THE LIBRARY 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 f 
 
 (•
 
 POEMS.
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY SAVUEL BENTLEY, 
 
 Dorset Street, Fleet Street.
 
 FIFTH EPISTLE TO A FRIEND 
 
 IN TOWN, 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE, 
 
 OTHER POEMS. 
 
 BY CHANDOS LEIGH, Esq 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 
 
 1835.
 
 /7r 
 
 '/ 
 
 TO 
 
 PHILIP NICHOLAS SHUTTLEWORTH, 
 
 WARDEN OF NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING VERSES ARE DEDICATED, 
 
 AS A SMALL TESTIMONY OF GRATITUDE FOR HIS FRIENDSHIP, 
 AND ADMIRATION FOR HIS CHARACTER, 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 85S761
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 FIFTH EPISTLE TO A FRIEND IN TOWN 
 
 PERFECTIBILITY . , . .1 
 
 NOTES TO PERFECTIBILITY . . . 16 
 
 A MAY-MORNING . . . . .20 
 
 A PARK SCENE .... 22 
 
 NOTE TO A PARK SCENE . . . .24 
 
 STANZAS ON THE TIMES ... 25 
 
 SPIRITS OF THE SUN . . . .27 
 
 A CALM ..... 29 
 
 TAGLIONI . . . . . .31 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE .... 32 
 
 NOTES TO WARWICKSHIRE . . .40 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE ... 49 
 
 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE . . 57 
 
 A COMPARISON ..... 73 
 
 TO A LARK . . . . .74 
 
 ON THE FALL OF THE LEAVES . . 76 
 
 STANZAS ON A FINE SUNDAY . . .78 
 
 NOTE TO STANZAS ON A FINE SUNDAY 83
 
 VIU CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 VERSES ON UVEDALE PRICE'S " ESSAY ON TUE PIC- 
 TURESQUE" . . . . .84 
 NOTES TO VERSES ON UVEDALE PRICe's " ESSAY 
 
 ON THE picturesque" ... 87 
 
 ADLESTROP MILL . . . . .89 
 
 NOTE TO ADLESTROP IHLL . . . 99 
 
 beauty's CASTLE .... 101 
 
 ENDLESS LIFE .... 104 
 
 THE SAURI ..... 106 
 
 NOTES TO THE SAURI . . . 110
 
 FIFTH 
 EPISTLE TO A FRIEND IN TOWN. 
 
 PERFECTIBILITY. 
 
 "The age of sophists, calculators, and economists has suc- 
 ceeded." — Burke. 
 
 O'er her vast verdant nest Composure broods ! 
 There is a forest-grandeur in the woods 
 That lengthen through the valley, or on high, 
 Like emerald clouds against a silver sky. 
 Towering into the air, luxuriant crown 
 The hills, or grateful stretch the vales adown ; 
 Foliage o'er foliage, swelling, dark, and bright ; 
 With shadows here imbrowned, there bathed in light. 
 
 Once more enshrouded in the woods that close 
 My mansion round, once more I woo repose, 
 
 B
 
 2 PERFECTIBILITY. 
 
 Dream of rose-colour'd days that long have pass'd, 
 And moralize o'er flowers too gay to last, 
 Yet now produced again, this month to cheer : 
 Youth's flower, when faded, ne'er shall reappear ! 
 
 Exults the young enthusiast when he sees 
 An emerald cloud of richly foliaged trees 
 Deepening into the sunlight's golden glow ? 
 Dearer to me the shades of evening now I 
 As we rove Avon's flowery banks along, 
 We seem to hear the tricksy Ariel's song : 
 Love-breathing imagery flows around 
 (A poet's presence hallows it) this ground. 
 Like a young beauty placed in grandeur's car, 
 Smiles o'er yon purple cloud one lovely star : 
 That Shakspeare's spirit liveth there we deem, 
 So brightly imaged 'tis in Avon's stream. 
 Now through the air, sweeter than Grisi's notes, 
 At times imaginary music floats. 
 
 There may be planets in which beings dwell, (') 
 The least of whom even Newton might excel) —
 
 PERFECTIBILITY. 3 
 
 Intelligences wonderful ; yet far, 
 As from the primal fount of light a star 
 Twinkling in the immeasurable abyss, 
 Their knowledge from the great Creator's is. 
 Each in his orbit brightening, as he nears 
 The rainbow-circled glory-throne, appears. (") 
 How spirit join'd by love to spirit shines, 
 As flame when touching flame its strength com- 
 bines, (3) 
 The essences of things before them brought 
 Without continuous exercise of thought ! 
 Slow is our progress to perfection here, 
 Whate'er it may be in another sphere ; 
 Narrow the path that leads to Truth's abode. 
 In spite of Bentham's wrong-expelling code. 
 
 While institutions thrive, and boys are made 
 
 Philosophers by adventitious aid; 
 
 While e'en the difference 'twixt right and wrong 
 
 Must now to calculation's art belong ; 
 
 Wliile barren axioms, with much parade, 
 
 Are as increase of mental wealth display'd;
 
 4 PERFECTIBILITY. 
 
 While dull materialists will not believe 
 That there are modes our senses can't perceive, 
 Rapid as thought and bodiless as light, 
 As if what is, must present be to sight; — 
 Some seers predict (their prescience not divine) 
 That in this world far greater lights will shine : 
 Then through the night of ages will the star 
 Of Shakspeare seem a luminous point afar ; 
 That governments more perfect will be wrought 
 By an improved machinery of thought! 
 
 Experience may foreshow the future through 
 
 A glass, indeed, discolour'd to our view ; 
 
 A clearer prescience of hereafter none 
 
 Can have whose lives are measured by Time's 
 
 zone. 
 Who can foretell whate'er to-morrow's dawn 
 May bring? — not sage in ermine or in lawn. 
 Who, as they down through countless ages go. 
 The sequences of any act foreknow ? 
 Thought executing projects, that alone 
 Once fasten'd on attention, now are gone —
 
 PERFECTIBILITY. O 
 
 Gone ! like an arrow through the pathless air, 
 That closeth round and nought remaineth 
 there ! 
 
 Plan what you may, discover what you will — 
 Remain unchangeable old vices still — 
 The most depraved of this lust-dieted race 
 In arts excell not Valmont or Lovelace : * 
 Man is the same for ever, and to write 
 Of present times trite themes is to indite. 
 
 Power yet evades, with Cunning for her guide. 
 Deep plans by Knowledge framed to curb her 
 
 pride : 
 Awhile he may recede, but reappears 
 As Superstition vile her flag uproars ; 
 Then, (let the theorist of his race be proud,) 
 Around her troop the pomp-adoring crowd, 
 The despot slily fastens on their necks 
 His chain — adieu to legislative checks ! 
 
 * The heroes of "Clarissa" and " Les Liaisons dangereuses." 
 Par nobile fratrum !
 
 b PERFECTIBILITY. 
 
 Historians fancy that a king is born 
 
 To trouble men, like great Astolfo's horn. (*) 
 
 Princes will have their toys : (5) for diadems 
 
 Some fight ; more harmless, others play with gems, 
 
 Lengthen their palaces, pavilions build, 
 
 And ceilings gay of grand saloons o'ergild. 
 
 The self-will'd autocrat essays to bind. 
 
 Like fulminating Popes of old, the mind ; 
 
 And Metternich, whose statecraft thrives so well, 
 
 Reacts the worn-out part of Machiavell. 
 
 Thus we improve ; mild emperors succeed 
 
 The imperial h 1. Does not Poland bleed ? 
 
 As in a fox-chase, in pursuit of fame 
 
 The cry is " Forward ! forward !" still the same. 
 
 The restless spirit that impels the squire 
 
 To risk his neck, will set the world on fire. 
 
 When it impels proud princes, who, to fill 
 
 Their vacant hours up, hunt men and kill. 
 
 For fame — for fame unsated — Genius thirsts 
 
 And dies: thus mounts the bubble gay and bursts!
 
 PERFECTIBILITY. / 
 
 Thus Shelley blazed awhile — thus Byron shone, 
 
 And Burns — sons of the morning : they are gone ! 
 
 Since they have pass'd away from earth in prime 
 
 Of manhood, surely in the abyme of time, 
 
 Else had they perish'd not with thoughts full-blown, 
 
 The seeds of mightier intellect are sown. 
 
 Are there not master-minds that in the deep 
 
 Abyss of time yet unawakened sleep ? 
 
 Like birds of brighter plumage than have been 
 
 Discover'd yet, hereafter to be seen. 
 
 Poets profuse of many-colour'd thought, 
 
 Shall from the morning's womb to life be brought,* 
 
 Gladden the favour'd country where they shine. 
 
 And pour fresh lustre even on truths divine ; 
 
 And new discoveries by science made 
 
 Shall to their songs bring illustration's aid. 
 
 Visions of glory they may see, and glow 
 
 With Milton's spirit — more than Milton know ; 
 
 While prophecies now unfulfill'd, but then 
 
 Complete, extend their intellectual ken. 
 
 * " The dew of thy birth is of the womb of the morning."
 
 8 
 
 PERFECTIBIJLITY. 
 
 Vain hope ! still Shakspeare towers unmatch'd ; (6) 
 
 and where 
 Is Fancy's child with Spenser to compare ? 
 
 With what an affluence of beauty yiow 
 The gay Elysiums in this island glow ! 
 Nature hereafter never can improve 
 On high-born maids, who win all hearts to love. 
 Who shall, engirt by Venus' cestus, be 
 Brighter than those in royal halls we see ? 
 Though garmented in light they are, the rays 
 Of sparkling eyes outshine their diamonds' 
 
 blaze ! 
 Through Fancy's glass no poet can disclose 
 A fairer flower than the patrician rose ; 
 Perfect in shape, and beautiful in hue — 
 Shall future suns a lovelier bring to view ? 
 
 As Britomart* in magic mirror view'd 
 
 The semblance of her knight, and that pursued ; 
 
 * See Spenser's Faerie Queen, Book III, Canto ii. Stanzas 
 17, 18.
 
 PERFECTIBILITY. 
 
 Thus in the glass of Fancy man beholds 
 
 Some object that to please him Passion moulds, — 
 
 Fame, fortune, honour, if of this possess'd, 
 
 Deeming himself to be as Croesus bless'd. 
 
 When won, though beautiful as god of day. 
 
 The golden idol has but feet of clay 1 
 
 Many through gay saloons who laughing pass, 
 
 If window 'd were their bosoms as with glass, 
 
 Would, as in Eblis hall each glittering form, 
 
 Disclose to view the ever-burning worm. C^ 
 
 Impostors flourish in this age of light : 
 
 Not least of these the wizard Exquisite. 
 
 His stars are diamond-studs, that glitter through 
 
 The foldings of a waistcoat rich in hue 
 
 As clouds at sunset on a summer's eve. 
 
 Where gold and silver tissues interweave. 
 
 His magic wand a cane of polish'd stem 
 
 Of rarest wood, and rough with many a gem.* 
 
 His book an album, golden-clasp'd and bound 
 
 In velvet, wreath'd with flowers enamell'd round ; 
 
 * Clara micante auro flammasque imitata pyropo. — Ovid.
 
 10 
 
 PERFECTIBILITY. 
 
 Within are words omnipotent to charm 
 Unharden'd minds, and youthful spirits warm, 
 On satin paper beautifully writ : 
 Above are emblems — for such pages fit ! 
 
 Some in the hot-bed of a magazine 
 Would nurse their wit ; you see in every line 
 Their labour'd efforts to produce a store 
 Of caustic sayings, none produced before. 
 They latent virtues have, like gems that shone 
 On Aaron's breastplate, or the sage's stone. 
 
 Still, as the globe of knowledge we turn round, 
 More desolate wastes than cultured spots are 
 
 found. 
 Though German mystics would reclaim — in vain- 
 Some tracts from speculation's dark domain. 
 Though Science superadds her annual tome 
 To treasured lore, predicts she things to come ? 
 
 Hereafter mightier spirits may displace 
 Those in the world who fill no little space ;
 
 PERFECTIBILITY. 11 
 
 They may discover secret ties, that hght 
 And heat and electricity unite : 
 Even gravitation, of material laws 
 The rule, may sink into a wider cause. (^) 
 Our sons, the flights of science are so high. 
 On hippogriffs throughout the air may fly ; 
 And fictions, by ambitious bards devised 
 In an inventive age, be realised. 
 Truth-loving men, o'ermastering selfish will. 
 This world, a wider paradise, may fill ; 
 And as they further wisdom's mine explore. 
 Will learn to separate from dross the ore. 
 
 Lovers of liberty, alas ! proclaim 
 
 That man through life has but one selfish 
 
 aim; 
 That every act, whatever be its fruit, 
 In self-regarding interest takes root. 
 A noble doctrine this our hopes to cheer ! — 
 Fine promise of the millenary year ! 
 While all that grace and beautify our lives 
 Must now be thrown aside as Reason thrives ;
 
 12 PERFECTIBILITY. 
 
 And Poesy, divested of the warm 
 
 Colours that Fancy gives, must lose her charm. 
 
 The little tyrant of his neighbourhood 
 Would be a patriot, since he hates the good 
 Who prosper in their fortunes, and will bawl 
 For equal laws, to be above them all : 
 Such paltry tricks as factious jugglers long 
 Have play'd, still unimproved, delude the 
 
 throng. 
 Those who expediency the rule of right 
 Would make, at once extinguish Gospel- light, 
 Dethrone the Conscience, and let idols base, — 
 Ambition, Avarice, — usurp her place. 
 Pigmies in virtue are the great on earth, 
 When low the standard is of human worth. 
 Is an Utopian commonwealth the sole 
 Object of thought — that only Reason's goal? 
 And has the world unknown no higher bliss 
 Than that which sanguine minds predict in this? 
 Minds that are mechanised by logic, learn 
 To think by rule, but not for virtue yearn.
 
 PERFECTIBILITY. 13 
 
 Virtue a never-failing zeal requires 
 
 To spread her influence — such as love inspires. 
 
 Has the philologist e'er sown the seed 
 
 From which springs up to life a virtuous deed ? 
 
 Has the self-pluming moralist o'erthrown 
 
 Idolaters of sense, who faith disown ? 
 
 But now devotion, fond enthusiasts say, 
 Diffuses all around a brighter day. 
 Seemmg Religion walks not in this age 
 With noiseless step ; like heralds on a stage 
 Zealots blow loud the woe-trumpet, then urge 
 Denunciations, rising surge o'er surge 
 Against their weaker brethren ; through the town 
 They have, but where 's their charity, — renown ? 
 Such fire-enkindling spirits fright the mind, 
 Destroy the reason, and the judgment blind. 
 Not such is Keble, Rhedycina's tower 
 Of strength, but humble as his much-loved 
 flower;* 
 
 * See his beautiful Stanzas to the Snowdrop in his " Tuesday 
 in Easter-week."
 
 14 PERFECTIBILITY. 
 
 Whose " Christian year," too fine for spirits dull, 
 
 A golden censer is, of odours full ; 
 
 A heaven-accepted offering, that fumes 
 
 With incense — the life-giving word illumes. 
 
 That Charity we seemingly adore 
 
 Has now less influence than she had of yore. 
 
 Who with a comprehensive love embrace 
 
 Their flock not only, but the human race. 
 
 Like messengers from God, who speed their 
 
 flight 
 On embassies of good through worlds of light? 
 While militant against the church and state, 
 Sects give mouth-honour to the sects they hate ! . 
 Destroy that old alliance, and they burn 
 (Meek men !) each other's doctrines to o'erturn ; 
 The less perceptible the shades may be 
 Of difference, they the more will disagree I 
 
 Where is that zeal for virtue that entire 
 Circled the soul, an unconsuming fire ? 
 That strength of purpose which, as Jesus still'd 
 The raging sea, the calm of passions will'd?
 
 PERFECTIBILITY. 15 
 
 Though Science heavenward oft sublimely soars, 
 And amid worlds discover'd God adores, 
 Yet her disciples, analysing laws 
 Of matter, may forget the great First Cause ; 
 Unless humility, a flower once prized, 
 But in this wiser age a weed despised, 
 Shall with its pride-subduing virtue quell 
 Thoughts that are wont around vain hearts to 
 swell. 
 
 Who, like the poet-preacher, glows with love 
 
 Inbreath'd by the Great Spirit from above, 
 
 Who once on sacred heads, in tongues of flame, 
 
 Down from the triune Sun of Glory came, 
 
 Illumining with inward light, express'd 
 
 Thus visibly the synod of the bless'd ? 
 
 Here pause : the sand runs down the hour-glass,— 
 
 Moments away irrevocably pass. 
 
 A little line, 'twixt " shall be" and " has been," 
 
 Scarce on the vast map of existence seen, 
 
 Is life : — a streak of light soon reinvolved 
 
 In darkness — an enigma never solved I
 
 16 PERFECTIBILITY. 
 
 Another year is gone, and down the stream 
 Of time my little bark is hurried, — gleam 
 Hope's ever-shifting lights afar. The past 
 Is nought— the prospect of the future vast 
 And undefined. What do the wise foresee ? — 
 That all as if it ne'er had been shall be ! 
 What may through intermediate ages rise 
 We know not ; knowledge here no aid supplies. 
 O pride of human intellect, beyond 
 His circle vain is the magician's wand ! 
 
 This world, oft deem'd a paradise, at best 
 Is but the world — a hell to the oppress'd ! 
 Darken the prospect of the future, man, 
 A care-worn brute, is tyrant-stricken, wan. 
 Open the pages of the sacred book. 
 The poor for bliss compensatory look : 
 Whatever Dives in his full-blown pride 
 May think of them, for them the Saviour died.
 
 17 
 
 NOTES TO PERFECTIBILITY. 
 
 (') There may he planets in which beings dwell. 
 
 " All that till now their rapt researches knew, 
 Not called in slow succession to review, 
 But as a landscape meets the eye of day, 
 At once presented to their glad survey." 
 
 Rogers' Pleasures of Memory. 
 
 (") The rainbow-circled glory-throne. 
 
 " And there was a rainbow round about the 
 throne in sight like to an emerald." — Rev. iv. 3. 
 
 (3) As flame wlien touching Jlame its strength combines. 
 
 " All that I shall now say of it is, that a good 
 man is united to God as a flame touches a flame
 
 18 NOTES TO PERFECTIBILITY. 
 
 and combines into splendour and glory ; so is the 
 spirit of a man united into Christ by the Spirit of 
 God." — Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 (*) Historians fancy that a king is born 
 
 To trouble men, like great Astolfds horn. 
 
 " Dico che '1 corno e di si orribil suono 
 Ch' ovunque s' ode fa fuggir la gente ; 
 Non puo trovarsi al mondo un cuor si buono 
 Che possa non fuggir come lo sente^ 
 
 Ariosto, canto xv. stanza 15. 
 
 (^) Princes will have their toys. 
 
 Anastasius exclaims, in anticipation of his future 
 grandeur: — " Chill of age nor of climate shall stop 
 me; I shall grasp at all — become another Potem- 
 kin, rule an empire, have a court ; alternate be- 
 tween arranging fetes and planning campaigns ; 
 pay my card-money in diamonds; make mosaic- 
 work of provinces ; plant orange-trees and citron- 
 groves on hanging terraces of icicles ; and, when
 
 NOTES TO PERFECTIBILITY. 19 
 
 tired of illuminations and the Neva, set fire on the 
 Bosphorus, and transport the seat of empire from 
 the vicinity of the White Sea to the shores of the 
 Black Sea." — Memoirs of Anastasius, vol. iii. p. 16. 
 
 Forbes, in his " Oriental Memoirs," (vol. iii. p. 
 284,) that teem with descriptions of Oriental mag- 
 nificence, speaking of Asufud Dowlah, son of the 
 famous Nabob of Oude, says : " I saw him, in the 
 midst of this precious treasure, handling his jewels, 
 that amounted to eight millions sterling, as a child 
 does his toys." 
 
 (^) VainJiope! still Shakspeare towers unmatclid. 
 
 When Campbell, in his noble poem, " The Plea- 
 sures of Hope," with all the sanguine enthusiasm of 
 youth, anticipates the improvement of mankind, he 
 yet admits that Shakspeare will never be equalled : 
 
 " Yes, there are hearts, prophetic hope may trust, 
 That slumber yet in uncreated dust, 
 Ordain'd to wake the adoring sons of earth 
 With every charm of wisdom and of worth; 
 Ordain'd to light with intellectual day 
 The mazy wheels of Nature as they play ; 
 Or, warm with Fancy's energy, to glow 
 And rival all but Shakspeare's name below."
 
 20 NOTES TO PERFECTIBILITY. 
 
 (J) Many through gay saloons who laughing pass, 
 If window d were their bosoms as with glass. 
 Would, as in Eblis hall each glittering form. 
 Disclose to view the ever-burning worm. 
 
 " They went wandering from chamber to cham- 
 ber, hall to hall, and gallery to gallery — all without 
 bomids or limit; all distinguishable by the same 
 lowering gloom, all adorned with the same awful 
 grandeur, all traversed by persons in search of re- 
 pose and consolation, but who sought them in vain ; 
 for every one carried within him a heart tormented 
 in flames." — Vathek, p. 217. 
 
 (8) Even gravitation, of material laws 
 The rule, may sink into a wider cause. 
 
 " Perhaps the day may come when even gravita- 
 tion, no longer regarded as an ultimate principle, 
 may be resolved into a yet more general cause, 
 embracing every law that regulates the material 
 world." — SoMERviLLE Oil the Connexion of the. Phy- 
 sical Sciences, p. 409.
 
 21 
 
 A MAY-MORNING. 
 
 Crocus and hyacinth with rich inlay 
 
 Broider'd the ground, more coloured than with stones 
 
 Of costliest emblem. — Milton. 
 
 Like a cloud all resplendent with green and with 
 
 gold 
 Is the wood, now the mists of the morn are up- 
 
 roll'd. 
 The trees are now robed in their freshest attire, 
 And the sunbeams illume them with quick-glancing 
 
 fire: 
 The leaflets expanding, now brighten all over, 
 Like a young glowing maiden at sight of her 
 
 lover. 
 White blossoms, like diamonds, sparkle between 
 Gay foliage, vivid with emerald-green ;
 
 '22 A MAY-MORNING. 
 
 And undergrown shrubs their light arms interlace, 
 Trailing here, running there, with an intricate 
 
 grace ; 
 And insects, fine minions of spring, in the stream 
 Of light floating through leafy trellises gleam. 
 Here by-walks from paths more frequented di- 
 verge, 
 Or, springing from glens, into vistas emerge. 
 Here Poesy lives not in words, but in feeling. 
 While the fragrance of plants o'er our senses is 
 
 stealing ; 
 And blue flowers laugh, like the beautiful eyes 
 Of woman, mid others of infinite dyes 
 That enrich, like mosaic's most gorgeous inlay, 
 The turf, so profuse of their colours in May. 
 "Wild hyacinths, loveliest here of their class, 
 With hues caught from heaven, spring up as ye 
 
 pass, 
 More splendid, when flowering o'er bank and through 
 
 glade. 
 Than Solomon in all his glory array'd !
 
 23 
 
 A PARK SCENE. 
 
 Here trees most prodigal of shade 
 With umbrage deep imbrown the glade ; 
 Each venerable as the oak 
 Whence oracles of old have spoke, 
 Of years and leafy honours full, 
 Romantic, grand, and beautiful ! 
 Some grouped less closely, on the hill 
 Stretch out their giant arms at will 
 Above, below, or crowd the dell. 
 Or singly grace yon upland swell. 
 In massive majesty sedate 
 They stand, immoveable as fate ; 
 Some in decay — how picturesque ! 
 Others, like sylvan Pan, grotesque :
 
 24 A PARK SCENE. 
 
 Each fit to canopy a throne 
 
 Of royal priest — the druid's stone; (i) 
 
 Each fit to be, so high they tower, 
 
 An emblem of the Assyrian power. * 
 
 And where breaks out the mellow mould 
 
 In shapes fantastically bold, 
 
 Entwisted in the bank above 
 
 Vast trunks projecting form a cove 
 
 O'er the calm river, that below 
 
 Reflects each gently-pendent bough • 
 
 Though here and there, half grey, half green, 
 
 Ledges of rock may intervene. 
 
 While many a trailing plant upshoots 
 
 From chasms underneath the roots. 
 
 * " Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair 
 branches and with a shadowy shroud, and of a high stature, and 
 his top was among the thick boughs." — Ezekiel, chap. xxxi. 3.
 
 25 
 
 NOTE TO A PARK SCENE. 
 
 (1) Each fit to canopy a throne 
 
 Of royal priest — the druid's stone. 
 
 " The oak, the statue of the Celtic Jove, was 
 here, as in all other countries, selected for a pecu- 
 liar consecration ; and the Plain of Oaks, the tree 
 of the field of adoration under which the Dalcas- 
 sian chiefs were inaugurated, and the sacred Oak 
 of Kildare, show how early and long this particular 
 branch of the primitive worship prevailed." — 
 Moore's History of Ireland, (just published,) vol. i. 
 page 46. 
 
 See also the account of the druidical stones and 
 groves in Henry's " History of England," vol. i. 
 page 176.
 
 26 
 
 STANZAS ON THE TIMES. 
 
 Or love, the flower that closes up for fear. 
 When rude and selfish spirits breathe too near. 
 
 Kebi.e. 
 
 The cares of life hang heavy on our hearts — 
 All that was born of spirit is extinct 
 
 Within us ! Soon the world its lore imparts, 
 With good, as far as sense unites it, link'd 
 To minds with heaven-sown virtue once instinct. 
 
 Each in his generation wise, pursues 
 Gain, or a good as palpable, distinct. 
 
 Few, like the maid beloved of Heaven, will choose 
 
 The better part : — what win they for the prize they 
 lose ?
 
 STANZAS ON THE TIMES. 27 
 
 A Stream spontaneous flowing from the heart 
 
 Of love divine, an ardent zeal for truth, 
 Wanting no aid from oratory's art — 
 
 These — these pervade not now, as once, our 
 youth — 
 
 All for effect now speak and write, in sooth. 
 To idols of the theatre we bow : 
 
 Even our compassion is but show of ruth ; 
 We seem with an indignant zeal to glow 
 In halls that ring with slavery's wrongs, but shun 
 the house of woe. 
 
 The meeting's frequent shout is as the clash 
 Of cymbals, waking in vain man delight, 
 
 Whose charity is but a transient flash ■ 
 
 Of feeling. How unlike the purer light 
 That lives self-fed within the heart by night, 
 
 By day, in shade or sunshine, burning strong ! 
 Effluence of seraph fair, Charissa hight — 
 
 Supreme the brightest sanctities among ! 
 
 Can her fine spirit visit those who court the ignoble 
 throng ?
 
 28 
 
 SPIRITS OF THE SUN. 
 
 Such miracles and dazzling sights 
 As genii of the sun behold 
 At evening from their tents of gold 
 Upon the horizon, where they play 
 Till twilight comes and, ray by ray, 
 The sunny mansions melt away. 
 
 Moore. 
 
 As golden-wing'd intelligences play 
 In festive circle round the god of day, 
 They from his aspect draw a strength divine, 
 And mirror'd in his eyes their splendours shine. 
 With ever-crescent light they smile, how blest ! 
 Their joy is by augmented light exprest ! 
 
 They are more beautiful than loveliness 
 
 Like theirs what imagery can express,
 
 SPIRITS OF THE SUN. 29 
 
 Though it be Shelley's, radiant with the stores 
 That Nature from her bursting horn outpours ? 
 They are more beautiful than early glow 
 Of spring, when Earth renews her youth, as now I 
 Brighter than rose-hues of the morn, or red 
 Pyrus, that garlands Beauty's flower-bed! 
 
 Through orbits of interminable light 
 They look — how piercing is their visual might ! 
 Discerning germs, with which all worlds are rife, 
 Ere they, expanding, blossom into life!
 
 30 
 
 A CALM. 
 
 Hast thou the high- spiced bowl of pleasure drained, 
 
 And since thy spirits fail thee now, art pained ? 
 
 Go and erect thy cottage near a cliff 
 
 That overlooks the sea, there build thy skiff; 
 
 And as the waves o'er waves precursive ride, 
 
 Bold, as war-horses charging in their pride. 
 
 Sail o'er their foaming crests, or ply the oar ; 
 
 Regain thy health, — " repent and sin no more." 
 
 Or on the downs, the life of life inhale, 
 
 Where scents of wild thyme freshen through the 
 
 gale; 
 Where the gay gorse, a golden mass, abounds, 
 Glittering and sharp as wit that, handled, wounds. 
 Th' expanse of plains, the boundlessness of seas. 
 Heal with their charm sublime the mind's disease :
 
 A CALM. 31 
 
 Pure elements, and free, create a sense 
 Of primitive joy that quells e'en grief intense. 
 And to the heart restore, whate'er the loss 
 By friction with the world, its vernal gloss. 
 Who can the fathomless ocean view, and feel 
 For petty interests of this world a zeal ? 
 How beautiful the ocean's argentry, 
 Reflecting the mild splendours of the sky ! 
 Thus woman's eyes reflect her partner's joy : 
 These sweet analogies our thoughts employ 
 As the primeval works of Heaven we view, 
 Each object touched with harmonizing hue ! ;•.? 
 A calm has circumfused the silvery deep 
 Serene as beauty's smile or infant's sleep: 
 The very rocks look gentleness ; the air 
 Is hush'd, as charm'd by a young spirit's prayer! 
 All is a stirless solitude, and now 
 Is Nature's aspect clear as Jesus' brow. 
 Call it not solitude ! — the Almighty Power 
 Is as a visible presence in this hour.
 
 32 
 
 TAGLIONL 
 
 How gracefully she now advances ! see 
 
 That step so firm, so elegant, and free ! 
 
 Now move with an inimitable ease 
 
 Her lovely limbs — no effort hers to please ! 
 
 'Tis the perfection of all art conceal'd — 
 
 The grace and energy of life reveal'd ; 
 
 While sylph and sylphid, beauteous girl and boy, 
 
 Hover around her, prodigal of joy. 
 
 This union of repose and power combined 
 
 Once co-existed in the Sculptor's mind, 
 
 When at his call divinities awoke 
 
 From marble, and to hearts, though silent, spoke.
 
 33 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Nee tarn Larissae percussit campus opimffl, 
 
 Quam domus Albunefe resonantis, 
 Et praeceps Anio, et Tiburni lucus, et uda 
 
 IMobilibus pomaria rivis. 
 
 HoRATn, liber i. Od. 7. 
 
 Here is the aspect of the country grand ; 
 
 Green are the meads through which clear rivers 
 flow; 
 Here o'er the road, as guardians of the land, 
 
 Vast oaks their venerable branches throw ; 
 
 And in the sunlight woods continuous glow, 
 Where Perdita might choose her choicest store 
 
 Of flowers with artless comment to bestow 
 On high-born swains ; and where, with Hellenore 
 Laurel-crown'd, sylvan boys from openings might 
 outpour. 
 
 D
 
 34 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Here Flora's spots of loveliness surpass 
 
 Armida's gardens or Alcina's isle : 
 Gay flower-beds, fountains bosom'd in soft grass, 
 
 And bowers, o'er which with parasitic wile 
 
 Wind flower-inwoven creepers, here beguile 
 The slave to Mammon of his golden cares, 
 
 As plays o'er Avon's stream eve's roseate smile. 
 And Nature here her richest livery wears, 
 Flourishing as her poet's fame, whose throne no 
 rival shares. 
 
 Beautiful are the fields that brighten round 
 
 Stratford, where fairies dance beneath the moon. 
 
 And Ariels, as he sleeps on sacred ground, 
 Such poetry is in the air, at noon 
 Visit the day-dreams even of rustic loon. 
 
 Juliet before the eye of fancy glows 
 
 With love, far lovelier than in grand saloon 
 
 The richest gems of beauty : Shakspeare throws 
 
 There round the mind a charm it never elsewhere 
 knows.
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 35 
 
 Mightiest of mighty Bards ! (') may I unblamed 
 Approach thee with the homage of my praise ? 
 
 Hamlet, Macbeth, scarce by historians named, 
 Familiar to our minds from earliest days, 
 Haunt us all, " like a passion" in thy plays. 
 
 'Twas thine all characters of life to hit. 
 Or in the soul sublime emotions raise, 
 
 Or melt with tenderness, delight with wit; 
 
 Then people fancied worlds with beings for them fit. 
 
 And Warwickshire of Somerville can boast, (-) 
 The Poet of the Chase, she cannot spare 
 
 (Though Avon's Bard is in himself a host) 
 Her claim to names enroU'd in annals fair 
 Of fame, since days of Shakspeare somewhat rare. 
 
 'Tis said, the county has become effete* 
 
 With bringing forth Creation's richest heir : 
 
 Yet Warton offered up, as was most meet, 
 
 Incense of praise to Dugdale in a sonnet sweet. (^) 
 
 'There is a caustic saying of Dr. Parr's on reconl, that 
 " Warwickshire produced Shakspeare, and became effete."
 
 36 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 They were congenial spirits, and they drunk 
 Deep from the fount of antiquarian lore ; 
 
 Their works monastic piles in ruin sunk 
 To grandeur architectural restore, 
 And renovate their Norman fame of yore. 
 
 In Warton's verse fair dames and barons bold, 
 And Gothic pageants, pass the mind before : 
 
 Vast local treasures Dugdale's tomes unfold 
 
 That might have been for aye buried in records old. 
 
 The spirit of the Nimrod-Bard survives 
 
 Not in heroic verse, but toast or song : 
 The sport, now heighten'd into racing, gives 
 
 Strength to the weak, and glory to the strong. 
 
 Re-echoing woods the joyous cry prolong 
 Of " forward ;" swift as breeze o'er waving corn. 
 
 Hounds sweep unequall'd in their pace along 
 Large fields from Radbourne Gorse,* and Boxall'st 
 
 horn 
 Can make the heart rejoice on dull November's morn. 
 
 * A famous covert in Warwickshire. 
 
 t Who knows not Bill Boxall, the celebrated huntsman to the 
 Warwickshire hounds ?
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 37 
 
 Where is the sage oracular that dwelt 
 
 Whilome at Hatton, cloud-compelling Parr? (^) 
 Who, boldly speaking what he strongly felt, 
 
 With Tories waged interminable war. 
 
 Though paled by Porson's light, he was a star 
 Of magnitude, and gloried in a name 
 
 Through realms of knowledge celebrated far ; 
 And many, by the splendour of his fame 
 Attracted, to the great high-priest of learning 
 came. 
 
 His feasts were sumptuous on his natal day ; (^) 
 
 His viands excellent, and old his wine: 
 On the smooth sideboard shone in bright array 
 
 His plate, magnificent for a divine ; 
 
 Fair, as the yet unmelted flagons shine 
 In banquet-rooms of high-born thanes : he loved 
 
 To welcome in his guests, and make them dine. 
 Then went the grace-cup round ; (^) the cloth re- 
 moved, 
 Toasts follow'd, — some too strong for gentler spirits 
 proved.
 
 38 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Rich as the colours of the rainbow shone 
 
 His eloquent discourse, whate'er the theme ; 
 Whether he spoke of mighty statesmen gone, 
 
 Their names like bubbles, buoyant on Time's 
 stream — 
 
 Glittering, though evanescent as a dream ; 
 Or as his guests with old Falernian warm'd, 
 
 Flashed with the goblet round wit's frequent 
 beam : 
 Sunny old man ! his imagery charm'd 
 Ripe scholars, wise self-love his satire oft alarm'd. 
 
 Kenilworth Castle ! history relates 
 
 Its pristine grandeur, and tradition tells 
 
 A tale of more than even romance creates. 
 
 Though fancy aids the work with magic spells, 
 Of pomp, that splendours of the East excels. 
 
 What deities salute the Virgin Queen ! * 
 Each sea-god who in coral cavern dwells ! 
 
 * See Laneham's letter describing the magnificent pageants 
 presented before Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth Castle in 1575; 
 also Gascoigne's Princely Pleasures.
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 39 
 
 Triton and Proteus strange, in vesture green, 
 Diana with her nymphs, the gods of Greece are 
 
 seen ! 
 
 And Glory, with her ghttering wings extended, 
 Mantles at sunset these time-hallowed towers : 
 
 Here features beautiful with stern are blended ; 
 Ever-green ivy arches rough imbowers. 
 And crumbling walls are crown'd with gay wild 
 flowers 
 
 As if in mockery of their former state ; 
 
 Luxuriantly green through frequent showers 
 
 Thickens the couch-grass near the castle-gate, 
 
 Where gaudy vassals stood their lord's approach to 
 wait. 
 
 And are the ensigns of thy grandeur gone, 
 (" Thus unlamented pass the proud away !") 
 
 Proud Leicester — thou aspirant to the throne 
 Homaging with thy chivalrous array 
 The Gloriana of our Spenser's lay ?
 
 40 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Thou art immortalized, but not thy lot 
 
 To have the guerdon of Fame's purest ray 
 By Genius pour'd around thy name, by Scott ; 
 The portrait is too true to life — 'twere best to be 
 forgot I
 
 41 
 
 NOTES TO WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 I WOULD have ventured a few stanzas in praise 
 of Warwick Castle, that rivals " the proud keep of 
 Windsor, rising in the majesty of proportion, and 
 girt with the double belt of its kindred and coeval 
 towers," were I not aware that no description of 
 mine could do it adequate justice. I have selected 
 a stanza or two from an unpublished Poem, " Lines 
 on Warwick Castle," that has been much admired. 
 The author is, I believe, a physician of eminence at 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 Discern ye not the mighty master's power 
 
 In yon devoted saint's uplifted eye ?* 
 That clouds the brow and bids already lower 
 
 O'er the first Charlesf the shades of sorrow nigh? 
 That now on furrowed front of Rembrandt gleams ; 
 
 Now breathes the rose of life and beauty there. 
 In the soft eye of Henrietta J dreams, 
 
 And fills with fire the glance of Gondomar?§ 
 
 * Ignatius Loyola, by Rubens. 
 + Charles the First, by Vandyke. 
 
 * Henrietta Queen of England, by Vandyke. 
 § Gondomar, by Velasquez.
 
 42 NOTES TO WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Here, to Salvator's solemn pencil true, 
 
 Huge oaks swing rudely in the mountain blast; 
 Here grave Poussin on gloomy canvass threw 
 
 The hghts that steal from clouds of tempest past. 
 And see from Canaletti's glassy wave, 
 
 Like eastern mosques, patrician Venice rise ! 
 Or marble moles that rippling waters lave, 
 
 Where Claude's warm sunsets tinge Italian skies. 
 
 Hark ! from the depths beneath the proud saloon 
 
 The water's moan comes fitful and subdued, 
 Where in mild glory yon triumphant moon 
 
 Smiles on the arch that nobly spans the flood. 
 And here have kings and hoary statesmen gazed. 
 
 When spring with garlands decked the vale below, 
 Or when the waning year had lightly razed 
 
 The banks where Avon's lingering fountains flow 
 
 (1) Mightiest of mighty Bards. 
 What commentators and eulogists, English or 
 German, can do justice to Shakspeare? And he 
 was born at Stratford in this county ! " think of 
 that, my masters," and on this day (April 23rd). 
 Seven cities laid claim to Homer ; Stratford claims 
 Shakspeare, and no town or city in the world can 
 dispute that claim.
 
 NOTES TO WARWICKSHIRE. 43 
 
 Let us feast on his works to-day; and if they want 
 any garnish, let it be the garnish of Mrs. Jameson's 
 admirable Characteristics of Women. How beau- 
 tiful (perhaps a little too ornamented) is the chap- 
 ter on " Juliet !" Mrs. Jameson has sprung a new 
 mine; she has discovered unsuspected beauties 
 in Shakspeare, inexhaustible as his foster-mother 
 Nature. The grateful citizens of Stratford have 
 their annual dinner to-day in commemoration of 
 Shakspeare's birth — 
 
 " May good digestion wait on appetite !" 
 
 In Drake's " Memorials of Shakspeare," there are 
 some admirable delineations of the characters of 
 the great poet by the most distinguished writers 
 of the present day, — Schlegel, Goethe, Campbell, 
 Coleridge. Perhaps the finest of the sketches, all 
 of which are excellent in their way, is that taken 
 from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (page 93). 
 But no description of Shakspeare's genius by a 
 writer of talent and taste can convey to the reader 
 what the writer himself must feel. To attempt 
 such a description is 
 
 " To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, 
 To throw a perfume on the violet." 
 Oh Shakspeare ! 
 
 " Each year brings forth its millions ; but how long 
 The tide of generations shall roll on,
 
 44 NOTES TO WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 And not the whole combined and countless throng 
 Compose a mind like thine ! — though all in one 
 Condensed their scattered rays, they would not 
 form a sun." Byron. 
 
 This note may seem impertinent ; but surely a 
 Warwickshire man is privileged to be garrulous 
 about his Shakspeare. 
 
 (") And Warwickshire of Somerville can boast. 
 
 " A greater than Somerville," Michael Drayton, 
 was born at Hartshill in Warwickshire, 1563. See 
 his life in the Biographia Britannica, vol. iii. page 
 1744, folio edition. In the thirteenth song of his 
 Poly-Olbion, Drayton gives us a lively description 
 of a stag-hunt in the forest of Arden, in War- 
 wickshire. " The comprehensive largeness which 
 this Ardene once extended (before ruine of her 
 woods) makes the Author limit her with Severne 
 and Trent." — Illustrations to the thirteenth song in 
 the Poly-Olbion, folio edit. 1613, page 216. 
 
 ON THE BIRTH OF DRAYTON AT HARTSHILL. 
 
 " Lux HaresuUa tibi (Warwici villa tenebris 
 Ante tuas cunas obsita) prima fuit. 
 Arma, viros, veneres, Patriam modulamine dixti : 
 Te Patriae resonant, arma, viri, veneres."
 
 NOTES TO WARWICKSHIRE. 45 
 
 (^) Yet Warton offered up, as tvas most meet, 
 
 Incense of praise to Dugdale in a sonnet sweet. 
 
 SONNET WRITTEN IN A BLATSIK LEAF OF DUGDALe's 
 
 " MONASTICON." 
 
 Deem not devoid of elegance tlie sage, 
 
 By fancy's genuine feelings unbeguiled, 
 
 Of painful pedantry the poring child, 
 
 Who turns of these proud domes th' historic page, 
 
 Now sunk by time, and Henry's fiercer rage. 
 
 Think'st thou the warbling Muses never smiled 
 
 On his lone hours? Ingenuous views engage 
 
 His thoughts, on themes unclassic falsely styled 
 
 Intent, while cloister'd Piety displays 
 
 Her mouldering roll ; the piercing eye surveys 
 
 New manners, and the pomp of early days, 
 
 Whence culls the pensive Bard his pictured stores. 
 
 Nor rough nor barren are the winding ways 
 
 Of hoar antiquity, but strown with flowers. 
 
 (*) Cloud-compelling Purr. 
 
 Dr. Parr loved his pipe — no man was more 
 happy than he was with 
 
 " His calumet of peace and cup of joy." 
 
 I had the pleasure for many years of an intimate
 
 46 NOTES TO WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 acquaintance with the late Dr. Parr, who was as 
 distinguished for his benevolence and hospitality, 
 as for his great talents and extraordinary erudi- 
 tion. What Lord Grey, in his fine classical lan- 
 guage, said of Windham, may be applied to Parr. 
 " He was a man of a great, original, and command- 
 ing genius, with a mind cultivated with the richest 
 stores of intellectual wealth, and a fancy winged to 
 the highest flights of a most captivating imagery." 
 And here may be added, as applicable to Parr, the 
 concluding part of Lord Grey's eulogium on the 
 same distinguished statesman. " He had indeed 
 his faults ; but they served, like the skilful disposi- 
 tion of shade in works of art, to make the impres- 
 sion of his virtues more striking, and give addi- 
 tional grandeur to the great outline of his cha- 
 racter." — See " Life of Windham," prefixed to his 
 Speeches, vol. i. page 160; and Hansard's Debates, 
 June 6, 1810. 
 
 Parr was no great admirer of modern poetry, but 
 he always spoke with enthusiasm of Lord Byron's 
 poetical genius, and when his name was mentioned 
 often exclaimed, 
 
 " Irritat, mulcet, falsis terroribus implet, 
 Ut magus, et modo me Thebis, modo ponit Athenis." 
 
 Dryden was a great favourite with Parr, who 
 used to quote with delight the paraphrase of the
 
 NOTES TO WARWICKSHIRE. 47 
 
 29th Ode of the third Book of Horace, so admirabl}^ 
 executed by Dryden as, in the opinion of such 
 a scholar as Parr, to be equal to the original. 
 High praise indeed ! 
 
 Dr. Parr's opinion of Warburton is well known : 
 he particularly admired that celebrated writer's 
 character of Bayle ; but thought that in delineating 
 Bayle's, he drew the character of Bishop War- 
 burton I 
 
 His favourites among our English divines were 
 Butler, Jeremy Taylor, and Paley. He rather 
 underrated Horsley, who, he said, was indebted for 
 the great theological erudition displayed in his 
 controversy with Priestley, to Bishop Bull. 
 
 (5) His feasts were sumptuous on his natal day. 
 
 Dr. Parr never appeared to such advantage as 
 when he was presiding, in all the pride of honest 
 hospitality, at his own table in his parsonage-house 
 at Hatton ; he overflowed with kindness towards 
 all around him. At that table have I met Magee, 
 and Maltby, and Basil Montague, and several of 
 the most distinguished wits and scholars of the 
 present day. The most substantial fare was 
 added to 
 
 " The feast of reason and the flow of soul."
 
 48 NOTES TO WARWICKSHIRE, 
 
 Then our host — 
 
 " Vehemens et liquidus, puroque simillimus amni, 
 Fundet opes, Latiumque beabit divite lingua." 
 
 Parr literally chuckled with delight, when one 
 of the select, whom he had never, to use his own 
 phrase, " banished to Siberia," said " a good thing." 
 He was then the " apricus senex" of Perseus, or the 
 " Bon Vieillard" of Beranger ; and when we con- 
 sider the great events that have taken place in this 
 country and elsewhere since his death, he might 
 have exclaimed in the spirit of prophecy, like the 
 Bon Vieillard, 
 
 " La liberte va rajeunir le monde: 
 Sur mon tombeau brilleront d'heureux jours." 
 
 The character of Parr is finely drawn by Arch- 
 deacon Butler, in his funeral sermon on that great 
 scholar and benevolent man. Dr. Butler did not 
 " daub" the memory of his friend "with undiscern- 
 ing praise ;" but while he did ample justice to his 
 numerous virtues and various attainments, hesitated 
 not to point out his faults. / knoiv by experience 
 that Dr. Parr was a warm friend, a good neighbour, 
 a most instructive and delightful companion. 
 
 " His saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani 
 Munere."
 
 NOTES TO WARWICKSHIRE. 49 
 
 (6) Then went the grace-cup round. 
 
 " When in the old man's hall, 
 
 Old friends were gathered all, 
 And thou with mirth didst light grave features up, 
 
 On days of high festivity, 
 
 And family solemnity, 
 As each to each passed on the happy cup." 
 
 Anster's translation of Faust, page 49 
 
 £
 
 50 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 
 
 Now is the spirit from on high pour'd forth 
 
 On man ; and where the dragons lay encaved, 
 Fresh streams of water flow: now triumphs worth, (') 
 By purple tyranny no more enslaved, 
 That through the world too long uncheck'd has 
 raved. 
 Knowledge her blessings spreads from clime to clime, 
 Peace smiles where late war's crimson banners 
 waved ; ( - ) 
 Thought, like an eagle soaring in his prime (^) 
 Of strength, exulteth now, since zeal for truth 's 
 no crime.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 51 
 
 The crowning city beautiful appears, 
 Like a fair bride enrob'd in rich attire, 
 
 Glorying in the collected wealth of years, 
 
 Outshining, e'en in grandeur, far-fam'd Tyre ; (^) 
 She has whate'er man's proudest hopes desire : 
 
 Her Merchant-Sons, since fortune favours pride,] 
 To high companionship with kings aspire. 
 
 As if instinct with life her vessels ghde, 
 
 Most glorious to behold, o'er her proud river's 
 tide. 
 
 Her daughters too, whose intellectual grace (*) 
 Heightens their beauty, that they seem to be 
 
 Less of a mortal than celestial race. 
 Are rationally homaged, and more free 
 Than in the boasted days of chivalry : 
 
 When, closely pent within the castle walls, 
 
 Languish'd unseen these dames of high degree, 
 
 Till on some gaudy day the lovely thralls, 
 
 Like costly idols shone adored in gorgeous halls.
 
 52 THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 
 
 Wisdom is in her halls ; to none refused 
 
 Are wisdom's precious gifts, as heretofore, 
 When clerks their knowledge selfishly misused; (6 ) 
 
 All may the tracts of science now explore : 
 
 Perish the vain monopoly of lore ! 
 The gloom-dispelling radiance of the morn 
 
 Delighteth not the rising traveller more, 
 Than it doth glad my heart, that lofty scorn 
 Recoils from the repellent strength of wisdom 
 lowly born. 
 
 Oft are those artificial fountains dry, 
 
 That skill, for grandeur, labours to create ; 
 But streams, the mountain's natural founts supply. 
 
 Flow on for ever beautiful and great ; 
 
 To give them birth, the}' need not toys of state ; 
 Thus may the much-forc'd mind of high-born youth, 
 
 Prove to the rearer's hand a plant ingrate : 
 While that which nature nourishes, in sooth, 
 But partial culture asks to reach the heights of 
 truth.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 53 
 
 Unlike the roll that in the heavens appeared, 
 (Wherein and eke without were written " woe 
 
 " And lamentation,") to the Seer revered, 
 Is the bright volume wisdom shows us now, 
 Where joy and truth in brilliant colours glow. 
 
 Inquiry nerves the mind and quickens thought. 
 The source from which our purest pleasures flow. 
 
 Bounds to research there are, which spirits fraught 
 
 With learning's stores would pass ; in vain, their 
 efforts end in nought. 
 
 The mind that thus its boundaries would pass, 
 
 Is as a restless creature in its cage : 
 On unforbidden ground, though much it has 
 
 Yet to acquire, still science may engage 
 
 Its fullest powers, or Niebuhr's * novel page ! 
 Much to unlearn we have, and more to learn. 
 
 As here we journey on to life's last stage, 
 Within the confines of our route ; why yearn 
 For mysteries, which to know e'en Seraphs vainly 
 burn? (7) 
 
 * The celebrated, indefatigable, and liberal German Historian 
 
 of Rome.
 
 54 THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 
 
 Yet to the Sabbath those who toil will look, («) 
 And the seal'd volume of a world unseen, (9) 
 
 For man has greater charms than Nature's book ; 
 Though there are pages for inspection keen 
 Unroll'd as yet : Geologists, I ween, 
 
 Have made but little progress in their lore ! (1°) 
 What shall be known, compared with what has 
 been, 
 
 Will be, as if a noon-day sun rose o'er 
 
 This earth, in tenser light on favour'd man to pour. 
 
 Philosophy is like the ladder high 
 In Padan Aram, when in vision blest 
 
 The Patriarch saw, uprising to the sky 
 
 And then descending, Angels ; to his breast 
 Giving the promise of a glorious rest : 
 
 Thus, by thy aid. Philosophy, is man 
 
 Enabled to discern, though care-opprest, 
 
 His relative state of being, since began 
 
 Time to unfold his wings, and hfe's first current 
 ran
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 55 
 
 Impregnating all space, and mind effused 
 
 From its great parent stock, through worlds 
 above 
 
 And worlds around this globe of ours, diffused 
 Those elements in which all creatures move 
 And live ; the universal bond is love. (") 
 
 What pleasure 'tis, in mind, to trace the ties, (^-) 
 Numerous as are leaflets in the grove, 
 
 That join our quick sensations as they rise 
 
 Fast as each shadow brief along the mountain 
 flies. 
 
 High speculations are as faintly seen ( ^^) 
 As the gigantic mountain's shadowy height 
 
 When twilight draws her veil o'er such a scene 
 As heaven unrolls on earth for man's delight, 
 Late glowing in the sunset's purple light : 
 
 All may distinctly gospel truths behold, 
 
 They are with ever-living splendours bright 
 
 Thus doth the noon-day sun, in rays of gold, 
 
 Along the fertile vale each object fair unfold.
 
 56 THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 
 
 The moral atmosphere doth h'ghten now 
 
 As with a paradise-clearness, — thus appear'd 
 
 The sky o'er Jordan's stream ; a purple glow 
 Invested heaven and earth as Jesus near'd 
 That Prophet, whom the Triune effluence cheer'd. 
 
 By man, (unsocial bigotry may frown,) 
 
 The bonds of brotherhood are more rever'd 
 
 Than in the olden times ; is pride o'erthrown ? 
 
 She quails, though on her head glitters the jewell'd 
 crown. 
 
 Life is a mystery, here we are placed 
 
 All on a level, wherefore vaunt the proud ? 
 
 Have they the genuine form of truth embraced ? 
 If not, in what do they excel the crowd 
 Whom the thick-coming shades of error shroud ? 
 
 Oh ! not to such vain spirits is it given 
 To dissipate life's overhanging cloud, 
 
 Or to direct for man the way to heaven ! 
 
 They have too much of earth's all vitiating lea- 
 ven.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 37 
 
 And strongly waxes now the word of God, 
 
 And very swiftly runneth through the world 
 Zeal, potent as the Seer's life-giving rod : 
 
 The banners of religion are unfurl'd 
 
 Far, and Aherman from his throne is hurl'd. (!•*) 
 Through culture's aid the naked rocks may smile, 
 
 Mantled in emerald green, with dew impearl'd ; - 
 The seeds of truth shall ripen in each isle. 
 That now is rank with weeds of superstition vile. 
 
 Fanatics in vain their flaming sword would turn 
 On all around who dare invade their own 
 
 Peculiar Eden ; noble spirits spurn 
 
 Their narrow laws, despise the bigot's frown. 
 And tabernacles build for Truth alone ! 
 
 Religion, central sun, pours forth her light 
 O'er all the minor orbs of knowledge thrown ; 
 
 Man, conscious of his intellectual might, 
 
 Rejects heart-withering creeds, that would o'er- 
 power right.
 
 58 
 
 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 
 
 ( ' ) Now is the spirit from on high pour d forth 
 
 On man ; and where the dragons lay encaved, 
 Fresh streams of water flow T 
 
 " For in the wilderness shall waters break out, 
 and streams in the desert. 
 
 " And the parched ground shall become a pool, 
 and the thirsty land springs of water : in the habi- 
 tation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass 
 with reeds and rushes." — Isaiah, xxxv. 6, 7. 
 
 " The imperfection of political institutions," says 
 Humboldt, " may for ages have converted places 
 where the commerce of the world should be concen- 
 tred, into deserts ; but the time approaches when 
 these obstacles will exist no longer. A vicious
 
 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 59 
 
 administration cannot always struggle against the 
 united interests of men, and civilization will be 
 carried insensibly into those countries, the great 
 destinies of which nature itself proclaims, by the 
 physical configuration of the soil, the immense 
 windings of the rivers, and the proximity of the two 
 seas that bathe the coasts of Europe and Africa." 
 
 " Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up 
 their voice, the villages that Kedron doth inhabit ; 
 let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout 
 from the tops of the mountains." 
 
 " Nosque ubi primus equis Oriens afflavit anhelis, 
 IlHc sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper !" 
 
 (') Peace smiles where late tears crimson banners 
 tvaved. 
 
 " The fruits of the spirit are peace," &c. 
 
 " The morality of peaceful times is directly oppo- 
 site to the maxims of war. The fundamental rule 
 of the first is to do good, of the latter to inflict in-
 
 60 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 
 
 juries. The former commands us to succour the 
 oppressed, the latter to overwhelm the defenceless. 
 The former teaches men to love their enemies, the 
 latter to make themselves terrible even to strangers. 
 The rules of morality will not suffer us to promote 
 the dearest interest by falsehood, the maxims of war 
 applaud it when employed in the destruction of 
 others. That a familiarity with such maxims must 
 tend to harden the heart, as well as to pervert the 
 moral sentiments, is too obvious to need illustration. 
 The natural consequence of their prevalence is, an 
 unfeeling and unprincipled ambition, with an idolatry 
 of talents and contempt of virtue; whence the esteem 
 of mankind is turned from the humble, the benevo- 
 lent, the good, to men who are qualified by a genius 
 fertile in expedients, a courage that is never appall- 
 ed, and a heart that never pities, to become the de- 
 stroyers of the earth. While the philanthropist is 
 devising means to mitigate the evils and augment 
 the happiness of the world, a fellow-worker together 
 with God in exploring and giving effect to the bene- 
 volent tendencies of nature, the warrior is revolving 
 in the gloomy recesses of his capacious mind plans 
 of future devastation and ruin. Prisons crowded 
 with captives, cities emptied of their inhabitants, 
 fields desolate and waste, are among his proudest 
 trophies. The fabric of his fame is cemented with
 
 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 61 
 
 tears and blood ; and if his name is wafted to the 
 ends of the earth, it is in the shrill cry of suffering 
 humanity, in the curses and imprecations of those 
 whom his sword has reduced to despair." — Hall's 
 Reflections on War. 
 
 The Discourses of that much-lamented Divine, 
 the Rev. Robert Hall, are the most perfect 
 compositions without any exception in the English 
 language. 
 
 The mighty Burke, when with surpassing elo- 
 quence he preached up a crusade against republi- 
 can France, admitted that nothing short of extreme 
 necessity will justify war. 
 
 " The blood of man should never be shed but to 
 redeem the blood of man. It is well shed for our 
 family, for our friends, for our God, for our country, 
 for our kind. The rest is vanity, the rest is crime." 
 — Letter on a Regicide Peace. 
 
 (•■') Thought, like an eagle soaring in his prime. 
 
 " Methinks I see a noble and puissant nation 
 rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and
 
 62 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 
 
 shaking her invincible locks ; methinks I see her as 
 an eagle muing her mighty youth, and kindling her 
 undazzled eyes at the full mid-day beam, purging 
 and unsealing her long-abused sight at the fountain 
 itself of heavenly radiance, while the whole noise 
 of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that 
 love the twilight, flutter about amazed at what she 
 means." — Milton's Speech for Unlicensed Printing. 
 
 (*) Out-shining, een in grandeur, far-famed Tyre. 
 
 " The power of the city of Tyre on the Mediter- 
 ranean and in the West is well known ; of this 
 Carthage, Utica, and Cadiz are celebrated monu- 
 ments. We know that she extended her naviga- 
 tion even to the ocean, and carried her commerce 
 beyond England to the north and the Canaries to 
 the south." — Tav. 
 
 Herodotus says that in his time there was a 
 temple dedicated to Hercules, which was enriched 
 with many magnificent donations, especially with 
 two pillars, the one of finest gold, the other of 
 smaragdus : see also Perry'* View of the Levant, 
 page 135.
 
 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 63 
 
 See the splendid and sublime description of Tyre, 
 in EzEKiEL, chap. 27. 
 
 " Tyre was the centre to which all kinds of goods 
 were conveyed, and from which they were again 
 distributed in the districts where each was demand- 
 ed. The vast gain thus acquired must have left a 
 constantly increasing surplus of wealth, especially 
 of the most compendious kinds of wealth, the pre- 
 cious metals, in that metropolis of the ancient com- 
 mercial world." — Jacob, on the Precious Metals., 
 vol. 1, page 96. 
 
 (*) Her daughters too. 
 
 In the far-famed days of chivalry the ladies had 
 no real influence, and while their names were pass- 
 ports for every sort of violence on the part of the 
 proud chevaliers, who, self-constituted champions of 
 justice, went about the country inflicting the very 
 wrongs they pretended to avenge; — they themselves 
 were deprived even of the ordinary benefits of edu- 
 cation, and were shut out from the enjoyment of 
 air and exercise. They were too costly for ordinary 
 use, and while mocked with the semblances of an
 
 64 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 
 
 admiration almost amounting to idolatry, were in 
 reality treated like infants. How many weary hours 
 did they endeavour to beguile in employing their 
 delicate fingers on tapestry-work ! How seldom 
 were they admitted into the society of their affected 
 worshippers, but real tyrants ! Unacquainted Avith 
 the light accomplishments that give such a grace to 
 the female sex, they knew nothing of those more 
 serious studies that women in the present day pur- 
 sue with a success truly wonderful. 
 
 They had not even that engaging simplicity of 
 character that almost atones for ignorance. Theirs 
 was an affected simplicity, if I may use the term, 
 superinduced by a cold and artificial system of edu- 
 cation ; and being only intended to shine on particu- 
 lar occasions, they were thrown aside like lumber 
 when the unsubstantial pageantries over which they 
 presided disappeared. But a veneration for the days 
 of chivalry is one of those fallacies that reason will 
 soon dissipate. 
 
 C") l^'licn clerks their hnowledge selfishly misused. 
 
 When the Roman Empire became a prey to the 
 Barbarians, they gave up as little as possible of their
 
 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 65 
 
 ancient independence, and when roused by a sense 
 of real or imaginary wrongs, they were ready at all 
 times to assert with their swords the rights they 
 had inherited from their ancestors. 
 
 But in the changes that became necessary in their 
 written laws, in the instructions to public officers for 
 the administration of their internal government, and 
 in the legal forms required for the secure possession 
 and transmission of property, to which they had 
 formerly been strangers, they were compelled to have 
 the aid of provincial churchmen and lawyers, the 
 sole depositaries of the religion and learning of the 
 times. These men, trained in the despotic maxims 
 of the imperial law, transfused its doctrines and ex- 
 pressions into the judicial forms and historical mo- 
 numents of their rulers ; and thus it happened that 
 if the principles of imperial despotism did not regu- 
 late the government, they found their way into the 
 legal instruments and official language of the Bar- 
 barians. — Allen's Inquiry into the Rise and Groioth 
 of the Royal Prerogative^ P^ige 13. 
 
 (7) Why yearn 
 
 For mysteries, which to know een Seraphs vainly 
 
 burn ? 
 Ma quell' alma nel Ciel che piii si schiara, 
 Quel Serafin, che'n Dio piii I'occhio ha fisso, 
 
 F
 
 66 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 
 
 Alia domanda tua non soddisfara : 
 Perocche si s'innoltra nel abisso 
 Dell eterno statute quel che chiedi, 
 Che da ogni, e creata vista e scisso. 
 
 Dante, Canto 21. // Paradiso. 
 
 (^) Yet to the Sabbath those who toil will look. 
 
 " For all that moveth doth in change delight, 
 But thenceforth all shall rest eternally 
 With Him that is the God of Sabaoth hight: 
 O that great Sabaoth, God, grant me that Sabaoth's 
 sight!" — Spenser. 
 
 " But if there be a real and necessary, not merely 
 a shadowy agency in heaven, as well as on earth ; 
 and if human nature is destined to act its part in 
 such an economy, then its constitution, and the se- 
 vere training it undergoes, are at once explained ; 
 and then also the removal of individuals in the very 
 prime of their fitness for useful labour, ceases to be 
 impenetrably mysterious. 
 
 " This excellent mechanism of matter and mind, 
 which beyond any other of his works declares the
 
 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 67 
 
 wisdom of the Creator, and which under his guidance 
 is now passing the season of its first preparation, will 
 stand up anew from the dust of dissolution, and then 
 with freshened powers, and with a store of hard- 
 earned and practical wisdom for its guidance, shall 
 essay new labours, we say not perplexities, perils, in 
 the service of God, who by such instruments chooses 
 to accomplish his design of benevolence. 
 Shall not the very same qualities which are here so 
 sedulously fashioned and finished, be actually need- 
 ed and used in that future world of perfection ?" — 
 Natural History of Enthusiasm, page 157. 
 
 " The truths which we have been capable of at- 
 taining here may still, by that condensation and 
 diffusion of which I have spoken, form an element of 
 that transcendent knowledge which is to comprehend 
 all the relations of all the worlds in infinity, as we 
 are now capable of tracing the relations of the few 
 planets that circle our sun; and by a similar diffusion, 
 those generous affections which it has been our de- 
 light to cultivate in our social communion on earth, 
 may not only prepare us for a purer and more glo- 
 rious communion, but be themselves constituent 
 elements of that ever-increasing happiness which 
 still prolonging and still augmenting the joys of 
 virtue, is to reward, through immortality, the suffer-
 
 68 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE, 
 
 ings and the toils and the struggles of its brief 
 mortal career." — Brown'* Lectures on the Philoso- 
 phy of the Human Mind, vol. ii. page 311. 
 
 (9) And the seaVd volume of a world unseen. 
 
 " But his peremptory, final, unalterable decree he 
 keeps in the cabinet of the eternal ages, never to be 
 unlocked, till the Angel of the Covenant shall declare 
 the unalterable final sentence." — JerExMy Taylor. 
 
 Man, who is of " such stuff as dreams are made 
 of," is ever anxious to lift up the curtains of eternity, 
 and to discover the secrets of another world ; but 
 neither Dante with his " eagles " and his " roses," 
 nor Davy in the " Vision" that graces the mild and 
 mellow production of his last years, ("Consolations 
 of a Philosopher,") nor Hope, whose last work (would 
 that instead of it he had left us as a legacy another 
 " Anastasius !") only proves the absurdity of human 
 speculations when employed on a subject beyond 
 the reach of human intellect; no, none of these 
 lights of the world can give us a glimpse of our fu- 
 ture state of existence. 
 
 Vain are all such speculations ; all we know is,
 
 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. G9 
 
 that when " an immortal spirit has finished its 
 earthly career," to use the beautiful language of a 
 celebrated preacher, now, alas! no more, " an event 
 has occurred, the issues of which must ever baffle 
 and elude all finite comprehension by concealing 
 themselves in that abyss, that eternity which is the 
 dwelling-place of Deity, where there is sufficient 
 space for the destiny of each among the innume- 
 rable millions to develope itself, and without inter- 
 ference or confusion to sustain and carry forward 
 its separate infinity of interest." 
 
 (1^) Geologists, I loeen, 
 
 Have made but little jjrogress in their lore. 
 
 " In those sciences which have attained the high- 
 est degree of perfection, the skill of the Creator and 
 the ends and uses of the different parts are most 
 apparent. 
 
 " Geology has not yet made sufficient progress to 
 carry us far in this path of inquiry, but we see 
 enough to discover that the very disorder into which 
 the strata on the surface of the globe are thrown, 
 and the inequalities which it presents, are absolutely 
 necessary to its habitable condition." — Bakewell's 
 Geology, page 480.
 
 70 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 
 
 M. Fresnel, M. Arago, and our own illustrious 
 countryman Dr. Young, have made discoveries in 
 the nature of light which enabled Dr. Ure beauti- 
 fully to illustrate the third verse in the first chapter 
 of the book of Genesis, " Let there be light, and 
 there was light." — See his work on Geology, book i. 
 chap. 2, Of Light independent of the Sun. 
 
 Guided by the cautious spirit of inductive philoso- 
 phy, what may not future philosophers accomplish ! 
 
 (^1) The universal bond is love. 
 
 " And in that depth 
 Saw in one volume clasp'd, of love, whate'er 
 The universe unfolds ; all properties 
 Of substance and of accident beheld 
 Compounded, yet one individual light 
 The whole." 
 
 Gary's Dante, The Vision of Paradise, 
 Canto xxxiii. verse 80. 
 
 " Terra vero non erat neque aer, nee ccelum, Erebi 
 
 autem in infinito gremio 
 Omnium primum parit irritum furva nox ovum ; 
 Ex quo, temporibus exactis, propuUavit Amor deside- 
 
 rabilis, 
 Radians tergo aureis alis, cehrrimts ventorum vertigini 
 
 similibus.
 
 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 71 
 
 lUe vero alato mistus Chao et caliginoso, in Tartaro 
 
 ingente 
 Edidit nostrum genus, et primum eduxit in lucem." 
 
 Aristop. Aves. 
 
 See Bryant's interpretation of the above lines 
 in the second volume of his Mythology, quarto edi- 
 tion, page 330. 
 
 (12) Wliat pleasure 'tis, in mind, to trace, 8fc. 
 
 The principle of association constitutes one of the 
 most active, and may be considered as one of the 
 primary properties in the human mind. Into its 
 agency some philosophers have been inclined to 
 resolve all our mental phenomena. That in mind, 
 as in matter, every change must have a cause, is a 
 truth unquestionable ; and that we can generally 
 discover the connecting principles which govern the 
 train of our ideas, is equally true. Yet every person 
 who devotes much attention to the varying states 
 of his own mind, watching its thoughts and inves- 
 tigating their causes, must be conscious that ideas 
 occasionally start up for which it is impossible to 
 account. I am well aware how easily the causes 
 may escape our attention. Our ideas, perceptions, 
 and feelings are frequently of that evanescent nature, 
 and follow one another in such rapid succession,
 
 72 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 
 
 that, unless arrested for a moment, they elude our 
 recollection. But while this fact is acknowledged, 
 it is at the same time, we believe, a truth, confirmed 
 by every one's experience who makes what passes 
 within himself the subject of narrow and rigid atten- 
 tion, that thoughts, and names especially, often 
 instantaneously present themselves, to which the 
 train of thought immediately preceding and perfectly 
 remembered has no conceivable relation. A cause 
 must exist, but that cause, we apprehend, cannot 
 always be found in the principle of association." — 
 Crombie's Natural Theology, vol. ii. page 14, note. 
 
 (1'^) High speculations are as faintly seen. 
 
 " So whoever shall entertain high and vaporous 
 imaginations, instead of a laborious and sober in- 
 quiry of truth, shall beget hopes and beliefs of 
 strange and impossible shapes. 
 
 " For the mind of man is far from the nature of 
 a clear and equal glass, wherein the beams of things 
 should reflect according to their true incidence ; 
 nay, it is rather like an enchanted glass, full of su- 
 perstition and imposture, if it be not delivered and 
 reduced." — B a con. 
 
 " High speculations," says Jeremy Taylor, "are
 
 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 73 
 
 barren as the tops of cedars, but the fundamentals 
 of Christianity are fruitful as the valleys or the 
 creeping vine." 
 
 " Every mind not infatuated by intellectual vanity 
 must admit that it is only some i'ew necessary points 
 of knowledge, relating to the constitution and move- 
 ments of the spiritual and infinite world, that can be 
 made the matter of revelation to mankind, and these 
 must be offered in detached portions apart from their 
 symmetry. Meanwhile the vast interior, the im- 
 measurable whole, IS not merely concealed, but is in 
 itself strictly incomprehensible by human faculties." 
 Natural History of Enthusiasm, p. 308. 
 
 (^^) And Ahermanfrom his throne is hurVd. 
 
 " Aherman. — C'estainsi que les anciens Persans 
 appelloient le principe du mal, oppose a Orniosd, le 
 principe du bien." — D'Herbelot, article Aherman. 
 
 " In the deep windings of the grove no more 
 The hag obscene and grisly phantom dwell ; 
 Nor in the fall of mountain stream, or roar 
 Of winds, is heard the angry spirits' yell; 
 No wizard mutters the tremendous spell,
 
 74 NOTES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 
 
 Nor sinks convulsive in prophetic swoon, 
 Nor bids the noise of drums and trumpets swell, 
 To ease of fancied pangs the labouring moon, 
 Or chase the shade that blots theblazingorb of noon. 
 Beattie's Minstrel, canto ii. stanza 48.
 
 75 
 
 A COMPARISON. 
 
 A Sun impurpled glow 
 Is on the waveless sea, 
 . And not a breeze doth blow, 
 And not a sail I see. 
 
 Like heaven's own pavement bright,* 
 
 Is now the placid deep, 
 On which the farewell light 
 
 Of sunset loves to sleep. 
 
 Thus beautiful in death 
 Is youth's departing flush ; 
 
 And lovely is the wreath 
 Where latest roses blush. 
 
 * Impurpled, like a sea of jasper shone.— Milton.
 
 76 
 
 TO A LARK. 
 
 The hymeneal chant 
 
 While youthful hearts do pant, 
 Rising like incense rich, around a bridegroom king, 
 
 Its strains cannot compare 
 
 With thine for notes so rare 
 That from thy joyous heart exultingly do spring. 
 
 Thy music is thine own ; 
 
 A soul-enchanting tone 
 By ecstasy inbreath'd, when thou wast born, to be 
 
 A soaring song of Love 
 
 Imbodied, that above 
 Mocks our most vivid joys with its aerial glee.
 
 77 
 
 ON THE FALL OF THE LEAVES. 
 
 They lie commingling with the earth that late 
 
 In rich luxuriance o'er the trees display'd 
 
 Their leafy grandeur ; in another year 
 
 Others will be as beautiful, and sear. 
 
 My friends around me fall, by death's rude blast 
 
 Blown rapidly away ; and some in prime 
 
 Of verdant youth. And are they lost amid 
 
 The common dust ? No. This most lovely eve, 
 
 When not a gauze cloud through the atmosphere 
 
 Melts gradually away, gives to my heart 
 
 A consolation, a prophetic hope 
 
 That they shall be again as flourishing 
 
 As e'er on earth, in heaven, and happier far. 
 
 The after-radiance of the blessed sun 
 
 Wakes in my soul a melancholy joy : 
 
 I hail the omen, sorrow for the loss 
 
 Of dearest friends, but joy that they are blest.
 
 78 ON THE FALL OF THE LEAVES. 
 
 This " woody theatre,"* that circles now 
 My good old mansion, shall resound no more 
 With my friend's social laugh, and cheerful horn. 
 He 's gone whose presence dissipated spleen 
 And head-ache, and the " numerous ills that flesh 
 Is heir to." While the night-dew damps my brow, 
 I fancy that I see his presence near, 
 Smiling with wonted cheerfulness on me : 
 I know that manly form, but. Oh ! how pale 
 Those cheeks, that once with health's rich colour 
 
 glow'd ! 
 Mild as the moon in the deep blue of heaven 
 Looks gentleness above the quiet grove. 
 
 He looks, dear . I '11 remember thee 
 
 And thy society, — alas, how brief! 
 
 And hope again for thy companionship 
 
 In worlds which here conjecture vainly strives 
 
 To bring before the mind, but worlds of bliss I 
 
 October, 1830. 
 
 * " A sylvan scene, and as the ranks ascend 
 Shade above shade, a woody theatre 
 Of stateliest view." — Milton.
 
 79 
 
 STANZAS ON A FINE SUNDAY. 
 
 " Earth has not any thing to show more fair ; 
 Dull would he be of soul who could pass by 
 A sight so touching in its majesty." 
 
 WonDSWOKTH. 
 
 It is the sabbath of the Lord, awake 
 Ye who in darkness slumber ! 'tis a day 
 
 Most beautiful ; as if for Christ's dear sake 
 The Sun pours forth a more resplendent ray, 
 And Nature wears a robe most richly gay ; 
 
 The hinds now from their daily labour rest, 
 The cattle undisturb'd keep holiday : 
 
 All men, save Mammon's wretched slaves, are blest, 
 
 And cheerful looks reveal their feelings unexprest.
 
 80 STANZAS ON 
 
 The woods are sleeping in the sunlight now ; 
 
 Thus in the " light of lights" confiding love 
 Reposes ; smooth as crystal is the brow 
 
 Of the clear lake, reflecting Heaven above ! 
 
 Pure as the prayers that holiest saints approve, 
 Stray children o'er the meads, collecting flowers, 
 
 The best that may be into garlands wove, 
 To crown each other's brows in green-wood bowers. 
 Ere the church bells proclaim devotion's solemn 
 hours. 
 
 Fresh as on Hermon hill the morning dew, 
 
 Acceptable as incense that arose 
 From Aaron's altar, is the homage true 
 
 Of hearts to God: Prayer can our numerous woes 
 
 Remove, and soothe the bosom's fiercest throes ! 
 Is there a place on earth that Angels greet ? 
 
 Where persecuted Truth may find repose ? 
 It is where congregated neighbours meet 
 To worship God with holy zeal and in communion 
 sweet.
 
 A FINE SUNDAY. 81 
 
 And well the sunbright day doth harmonize 
 With the pure gospel light, that shines within 
 
 God's blessed church — most glorious are the skies ; 
 Like souls that purified from mists of sin 
 To glow with truth's diffusive rays begin. 
 
 The sun to his meridian height ascends 
 
 As heavenward Christians strive their way to win ; 
 
 There shines the Triune Sun, there beauty blends 
 
 Hues that are faintly seen on earth — the Sabbath 
 never ends. 
 
 All that night visions show to Bards of Heaven, 
 All they imagine, from the lovely things 
 
 They see, of things unseen, to few are given, 
 (Vain gift to Man !) sublime imaginings. 
 Are but the colours bright that fancy flings 
 
 O'er life : to beautify our days awhile 
 
 She hovers near with many-coloured wings ; 
 
 Hence, in the charms that win us without guile, 
 
 When heightened by devotion's glow we see the 
 seraph's smile. 
 
 G
 
 82 STANZAS ON 
 
 Yet these resemblances from earth are drawn ; 
 
 And shall we, beings sprung from dust, compare 
 With star-like sanctities, that, ere the dawn 
 
 Of light burst on the world with lustre rare, 
 
 Circled the Glory- Throne of the First Fair ! 
 What are the songs of earth to Heaven's rich tide 
 
 Of melody, interminable there ? 
 What are analogous to Powers that glide 
 Through glittering orbs succeeding orbs, in circuit 
 wide ? 
 
 The sun is sinking, the horizon round 
 
 Deepens into a radiance more intense. 
 Again the bells are heard, a cheerful sound, 
 
 Gladd'ning the heart of youthful innocence. 
 
 What is this love of harmony, and whence? (') 
 Even in our childhood rapture-breathing strains 
 
 Of music to sublime our souls commence. 
 Effluent from beautiful realms where concord 
 
 reigns. 
 They come to promise bliss that God for Man 
 ordains.
 
 A FINE SUNDAY. 83 
 
 Mysteriously with feelings deep accord 
 The tones of music, be they gay or sad. 
 
 When at the will of the creative Word 
 
 Light was, the morning stars, in concert glad, 
 Together sang, in luminous glory clad : 
 
 All was hai'monious through the Universe, 
 Till Man ungrateful did what Heaven forbade. 
 
 Then discord rushed upon this earth, the curse 
 
 Of sin, and Passion came, of dissonant thoughts 
 the nurse. 
 
 September 23, 1832.
 
 84 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 (1) WJiat is this love of harmony, and whence ? 
 
 " While with an eye made quiet by the power 
 Of harmony and the deep power of joy, 
 We see into the life of things." 
 
 Wordsworth.
 
 85 
 
 VERSES ON UVEDALE PRICE'S 
 "ESSAY ON THE PICTURESQUE." 
 
 Uvedale Price's " Essay on the Picturesque," the most finish- 
 ed composition in the English language. Dr. Parr. ^ 
 
 A MASTER mind, that Taste and Genius grace, 
 The fine designs of Nature's hand can trace ; 
 Where they may differ, where again we see 
 The beautiful and picturesque agree. 
 How Hght, where stands a tree of beauty, plays, (i) 
 The eye delighting, through a thousand sprays : 
 How Autumn to the landscape gives a glow 
 Divine, that Painters o'er their canvass throw ; 
 Hence Titian's golden hue, and colouring warm, 
 That has of Autumn all the mellow charm.
 
 86 LINES. 
 
 How sudden bursts of sunshine in the spring 
 O'er the green flourishing tree their lustre fling. 
 The deUcate foHage of the leaf conceals 
 In part the boughs beneath, in part reveals. 
 How undulate the boughs in wavy pride, 
 As sweeps the light breeze o'er the river's tide. 
 How distant openings through the glade invite 
 Inquiry, source of ever new delight ; 
 Leading the eye as in a wanton chase, 
 Onwards, with happy art creating space : 
 Itself the same, through combinations new 
 Changes from every spot beheld the view, 
 Advances here a wood and there recedes 
 A stream, again, far glittering o'er the meads ! 
 How stretch along the hills, around, above, 
 Trees singly, or in groups, or lengthen'd grove. 
 How fan-like branches of the cedar, spread 
 Magnificently, feather overhead, 
 In avenues, of which the pillar'd shade 
 Attracts the devotee, or love-sick maid. 
 How on its gorgeous canopy of leaves 
 The widely-branching chestnut light receives.
 
 LINES. 87 
 
 Now, Uvedale, pour thy storm of satire down (-) 
 On that great Master of Improvement, Brown. 
 Who would variety's fair charms deny, 
 And with eternal clumps fatigue the eye? 
 Thickets, and glens, and every natural grace 
 To that Magician's tasteless art give place. 
 Romantic walks and coves, projections grand, 
 Are swept away by his all-levelling hand. 
 Oaks that around their arms majestic throw, 
 If rooted in the soil proscribed, must go. 
 Wild flowers, that o'er the river's margin stray 
 In intertangling knots, are mown away ! 
 The cheerful stream that silently beneath 
 O'erhanging boughs in many a mazy wreath 
 Stole on, or babbling o'er the shallows ran 
 Fretting the stones, is widen'd by a plan; 
 Shrubs are destroyed, banks levell'd down in haste, 
 A sheet of water glares, so wills it Taste. 
 
 Malvern, October 10.
 
 88 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (1) How light, wJiere stands a tree ofbecmty, plays. 
 
 Take a single tree only, and consider it in this 
 point of view. It is composed of millions of boughs, 
 sprays and leaves intermixed with and crossing each 
 other in as many directions, while through the vari- 
 ous openings the eye still discovers new and infinite 
 combinations ; yet in this labyrinth of intricacy 
 there is no unpleasant confusion : the general effect 
 is as simple as the detail is complicate. — Uvedale 
 Price on the Picturesque, vol. i. p. 262. 
 
 (2 ) Now, Uvedale, pour thy storm of satire down. 
 
 " It is to be regretted," says the amiable and 
 highly-gifted Sir Henry Stewart in his Planter's 
 Guide (Note 13, page 411) "that Sir Uvedale 
 Price in his valuable Essays on the Picturesque 
 (probably the most powerful example of contro- 
 versial writing and acute criticism in the language) 
 should have somewhat lessened their effect by per- 
 sonal sarcasm and the bitterness of controversy.
 
 NOTES. 89 
 
 As to Brown, he has not, according to the vulgar 
 phrase, * left him the Kkeness of a dog ;' and his 
 conceit, his ignorance, his arrogance, his vanity, of 
 all which Brown had his full share, are blazoned 
 forth in the most glaring colours."
 
 90 
 
 ADLESTROP HILL. 
 
 Ah, why in age 
 Do we revert so fondly to the walks 
 Of childhood, but that there the soul discerns 
 The dear memorial footsteps unimpaired 
 Of her own native vigour — but for this. 
 That it is given her thence in age to hear 
 Reverberations ; and a choral song, 
 Commingling with the incense that ascends 
 Undaunted tow'rds the imperishable heavens 
 From her own lonely altar ] 
 
 Wordsworth's Excursion, Booh Vlll. 
 
 Beautiful day thou art ! but doubly fair 
 To me as from this spot I now behold 
 
 Things of familiar loveliness ; the air 
 
 Whispers of childhood, changeful lights unfold
 
 ADLESTROP HILL. 91 
 
 Scenes of which many a pleasant tale is told. 
 Lo ! as the panorama gay is seen 
 
 Distinctly, hamlets, mansions known of old, 
 Glow in the sunshine ; cornfields, meadows green. 
 And wood-surrounded domes of grandeur swell be- 
 tween.* 
 
 The deep of azure by a cloud unstained 
 Above ; the wild bee's solitary hum ; 
 
 The butterflies, whose joyaunce is unfeign'd, 
 Coloured, as if from gayer worlds they come, — 
 Creatures not grateful less for life, though dumb : 
 
 The swift that skims the ground with rapid wing, 
 The thousand thousand flowers we cannot sum, 
 
 The streams that from moss-covered founts out- 
 spring,— 
 
 All in the Sun rejoice, their earth-o'ergazing king. 
 
 Here the pavilion stands, where children bright 
 At morn assembled for the dance or game, 
 
 * And " flowery gardens curtain'd round 
 With woi Id-excluding groves."
 
 92 ADLESTROP HILL. 
 
 Lively as Fays, as delicate Ariel light ; 
 
 Though they are grown to womanhood, there 
 
 came 
 To Fancy's eye apparently the same 
 To-day, their young successors full of joy : 
 
 And as the Sun subdued his fiercer flame, 
 The dance commenced, that charmed me when a 
 
 boy. 
 And simple sports that gave delight without alloy. 
 
 The presence of the past is bodied forth, 
 Or in plantation deep, or covert glade ; 
 
 Though my coevals planted toward the north. 
 Grown with our growth, flourishing as we fade. 
 Throw out a wider amplitude of shade. 
 
 It seemeth that this hill-encircling zone 
 Of beech and firs but j'esterday was made ; 
 
 There to assist illusion, yon grey stone 
 
 Remains, of old the work-directing planter's throne. 
 
 The numerous steps of time that rise between 
 Childhood and age mature, when upward view'd.
 
 ADLESTROP HILL. 93 
 
 Interminable seem ; when downward seen, 
 The mental eye with smooth descent illude : 
 'Twixt was and is how brief the interlude ! 
 
 As we re-seek a spot the heart that cheers 
 With the remembrance of a sport pursued 
 
 In childhood, visibly tliere it re-appears ; 
 
 Vanisheth like a rapid dream long interval of 
 years ! 
 
 And what is Time's progression ? the same breeze 
 That in my boyhood fann'd me, on this hill 
 
 Around me plays ; yon patriarchal trees 
 Unchanged remain, the ever lively rill 
 Runs through the garden rapidly at will ; 
 
 The stars that cheer'd my nightly walks, here shed 
 Their spiritual influence on me still. 
 
 One proof, alas ! there is, that years have fled — 
 
 Some who have here with me rejoiced are num- 
 bered with the dead. 
 
 Feelings they had to harmony attuned 
 
 Of Nature, song of birds, and voice of streams ;
 
 94 ADLESTROP HILL. 
 
 They with their ever-present God communed, 
 Tracing his finger in the redd'ning gleams 
 Of morn, or noon-day Sun's resplendent beams.* 
 
 They saw his fiat in the lightning's speed ; 
 T\\ey felt an evidence with which earth teems 
 
 Of life revived, as plants sprung from the seed, 
 
 And in the rainbow's sign God's promise loved to 
 read.t 
 
 Now are they spirits glorified, and far 
 
 Look through the unapparent, as they rise 
 
 Swift, as Elijah in his fiery car 
 
 Through spaces infinite, — before their eyes 
 
 * " Wherever God will thus manifest himself, there is Heaven, 
 though within the circle of this sensible world."— 6/r Thomas 
 Browne's " Religio Laid." 
 
 i How beautifully Jeremy Taylor, whose works are an inex- 
 haustible magazine of poetical images, illustrates the covenant 
 of our Redemption by that of the Rainbow ! " For this Jesus was 
 like the rainbow which God set in the clouds as a Sacrament to 
 confirm a promise, and establish a grace ; he was half made of 
 the glories of the light and half of the moisture of a cloud ; he 
 was sent to tell of his Father's mercies, and that God intended 
 to spare us ; but appeared not but in the company or in the re- 
 tinue of a shower and of foul weather."
 
 ADLESTROP HILL. 95 
 
 Truth now withdraws the veil of mysteries. 
 All they perceive that, sought on earth, behind 
 
 A cloud by man not penetrable lies ; 
 All they perceive, as mirror'd in the mind, 
 That, ere creation was, wisdom eterne design'd. 
 
 1 love an Avenue — 'tis like the aisle 
 Of a Cathedral — solemn, ample, grand. 
 
 If at the close a venerable pile, 
 
 Grey, turreted, the interspace command, 
 Looking tranquillity, as evening bland 
 
 Comes on, and to the rookery return, 
 
 Darkening the air in flights, a cawing band : 
 
 But Memory s spirit doth within me burn 
 
 As yon majestic elms in ranks I now discern. 
 
 Each tree has its peculiar charms allied 
 To early recollections : on the bough 
 
 Of one I dared, a venturous wight, to ride ; 
 And where another far its arms doth throw- 
 Around, a verdant arbour framed below — 
 
 A bower of bliss indeed, though not so gay
 
 96 ADLESTROP HILL. 
 
 As that which Spenser's picturing fancies show, 
 In which Acrasia, fair enchantress, lay, 
 And spread her net for idle knights through the 
 long summer-day.* 
 
 The spirit might (affections here embrace 
 The home in which is cast our early lot) 
 
 Hereafter recognise some glorious place, 
 
 That slumbering in this world it had forgot — 
 A sweeter home than earth's mostcherish'd spot — 
 
 Some orb of beauty words cannot relate, 
 Circling the spirit free as yet from blot 
 
 Of sin, ere its probationary state 
 
 Began — But here in vain we strive to speculate. 
 
 Oft when the thunderstorm has ceased, I've 
 gazed (1) 
 From this green hill on such a sight divine 
 As Wordsworth's Solitary sad amazed ; 
 
 • See Spenser's Fairy Queen, Book II. Canto xii. Stanza 42, 
 and the following Stanzas, in which the great poet combines all 
 his powers of description with the utmost harmony of versifica- 
 tion.
 
 ADLESTROP HILL. 97 
 
 That cannot be described in verse like mine, 
 But lives embodied in the glowing line 
 Of Rydale's mighty Bard : earth, air, and sky, 
 With mountain-structures, cloud-built domes, 
 outshine 
 All palaces by Fancy raised — the eye 
 In pageantries of Nature may faint types of Hea- 
 ven descry. 
 
 Outbursts of sunlight after summer shower, 
 
 With luminous distinctness gild the leaves. 
 Circulate smiles o'er petals of each flower, 
 
 That bending for the loss of splendour grieves. 
 
 Thus man from Heaven consoling light receives. 
 With waters of affliction when opprest ; 
 
 Hope of its weight the drooping soul relieves. 
 And virtues brighten forth, that in the breast 
 Beneath prosperity's broad glare would undis- 
 cerned rest. 
 
 We drink in, as it were, the flow of life 
 Around us, that insoul'd becomes a part 
 
 H
 
 98 ADLESTROP HILL. 
 
 Even of our being : thought is ne'er at strife 
 
 With thought, when love of Nature's at the heart, 
 That bids all good to enter — ill, depart. 
 They who from mountain-heights look o'er the 
 vale, 
 Smile, from its touch secure, at Envy's dart : 
 They on the placid lake who love to sail. 
 Care not what contests fierce in cities proud pre- 
 vail. 
 
 Those who hereafter view the golden corn 
 Waving below, (the reapers and their lord 
 
 Gone, and replaced by others lately born,) 
 May have their minds with imagery stored. 
 Richer than that my humble lays afford : 
 
 May they, while garnering up boon Nature's 
 wealth. 
 Add these my little gleanings to their hoard, 
 
 And kindly think of him who here by stealth 
 
 From dull pursuits some moments snatched to 
 breathe the gales of health ! 
 August 1833.
 
 99 
 
 NOTE TO ADLESTROP HILL. 
 
 (1) Oft when the thunderstorm has ceased, I've 
 gazed, 8fc. 
 
 I allude here to the description of the magnifi- 
 cent spectacle seen among the mountains, in the 
 second Book of Wordsworth's Excursion by the 
 Solitary. I cannot resist the temptation to tran- 
 scribe part of it. 
 
 The appearance instantaneously disclosed 
 Was of a mighty City, — boldly say 
 A wilderness of building sinking far 
 And self-withdrawn into a wondrous depth — 
 Far sinking into splendour without end ! 
 Fabric it seemed of diamond and of gold, 
 With alabaster domes and silver spires, 
 And blazing terrace upon terrace high 
 
 H 2
 
 100 NOTE TO ADLESTROP HILL. 
 
 Uplifted ; herC;, serene pavilions bright, 
 In avenues disposed ; there, towers begirt 
 With battlements that on their restless fronts 
 Bore stars — illumination of all gems. 
 
 * * * * * * 
 
 O 'tw^as an unimaginable sight ! 
 Clouds, mists, streams, watery rocks and emerald 
 
 turf, 
 Clouds of all tincture, rocks and sapphire sky, 
 Confused, commingled, mutually inflamed. 
 Molten together, and composing thus, 
 Each lost in each, that marvellous array 
 Of temple, palace, citadel, and huge 
 Fantastic pomp of structure without name. 
 In fleecy folds voluminous enwrapp'd.
 
 101 
 
 BEAUTY'S CASTLE. 
 
 By opal battlements engirt, appear 
 
 In workmanship as chaste as in design, 
 Of diamond framed and gold, high gates, that near 
 
 The castle built by Taste, for Beauty shine ; 
 On earth inimitable, work divine ; 
 
 Rich with a thousand rooms, that multiplied 
 By crystal mirrors, deepen like a mine 
 
 Exhaustless and illum'd, a circle wide : 
 Pillars of emerald grace the hall in column'd pride. 
 
 Here Beauty smiles ineffably enthroned; 
 
 Her smile diffusive is as solar light ; 
 Her voice is musical as harp fine-toned. 
 
 Conveying to the senses such delight
 
 102 beauty's castle. 
 
 As the world feels when sunrise chases night 
 Away. Her robe is as the upper sky ; 
 
 If there one milky-way o'erpower the sight, 
 Brilliant, angelic shapes around her fly; 
 
 The loveliest maids with these fine spirits cannot vie ! 
 
 Diversely splendid, as o'er foliage glow 
 
 Autumnal colours, which the noonday sun 
 Mellows with golden light — or, as the bow 
 
 Arching the heavens, where, mingling into one 
 Well-blended glory, hues unnumber'd run — 
 
 As various flowers adorning gardens gay, 
 Where art completes what nature hath begun. 
 
 They shine ; or as the intermingling play 
 Of splendours flashing forth from gems Sultanas 
 vain display ! 
 
 Theirs is undying loveliness ; while years 
 
 Flow on they are the same; nor grief nor pain 
 
 Stain or impair their charms ! They have no fears. 
 No unavailing chase of pleasures vain ; 
 
 No love — that withering, seldom blooms again !
 
 beauty's castle. 103 
 
 Such are the ministering sprights that wait 
 
 On Beauty, fairer than the fairest train 
 Of virgins, that adorn a monarch's state ; 
 Or fays, that bright as stars, inventive bards create. 
 
 Such seraphs are. They may idealized 
 
 Be, but no sculptors e'er their forms have wrought 
 In marble ; no, nor painters highly prized. 
 
 Ever on canvass have their features caught- 
 Though by such art the poesy of thought 
 
 Is bodied forth ; no poet can reveal, 
 (His mind with treasured imagery fraught) 
 
 Those superhuman beings, that the zeal 
 Of Fancy would disclose, but Nature will conceal. 
 
 The glories of the fane will harmonize 
 
 Simplicity and grandeur ; to and fro 
 Like sunbeams, or quick glances of bright eyes. 
 
 Rapid, ideal changes come and go. 
 Of living pictures an unending show. 
 
 Here Fancy brightens with unwearied wing ; 
 Tides of celestial music onward flow 
 
 For ever ! voices sweeter than in spring 
 Philomel's notes, in praise of Beauty ever sing !
 
 104 
 
 ENDLESS LIFE. 
 
 Eternal life ! If all the winds of heaven might be concen- 
 trated to fill the trump that should proclaim it, the blast would 
 be but too feeble for the theme ! If all the constellations of our 
 firmament were grouped afresh to blazon those few letters on the 
 vault of heaven, the matter would be more than worthy of the 
 legend. — Sheppahd. 
 
 Of life the ascending vista on the soul 
 
 Opens, as ages after ages roll 
 
 Away, progressing still the glorious spright, 
 
 Into a far receding infinite ! 
 
 A cloudless perspective ! with which the past 
 
 Compared is nothingness, however vast ! 
 
 The soul, on brightening pinions upward soaring. 
 
 Eagle-wise, still the Sun of suns adoring !
 
 ENDLESS LIFE. 103 
 
 Not solitary ! but, affections good 
 
 Here to enjoy, in their most perfect mood ; 
 
 Uninterrupted friendship, social bliss I 
 
 What can be greater happiness than this, 
 
 To view in sweet communion with the loved 
 
 On earth. Heaven's folded counsels there evolved ?
 
 106 
 
 THE SAURI. 
 
 Ere as it is the world its course begun, 
 
 The earth o'erteem'd with children of the sun, 
 
 Goliah lizards of a former age, 
 
 When a hot temperature was all the rage ; 
 
 What were the ladies of the temperate zone 
 
 Then ? Warm as central fire — now cold as stone ! 
 
 And man, if man existed then, I ween. 
 
 Had all the fiery particles of Kean,i 
 
 Or Byron, when a boy, whose name would spread, 
 
 Like Talbot's, among " clods" or cockneys, dread.- 
 
 But all is now comparatively cool. 
 
 Thank Heaven ! we have no Camelfords at school.^ 
 
 Though heat-begotten monsters we encase 
 
 In our museums, perish'd have the race.
 
 THE SAURI. 107 
 
 Whether they were herbivorous, or ate 
 
 Dirt, like an Otomac, I cannot state.^ 
 
 They thirsted not, Hke monsters since the flood 
 
 Begot — the taste is ancient too — for blood ! 
 
 Perchance, as Waterton a crocodile^ 
 
 Rode, they were ridden, though in length a mile ! 
 
 Conjecture here — geologists advance 
 
 But sober truths — loves somewhat to romance. 
 
 The freeborn Sauri scorn'd a reigning lord. 
 
 Half-monkey and half-tiger, beast-abhorr'd, 
 
 That rides, like tailors on their fluttering geese, 
 
 A many-headed hydra, not with ease. 
 
 The steed will throw his rider if press'd sore, 
 
 As Spenser's dragon threw the gorgeous w — ; ^ 
 
 The Lithuanian, fretting at the curb 
 
 Imperial, may his master's seat disturb. 
 
 Proud of their igneous origin, the tribe 
 
 Were self-important, as a title'd scribe. 
 
 Shallow, as Trinculo deem'd Caliban, 
 
 Whether through fens they paddled, crept, or ran. 
 
 Singing in chorus marshy songs, 7 devouring 
 
 Fern sallads, like our idlers bored, and boring,
 
 108 THE SAURI. 
 
 They lived — chronologists may guess the time — 
 
 And then returned to — what they came from, slime. 
 
 Ere Alorus they lived; or, to go higher, 
 
 Ere lived forefathers of a Cambrian 'squire.^ 
 
 They may, sublimed into another sort 
 
 Of beings, through ethereal space transport 9 
 
 Themselves vi^ith a rapidity intense, 
 
 With tubes provided, every tube a sense. 
 
 Such Davy saw, or dream'd he saw, at Rome. 
 
 Philosophers have sober views at home ; 
 
 At Rome sublimed, their spirits, now on fire, 
 
 JBe-luned, to Ariosto's flights aspire. 
 
 Oh were these high-bred monsters now alive 
 
 In those famed gardens, where on Sunday drive 
 
 Ladies high-born, as to a morning rout. 
 
 To laugh at apes with tails, and apes without. 
 
 Fashion might then revive Egyptian rites, 
 
 And in these non-descripts discern " new lights." 
 
 Though some plebeian 'peer, whose pedigree 
 
 Would puzzle Heardjio might not their merit see ; 
 
 Pendant from gorgeous ceilings, to amaze 
 
 The world, their forms in or-molu might blaze
 
 THE SAURI. 109 
 
 Through grand saloons, where taste capricious Hnks 
 
 Alliance strange, — a griffin with a sphinx ! 
 
 While pretty women lisp, " You have not seen 
 
 The plesiosauri I Where could you have been ?" 
 
 Far more in fashion they than Namick Pasha — 
 
 A Brahmin — comet — or Lord Dudley's bashaw ; 
 
 Or novel, of the season latest, best, 
 
 Yet so severe, it ought to be supprest. 
 
 Would they were now alive, consuming wheat, 
 
 And kept by rich zoologists, to eat ! 
 
 They, like Napoleon, prices might exalt 
 
 More than remission of the tax on malt ; 
 
 And land-owners would cease to grieve, that they 
 
 With crippled means increased rent-charges pay. 
 
 Soon would they disappear on Erin's bogs, 
 
 Cherish'd, as Isaac Walton cherish'd frogs. 
 
 To be impaled by Orange seers, who hope 
 
 To prove that monsters symbolize the Pope ; 
 
 Especially if their long tails emit 
 
 A phosphorescent light like — Irish wit !
 
 no 
 
 NOTES TO THE SAURI. 
 
 " Gigantic vegetables, more nearly allied to the 
 palms of the equatorial countries than to any other 
 plants, can only be imagined to have lived in a 
 very high temperature ; and the immense reptiles, 
 the megalosauri, vi'ith paddles instead of legs, and 
 clothed in mail, in size equal or even superior to 
 the whale ; and the great amphibia plesiosauri, with 
 bodies like turtles, but furnished with necks longer 
 than their bodies, probably to enable them to feed 
 on vegetables, growing in the shallows of the pri- 
 mitive pcean, — seem to show a state in which low 
 lands, or extensive shores rose above an immense 
 calm sea, and when there were no great mountain 
 chains to produce inequalities of temperature, tem- 
 pests, or storms." — Davy's Consolations in Travel, 
 p. 145. See also the account of the gigantic Sau- 
 rian tribe, in Ure's Geology, pp. 219. 226.
 
 KOTES TO THE SAURI. Ill 
 
 " The crust of the globe was exceedingly slen- 
 der, and the source of fire a small distance from the 
 surface." — Davy, ut supra, p. 185. 
 
 The tepid primeval ocean gave marvellous de- 
 velopement to all its productions, from the pobj- 
 paria and shell-fish to the megalosauriis and igua- 
 nodon, (Ure.) See also Lyell's Geology, vol. i. 
 passim. 
 
 (1) Had all the fiery particles of Kean. 
 
 " A fiery soul, that working out its way. 
 Fretted the pigmy body to decay, 
 And o'erinforra'd the tenement of clay." 
 
 I saw Kean perform the character of Sir Giles 
 Overreach, at Warwick, but a very short time be- 
 fore his death, with all his wonted energies ; though 
 then " the flash and outbreak of his fiery mind" 
 were " like the fitful light of a candle," to use his 
 own expressions, " flickering in its socket." 
 
 Well do I remember, in my youthful days, the 
 first appearance of Kean in the character of Sir 
 Giles Overreach, when " the loveliest oligarchs of 
 the gynocracy" crowded to the orchestra to see 
 him ; and the present of a piece of plate was voted 
 to him by acclamation in the green-room. 
 
 They were glorious days of histrionic and poetical 
 excitement, when the prolific genius of Byron pro-
 
 112 NOTES TO THE SAURI. 
 
 duced poem after poem in rapid succession to de- 
 light the world, and Kean shone in a succession 
 of such characters as Sir Giles Overreach, King 
 Richard the Third, Shylock, Othello, (who that 
 has seen, can forget his Othello I) &c. &x. 
 
 (•) Or JByron, ivhen a boy, whose name wotdd spread. 
 Like Talbot's, antong " clods" or cockneys, dread. 
 
 See Shakspeare's First Part of Henry the Sixth, 
 acts I and 2, where the cry of " Talbot!" caused 
 the flight of the French. The shout of " Here 's 
 Byron coming!" had much the same effect on the 
 " clods," a generic, and not very flattering term by 
 which the young aristocracy at Harrow designated 
 the lower orders there, with whom they had fre- 
 quent rotes, in which the noble poet shone pre- 
 eminent. 
 
 When a roiv commenced, as Lord Byron was 
 lame, he could not get to the scene of action as 
 soon as other boys ; but his fame went before him, 
 and his name had almost as great effect as his per- 
 sonal prowess on the alarmed " clods." 
 
 The cockneys, too, had frequent engagements on 
 a Sunday, {proh pudor !') with the Harrow boys, as 
 they were often exposed to the insulting gibes of 
 the young gentlemen. Some of these "cockneys"
 
 NOTES TO THE SAURI. 113 
 
 or " Sunday bucks," as they were generally called, 
 often proved themselves to be good men in the 
 pugilistic contests. To the delicate appearance 
 they sometimes united the science of " Dick Cur- 
 tis," that " pet of the Fancy." 
 
 Lord Byron was a good, but somewhat stormj'^ 
 actor, when at school, and loved to perform such 
 parts as Osmond in the Castle Spectre. 
 
 (^) TJiank Heaven ! we have no Camel fords at school. 
 
 The late Lord Camelford was the terror of hack- 
 ney coachmen and coffee-house loungers, being 
 equally celebrated as a duellist and pugilist. 
 
 (■*) WJiether they were herbivorous, or ate 
 Dirt, like an Otomac, I cannot state. 
 
 There is a singular account of the Otomacs in 
 Humboldt's Narrative, vol. v. p. 639, (Helen Maria 
 Williams's translation :) 
 
 " They reside in the mission of Uruana, and eat 
 earth ; that is, they swallow every day during 
 several months very considerable quantities, to ap- 
 pease hunger without injuring their health." 
 
 (5) Perchance, as Waterton a crocodile, &c. 
 See Waterton's Travels.
 
 114 NOTES TO THE SAURI. 
 
 (6) As Spenser s dragon threw the gorgeous w- 
 
 See Spenser's Faery Queen, book i. canto 8, 
 stanza 17. 
 
 (') Singing in chorus marshy songs. 
 As harmonious as the "Frogs of Aristophanes." 
 
 (^) Ere Alorus they lived ; or, to go higher. 
 Ere lived forefathers of a Cambrian 'squire. 
 
 We learn from the fragments of Berosus, Apollo- 
 dorus, Abydenus, and Alexander Polyhistor, pre- 
 served by Eusebius and Georgius Syncellus, that 
 the first king of Babylon was named Alorus ; that 
 nine kings succeeded him in a direct line, and that 
 the last of these was named Xisuthrus, in whose 
 time happened the great deluge. — Drummond's 
 Origines, vol. i. p. 8. 
 
 " Vixere fortes ante Agameranona 
 Multi, sed omnes illacrymabiles 
 Urgentur, ignotique longa 
 
 Nocte, carent quia vate sacro." 
 
 Horat. lib. iv. od. ix. 
 
 Mr. Cadwallader's family in " Foote's Author " 
 was older than the Creation.
 
 NOTES TO THE SAURI. 115 
 
 (y) They may, sublimed into another sort 
 
 Of beings, through ethereal space transport 
 Themselves. 
 
 " These beings who are before you, and who ap- 
 pear almost as imperfect in their functions as the 
 zoophytes of the Polar Sea, to which they are not 
 unlike in their apparent organization to your eyes, 
 have a sphere of sensibility and intellectual enjoy- 
 ment far superior to that of the inhabitants of your 
 earth : each of these tubes, which appears like the 
 trunk of an elephant, is an organ of peculiar motion 
 and sensation." — Davy's Consolations in Travel, 
 pp. 47, 48. 
 
 (1") Would puzzle Heard. 
 
 Sir Isaac Heard, late Garter King at Arms, a 
 very pleasant old gentleman, who at the age of 
 eighty could kiss his own toe, and used to perform 
 several agile feats in his old age to please His late 
 Majesty. 
 
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