REPROOF.

From thorp or vill his matins sound for me,
Tired of the world and all its industry.

XXIII.

REPROOF.

BUT what if One, through grove or flowery mead,
Indulging thus at will the creeping feet
Of a voluptuous indolence, should meet
Thy hovering Shade, O1 venerable Bede!
The saint, the scholar, from a circle freed
Of toil stupendous in a hallowed seat

Of learning, where thou heard'st 2 the billows beat
On a wild coast, rough monitors to feed
Perpetual industry. Sublime Recluse !

The recreant soul, that dares to shun the debt
Imposed on human kind, must first forget
Thy diligence, thy unrelaxing use

Of a long life; and, in the hour of death,

The last dear service of thy passing breath!t

21

Bede spent the most of his life in the seclusion of the monastery of Jarrow, near the mouth of the Tyne; the wild coast referred to in the Sonnet being the coast of Northumberland.-ED.

+ He expired in the act of concluding a translation to St John's Gospel. -W. W., 1820.

He expired dictating the last words of a translation of St John's Gospel. -W. W., 1827.

By such examples moved to unbought pains,

The people work like congregated bees;

Eager to build the quiet Fortresses

Where Piety, as they believe, obtains

*

From Heaven a general blessing; timely rains
Or needful sunshine; prosperous enterprise,
Justice and peace :-bold faith! yet also rise
The sacred Structures for less doubtful gains.1
The Sensual think with reverence of the palms
Which the chaste Votaries seek, beyond the grave;

If penance be redeemable, thence alms

Flow to the poor, and freedom to the slave;

And if full oft the Sanctuary save

Lives black with guilt, ferocity it calms.

And peace, and equity.-Bold faith! yet rise
The sacred Towers for universal gains.

1822.

And peace, and equity.--Bold faith! yet rise
The sacred structures for less doubtful gains.

1827.

See, in Turner's History, Vol. III., p. 528, the account of the erection of Ramsey Monastery. Penances were removable by the performance of acts of charity and benevolence.-W. W., 1822.

"Wherever monasteries were founded, marshes were drained, or woods cleared, and wastes brought into cultivation; the means of subsistence were increased by improved agriculture, and by improved horticulture new comforts were added to life. The humblest as well as the highest pursuits were followed in these great and most beneficial establishments. While part of the members were studying the most inscrutable points of theology, ... others were employed in teaching babes and children the rudiments of useful knowledge; others as copyists, limners, carvers, workers in wood, and in stone, and in metal, and in trades and manufactures of every kind which the community required."-(Southey's Book of the Church, Vol. I., chap iv., pp. 61-2.)—ED.

ALFRED.

XXV.

MISSIONS AND TRAVELS.

NOT sedentary all: there are who roam

To scatter seeds of life on barbarous shores;

Or quit with zealous step their knee-worn floors
To seek the general mart of Christendom;
Whence they, like richly-laden merchants, come
To their beloved cells:-or shall we say

That, like the Red-cross Knight, they urge their way,
To lead in memorable triumph home

Truth, their immortal Una? Babylon,

Learned and wise, hath perished utterly,

Nor leaves her Speech one word to aid the sigh1
That would lament her;-Memphis, Tyre, are gone
With all their Arts,-but classic lore glides on
By these Religious saved for all posterity.

XXVI.

ALFRED.

BEHOLD a pupil of the monkish gown,
The pious ALFRED, King to Justice dear!
Lord of the harp and liberating spear;

*

23

"The memory of the life and doings of the noblest of English rulers has come down to us living and distinct through the mist of exaggeration and legend that gathered round it. . . . He lived solely for the good of his people. He is the first instance in the history of Christendom of the Christian king, of a ruler who put aside every personal aim or ambition to devote himself to the welfare of those whom he ruled. So long as he lived he strove 'to live worthily;' but in his mouth a life of worthiness meant a life of justice, temperance, and self-sacrifice. Ardent warrior as he was,

24

Mirror of Princes!

ALFRED.

Indigent Renown

Might range the starry ether for a crown.
Equal to his deserts, who, like the year,

Pours forth his bounty, like the day doth cheer,
And awes like night with mercy-tempered frown.
Ease from this noble miser of his time

No moment steals; pain narrows not his cares.†
Though small his kingdom as a spark or gem,
Of Alfred boasts remote Jerusalem,

And Christian India, through her wide-spread clime,
In sacred converse gifts with Alfred shares.1 §

1 1827.

And Christian India gifts with Alfred shares

By sacred converse link'd with India's clime.

...

1822.

with a disorganized England before him, he set aside at thirty-one the dream of conquest to leave behind him the memory, not of victories, but of 'good works,' of daily toils by which he secured peace, good government, education for his people. . The spirit of adventure that made him in youth the first huntsman of his day took later and graver form in an activity that found time amidst the cares of state for the daily duties of religion, for converse with strangers, for study and translation, for learning poems by heart, for planning buildings and instructing craftsmen in gold work, for teaching even falconers and dogkeepers their business. . . . He himself superintended a school for the young nobles of the court.”—(Green's History of the English People, chap. I., sec. 5.)—Ed.

Compare Voltaire, Essai sur les Moers, c. 26; and Herder's Ideen zur Philos, der Geschichte der Menschheit. Werke (1820), Vol. VI., p. 153.—ED. + Through the whole of his life Alfred was subject to grievous maladies. -W. W., 1822.

Although disease succeeded disease, and haunted him with tormenting agony, nothing could suppress his unwearied and inextinguishable genius." -Sharon Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, Vol. I.,book iv., chap. 5, p. 503.)-ED.

"His mind was far from being prisoned within his own island. He sent a Norwegian shipmaster to explore the White Sea. . . . Envoys bore his presents to the Christians of India and Jerusalem, and an annual mission carried Peter's-pence to Rome."—(Green, I., 5.)—Ed.

§ "With Alfred" is in all the editions. The Bishop of St Andrews suggests that "of Alfred" or "from Alfred" would be a better reading.—ED.

HIS DESCENDANTS.

25

XXVII.

HIS DESCENDANTS.

WHEN thy great soul was freed from mortal chains,
Darling of England! many a bitter shower

Fell on thy tomb; but emulative power
Flowed in thy line through undegenerate veins.1
The Race of Alfred covet 2 glorious pains
When dangers threaten, dangers ever new!
Black tempests bursting, blacker still in view!
But manly sovereignty its hold retains;

The root sincere, the branches bold to strive
With the fierce tempest, while,3 within the round
Of their protection, gentle virtues thrive;

As oft, 'mid some green plot of open ground,
Wide as the oak extends its dewy gloom,

The fostered hyacinths spread their purple bloom.†

XXVIII.

INFLUENCE ABUSED.

URGED by Ambition, who with subtlest skill
Changes her means, the Enthusiast as a dupe

In Eadward the elder, his son; Eadmund I., his grandson; Eadward (the martyr), grandson of Eadmund I.; and Eadward (the confessor), nephew to the martyr.-ED.

+ As, pre-eminently, in the wood by the road, half-way from Rydal to Ambleside.-Ed.