly and with ac- curacy, the great distance there is between some men's tvords and their intentions and actions, although worked with a quadrant, principled by the elements of electricity and truth. On February 27, 1849, at twelve p.m. a highly interesting and remarkably singular assembly took place in the chapter-room of this Cathedral, after divine service, composed largely of the laity and clergy of this city and neighbourhood, including the Bishop and Arch-deacon of Bath and Wells ; such a scene and gathering, that perhaps has not been witnessed there, since the existence of the abbacy in 1282, when the Bishop of Worcester was visitor. The present visitation was occasioned by the Rev. Eccles James Carter praying the Bishop (J. H. Monk) to cite before him the Dean and Chapter, to shew cause why, upon pain of his expulsion from the Cathedral, they forbad him to chaunt the church service there, in accordance with his oath and declaration to do so, on his IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 109 induction to the office of minor Canon, agreeably with the statutes of Henry VIII. — Other motives than the most honorable, disinterested, and credit- able, attached themselves with singular perspicuity to this veto of the Chapter ; under-current over- reaching appeared so visible upon the examination of reasons, that, without hesitating, many availed themselves, minus further aid of legal evidence, of the right of suspecting the existence of some conduct that was not " Rightly Honorable " or " Very Reverend " ou the part of the Chapter, in their election of the last new minor Canon, but refrained from accusing any or all from the absence of positive proof. The official tout en semble, was very imposing. Immediately under the superbly stained glass window of one of the most beautiful Norman built rooms in the kingdom, which threw a sombre twi- light — a monastic religious shade o'er all around, — sat his Lordship the Bishop, in full clerical caparison. The exquisitely beautiful effect, pro- duced by the accidental opening of a secret door 110 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. in one of the niches of the cunningly groined wall, illuminating the white sacerdotal robes of his Lordship by a piercingly white gleam of a noontide sun, aided with a lively recollection of the caballistic composition of popish miracles, gave to the scene that romance which equalled some of the best specimens of theatrical illusion. On his Lordship's right sat his chancellor, Dr. Phillimore, in his scarlet robe of office; on his left, his secretary ; and on either side of the judicial table, were the registrar, the appellants and respondents with their proctors, completing the whole of the Cathedral Chapter. Volumes of Ecclesiastical Law and Divinity, piled on either side, induced the idea, that you were in the midst of the law and the prophets. The prayer for hearing and determining the matter in question, was opened by Dr. Badeley the eminent ecclesiastical counsel, on the behalf of Mr. Carter, who was interrupted in his opening address, by the objection of the Dean to the admission and interference of learned professional IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. Ill advocates in the business, which was shortly over-ruled by the Bishop, with the advice of his chancellor. Dr. Badeley recommenced his address certainly in one of the most eloquent and lucid speeches ever delivered by lawyer to a judge. His gall-flavored and sarcastic truisms of the indecent manoeuvrings of the respondents, pierced painfully the ears and hearts of their friends, and created a charitable sympathy for their exposure, even in the breasts of their enemies, and the neutral part of the audience were not indifferent to their humiliating crest-fallen position ; exhibiting clearly to the most disinterested looker-on, the appearance of a sinister object which the capitular had in its ingenious and tyrannical veto of Dec. 5th, 1848, to the minor Canons of the Cathedral, for the purposes of qualifying the new minor Canon, Sir Charles M'Gregor, who was physically disqualified by the statutes of Henry VIII. (which had been in full force since his reign) being incapable of chaunting. But although nature, indulging in a whim, may exercise her privilege to exhibit a parsimony in her distribution of one heavenly faculty to man, 112 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. she uses her option to be extravagantly bountiful to him in others — as in Sir Charles M'Gregor's case — he is dumb in music's note as a prostrate finger-post, but in her poetic raiment of trope and figure, flower and foliage, he has her charms in profusion ; and from the pulpit diffuses them with prodigal liberality ; it is there, and there only, where his music and measure being both eloquent and beautiful can be appreciated. What renders this Canonry so desirable to the Reverend Baronet and the other candidates, was that its emoluments are about to undergo the refreshing operation of pecuniary augmentation, and by no means incon- siderable. It appeared from the evidence given, that fifteen candidates from various parts of the country sent in their credentials to the Precentor, Reverend Robert Llewellyn Caley, and afterwards presented themselves to exhibit their full qualifications for the sacred office — all of whom he approved of, and then enclosed their cards to the Reverend H. Harvey, the Canon in residence, who subsequently forwarded IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 113 them to the Very Reverend the Dean, Dr. Lamb, who shortly after declared the election to have fallen on Sir Charles M'Gregor, Baronet, a gentle- man, entirely unknown, and till then unheard of, either by the Precentor or residentiary Canon — but by what mysterious astrological influence his name got so snugly inserted into that unfortunate pack of cards and, without shuffling, turning up the winning Honor, has not to this day been explained. Where the responsibility is considerable, the precaution against error should be great. It may not be incon- venient here to remark, that the Reverend Baronet lives not as indifferently in the warm wishes and favorable inclinations of some one of the Prebends, as I am impotent in regard to any claim to the hereditary ownership of California, or concerned in the health of the great aunt of the Emperor of Morocco. The Very Reverend the Dean rising in response, carefully avoided those flowers of speech and symbols of rhetoric, of which he is one of their ablest of masters, looking earnestly at the Bishop, 114 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. emphatically protested against submitting the pro- cedure which dictated his policy (and injudicious veto) tested by Henry the Eighth's statutes ; they being infected with popish tenets and superstitions savouring of every property but that of Pro- testanism. To some eyes it certainly appeared very remarkable that he should, after indulging in the dignified office of Dean for ten years, connecting closely his exchequer with the receipt of £2000 per year, to suddenly revile the character of the bridge which had conducted him so safely over to the sunniest side of a curacy, and not the shadiest from a bishopric; to disapprove and prescribe the ab- rogation of the very laws which secures to him his title, and its revenue — suggesting livelily a close resemblance to Butler's idea: — " What makes all things orthodox and clear? Why two thousand pounds a year — And that wrong— which was right before, Just two thousand pounds more." At half-past five the court closed its Visitation of Enquiry, the Bishop stating that he should take IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 115 a short time to consider his judgment, which, on Thursday the first of March, he announced, " That he rescinded the veto of the Dean and Chapter of December 5th, 1848; And Ordered, that forth- with the services of this Cathedral shall be restored to what it has been its undeviating practice to observe since the Reformation." — And which I hope will for ever stifle the renewal of so gross an innovation, and one of the most unfortunate schisms which ever disgraced a close corporation of gentle- men and divines. But I cannot refrain from observing, that throughout this painful scene, Dr. Lamb's behaviour retained that which he has not the power of con- cealing or disparaging — the gentleman — although a somewhat capricious and apparently conscientious discharger of the functions attached to his christian office, without troubling himself about Harry VIII. or Goleb Singh's statutes ; and which protruded an unfortunate contrast with the pretensions to that character (exclusive of the parliamentary particular patent) which Dr. Badeley availed himself the 116 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS, ETC. privilege of, who, although having the approval of the law upon his side of the argument, neglected to maintain the essence of the gentleman in the ensemble, however legally he may have observed it in detail ; and which is always expected to be pro- minently visible, and jealously desirable in those conducting so serious an enquiry, as that of a minor Canon's refusing to comply with his Dean's canonical order — and appealing against his mo- nition. OMNIPRESENCE OF THE DEITY. FT1HERE is, in our most careless walks through life, an extravagant sufficiency supplied to us to arrest our attention seriously upon the Great Cause, of all causes. The original indivisible first, and if the pride of man's heart would but submit itself to the wholesome humility of reflection, when viewing the minutest of HIS works, it would almost burst its fibres with an acknowledgment in IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 117 intenseness of admiration, uniting with it the purest o-ratitude for this daily food, which assures his senses of their finite existence and of HIS infinity. " Heaven and Earth are full of the majesty of THY Glory." In life's ramble through each day, Which ever course we stray, Lord, I witness Thee; In the darkness of the cave, In the lashing surge and wave, Thyself I plainly see. In the torrent from the mountain, In the softness of the fountain, Thou'rt easy traced by me ; From the ocean's mighty roar To where the eagle dares to soar, All — all acknowledge Thee. In the collision of the cloud, Where speaks Thy voice aloud, Striking terror to the soul : Nor less its sounds I hear, In the light'ning's vivid spear, Than the thunder's terrific roll. 118 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. In the stillness of the night, In the splendour of the light, Alike Thy hand is seen ; In the gorgeous robe of day, In the spangled milky way, And in the pale moon's beam. In the lark's cheerful matin note, The dull raven's vesper croak, So ominous of death ; In all the finny tribe, With all the plumag'd world beside, And all that here has breath. In the violet Thee I see, As in the sturdy forest tree, And sweetness of the dale ; In the moss upon the rose, The hare-bell at day-close, And the lily of the vale. In the Sov'reign on his throne, And beggar wretched to the bone, Seen clearly is Thy rod; Heaven, earth, and air, Each aloud declare, With hell— that Thou art God. IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 119 In the mighty and the great, And those of low estate, Thy will is brightly seen ; In man in every station, In the rise and fall of nation, "Where has Thy hand not been ? All time, all space, all measure, Without Thy will and pleasure, Could ne'er existence be ; And long as time shall last, Future, present, and the past, All, all shall worship Thee, O God. I now bring my recollections and meditations in this Cathedral to a close, with, be this my earnest prayer e'er I take my leave of ye — ye venerable walls ! — that HE, who commands the storm and directs the whirlwind, and whose foster- ing pinion has shielded your sacred edifice and secured it for HIS worship for so many ages, from the tempests that have beaten against and shattered those of neigbouring nations, may conti?iue to 120 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ETC. defend you with HIS mighty arm from the leperous distillment of Popery — that purest leaven of purest evil — and ever to supply your pulpit with Pastors who shall with the assistance of HIS Holy Spirit, infuse " the pure milk of the word," the doctrine of undefiled eternal truth, into all their hearer's hearts. Then although the political kingdoms of the earth be shaken, as in the present day — the mountains tremble and thrones do totter, we will not fear for God is our refuge and strength. i i i I7 -^ Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Form L9-30m-7,'56(C824s4)444 4729 ^45r WO' Recollections and reflections during an occas-H] ional week-day lounge In Bristol Cathedral PR 4729 G345r