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Change, the law of the 990 universe

Did most resemble him. Degrees and ranks,
Fraternities and orders-heaping high
New wealth upon the burthen of the old,
And placing trust in privilege confirmed
And re-confirmed-are scoffed at with a smile
Of greedy foretaste, from the secret stand
Of Desolation, aimed: to slow decline
These yield, and these to sudden overthrow :
Their virtue, service, happiness, and state
Expire; and nature's pleasant robe of green,
Humanity's appointed shroud, enwraps
Their monuments and their memory.
vast Frame

Of social nature changes evermore
Her organs and her members with decay
Restless, and restless generation, powers
And functions dying and produced at need,
And by this law the mighty whole subsists:
With an ascent and progress in the main ;
Yet, oh! how disproportioned to the hopes
And expectations of self-flattering minds!

The

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The courteous Knight, whose bones are here interred,

Lived in an age conspicuous as our own

For strife and ferment in the minds of men ;
Whence alteration in the forms of things, IOII
Various and vast. A memorable age!
Which did to him assign a pensive lot-
To linger 'mid the last of those bright clouds
That, on the steady breeze of honour, sailed
In long procession calm and beautiful.

He who had seen his own bright order fade,

Think And its devotion gradually decline,

gently of (While war, relinquishing the lance and shield, the past Her temper changed, and bowed to other laws) Had also witnessed, in his morn of life,

1021

That violent commotion, which o'erthrew,
In town and city and sequestered glen,
Altar, and cross, and church of solemn roof,
And old religious house-pile after pile;
And shook their tenants out into the fields,
Like wild beasts without home! Their hour

was come :

But why no softening thought of gratitude,
No just remembrance, scruple, or wise doubt?
Benevolence is mild; nor borrows help, 1030
Save at worst need, from bold impetuous force,
Fitliest allied to anger and revenge.
But Human-kind rejoices in the might
Of mutability; and airy hopes,
Dancing around her, hinder and disturb

Those meditations of the soul that feed

The retrospective virtues.

Festive songs

Break from the maddened nations at the sight

Of sudden overthrow; and cold neglect

Is the sure consequence of slow decay.

1040

Even," said the Wanderer, " as that courteous

Knight,

Bound by his vow to labour for redress

Of all who suffer wrong, and to enact
By sword and lance the law of gentleness,
(If I may venture of myself to speak,
Trusting that not incongruously I blend
Low things with lofty) I too shall be doomed

To outlive the kindly use and fair esteem
Of the poor calling which my youth embraced
With no unworthy prospect. But enough; 1050
-Thoughts crowd upon me-and 'twere
seemlier now

To stop, and yield our gracious Teacher thanks
For the pathetic records which his voice
Hath here delivered; words of heartfelt truth,
Tending to patience when affliction strikes ;
To hope and love; to confident repose
In God; and reverence for the dust of Man."

The Pastor thanked

END OF THE SEVENTH BOOK.

THE EXCURSION.

BOOK VIII.

THE PARSONAGE.

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