Of him who worships thee with purer heart,
And touches thy steep path with chaster tread,
Than they to whom alone thou dost impart
Sweet lessons of thy lore and heaven-descended art?

IV.

And ye, bright queens of song! symphonious Nine!
Ye virgin-daughters of Olympian Jove,
Sweet quiristers to Pæan's golden strings!
To ye we rear with pious hands, a shrine
In many a verdant vale and shadowy grove,
By winding streams, cool grot and crystal springs;
Where arching laurel flings

Mysterious shade and grateful airs around;
Where footstep scarce is seen, nor ruder sound
Than Procne's song, or voice of warbling bird
ye unknown, is heard-

To

Swift-twittering wren, or garrulous jay, or thrush

Scarce heeding when the wind-swung boughs are stirred-
Or plash of pebbly brook, with bubbling gush

Forcing melodious way, through tangled briar and bush.

V.

Then leave Europa's shores, celestial maids!
And hither speed, across the Mighty Sea,
As ye were wont, your ever-western flight.
For thus, 'tis said, ye left your native shades,
What time the voice of hateful Tyranny
Startled your anxious ears on Arne's height.
When first, with pale affright,

The Macedon ye saw with bloodstained brand
And haughty stride, stalk victor through the land,
Your sweet abodes ye left with many a sigh,
And sought a new home nigh

Slow Mincius, and on young Ausonia's plain,
Taught her free sons immortal melody-
Till at the clanking of the Roman's chain,
Ye urged your angry flight to Albion's far domain.

VI.

Come, eldest of the Nine, with laurel crown—
Bright queen of story! with the dazzling scroll
And trump and shrill-toned pipe, and plectre, come !
And teach us to rehearse the high renown

Of him who bade reluctant War to roll

The peal of Vengeance on the doubling drum ;

Changing the grateful hum

Of peaceful cities to dread Battle's roar,

Till foiled and quelled the Despot shunned the shore,

Leaving his sceptre in the Hero's hand;

Then with near presence stand,

And build the story how the Chief surveyed

With careless eye the Empire of the land,

Broke, unseduced, the Tyrant's yielded blade,

And Conquest's glittering prize on Freedom's altar laid.

VII.

And thou! sweet queen of soothing words, descend
Calliope! from Heaven, with ivy wreath
Thy car less golden locks entwined among.
To us some share of thy loved influence lend,
And bid the bard's dream rest our lids beneath,
Prompting to lofty rhyme the obedient tongue!
For else may not be sung

In numbers meet another Hero's praise—

He who disdained to live luxurious days,
But at fast-fainting Freedom's desperate cry,
Raised his indignant eye,

And from his angry brow the myrtle tore,

And crossed the sea, and sought a stranger-sky,

And bathed his champion-blade in Thraldom's gore,

Then crowned with deathless Fame, left freed Hesperia's shore.

Go forth! my friendless song! all reckless, go
Forth on the waves of time, and if perchance
Thy pages meet the glance

Of him, the sole one here around whose lyre
Floats the near flood of unembodied fire;
Tell him his country, from Monadnoc's snow
To the far Gulf where southern ardors glow,
Calls on him to awake the slumbering string
Of his high harp, that we no more may be
A scorn among the nations, and that he
May boldly soar upon the upward wing,
And back to Earth again, empyreal riches bring.

O. P. Q.

The Book of the Church. By Robert Southey, Esq. L. L. D. 2 vols. 8vo. London. John Murray. 1824.

Those of our readers who have already heard of this publication, without being able to obtain a sight of its contents, have doubtless been puzzled, in no inconsiderable degree, to determine, from the title of the work, its precise subject and design. Mr. Southey's object, in these very interesting volumes, is one which we should suppose would procure him the thanks of a very large portion of the British public, and of those on this side the Atlantic who are well disposed to the diffusion of religious information. It is to trace the history of the Romish Church in Britain, from the first introduction of Christianity into that country-the gradual progress of religious light-the reformation-and the happy establishment of the Church of England, on the ruins of defeated Catholicism. The nar rative is continued down to the period of the revolution

in 1688; and the express purpose of the author is to put into the hands of the younger portion of the British community, a compendious narrative of their established religion. To the young of our own country, however, we conceive the design to present no less either of interest or of instruction. Whatever be the distinctions prevailing among us of religious opinion, all protestants must view with equal concern the record of a church which took so distinguished a part in the deliverance of the world from the bondage of mental and spiritual despotism; which defended the truth with the learning, and sealed it with the martyrdom of her sons. It is on this account that we could wish to see a new edition of this able historical sketch issue from one of the presses of our own country.

That there is, among the younger class of the community, a lamentable deficiency of knowledge as to the world's religious history, is a complaint which we have often heard made by those whose professional intercourse gave them facilities of information. And the remark has probably been confirmed by the experience of many of our readers. Advert, in the course of conversation, to any one of those great events which stand conspicuous upon the ecclesiastical records-and what is the extent of acquaintance with these subject most generally manifested? We allude in particular, in these remarks, to the female part of society; and that too, among the ranks of the well educated and accomplished. Of that religion to which they owe all their happiness in this world, and their hopes of happiness in another, they are as little informed as to the rise, the progress, and the remarkable periods, as if the great drama had been acted upon some other planet, in which mankind had neither part nor interest. Now we do think that something is to be said in palliation of such a state of things. For those who wish to obtain a competent acquaintance with the annals of the church of Christ. in an easy and interesting form, there are few works in circulation. There has been no medium preserved between the dry, chronological outline, intended for the library of the professional student, and the unsatisfactory substitute of abridgment. What has been all along wanted, is a collection of histories of detached portions of the christian church, arranged in a familiar style, diversified with anecdotes of private character, and made to combine the purpose of enter-` tainment with that of solid instruction. And such precisely is the work which Mr. Southey has presented to the public. In our opinion, if there be one among the various talents with which this distinguished writer is gifted, which entitles him more than

another to admiration, it is his power as a biographer and historian. Along with the main narrative, he has the rare faculty of scattering lively individual delineations. His style is rich and various; flowing rapidly and vigorously on, in an uninterrupted stream. His memoir of Lord Nelson-the only one that will go down to posterity, and his account of Wesley and Methodism-which, whatever may be said of its religious views and opinions, pictures off the great subject to the very life, and leaves us under the impression of the greatness and the goodness of that extraordinary man, would alone place him among the first biographers, if we had no other instances to prove his claim to such distinction. The work before us possesses all the qualities for which he is so remarkable. It assembles together the principal facts; places them in an inviting position, and gives to the subject all those attractions which strong feeling, and pathos, and personal portraits, can lend to it. Take as samples of the author's manner, the following selections from different parts of his work, for our room is too scanty for many extracts. We have chosen descriptions of individual character, because they can most properly be detached from the main body of the narrative.

Our first specimen is his account of the famous Hildebrand:

"The pretensions of the Roman Church had at this time been carried to their highest pitch by Gregory VII., one of those restless spirits who obtain an opprobrious renown in history, for disturbing the age in which they live. The Romanists themselves acknowledge now the inordinate ambition of this haughty pontiff, who may be deemed the founder of the papal dominion; but during many centuries, he was held up as an object of admiration to the Christian world, and still holds his place as a saint in the Romish Calendar. His sanctity, the legends of that church relate, was pre-figured in childhood, by sparks proceeding from his garments, and by a lambent light which appeared to issue from his head. He himself affirmed, that in a dream, there went forth fire from his mouth, and set the world in flames; and his enemies, who verified him as a sorcerer, admitted, that such a vision was appropriate to one who was indeed a firebrand. Another of his dreams was, that he saw St. Paul clearing out dung from his church, wherein cattle had taken shelter, and calling upon him to assist him in the work; and certain persons who were keeping vigils in St. Peter's Church, beheld, in a waking vision, St. Peter and Hildebrand laboring at the same task. By such artifices his reputation for sanctity was established among the people, while he obtained promotion for his activity and talents; till at length, rather by intrigue and popular outcry, than by canonical election, he was chosen Pope. Hitherto, the Popes had recognized the supremacy of the Emperors, by notifying to them their election before they were consecrated, and having that ceremony performed in the presence of an imperial envoy. Hildebrand conformed to this, being conscious that his elevation was informal, and glad to have it thus ratified. The use he made of the power which he had thus obtained, was to throw off all dependence upon the temporal authority, and establish a system, whereby Rome should again become the mistress of the world. A grand

er scheme never was devised by human ambition; and wild as it may appear, it was at that time, in many point so beneficial, that the most upright men might conscientiously have laboured to advance it. Whether the desire of benefitting mankind had any place among the early impulses of Hildebrand, may well be doubted, upon the most impartial consideration of his conduct; but in preparing the way for an intolerable tyranny, and for the worst of all abuses, he began by reforming abuses, and vindicating legal rights." Vol. I. pp. 126-8.

We pass over the long intermediate space between this beginning of papal supremacy, and the brighter days of its overthrow. Of Sir Thomas More, the inveterate opponent of Henry the Eighth, as it respected his rebellion against the Roman Pontiff, Mr. Southey thus draws the character.

"Sir Thomas More is represented by the Protestant martyrologists, as a cruel persecutor; by Catholics as a blessed martyr. Like some of his contemporaries, he was both. But the character of this illustrious man deserves a fairer estimate than has been given it, either by his adorers or his enemies."***"The Protestants who by his orders, and some of them actually in his sight, were flogged and racked, to make them declare with whom they were connected, and where was the secret deposit of their forbidden books, imputed the cruelty of the laws to his personal inhumanity. In this they were as unjust to him, as he was in imputing moral criminality to them, for he was one of those unworldly dispositions which are ever more willing to endure evil than to inflict it. It is because this was so certainly his temper and his principle, that his decided intolerance has left a stain upon his memory: what in his contemporaries was only consistent with themselves and the times, appearing monstrous in him, who in other points was advancad so far beyond his age. But by this very superiority it may partly be explained. He perceived, in some some of the crude and perilous opinions which were now promulgated, consequences to which the Reformers, in the ardor and impatience of their sincerity, were blind: he saw that they tended to the subversion, not of existing institutious alone, but of civil society itself: the atrocious phrenzy of the Anabaptists in Germany confirmed him in this apprehension; and the possibility of re-edifying the Church upon its old foundations, and giving it a moral strength which should resist all danger, entered not into his mind, because he was contented with it as it stood, and in the strength of his attachment to its better principles, loved some of its errors, and excused others. Herein he was unlike his friend Erasmus, whom he resembled equally in extent of erudition, and in sportiveness of wit. But More was characteristically devout: the imaginative part of Catholicism had its full effect upon him; its splendid ceremonials, its magnificent edifices, its alliance with painting, music, and sculpture, (the latter arts then rapidly advancing to their highest point of excellence,) its observances, so skilfully interwoven with the business, the festivities, and the ordinary economy of life,-in these things he delighted,-and all these the Reformers were for sweeping away. But the impelling motive for his conduct was his assent to the tenet, that belief in the doctrines of the Church was essential to salvation. For upon that tenet, whether it be held by Papist or Protestant, toleration becomes, what it has so often been called-soul murder: persecution is, in the strictest sense, a duty; and it is an act of religious charity to burn heretics alive, for the purpose of deterring others from damnation. The tenet is proved to be false by its intolerable consequences,—and no strong