Those helps for his occasions ever near
Who lacks not will to use them; vows, renewed
On the first motion of a holy thought;

Vigils of contemplation; praise; and prayer-
A stream, which, from the fountain of the heart
Issuing, however feebly, nowhere flows
Without access of unexpected strength.
But, above all, the victory is most sure
For him, who, seeking faith by virtue, strives
To yield entire submission to the law

Of conscience-conscience reverenced and obeyed,
As God's most intimate presence in the soul,
And his most perfect image in the world.
-Endeavour thus to live; these rules regard;
These helps solicit; and a stedfast seat
Shall then be yours among the happy few
Who dwell on earth, yet breathe empyreal air,
Sons of the morning. For your nobler part,
Ere disencumbered of her mortal chains,
Doubt shall be quelled and trouble chased away;
With only such degree of sadness left
As may support longings of pure desire ;
And strengthen love, rejoicing secretly
In the sublime attractions of the grave."

While, in this strain, the venerable Sage
Poured forth his aspirations, and announced
His judgments, near that lonely house we paced
A plot of green-sward, seemingly preserved
By nature's care from wreck of scattered stones,
And from encroachment of encircling heath:
Small space! but, for reiterated steps,
Smooth and commodious; as a stately deck
Which to and fro the mariner is used
To tread for pastime, talking with his mates,
Or haply thinking of far-distant friends,
While the ship glides before a steady breeze.
Stillness prevailed around us: and the voice

That spake was capable to lift the soul

Toward regions yet more tranquil. But, methought,
That he, whose fixed despondency had given
Impulse and motive to that strong discourse,
Was less upraised in spirit than abashed;
Shrinking from admonition, like a man
Who feels that to exhort is to reproach.
Yet not to be diverted from his aim,
The Sage continued :-
:-

"For that other loss,

The loss of confidence in social man,

By the unexpected transports of our age

;

Carried so high, that every thought, which looked Beyond the temporal destiny of the Kind, To many seemed superfluous-as, no cause Could e'er for such exalted confidence Exist; so, none is now for fixed despair: The two extremes are equally disowned By reason: if, with sharp recoil, from one You have been driven far as its opposite, Between them seek the point whereon to build Sound expectations. So doth he advise Who shared at first the illusion; but was soon Cast from the pedestal of pride by shocks Which Nature gently gave, in woods and fields Nor unreproved by Providence, thus speaking To the inattentive children of the world : "Vain-glorious Generation! what new powers 'On you have been conferred ? what gifts, withheld 'From your progenitors, have ye received, 'Fit recompense of new desert ? what claim 'Are ye prepared to urge, that my decrees For you should undergo a sudden change; 'And the weak functions of one busy day, Reclaiming and extirpating, perform 'What all the slowly-moving years of time, 'With their united force, have left undone ? 'By nature's gradual processes be taught;

6

'By story be confounded! Ye aspire

'Rashly, to fall once more; and that false fruit, Which, to your over-weening spirits, yields Hope of a flight celestial, will produce

'Misery and shame. But Wisdom of her sons 'Shall not the less, though late, be justified.'

Such timely warning," said the Wanderer, “gave
That visionary voice; and, at this day,
When a Tartarean darkness overspreads
The groaning nations; when the impious rule,
By will or by established ordinance,

Their own dire agents, and constrain the good
To acts which they abhor; though I bewail
This triumph, yet the pity of my heart
Prevents me not from owning, that the law,
By which mankind now suffers, is most just.
For by superior energies; more strict
Affiance in each other; faith more firm
In their unhallowed principles; the bad
Have fairly earned a victory o'er the weak,
The vacillating, inconsistent good.

Therefore, not unconsoled, I wait-in hope
To see the moment, when the righteous cause
Shall gain defenders zealous and devout

As they who have opposed her; in which Virtue
Will, to her efforts, tolerate no bounds
That are not lofty as her rights; aspiring
By impulse of her own ethereal zeal.
That spirit only can redeem mankind;
And when that sacred spirit shall appear,
Then shall our triumph be complete as theirs.
Yet, should this confidence prove vain, the wise
Have still the keeping of their proper peace;
Are guardians of their own tranquillity.
They act, or they recede, observe, and feel;
Knowing the heart of man is set to be

The centre of this world, about the which

Those revolutions of disturbances

Still roll; where all the aspècts of misery
Predominate; whose strong effects are such
As he must bear, being powerless to redress
And that unless above himself he can
Erect himself, how poor a thing is Man!"*

;

Happy is he who lives to understand, Not human nature only, but explores All natures,—to the end that he may find The law that governs each; and where begins The union, the partition where, that makes Kind and degree, among all visible Beings; The constitutions, powers, and faculties, Which they inherit,-cannot step beyond,And cannot fall beneath; that do assign To every class its station and its office, Through all the mighty commonwealth of things; Up from the creeping plant to sovereign Man. Such converse, if directed by a meek, Sincere, and humble spirit, teaches love : For knowledge is delight; and such delight Breeds love yet, suited as it rather is To thought and to the climbing intellect, It teaches less to love, than to adore; If that be not indeed the highest love!

"Yet," said I, tempted here to interpose,
"The dignity of life is not impaired
By aught that innocently satisfies

The humbler cravings of the heart; and he
Is still a happier man, who, for those heights
Of speculation not unfit, descends;

And such benign affections cultivates

Among the inferior kinds; not merely those
That he may call his own, and which depend,

* Daniel,

As individual objects of regard,
Upon his care, from whom he also looks
For signs and tokens of a mutual bond ;
But others, far beyond this narrow sphere,
Whom, for the very sake of love, he loves.
Nor is it a mean praise of rural life
And solitude, that they do favour most,
Most frequently call forth, and best sustain,
These pure sensations; that can penetrate
The obstreperous city; on the barren seas
Are not unfelt; and much might recommend,
How much they might inspirit and endear,
The loneliness of this sublime retreat!"

"Yes," said the Sage, resuming the discourse Again directed to his downcast Friend, "If, with the froward will and grovelling soul Of man, offended, liberty is here,

And invitation every hour renewed,

you

To mark their placid state, who never heard
Of a command which they have power to break,
Or rule which they are tempted to transgress:
These, with a soothed or elevated heart,
May we behold; their knowledge register;
Observe their ways; and, free from envy, find
Complacence there-but wherefore this to
?
I guess that, welcome to your lonely hearth,
The redbreast, ruffled up by winter's cold
Into a 'feathery bunch,' feeds at your hand :
A box, perchance, is from your casement hung
For the small wren to build in ;-not in vain,
The barriers disregarding that surround
This deep abiding place, before your sight
Mounts on the breeze the butterfly; and soars,
Small creature as she is, from earth's bright flowers,
Into the dewy clouds. Ambition reigns
In the waste wilderness: the Soul ascends
Drawn towards her native firmament of heaven,