religion under the serious and affecting aspects it must so frequently take.*--I. F.]

The poems of this series were collected under their common title in the edition of 1827.-ED.

I

SUGGESTED BY A BEAUTIFUL RUIN UPON ONE OF THE ISLANDS OF LOCH LOMOND, A PLACE CHOSEN FOR THE RETREAT OF A SOLITARY INDIVIDUAL, 1 FROM WHOM THIS HABITATION ACQUIRED THE NAME OF

THE BROWNIE'S CELL

Composed 1814.-Published 1820

I

To barren heath, bleak moor, and quaking fen,2

Or depth of labyrinthine glen;

Or into trackless forest set

With trees, whose lofty umbrage met;

World-wearied Men withdrew of yore;

(Penance their trust, and prayer their store ;)
And in the wilderness were bound

To such apartments as they found;

Or with a new ambition raised ;

That God might suitably be praised.

1 1820.

individual, a sketch of whose character is given
in the Poem,

2 1837.

To barren heath, and quaking fen,

MS.

1820.

To

{

swampy

}

5

10 II

High lodged the Warrior,1 like a bird of prey;
Or where broad waters round him lay:

But this wild Ruin is no ghost
Of his devices-buried, lost !
Within this little lonely isle
There stood a consecrated Pile;
Where tapers burned, and mass was sung,
For them whose timid Spirits clung
To mortal succour, though the tomb
Had fixed, for ever fixed, their doom!

III

Upon 2 those servants of another world
When madding Power 3 her bolts had hurled,
Their habitation shook ;-it fell,
And perished, save one narrow cell;
Whither, at length, a Wretch retired
Who neither grovelled nor aspired :
He, struggling in the net of pride,
The future scorned, the past defied;
Still tempering, from the unguilty forge
Of vain conceit, an iron scourge !

IV

Proud Remnant was he of a fearless Race, 4

Who stood and flourished face to face

1 Italics were first used in 1827.

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With their perennial hills ;-but Crime,
Hastening the stern decrees of Time,
Brought low a Power, which from its home
Burst, when repose grew wearisome;
And, taking impulse from the sword,
And, mocking its own plighted word,
Had found, in ravage widely dealt,
Its warfare's bourn, its travel's belt ! 1

V

All, all were dispossessed, save him whose smile
Shot lightning through this lonely Isle !

No right had he but what he made
To this small 2 spot, his leafy shade;
But the ground lay within that ring
To which he only dared to cling;
Renouncing here, as worse than dead,
The craven few who bowed the head
Beneath the change; who heard a claim
How loud! yet lived in peace with shame.

1 1820.

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With their perennial hills; but Time
Brought low a power that could not climb,
Though, from its well-defended Home,
When, sword in hand, it chose to roam,
Its warfare's bourne, its travel's belt,

Was devastation widely dealt.

MS.

With their perennial hills; but Crime,

That hastens the decrees of time,

Brought low a Power, which, when it chose

VI

From year to year1 this shaggy Mortal went
(So seemed it) down a strange descent :
Till they, who saw his outward frame,
Fixed on him an unhallowed name;
Him, free from all malicious taint,
And guiding, like the Patmos Saint,
A pen unwearied to indite,
In his lone Isle, the dreams of night;
Impassioned dreams, that strove to span
The faded glories of his Clan !

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60

VII

Suns that through blood their western harbour sought,
And stars that in their courses fought;
Towers rent, winds combating with woods,

Lands deluged by unbridled floods;

And beast and bird that from the spell
Of sleep took import terrible;—
These types mysterious (if the show
Of battle and the routed foe
Had failed) would furnish an array
Of matter for the dawning day!

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VIII

How disappeared He?-ask the newt and toad,
Inheritors of his abode ;

The otter crouching undisturbed,

In her dank cleft; but be thou curbed,

O froward Fancy! 'mid a scene

Of aspect winning and serene ;

For those offensive creatures shun

The inquisition of the sun!

And in this region flowers delight,

And all is lovely to the sight.

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IX

Spring finds not here a melancholy breast,
When she applies her annual test
To dead and living; when her breath
Quickens, as now, the withered heath ;-
Nor flaunting 1 Summer-when he throws
His soul into the briar-rose;

Or calls the lily from her sleep
Prolonged beneath the bordering deep;
Nor Autumn, when the viewless wren
Is warbling near the BrownIE'S Den.

X

*

Wild Relique! beauteous as the chosen spot
In Nysa's isle, the embellished grot;
Whither, by care of Libyan Jove,
(High Servant of paternal Love)
Young Bacchus was conveyed to lie

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