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Taken from air and sunshine when the rose

Of infancy first blooms upon his cheeks;

The thinking, thoughtless, school-boy; the bold youth
Of soul impetuous, and the bashful maid
Smitten while all the promises of life

age,

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Are opening round her; those of middle
Cast down while confident in strength they stand,
Like pillars fixed more firmly, as might seem,
And more secure, by very weight of all
That, for support, rests on them; the decayed
And burthensome; and lastly, that poor few
Whose light of reason is with age extinct;
The hopeful and the hopeless, first and last,
The earliest summoned and the longest spared—
Are here deposited, with tribute paid
Various, but unto each some tribute paid;
As if, amid these peaceful hills and groves,
Society were touched with kind concern,

And gentle "Nature grieved, that one should die;"
Or, if the change demanded no regret,
Observed the liberating stroke-and blessed.

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'And whence that tribute? wherefore these regards? Not from the naked Heart alone of Man

(Though claiming high distinction upon earth
As the sole spring and fountain-head of tears,
His own peculiar utterance for distress
Or gladness)-No,' the philosophic Priest
Continued, ''tis not in the vital seat
Of feeling to produce them, without aid

From the pure soul, the soul sublime and pure;
With her two faculties of eye and ear,

The one by which a creature, whom his sins

Have rendered prone, can upward look to heaven;
The other that empowers him to perceive

The voice of Deity, on height and plain,

Whispering those truths in stillness, which the WORD, To the four quarters of the winds, proclaims.

Not without such assistance could the use

Of these benign observances prevail :

Thus are they born, thus fostered, thus maintained;
And by the care prospective of our wise

Forefathers, who, to guard against the shocks,
The fluctuation and decay of things,

Embodied and established these high truths
In solemn institutions :-men convinced
That life is love and immortality

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The being one, and one the element.
There lies the channel, and original bed,
From the beginning, hollowed out and scooped
For Man's affections-else betrayed and lost,
And swallowed up 'mid deserts infinite!
This is the genuine course, the aim, and end
Of prescient reason; all conclusions else
Are abject, vain, presumptuous, and perverse.
The faith partaking of those holy times,
Life, I repeat, is energy of love
Divine or human; exercised in pain,

In strife, in tribulation; and ordained
If so approved and sanctified, to pass,

Through shades and silent rest, to endless joy.'

ΙΟΙΟ

BOOK SIXTH

THE CHURCHYARD AMONG THE MOUNTAINS

ARGUMENT

POET's Address to the State and Church of England.-The Pastor not inferior to the ancient Worthies of the Church.-He begins his Narratives with an instance of unrequited Love.-Anguish of mind subdued, and how.-The lonely Miner.-An instance of perseverance.-Which leads by contrast to an example of abused talents, irresolution, and weakness.-Solitary, applying this covertly to his own case, asks for an instance of some Stranger, whose dispositions may have led him to end his days here.-Pastor, in answer, gives an account of the harmonising influence of Solitude upon two men of opposite principles, who had encountered agitations in public life.-The rule by which Peace may be obtained expressed, and where.-Solitary hints at an overpowering Fatality.-Answer of the Pastor.-What subjects he will exclude from his Narratives.-Conversation upon this.-Instance of an unamiable character, a Female, and why given.-Contrasted with this, a meek sufferer from unguarded and betrayed love.-Instance of heavier guilt, and its consequences to the Offender. With this instance of a Marriage Contract broken is contrasted one of a Widower, evidencing his faithful affection towards his deceased Wife by his care of their female Children.

AIL to the crown by Freedom shaped-to gird

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An English Sovereign's brow! and to the throne
Whereon he sits! Whose deep foundations lie
In veneration and the people's love;

Whose steps are equity, whose seat is law.
-Hail to the State of England! And conjoin
With this a salutation as devout,

Made to the spiritual fabric of her Church;
Founded in truth; by blood of Martyrdom
Cemented; by the hands of Wisdom reared
In beauty of holiness, with ordered pomp,
Decent and unreproved. The voice, that greets
The majesty of both, shall pray for both;
That, mutually protected and sustained,
They may endure long as the sea surrounds
This favoured Land, or sunshine warms her soil.

And O, ye swelling hills, and spacious plains! Besprent from shore to shore with steeple-towers, And spires whose silent finger points to heaven '; Nor wanting, at wide intervals, the bulk

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Of ancient minster lifted above the cloud
Of the dense air, which town or city breeds
To intercept the sun's glad beams-may ne'er
That true succession fail of English hearts,
Who, with ancestral feeling, can perceive
What in those holy structures ye possess
Of ornamental interest, and the charm
Of pious sentiment diffused afar,
And human charity, and social love.
-Thus never shall the indignities of time
Approach their reverend graces, unopposed;
Nor shall the elements be free to hurt
Their fair proportions; nor the blinder rage
Of bigot zeal madly to overturn;
And, if the desolating hand of war
Spare them, they shall continue to bestow,
Upon the thronged abodes of busy men
(Depraved, and ever prone to fill the mind
Exclusively with transitory things)
An air and mien of dignified pursuit;
Of sweet civility, on rustic wilds.

The Poet, fostering for his native land
Such hope, entreats that servants may abound
Of those pure altars worthy; ministers
Detached from pleasure, to the love of gain
Superior, insusceptible of pride,

And by ambitious longings undisturbed;
Men, whose delight is where their duty leads
Or fixes them; whose least distinguished day
Shines with some portion of that heavenly lustre
Which makes the sabbath lovely in the sight

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Of blessed angels, pitying human cares.
--And, as on earth it is the doom of truth
To be perpetually attacked by foes
Open or covert, be that priesthood still,
For her defence, replenished with a band
Of strenuous champions, in scholastic arts
Thoroughly disciplined; nor (if in course
Of the revolving world's disturbances

Cause should recur, which righteous Heaven avert ! 60
To meet such trial) from their spiritual sires
Degenerate; who, constrained to wield the sword
Of disputation, shrunk not, though assailed
With hostile din, and combating in sight
Of angry umpires, partial and unjust;

And did, thereafter, bathe their hands in fire,

So to declare the conscience satisfied:

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Or, through illuminating grace, received,

For their dear countrymen, and all mankind.

O high example, constancy divine!

Even such a Man (inheriting the zeal
And from the sanctity of elder times
Not deviating, a priest, the like of whom,
If multiplied, and in their stations set,
Would o'er the bosom of a joyful land
Spread true religion and her genuine fruits)
Before me stood that day; on holy ground
Fraught with the relics of mortality,
Exalting tender themes, by just degrees
To lofty raised; and to the highest, last;
The head and mighty paramount of truths,-
Immortal life, in never-fading worlds,
For mortal creatures, conquered and secured.

That basis laid, those principles of faith
Announced, as a preparatory act
Of reverence done to the spirit of the place,
The Pastor cast his eyes upon the ground;
Not, as before, like one oppressed with awe,
But with a mild and social cheerfulness;
Then to the Solitary turned, and spake.

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'At morn or eve, in your retired domain,
Perchance you not unfrequently have marked
A Visitor-in quest of herbs and flowers;
Too delicate employ, as would appear,

For one, who, though of drooping mien, had yet
From nature's kindliness received a frame
Robust as ever rural labour bred.'

The Solitary answered: Such a Form
Full well I recollect. We often crossed
Each other's path; but, as the Intruder seemed
Fondly to prize the silence which he kept,
And I as willingly did cherish mine,

We met, and passed, like shadows. I have heard,
From my good Host, that being crazed in brain
By unrequited love, he scaled the rocks,
Dived into caves, and pierced the matted woods,
In hope to find some virtuous herb of power
To cure his malady!'

The Vicar smiled,—

'Alas! before to-morrow's sun goes down His habitation will be here: for him

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That open grave is destined.'

'Died he then

Of pain and grief?' the Solitary asked,
'Do not believe it; never could that be!'

'He loved,' the Vicar answered, 'deeply loved,
Loved fondly, truly, fervently; and dared
At length to tell his love, but sued in vain;
Rejected, yea repelled; and, if with scorn
Upon the haughty maiden's brow, 'tis but
A high-prized plume which female Beauty wears
In wantonness of conquest, or puts on
To cheat the world, or from herself to hide
Humiliation, when no longer free.

That he could brook, and glory in ;-but when
The tidings came that she whom he had wooed
Was wedded to another, and his heart
Was forced to rend away its only hope;
Then, Pity could have scarcely found on earth
An object worthier of regard than he,
In the transition of that bitter hour!
Lost was she, lost; nor could the Sufferer say
That in the act of preference he had been
Unjustly dealt with; but the Maid was gone!

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