(Even like their persons in their portraits clothed With the accustomed garb of daily life)

Put on a lowly and a touching grace
Of more distinct humanity, that left
All genuine admiration unimpaired.

Beside the pleasant Mill of Trompington I laughed with Chaucer in the hawthorn shade; Heard him, while birds were warbling, tell his tales Of amorous passion. And that gentle Bard, Chosen by the Muses for their Page of State, Sweet Spenser, moving through his clouded heaven With the moon's beauty and the moon's soft расе, I called him Brother, Englishman, and Friend! Yea, our blind Poet, who, in his later day, Stood almost single; uttering odious truth, Darkness before, and danger's voice behind, Soul awful, if the earth has ever lodged An awful soul, I seemed to see him here Familiarly, and in his scholar's dress Bounding before me, yet a stripling youth, A boy, no better, with his rosy cheeks Angelical, keen eye, courageous look, And conscious step of purity and pride. Among the band of my compeers was one Whom chance had stationed in the very room Honored by Milton's name. O temperate Bard! Be it confessed that, for the first time, seated Within thy innocent lodge and oratory,

One of the festive circle, I poured out

VOL. VII.

5

Libations, to thy memory drank, till pride
And gratitude grew dizzy in a brain
Never excited by the fumes of wine

Before that hour, or since. Then forth I ran
From the assembly; through a length of streets
Ran, ostrich-like, to reach our chapel door
In not a desperate or opprobrious time,
Albeit long after the importunate bell
Had stopped, with wearisome Cassandra voice
No longer haunting the dark winter night.
Call back, O Friend! a moment to thy mind
The place itself and fashion of the rites.
With careless ostentation shouldering up
My surplice, through the inferior throng I clove
Of the plain Burghers, who in audience stood
On the last skirts of their permitted ground,
Under the pealing organ. Empty thoughts!
I am ashamed of them: and that great Bard,
And thou, O Friend! who in thy ample mind
Hast placed me high above my best deserts,
Ye will forgive the weakness of that hour,
In some of its unworthy vanities,

Brother to many more.

In this mixed sort

The months passed on, remissly, not given up
To wilful alienation from the right,

Or walks of open scandal, but in vague
And loose indifference, easy likings, aims
Of a low pitch, duty and zeal dismissed,

Yet Nature, or a happy course of things

Not doing in their stead the needful work.
The memory languidly revolved, the heart
Reposed in noontide rest, the inner pulse
Of contemplation almost failed to beat.
Such life might not inaptly be compared
To a floating island, an amphibious spot
Unsound, of spongy texture, yet withal
Not wanting a fair face of water weeds
And pleasant flowers. The thirst of living praise,
Fit reverence for the glorious Dead, the sight
Of those long vistas, sacred catacombs,
Where mighty minds lie visibly entombed,
Have often stirred the heart of youth, and bred
A fervent love of rigorous discipline.

Alas! such high emotion touched not me.

Look was there none within these walls to shame
My easy spirits, and discountenance

Their light composure, far less to instil
A calm resolve of mind, firmly addressed
To puissant efforts. Nor was this the blame
Of others, but my own; I should, in truth,
As far as doth concern my single self,
Misdeem most widely, lodging it elsewhere:
For I, bred up 'mid Nature's luxuries,
Was a spoiled child, and rambling like the wind,
As I had done in daily intercourse
With those crystalline rivers, solemn heights,
And mountains, ranging like a fowl of the air,
I was ill tutored for captivity;

To quit my pleasure, and, from month to month,

Take up a station calmly on the perch
Of sedentary peace. Those lovely forms
Had also left less space within my mind,
Which, wrought upon instinctively, had found
A freshness in those objects of her love,
A winning power, beyond all other power.
Not that I slighted books, - that were to lack
All sense, but other passions in me ruled,
Passions more fervent, making me less prompt
To in-door study than was wise or well,

Or suited to those years. Yet I, though used
In magisterial liberty to rove,

Culling such flowers of learning as might tempt
A random choice, could shadow forth a place
(If now I yield not to a flattering dream)
Whose studious aspect should have bent me down
To instantaneous service; should at once
Have made me pay to science and to arts
And written lore, acknowledged my liege lord,
A homage frankly offered up, like that
Which I had paid to Nature. Toil and pains
In this recess, by thoughtful Fancy built,

Should spread from heart to heart; and stately

groves,

Majestic edifices, should not want

A corresponding dignity within.

The congregating temper that pervades

Our unripe years, not wasted, should be taught

To minister to works of high attempt,

Works which the enthusiast would perform with

Youth should be awed, religiously possessed
With a conviction of the power that waits

On knowledge, when sincerely sought and prized
For its own sake, on glory and on praise
If but by labor won, and fit to endure

The passing day; should learn to put aside
Her trappings here, should strip them off abashed
Before antiquity and steadfast truth

And strong book-mindedness; and over all
A healthy sound simplicity should reign,
A seemly plainness, name it what you will,
Republican or pious.

If these thoughts

Are a gratuitous emblazonry

That mocks the recreant age we live in, then
Be Folly and False-seeming free to affect
Whatever formal gait of discipline

Shall raise them highest in their own esteem,
Let them parade among the Schools at will,
But spare
the House of God. Was ever known
The witless shepherd who persists to drive
A flock that thirsts not to a pool disliked?
A weight must surely hang on days begun
And ended with such mockery. Be wise,
Ye Presidents and Deans, and, till the spirit
Of ancient times revive, and youth be trained
At home in pious service, to your bells
Give seasonable rest, for 't is a sound
Hollow as ever vexed the tranquil air;
And your officious doings bring disgrace