Language, and letters;-these, though fondly viewed

As humanising graces, are but parts
And instruments of deadliest servitude!

IX.

DISSENSIONS.

THAT heresies should strike (if truth be scanned Presumptuously) their roots both wide and

deep,

6

Is natural as dreams to feverish sleep.
Lo! Discord at the altar dares to stand
Uplifting toward high Heaven her fiery brand,
A cherished Priestess of the new-baptized!
But chastisement shall follow peace despised.
The Pictish cloud darkens the enervate land
By Rome abandoned; vain are suppliant
cries,

And prayers that would undo her forced fare

well;

10

For she returns not.-Awed by her own knell,
She casts the Britons upon strange Allies,
Soon to become more dreaded enemies
Than heartless misery called them to repel.

Upon the Patriots, animates their task;-
Amazement runs before the towering casque 5
Of Arthur, bearing through the stormy field
The virgin sculptured on his Christian shield :-
Stretched in the sunny light of victory bask
The Host that followed Urien as he strode
O'er heaps of slain;-from Cambrian wood and

moss

10

Druids descend, auxiliars of the Cross;
Bards, nursed on blue Plinlimmon's still

abode,

Rush on the fight, to harps preferring swords, And everlasting deeds to burning words!

ΧΙ.

SAXON CONQUEST.

NOR wants the cause the panic-striking aid
Of hallelujahs' tost from hill to hill-
For instant victory. But Heaven's high will
Permits a second and a darker shade
Of Pagan night. Afflicted and dismayed,
The Relics of the sword flee to the mountains:
O wretched Land! whose tears have flowed like

fountains;

Whose arts and honours in the dust are laid
By men yet scarcely conscious of a care

5

For other monuments than those of Earth; 10 Who, as the fields and woods have given them birth,

Will build their savage fortunes only there;
Content, if foss, and barrow, and the girth
Of long-drawn rampart, witness what they were.

1 See Note.

XII.

MONASTERY OF OLD BANGOR.1

THE oppression of the tumult—wrath and scorn-
The tribulation-and the gleaming blades-
Such is the impetuous spirit that pervades
The song of Taliesin ;-Ours shall mourn
The unarmed Host who by their prayers would

turn

5

The sword from Bangor's walls, and guard the

store

Of Aboriginal and Roman lore,

And Christian monuments, that now must burn To senseless ashes. Mark! how all things

swerve

From their known course, or vanish like a

dream; Another language spreads from coast to coast; Only perchance some melancholy Stream And some indignant Hills old names preserve, When laws, and creeds, and people all are lost!

XIII.

CASUAL INCITEMENT.

A BRIGHT-HAIRED company of youthful slaves,
Beautiful strangers, stand within the pale
Of a sad market, ranged for public sale,
Where Tiber's stream the immortal City laves :
ANGLI by name; and not an ANGEL waves
His wing who could seem lovelier to man's eye
Than they appear to holy Gregory;

5

Who, having learnt that name, salvation craves For Them, and for their Land. The earnest Sire,

1. See Note.

1Ο

His questions urging, feels, in slender ties
Of chiming sound, commanding sympathies;
DE-IRIANS-he would save them from God's
IRE;

Subjects of Saxon ELLA-they shall sing
Glad HALLE-lujahs to the eternal King!

XIV.

GLAD TIDINGS.

FOR ever hallowed be this morning fair, Blest be the unconscious shore on which ye tread,

5

And blest the silver Cross, which ye, instead
Of martial banner, in procession bear;
The Cross preceding Him who floats in air,
The pictured Saviour!-By Augustin led,
They come and onward travel without dread,
Chanting in barbarous ears a tuneful prayer—
Sung for themselves, and those whom they
would free!

Rich conquest waits them :-the tempestuous

sea

Of Ignorance, that ran so rough and high
And heeded not the voice of clashing swords,
These good men humble by a few bare words,
And calm with fear of God's divinity.

ΙΟ

BUT to remote Northumbria's royal Hall,
Where thoughtful Edwin, tutored in the school
Of sorrow, still maintains a heathen rule,

1 See Note.

Who comes with functions apostolical?

Mark him, of shoulders curved, and stature

5

tall, Black hair, and vivid eye, and meagre cheek, His prominent feature like an eagle's beak; A Man whose aspect doth at once appal And strike with reverence. The Monarch leans Toward the pure truths this Delegate propounds, Repeatedly his own deep mind he sounds With careful hesitation, then convenes A synod of his Councillors :-give ear, And what a pensive Sage doth utter, hear!

II

XVI.

PERSUASION.

"MAN'S life is like a Sparrow, mighty King! That while at banquet with your Chiefs you sit

Housed near a blazing fire-is seen to flit Safe from the wintry tempest. Fluttering, Here did it enter; there, on hasty wing, Flies out, and passes on from cold to cold; But whence it came we know not, nor behold

5

Whither it goes. Even such that transient

Thing,

The human Soul; not utterly unknown

While in the Body lodged, her warm abode ; 10 But from what world She came, what woe or

weal

On her departure waits, no tongue hath

shown;

This mystery if the Stranger can reveal,
His be a welcome cordially bestowed!" 1

1 See Note.