But when hot youth's and manhood's pulses cool'd, Still haunts me with the blush of earliest love- To look again on Hannah's face, and die. I saw, in thought, beyond the billow's roar, Sweet Village! where my early days were pass'd! With joy beheld, but not without a tear. I saw again my natal cottage door; Unchanged as Truth, the river welcomed home The polyanthus and auricula! And round my home, once bright with flowers, I found, Not one square yard,-one foot of garden ground. CONSEQUENCES OF THE CORN LAWS. What shall bread-tax yet for thee, Then of courses five or more, Peer, too just, too proud to share From Corn Law Rhymes. SONG. Where the poor cease to pay, Go, loved one, and rest! Thou art wearing away To the land of the blest. Our father is gone Where the wrong'd are forgiven, And that dearest one, Thy husband, in heaven. No toil in despair, No tyrant, no slave, No bread-tax is there, With a maw like the grave. And their mother, who sank Where the wrong'd are the free. Go, loved one, and rest Where the poor cease to pay! From Corn Law Rhymes. THIS eminent divine and poet, who combined so beautifully in his character, the single-heartedness and pity of an apostle with the endowments and elegance of an accomplished scholar, was born at Malpas, in Cheshire, on the 21st of April, 1783. In 1800, he was admitted of Brazen Nose College, Oxford; and previously to receiving a fellowship in All Souls, he went abroad and travelled through Germany, Russia, and the Crimea, when he was little more than seventeen years old. In 1801 he gained the Chancellor's prize for Latin poetry, and two years afterwards the prize in English verse, by his poem of Palestine. This admirable production, unlike the usual prize poems of our Universities, which are first admired and then forgotten in a few weeks, attained a popula rity which still continues unimpaired. Having been presented to the rectory of Hodnett, in Shropshire, Heber continued for several years to labour faithfully in the discharge of his sacred duties, and during this interval he published, in 1812, a small volume of Poems and Translations, which was favourably received by the public. Three years afterwards, on being chosen to deliver the Bampton Lectures, he discharged that duty so ably, as to add greatly to the high literary reputation which he had already acquired. He was nominated to the important office of preacher at Lincoln's Inn in 1822; but shortly after, on being elected to the vacant Bishopric of Calcutta, he resolved to devote himself to the Missionary labours which that exalted but perilous station would entail upon him. He accordingly embarked for India in 1823, and on arriving at his distant diocese, he commenced the arduous duties of Episcopal Visitation among the different Presidencies. But the wasting effects of the climate, added to such unintermitting toil, produced their anticipated close, and this truly zealous apostle entered into his rest on the 3d of April, 1826, in the forty-third year of his age. Even the excellence of his poetry, great although it was, was partially sunk in the beauty of his personal character, the devotedness of his clerical labours, and the martyrdom by which they were crowned so that he was more thought of and beloved as the good bishop, than the accomplished poet and scholar. But wherever the English language is known, his beautiful hymns are cherished, not only for their surpassing poetical merits, but that pure spirit of devotion of which they are the utterance. THE WIDOW OF NAIN AND HER SON. Wake not, O mother, sounds of lamentation! Why pause the mourners? Who forbids our weeping? "Set down the bier--he is not dead, but sleeping: Young man, arise!"-He spake, and was obey'd! Change then, O sad one! grief to exultation; Worship and fall before Messiah's knee; Strong was His arm, the Bringer of Salvation; Strong was the Word of God to succour thee! MISSIONARY HYMN. From Greenland's icy mountains, Their land from Error's chain. What though the spicy breezes Bows down to wood and stone. Shall we whose souls are lighted Has learnt Messiah's name. Waft, waft, ye winds, his story! It spreads from pole to pole! CHRISTMAS HYMN. Brightest and best of the sons of the morning, Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid! |