As if, amid these peaceful hills and groves,
Society were touched with kind concern,
And gentle Nature grieved, that one should

die;"

Or, if the change demanded no regret, Observed the liberating stroke-and blessed.

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And whence that tribute? wherefore these

regards?

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Not from the naked Heart alone of Man
(Though claiming high distinction upon earth
As the sole spring and fountain-head of tears,
His own peculiar utterance for distress
Or gladness)-No," the philosophic Priest
Continued, "'tis not in the vital seat
Of feeling to produce them, without aid
From the pure soul, the soul sublime and
With her two faculties of eye and ear,
The one by which a creature, whom his sins
Have rendered prone, can upward look to
heaven;

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pure;

The other that empowers him to perceive 990
The voice of Deity, on height and plain,
Whispering those truths in stillness, which the
WORD,

To the four quarters of the winds, proclaims.
Not without such assistance could the use
Of these benign observances prevail:

995

Thus are they born, thus fostered, thus main

tained;

And by the care prospective of our wise Forefathers, who, to guard against the shocks, The fluctuation and decay of things,

Embodied and established these high truths In solemn institutions :-men convinced That life is love and immortality,

The being one, and one the element.

1001

1004

There lies the channel, and original bed,
From the beginning, hollowed out and scooped
For Man's affections-else betrayed and lost,
And swallowed up 'mid deserts infinite!
This is the genuine course, the aim, and end
Of prescient reason; all conclusions else
Are abject, vain, presumptuous, and perverse.
The faith partaking of those holy times,
Life, I repeat, is energy of love
Divine or human; exercised in pain,
In strife, in tribulation; and ordained,
If so approved and sanctified, to pass,

ΙΟΙΙ

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Through shades and silent rest, to endless joy."

BOOK SIXTH.

THE CHURCH-YARD AMONG THE

MOUNTAINS.

ARGUMENT.

Poet's Address to the State and Church of England. -The Pastor not inferior to the ancient Worthies of the Church. He begins his Narratives with an instance of unrequited Love.-Anguish of mind subdued, and how. The lonely Miner.-An instance of perseverance.-Which leads by contrast to an example of abused talents, irresolution, and weakness. -Solitary, applying this covertly to his own case, asks for an instance of some Stranger, whose dispositions may have led him to end his days here. -Pastor, in answer, gives an account of the harmonising influence of Solitude upon two men of opposite principles, who had encountered agitations in public life.-The rule by which Peace may be obtained expressed, and where. -Solitary hints at an overpowering Fatality.-Answer of the Pastor.-What subjects he will exclude from his Narratives.-Conversation upon this.-Instance of an unamiable character, a Female, and why given.-Contrasted with this, a meek sufferer, from unguarded and betrayed love.—Instance of heavier guilt, and its consequences to the Offender. -With this instance of a Marriage Contract broken is contrasted one of a Widower, evidencing his faithful affection towards his deceased wife by his care of their female Children.

THE CHURCH-YARD AMONG THE

MOUNTAINS.

HAIL to the crown by Freedom shaped-to gird An English Sovereign's brow! and to the throne

Whereon he sits! Whose deep foundations lie
In veneration and the people's love;
Whose steps are equity, whose seat is law.
-Hail to the State of England! And conjoin
With this a salutation as devout,

5

Made to the spiritual fabric of her Church;
Founded in truth; by blood of Martyrdom
Cemented; by the hands of Wisdom reared 10
In beauty of holiness, with ordered pomp,
Decent and unreproved. The voice, that greets
The majesty of both, shall pray for both;
That, mutually protected and sustained,
They may endure long as the sea surrounds 15
This favoured Land, or sunshine warms her soil.

And O, ye swelling hills, and spacious plains! Besprent from shore to shore with steepletowers,

And spires whose "silent finger points to

heaven;

Nor wanting, at wide intervals, the bulk
Of ancient minster lifted above the cloud
Of the dense air, which town or city breeds

20