LIBERTY.

Depressed the melancholy Cowley, laid
Under a fancied yew-tree's luckless shade;
A doleful bower for penitential song,

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Where Man and Muse complained of mutual wrong;
While Cam's ideal current glided by,

And antique towers nodded their foreheads high,
Citadels dear to studious privacy.

But Fortune, who had long been used to sport
With this tried Servant of a thankless Court,
Relenting met his wishes; and to you

The remnant of his days at least was true;
You, whom, though long deserted, he loved best;
You, Muses, books, fields, liberty, and rest!*

Far1 happier they who, fixing hope and aim
On the humanities of peaceful fame,
Enter betimes with more than martial fire
The generous course, aspire, and still aspire;
Upheld by warnings heeded not too late.
Stifle the contradictions of their fate,

And to one purpose cleave, their Being's godlike mate!

Thus, gifted Friend, but with the placid brow
That woman ne'er should forfeit, keep thy vow;
With modest scorn reject whate'er would blind
The ethereal eyesight, cramp the winged mind!

* Abraham Cowley (b. 1618), educated at Westminster and Trin. Coll., Cambridge, a Royalist, and therefore expelled from Cambridge, settled in John's Coll., Oxford, crossed over with the Queen Mother to France for twelve years, returned at the Restoration, but was neglected at Court, and retired to a farm at Chertsey, on the Thames, where he lived for some years, "the melancholy Cowley."-ED.

Then, with a blessing granted from above
To every act, word, thought, and look of love,
Life's book for Thee may lie unclosed, till age
Shall with a thankful tear bedrop its latest page.

[These verses and those entitled "Liberty" were composed as one piece which Mrs Wordsworth complained of as unwieldy and illproportioned; and accordingly it was divided into two on her judicious recommendation.]

Not from his fellows only man may learn
Rights to compare and duties to discern:

All creatures and all objects, in degree,

Are friends and patrons of humanity.-MS. 1835.

The Rocking-stones, alluded to in the beginning of the following verses, are supposed to have been used, by our British ancestors, both for judicial and religious purposes. Such stones are not uncommonly found, at this day, both in Great Britain and in Ireland.

WHAT though the Accused, upon his own appeal
To righteous Gods when man has ceased to feel,
Or at a doubting Judge's stern command,
Before the STONE OF POWER no longer stand-
To take his sentence from the balanced Block,

* There is now, alas! no possibility of the anticipation, with which the above Epistle concludes, being realised; nor were the verses ever seen by the Individual for whom they were intended. She accompanied her husband, the Rev. Wm. Fletcher, to India, and died of cholera, at the age of thirty-two or thirty-three years, on her way from Shalapore to Bombay, deeply lamented by all who knew her.

Her enthusiasm was ardent, her piety steadfast; and her great talents would have enabled her to be eminently useful in the difficult path of life to which she had been called. The opinion she entertained of her own performances, given to the world under her maiden name, Jewsbury, was modest and humble, and, indeed, far below their merits; as is often the case with those who are making trial of their powers, with a hope to discover what they are best fitted for. In one quality, viz., quickness in the motions of her mind, she had, within the range of the Author's acquaintance, no equal.-W. W., 1835.

HUMANITY.

As, at his touch, it rocks, or seems to rock ;*
Though, in the depths of sunless groves, no more
The Druid-priest the hallowed Oak adore;

Yet, for the Initiate, rocks and whispering trees
Do still perform mysterious offices!

And functions dwell in beast and bird that sway
The reasoning mind, or with the fancy play,
Inviting, at all seasons, ears and eyes.
To watch for undelusive auguries:-1
Not uninspired appear their simplest ways;
Their voices mount symbolical of praise-
To mix with hymns that Spirits make and hear;
And to fallen man their innocence is dear.
Enraptured Art draws from those sacred springs
Streams that reflect the poetry of things!
Where christian Martyrs stand in hues portrayed,
That, might a wish avail, would never fade,
Borne in their hands the lily and the palm
Shed round the altar a celestial calm;
There, too, behold the lamb and guileless dove
Prest in the tenderness of virgin love
To saintly bosoms!-Glorious is the blending
Of right affections climbing or descending
Along a scale of light and life, with cares
Alternate; carrying holy thoughts and prayers

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1

1837.

offices!

And still in beast and bird a function dwells,
That, while we look and listen, sometimes tells
Upon the heart, in more authentic guise

Than Oracles, or wingèd Auguries,

Spake to the science of the ancient wise.

1835.

*There are several, so-called, 'Rocking-stones' in Yorkshire and Lancashire, in Derby, in Cornwall, and in Wales. There are one or two in Scotland, and there used to be several in the Lake District. Some are natural; others artificial.-ED.

Up to the sovereign seat of the Most High;
Descending to the worm in charity ;*
Like those good Angels whom a dream of night
Gave, in the field of Luz, to Jacob's sight-t
All, while he slept, treading the pendent stairs
Earthward or heavenward, radiant messengers,
That, with a perfect will in one accord

Of strict obedience, serve1 the Almighty Lord;
And with untired humility forbore

To speed their errand by the wings they wore.

What a fair world were ours for verse to paint,
If Power could live at ease with self-restraint!
Opinion bow before the naked sense

Of the great Vision,-faith in Providence;
Merciful over all his creatures, just3
To the least particle of sentient dust ;
But, fixing by immutable decrees
Seedtime and harvest for his purposes !
Then would be closed the restless oblique eye
That looks for evil like a treacherous spy;
Disputes would then relax, like stormy winds
That into breezes sink; impetuous minds
By discipline endeavour to grow meek

As Truth herself, whom they profess to seek.

The author is indebted, here, to a passage in one of Mr Digby's valuable works.-W. W., 1835.

+ Gen. xxviii. 12.-ED.

HUMANITY.

Then Genius, shunning fellowship with Pride,
Would braid his golden locks at Wisdom's side;
Love ebb and flow untroubled by caprice;
And not alone harsh tyranny would cease,
But unoffending creatures find release
From qualified oppression, whose defence
Rests on a hollow plea of recompence;
Thought-tempered wrongs, for each humane respect
Oft worse to bear, or deadlier in effect.
Witness those glances of indignant scorn
From some high-minded Slave, impelled to spurn
The kindness that would make him less forlorn;
Or, if the soul to bondage be subdued,

His look of pitiable gratitude!

Alas for thee, bright Galaxy of Isles,

Whose1 day departs in pomp, returns with smiles—
To greet the flowers and fruitage of a land,

As the sun mounts, by sea-born breezes fanned;
A land whose azure mountain-tops are seats
For Gods in council, whose green vales, retreats
Fit for the shades of heroes, mingling there
To breath Elysian peace in upper air.

Though cold as winter, gloomy as the grave, Stone walls a prisoner make, but not a slave.* Shall man assume a property in man?

Lay on the moral will a withering ban?

1 1837.

Where

* Compare Richard Lovelace, To Althea, from Prison —

1835.

215

"Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage.

Minds innocent and quiet take

That for a hermitage."

-ED.