Ante aras stat veste sacerdos

prospect. Excursion to the battle at Tournay. Effulgens nivea.

Silius Ital. lib. iji. Reflections on the abuses of modern poetry. Delius hic longè candenti veste sacerdos

Hymn to the ever-blessed and glorious Trinity: Occurrit, Valerius Flacc. lib. ii.

1st, to God the Father, as creator and pre

Server: 2dly, to God the Son, as mediator and And not only the priests, but likewise those

redeemer: 3dly, to God the Holy Ghost, as who attended at the sacrifices and paid their de- sauctifier and comforter. Conclusion. votions to their gods: Cernite fulgentes ut eat sacer agnus ad aras, Tinctaque pòst oleâ candida turba comas.

Come, Contemplation! therefore, from thy haunts, Tibull. lib. ij. eleg. 1.

from Spenser's tomb, (with reverent steps and And Ovid:

Oft visited by me; certès, by all,

[slow

Touch'd by the Muse:) from Richmond's green Linguis candida turba favet. Fast. lib. ii.

retreats, I shall only add one passage, from Plautus: Where Nature's bard' the Seasons on his page Ergo æquius vos erat

Stole from the Year's rich hand: or Welwyngroves, Candidatas venire, hostiatasque ad hoc

Where Young, the friend of virtue and of man, Fanum.

Rudens, act. i. sc. 5. Sows with poetic stars the nightly song,

To Phoebus dear as bis own day! and drowns P. 50.

Touch'd my breast and head, The nightingale's complaint in sadder strains Three drops, &c.

And sweeter elegance of woe, O come! Hygeia here performs her office in the very Now ev'ning mildly-still and softer suns manner she was ordered by Mercy. I have, after (While every breeze is flowing balm). invite the manner of Hømer, used the same expressions To taste the fragrant spirit of the Spring over again, as when she received the mandate. Salubrious; from mead or hawthorn-hedge The father of poetry constantly makes his envoys Aromatis:d, and pregnant with delight observe this practice, as a mark of decency and No less than health. And what a prospect round respect.

Swells greenly-grateful on the cherish'd eye!

A universal blush! a waste of sweets!
P. 50. Than Amalthea's, &c.

How live the flow'rs, and, as the Zephyrs blow, Amalthea the daughter of Melissus king of Wave a soft lustre on their parent-Sun, Crete, and nurse of Jupiter, who fed him with And thank him with their odours for his beams; goats-milk and honey. But this story is differ- Mild image of himself! reflected fair, ently related. See Strabo. l. x. Diodor. Sicul. By faintness fair, and amiably mild ! 1. iv. c. 5. and Ovid. Fast. l. v. It is very re- Hark! how the airy Echoes talk along markable that the translation of the Septuagint With undulating answer, soft or loud, uses the expression Amalthea's horn, for the The mocking semblance of the imag'd voice, name of Job's third daughter Keren-happuc (so | Babling itinerant from wood to hill, called 'from her beauty) alluding to a Grecian From hill to dale, and wake their sisters round, fable invented long after; Job, ch. the last. v. 14. To multiply delight upon the ear. The same translation likewise mentions Arachne As float the clouds, romantic Fancy pours in the ninetieth psalm, and 9th verse, which The magazines of Proteus forth, and builds image is left out in all our late versions. A Chris- Huge castles in the air; while vessels sail tian poet therefore may surely be excused for Spacious, along the fluid element; using the word ambrosia, &c. or drawing meta- And dragons burn in gold, with azure stains phors or comparisons from the pagan mythology Speckled: ten thousand inconsistent shapes in a serious composition; which is the practice Shift on the eye, and through the welkin roll. of Milton and some of the best poets. The fault Here tufted hills! there shining villas rise, only is, when the poet weaves the heathen fables Circling; and teinples, solemn, fill the mind with the Jewish and Christian truths. As when

With beauty, splendour, and religious awe! Sannazarius introduces the Furies, Cerberus, &c. Peace o'er the plains expands her snowy wing, into his poem (which is otherwise a very fine Dove-ey'd; and buxom Plenty laughs around! one) De Partu Virginis. And likewise when Far different objects mortify the eye Camoens blends the adventures of Bacchus with Along thy borders, Scheld: (with William's tears the miracles of Christ, &c. in his Lusiad. But | Ennobled, tears from brave Humanity this by the by.

And royal Pity drawn ! nor of his blood
Less prodigal!) Instead of herbag'd plains,
Of fields with golden plenty waring wide,

Of lowing valleys, and of fleecy bills:
THE THANKSGIVING.

What magazines of death! what Haming swords

Destruction brandish; what a burnish'd glare BOOK V.

Of horrour wanders round; what carnage vile The Grave cannot praise thee; Death cannot

Of dubitable limbs; what groaning piles celebrate thee.-The living, the living, he shall Of dying warriors on th' ensanguin'd earth praise thee, as I do this day,

Isaiah.

(E'en sons of Britain, chiefs of high renown)
Grov'ling in dust, and with unmartial fires

Sheer blasted! O'tis pitiful to sight!
ARGUMENT.

It smites the honest brain and heart! The eloud, 'The effects which the restoration of liealth ought to have in the solitudes of Spring. Rural

I Mr. James Thomson.

Belch'd from the brazen throat of war, would hide, | My God! for meditation is too poor,
Industrious, the ruin which it spreads,

Below the sacrifice of Christian hearts:
As if asham'd of massacre. But hark!-

Plato could meditate; a Christian, more : What dire explosion tears th' emboweld sky, Christians, from meditation, soar to pray'r. And rumbles from th'infernal caves? The roar Methinks I hear, reprov'd by modern wit, Of Ætna's troubled caverns, when she heaves

Or rather pagan:

“ Tho' ideal sounds Trinacria from her marble pillars, fix'd

Soft-wafted on the Zephyr's fancy'd wing, On the foundations of the solid Earth,

Steal tuneful soothings on the easy car,
And Thetis' bellows from her distant dens,

New from Ilissus' gilded mists exhal'd;
D'erwhelm the ear! -A mine with deadly stores Tho’gently o'er the academic groves,
Infuriate, burst; and a whole squadrond hust The magic echoes of unbodied thoughts
Whirld through the riven air. A human show'r Roll their light billows through th' unwounded air,
With smoaldry smoke enrolld and wrapt in fire, In mildest undulations! yet a priest',
To cover Earth with desolation drear!--

Tasteless and peevish, with his jargon shrill,
Curst be the man, the monk, the son of Hell, Scorns Academus; tho'its flow'rs bestow
The triple Moloch! whose mechanic brain, On Hybla nectar, purer than her own,
Maliciously inventive, from its forge,

From Plato's honey-dropping tongue distillid
Of cruel steel, the sulphur seeds of wrath

In copious streams, devolving o'er the sense Piashid on the world, and taught us how to kill; Its sweet regalement!" Philodemus, yes: To burl the blazing ruin, to disgorge

(Tho' learn'd Lycæum's cloisters lead the mind From smoking brass the ragged instruments Attentive on, as far as Nature leads: Of Fate, in thunder, on the mangled files

And Plato, for a heathen, nobler dreams
Of gallant foes:-the cowardice of Hell!

Than dream some modern poets:) yes, a priest,
And what the barb'rous nations never knew, A priest dares tell you, Salem's hallow'd walks,
(Thougls nourish'd by the tigers, and their tongues And that illumin’d mountain, where a God,
Red with the gore of lions) to involve

The God of my salvation, and I hope
The holy temples, the religious fanes,

Of thine, unutterable beauty beam’d, To hall lajahs sacred and to peace,

(Tho'shaded from excess of Deity,
With dreadless fires. Shudd'ring the angels weep Too fierce for mortal-aching eyes to prove
At inan's impiety, and seek the skies:

The rush of glory) me, desirous, draw
They weep! while man, courageous in his guilt, From Athen's owls, to Jordan's mystic dove.
Smiles at the jofant writhing on his spear; Thou sing of Nature, and the moral charms
"The boary head pollutes the flin streets

Gild with thy painted Muse: my fingers litt
With scanty blood; and virgins pray in vain. The lyre to God ! Jehova! Eloim!
Blush, blush! or own Deucalion for thy sire. Truth is my leader; only Fancy, thine:

Yet should Rebellion, bursting from the caves (Sweet Farinelli of enervate song!)
Of Erebus, uprear her hydra-forin,

I quit the myrtle, for a starry crown. To poison, Liberty, thy light divine;

And know, if Sickness shed her bluish plaques If sbe, audacious, stalk in open day,

From fog, or fen, or town-infected damps, And hiss avainst the throne by Heav'n's own hand (And, sure I'd pity thee) among thy veins: Estabsist'd, and religion Heav'n-reform’d,

Then, theu no Platonist! thy inmost soul Britannia! rescue Earth from such a bane : Will thank me for this preaching; nor disdain Exert thy ancient spirit; urge thyself

To breathe itself in pray'r, as low as mine;
Into the bowels of the glowing war,

From God begin, with God conclude the song;
Sweep her from day to multiply the fiends, Thus glorifying with a Christian-zeal.
And scare the damn'd! and thou! the God of Father of Heav'n and Earth! coeral Son!
Hosts,

And co-existing Spirit! Trinal-One!
Supreme! the Lord of lords, and King of kings! Mysterious Deity; invisible;
Thy people, thy anointed with thy shield

Indefinite, and omnipresent God,
Corer and shade ; unbare thy righteous arm, Inhabiting eternity! Shall dust,
And save us in the hollow of thy hand!

Shall ashes, dare presume to sing of thee? Michael send, as erst against the host

O for a David's heart, and tongue of fire Oi Lucifer, and let his sword be drunk

To rival angels in my praise and zeal! With rebel blood. The battle is thy own;

Yet love immense, and gratitude, with awe Woen virtue, liberty, religion call:

Religious mix'd, shall elevate the hymn, Tbine is the victory: the glory thine!

My heart enkindle, and inspire my tongue, Turo, Contemplation, from this savage scene Father-Creator! who beholds thy works, Of vwlence and waste: my swimming eyes But catches inspiration! Thou the Earth Hare lost the beauties of the vernal view!

On nothing hung, and balanc'd in the void Sweet are the beauties of the vernal view! With a magnetic force, and central poise. And yet devotion wafts to nobler themes,

Ocean of brightness thou! Thy grand belest And lifts the soul to Heav'n! for who, untouch'd, Flung on thy orb, the Sun, a sparkling drop, With mental adoration, feeling laud,

To light the stars, and feed their silver urns Beholds this living-vegetable whole,

With unexhausted flame; to bid them shine Tbis universal witness of a God !

Eternal in their courses, o'er the blue
Tho' silent, yet convincing, uncontrol?d,

Which mantles night, and woo us to repose
Which meets the sense, and triumphs in the soul? With roscid radiance. They harinonious roll,
Let me, by Isaac's wise example fird,
When meditation led him through the fields, 2 The very expressions of one o' our disciples
Suécily in pious musings lost, adore

In majesty of motion, solemn, loud,

Of elegiac-sorrow, with the theme The universal hallelujah: sphere,

Mournfully varying. Take, my soul redeem'd! lu lucid order, quiring sweet to sphere,

O take the moaning dove's dew-dropping wing, Deep-felt and loftier than a seraph's song; Ply, fly to Solyma! and melt thy woe The symphony of well-according worlds!

To Cedron's murmurs. Thence, extend thy flight But man, thy beain, thy breath, thy image, shines To Golgotha's accursed tree. Behold! The crown, the glory, and the lord of all; Clouds roll'd on clouds of wrath (the blackest wrath Of all below the stars! a plant, from Heav'n Of an offended God!) his beauties shade; Traduc'd, to spread the riches of its bloom But shade not long: it soon in drops dissolves, O'er Earth, and water'd with etherial dews; Sweet to the soul as manna to the taste, Incorruptible aliment! The birds

As pride of summer-flow'r to sight or smell ! Warble among his boughs; the cattle, safe, Behind this shadowing cloud, this mystic gloom, Pasture within his shade; and Earth beneath The Sharon rose, dy'd in the blood of Heav'n, Th' imperial umbrage of his branches smiles. The lily of the valley, white from stain, The smiling Earth, the spangled spheres, and man Bows the fair head, in loveliness declines, Their great Creator praise! but praise how long, And, sweetly languishing, it droops and dies. Unless by thy almighty arm upheld,

But darkness veils the Sun: a curtain draw Preserver infinite? By thee unless

Before the passion; beyond wonder great, Upheld, the Earth would from her basis reel; Great beyond silence !- (Awe-struck pause 2The spheres forego their courses, (off their orbs while-) The silver softness melted into shade)

And heavy as the burthen of our sins!Obscurely dissonant; and mortal man

'Tis finish'd!-Change the lyre, the numbers (Void of thy fostering fires) his stately form Let holy anthem-airs inspire the hymn. (change; To dust be moulder'd: Chaos would resume Glory in Heav'n! redemption to mankind, Her ancient anarchy; confusion, rule;

And peace on Earth! dominion ! blessing! praise! And darkness swallow all. In thee we live,

Thanksgiving! pow'r! salvation to our God! In thee we move: our beings in thy chain, Salvation to our God, and to the Lamb! Linkt to eternity, fasten on thee,

And, co-existing Spirit! Thou, whose breath The pillar of our souls! For me, (how late My voice informs, shall it be mute to thee, A neighbour of the worm!) when I forget

Eternal Paraclete? in order, last, The wonders of thy goodness ray'd on me, Equal in glory to Omnipotence And cease to celebrate, with matin-barp

The first, as to the second; and from both Or vesper-song, thy plenitude of love,

Proceeding; (O inexplicable name!) And healing mercy; may the nightly pow'r, Mystical link of the unnumber'd Three! Which whispers on my slumbers, cease to breathe To learning, night; to faith, the noon-tide day. Her modulating impulse through my soul; Soul of the universe! thy wisdom, first, Untun'd, unhallow'd ! Discord, string my lyre, The rage compos'd of warring elements, Idly, my finger, press the fretted gold,

(The subject of a nobler future song) Rebellious to the dictates of my hand,

Yon all-surrounding Heav'ns with crystal orbs When indolent, to swell the notes for thee, Garnish'd, and living gems, in goodly ranks Father of Heav'n and Earth!-Coeval Son!

And disciplin'd array; dividing night (His word, his essence, his effulgence pure!) From day, their ordinances 'stablish'd sure. Not less thy filial likeness I adore,

Moving the waters saw thee o’er their face, Nor from thy Father's glory aught disjoin, O God, the waters saw thee, and afraid, Redeemer! Mediator! from the birth

Into their channels shrunk, (capacious bed Of uncreated 'Time, thy Father's wrath

Of liquid element!) and own'd their bounds (Sprung from omniscience!) to appease, for man, Impassable, as that eternal gulph [beams Upright as yet, to mediate, mercy wak'd

"Twixt bliss and woe.

,-The Prince of Peace tby Unbounded love in thee; unbounded love

Largely imbib’d, when, dovelike, o'er his head, Contracted to the measure of a span

Fast by the banks of Jordan's sacred stream, Immensity of Godhead, and thy crown

Thy mantling wings diffus'd their heavenly hues; Reft from thy faded brow. Listen, O Earth! And Abba glorify'd his Only Son, And wonder, O ye Heav'ns! shall he, whose feet

Well-pleased. From thy tongues of cloven fire Are cloth'd with stars, (the glory of his head Kindled, the nations burn'd in flaming zeal, For who can tell?) whose looks divine illume And unextinguish'd charity, dispers'd The dazzl'd eyes of cherubs, and the youth And glowing as the summer blaze at noon. Of saints with everlasting bloom renew :

The rushing winds, on all their wings convey'd Shall he, whose vital smiles with splendour fill Thy doctrine, strong to shake the guilty soul; The circuits of creation, and sustain

As, erst, the dome, low-stooping to its base, TH'abodes of all existence, from the depths Before thy mighty presence learn’d to bend. Of Hell beneath, above Heav'n's highest orb, Thou, from the morning-womb, upon our souls, With life, and health, and joy! shall he, to God, Barren and dry, thy sanctifying dews, Dear as his eye and heart, engraven there

Abroad, in silent softness sheds: the dews Deep from eternity; alone belov'd,

Of love unspotted, uncorrupted joy; Alone begotten! say, shall he become

Obedient goodness, temperance subdu'd; A man of grief--for man? nay more his foe, Unshaken faith, and meekness without guile. Rebellious next the fiends?--Astonishment Hence flow the odours out, our pray’rs perfume, Had chain'd my tongue to silence, if the pow'rs Like incense, rising fragrant on the throne, Of tenderést pity and of warmest love Prorok'd not pensive measures, sadder strains

* The Elements, a Poem: in four books.

From golden vials pour'd, by elder hands!

Thus Virgil:
Extinct thy influential radiance, Sin,

Cælum & terram camposque liquentes,
Incumbent on the soul, as black as Hell,
Holds godless anarchy: by thee refin'd,

Lucentemque globum lunæ, Titaniaque astra locens'd, sublim'd, and sanctify'd, the soul

Spiritus intùs agit. Invites the Holiest (O abyss of love!)

That he means God by Spirit, appears from To choose a temple, purer than the Sun,

another place. Incorruptible, formed not by hands,

-Deum ire per omnes
Where best he loves to dwell.—Thou all my bed, Terrasque tractusque maris cælumque profundum. '
Most holy Comforter! in sickness smooth'd,

And Zeno's opinion is very remarkable:
And violet-buds, and roses, without thorn, (vale
Shower'd round the couch. From darkness and the

Θεος εςι πτυμα διηκον δι' ολα τα κοσμε.
Of shadowy Death, to pastures fair, and streams

See Lactantius, B. vii. c. 3. and DiogeOf comfort, thy refreshing right-hand led

nes Laertius in the Life of Zeno. My wearied soul, and bath'd in health and joy !

P. 54. Moving the waters saw thee o'er their To light restor'd and the sweet breath of Heav'n,

face, &c. Beneath thy olive-boughs, in plenteous flow, The golden oil effusing on my head

Cicero tells us that it was Thales's opinion that Of gladness, let me ever sit and sing,

God was the Spirit which created all things from Thy numerous Godhead sparkling in my soul,

the water. “ Thales aquam dixit esse initium Thyself instilling praises, by thy ear

rerum, Deum autem esse mentem quæ ex aqua Not unapprov'd! For wisdom's steady ray,

cuncta fingeret.”

De Nat. Deor. l. i. TH' enlightning gift of tongues, the sacred fires

P. 54. Of poesy are thine; united Three!

· Before thy mighty presence, &c. Father of Heav'n and Earth! coeval Son!

The very heathens imagined a commotion in And co-existing Spirit! Trinal One!

nature at the presence of the Deity.

· Vibratus ab æthere fulgor

Cum sonitu venit, ruere omnia visa repentè.
NOTES AND ALLUSIONS.

Æneis. lib. 8.

And in another place, Virgil: Page 52. ALONG thy borders, Scheld

Vix ea fatus eram, tremere omnia visa repentè This was written at the time of the siege of Liminaque laurusque Dei, totusque moveri Tournay.

Mons circum.

Æneis, lib. 3, P. 53. Plato could meditate.

So likewise Statius: Far be it from me to speak with disrespect of

Mirabar cur templa mihi tremuere Dianæ.

Theb. lib. 4. this pagan philosopher. For my part, I could al

And Seneca : most declare my admiration of Plato's beautiful

Imo mugit è fundo solum, descriptions, &c. in the words of B. Jonson on

Tonat dies serenus, ac totis domus Sbakspeare: “ To justify," says he, “my own Ut fracta tectis crepuit, Thyestes, Act II, candour, I honour his memory (on this side idolatry) as much as any." See bis Discoveries, P. 54. -Thou from the morning-womb, &c. vol II. fol. of his works. Page 98.

Psalm cx. 3. This is a noble metaphor to exI only here would observe how falsely, not to say impiously, some modern writers seem to take

press the beauties and graces of the Holy Spirit,

So that “ from the womb of the moruing" in the pains to recommend Plato's ideal morality in op- Psalmist, signifies this: From the heavenly light position to the glorious doctrines so fully revealed of the Gospel, which is the wing or beam whereby in the holy scriptures.

the Sun of Righteousness revealeth himself, and P. 53. Philodemus.

breaketh out upon the world, the people shall

adorn themselves from the first forming of Christ Alluding to 2. Sectanus's admirable Satires; who in them, with the dews of grace, and the gifts and introduces much such another character under emanations of the Holy Ghost: which are love, this name. The true author, as we are informed By Mons. Blainville in his curious Travels, is

joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,

faith, meekness, temperance. Gal. v, 22. &c. Mons. Segardi, one of the finest and politest When the spirit of Christ bloweth thus upon us, gentlemen of Rome; by Philodemus, he means

and the dews of grace are poured into our hearts, one Gravina, an atheistical pretender to philoso- then the spices flow out, which arise from the pay, the Greek language, &c. He thus makes holy duties and spiritual infusions, mentioned hmm boast of himselt, as if he drew the principles

above. of his system from Socrates. Nos etenim (puto jàm nosti) docti sumus, & quos

P. 55.

From elder-hands. Socraticâ coepi tractandos mollitèr arte

Rev. v. 8. The four-and-twenty elders fell Srdibus emergunt vulgi, totâque probantur down before the Lamb, having every one of them Uite.

harps and golden vials full of odours, which are See 2. Sectani Satyr. 4to. vol. I. Sat. 1. the prayers of the saints; that is, the prayers of lib. i. v, 108, &c.

good men are as grateful to God as incense from P. 54. Soul of the universe,

the tabernacle. So David, Ps. xiv. 2. Let my The heathens frequently give the appellation of prayer be directed to thee as incense. Soul or Spirit to God,

P. 55. Beneath thy olive-brauch, &c,

Alluding to the two olive-branches in Zecharia, I sink beneath their black approach: c. iv. v. 11 and 12. which empty the golden oil My God! thy mercy lend; out of themselves. Amongst other expositions of Let Hope her healing wings diffuse; which words, Junius and Tarnovius interpret O snatch me from the fiend! them, to mean the various gifts and effusions of the Holy Spirit, which are, by Christ, derived I feel, I feel thy saving health : upon the church. For Christ is called the Messiah, New raptures fill my heart : on account of his being anointed with the oil of A shining train of bliss succeeds; gladness; Ps. xiv. 8. And St. John speaketh thus The gloomy scenes depart. of the Holy Ghost: Ye have an unction from the Holy One.

1 John ii. 20. The anointing which Tho'straining coughs this mortal frame ye received from him, abideth in you. John c. ii. To dissolution bring, y, 27.

Yet dreary Death in rain affrights, To conclude; a recovery from the small-pox a

And points in vain his sting: few years ago, gave occasion to the preceding poem. I only at first (in gratitude to the Great

If gracious Heaven at that sad hour Physician of souls and bodies) designed to have

Its guardian arm extend; published this hymn to the Trinity upon a re

If angels watch my parting soul, covery from sickness. But the subject being very

And save me at my end. extensive, and capable of admitting serious reflections on the frail state of humanity, I expati

O Lord, or let me live or die, ated farther upon it. It cannot be supposed that

Thy holy will be done! I should treat upon sickness in a medicinal, but

But let me live alone to thee,

And die in thee alone. only in a descriptive, a moral, and religious manner: the versification is varied accordingly: the descriptive parts being more poetical; the inoral, more plain; and the religious, for the most part, drawn from the Holy Scriptures. I have

GRATITUDE. just taken such notice of the progress of the small

A POEM, ON THE COUNTESS OF POMFRET'S BENE. pox, as may give the reader some small idea of it,

FACTIONS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. without offending his imagination. - These few notes are not intended for the learned reader, but Donarem statuas-Carmina possumus added to assist those who may not be so well Donare.

Horat. acquainted with the classical and other allusions. I do not remember to have seen any other poem Shall foreign lands for Pomfret wake the lyre, on the same subject to lead me on the way, and And Tyber's more than Isis' banks inspire ? therefore, it is to be hoped, the good-natured Let Isis' groves with Pomfret's name resound; reader will more readily excuse its blemishes. Not Rome alone can boast of classic ground. I have here added, by way of conclusion to the The living laurel wreath, to bind her hair.

Ye sons of harmony, the wreath prepare, notes, a short hymn written (when very young) in Hail

, fair exemplar of the good and great, the great epidemical cold in 1732.

The Muses hail thee to their honour'd seat;

And ne'er since Anna with her presence blest,
AN HYMN IN SICKNESS.

They sung à nobler, more auspicious guest.
O LORD! to thee I lift my soul,

Behold our youth, transported at the sight;
To thee direct my eyes,

Behold our virgins, sparkling with delight:

E'en venerable age forgets its snow,
While fate in every vapour rolls,

The splendour catches, and consents to glow.
And sick’ning Nature sighs.

Ye youths, with Pomfret's praises tune the shell:

Ye virgins, learn from Pomfret to excel :
E'en air, the vehicle of life,

For let her age, with fervent prayers and pure,
The soft recess of breath,

The blessings of all bounteous Heaven secure. Is made the harbinger of fate,

Their breathing incense let the Graces bring : And poison'd dart of Death.

Their grateful pæans let the Muses sing.

If praise be guilt, ye laurels, cease to grow,
No gentle strains relieve my ears:

Oxford to sing, and seraphims to glow.
But hark! the passing-toll,

No altars to an idol-power we raise,
In a long, sadly-solemn knell,

Nor consecrate the worthless with our praise,
Alarms anew my soul.

To merit only and to goodness just,
We rear the arch-triumphal and the bust.

Sprung from the Pembroke' race, their nation's
No lovely prospect meets my eye,

Allied by science, as by blood allied, (pride,
But melancholy fear,
Attended with the hollow pomp
of sickness and despair.

The Pembroke family have been remarkable for genius. Mary, countess of Pembroke, sister

to sir Philip Sidney, for whose entertainment be My sins, wide-staring in my face

wrote his Arcadia, published a tragedy called in ghastly guise alarm;

Antonius. Ann, countess of Pembroke, had The pleasing sins of wanton youth,

Daniel for her tutor, and erected to Spenser the In many a fatal charm.

monument in Westminster Abbey. William, earl