"SWEET is the holiness of Youth"-so felt Time-honored Chaucer speaking through that Lay By which the Prioress beguiled the way, And many a Pilgrim's rugged heart did melt. Hadst thou, loved Bard! whose spirit often dwelt In the clear land of vision, but foreseen King, child, and seraph, blended in the mien Of pious Edward kneeling as he knelt (O great Precursor, genuine morning Star) The lucid shafts of reason to employ, Piercing the Papal darkness from afar ! XXXII. EDWARD SIGNING THE WARRANT FOR THE EXECUTION OF JOAN OF KENT. THE tears of man in various measure gush From various sources; gently overflow From blissful transport some-from clefts of woe GENERAL VIEW OF THE TROUBLES OF THE REFORMATION. AID, glorious Martyrs, from your fields of light, Our niortal ken! Inspire a perfect trust (While we look round) that Heaven's decrees are just; Which few can hold committed to a fight That shows, ev'n on its better side, the might Of proud Self-will, Rapacity, and Lust, 'Mid clouds enveloped of polemic dust, Which showers of blood seem rather to incite Than to allay. Anathemas are hurled From both sides; veteran thunders (the brute test Were mine the trusty staff that JEWELL gave To youthful HOOKER, in familiar style More sweet than odors caught by him who sails Near spicy shores of Araby the blest, XLIII. ILLUSTRATION. XLIV. TROUBLES OF CHARLES THE FIRST. EVEN Such the contrast that, where'er we move, To the mind's eye Religion doth present; Now with her own deep quietness content; Then, like the mountain, thundering froni above Against the ancient pine-trees of the grove And the Land s humblest comforts. Now her mood Recalls the transformation of the flood, name, And scourges England struggling to be free: Her peace destroyed! her hopes a wilderness! Her blessings cursed-her glory turned to shanie. XLV. LAUD. PREJUDGED by foes determined not to spare, An old weak Man for vengeance thrown aside, Laud, "in the painful art of dying" tried, THE JUNG-FRAU AND THE FALL OF THE (Like a poor bird entangled in a snare RHINE NEAR SCHAFFHAUSEN. THE Virgin Mountain,* wearing like a A brilliant crown of everlasting snow, And seeming, at a little distance, slow, Till madness seizes on the whole wide Turned to a fearful Thing whose nostrils breathe Blasts of tempestuous smoke-wherewith he tries To hide himself, but only magnifies; And doth in more conspicuous torment writhe, Deafening the region in his ireful mood. • The Jung-frau. Whose heart still flutters, though his wings forbear To stir in useless struggle) hath relied O Death! the ensanguined yet triumphant wheels, Which thou prepar'st, full often, to convey (What time a State with madding faction reels) The Saint or Patriot to the world that heals All wounds, all perturbations doth allay? XLVI. AFFLICTIONS OF ENGLAND. HARP! could'st thou venture, on thy boldest string, The faintest note to echo which the blast Caught from the hand of Moses as it pass'd O'er Sinai's top, or from the Shepherd-king, Early awake, by Siloa's brook, to sing feast He keepeth; like the firmament his ways: PART III. With frantic love-his kingdom to regain? FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE PRES- Or is remembered only to give zest To wantonness.-Away, Circean revels ! sink Charged with rich words poured out in To the sole temple of the inward mind; Sad thoughts; for from above the starry Come secrets, whispered nightly to his ear; Of things invisible to mortal sight." V. WALTON'S BOOK OF LIVES. Was shaped that traced the lives of these |