WELL worthy to be magnified are they

Who, with sad hearts, of friends and country took
A last farewell, their loved abodes forsook,
And hallowed ground in which their fathers lay;
Then to the new-found World explored their way,
That so a Church, unforced, uncalled to brook
Ritual restraints, within some sheltering nook
Her Lord might worship and his word obey
In freedom. Men they were who could not bend;
Blest Pilgrims, surely, as they took for guide
A will by sovereign Conscience sanctified;
Blest while their Spirits from the woods ascend
Along a Galaxy that knows no end,

But in His glory who for Sinners died.

* In a letter to Professor Henry Reed, dated March 1, 1842, Wordsworth wrote: "I have sent you three sonnets upon certain Aspects of Christianity in America,' having, as you will see, a reference to the subject upon which you wished me to write. I wish they had been more worthy of the subject: I hope, however, you will not disapprove of the connection which I have thought myself warranted in tracing between the Puritan fugitives and Episcopacy."-Ed.

+ American episcopacy, in union with the church in England, strictly belongs to the general subject; and I here make my acknowledgments to my American friends, Bishop Doane, and Mr Henry Reed of Philadelphia, for having suggested to me the propriety of adverting to it, and pointed out the virtues and intellectual qualities of Bishop White, which so eminently fitted him for the great work he undertook. Bishop White was consecrated at Lambeth, Feb. 4, 1787, by Archbishop Moore; and before his long life was closed, twenty-six bishops had been consecrated in America, by himself. For his character and opinions, see his own numerous Works, and a "Sermon in commemoration of him, by George Washington Doane, Bishop of New Jersey."--W. W., 1845.

XIV.

II. CONTINUED.

Pub. 1845.

FROM Rite and Ordinance abused they fled
To Wilds where both were utterly unknown;
But not to them had Providence foreshown
What benefits are missed, what evils bred,
In worship neither raised nor limited

Save by Self-will. Lo! from that distant shore,
For Rite and Ordinance, Piety is led

Back to the Land those Pilgrims left of yore,
Led by her own free choice.* So Truth and Love
By Conscience governed do their steps retrace.
Fathers! your Virtues, such the power of grace,
Their spirit, in your Children, thus approve.
Transcendent over time, unbound by place,
Concord and Charity in circles move.

XV.

III. CONCLUDED.-AMERICAN EPISCOPACY.

Pub. 1845.

PATRIOTS informed with Apostolic light

Were they, who, when their Country had been freed,
Bowing with reverence to the ancient creed,

Fixed on the frame of England's Church their sight,t
And strove in filial love to reunite

What force had severed. Thence they fetched the seed
Of Christian unity, and won a meed

The Book of Common Prayer of the American Episcopal Church was avowedly derived from that of England, and substantially agrees with it.-ED.

"I hope you will not disapprove of the connection which I have thought myself warranted in tracing between the Puritan fugitives and Episcopacy."-(W. W. to Henry Reed, March 1, 1842.)-ED.

PLACES OF WORSHIP.

Of praise from Heaven.

To Thee, O saintly WHITE,*

Patriarch of a wide-spreading family,

Remotest lands and unborn times shall turn,
Whether they would restore or build-to Thee,
As one who rightly taught how zeal should burn,
As one who drew from out Faith's holiest urn
The purest stream of patient Energy.

XVI.

Pub. 1845.

BISHOPS and Priests, blessèd are ye, if deep
(As yours above all offices is high)

Deep in your hearts the sense of duty lie;
Charged as ye are by Christ to feed and keep
From wolves your portion of his chosen sheep:
Labouring as ever in your Master's sight,
Making your hardest task your best delight,
What perfect glory ye in Heaven shall reap!—
But, in the solemn Office which ye sought

And undertook premonished, if unsound

Your practice prove, faithless though but in thought,
Bishops and Priests, think what a gulf profound
Awaits you then, if they were rightly taught
Who framed the Ordinance by your lives disowned !

83

XVII.

PLACES OF WORSHIP.

As star that shines dependent upon star
Is to the sky while we look up in love;

Dr Seabury was consecrated Bishop of Connecticut by Scottish Bishops at Aberdeen, in November 1784. Dr White was consecrated Bishop of Pennyslvania, and Dr Provoost, Bishop of New York, at Lambeth, in February 1787. It was Wordsworth's intention, in 1841, to add a sonnet to his Ecclesiastical Series 'On the union of the two Episcopal Churches of England and America.'-ED.

As to the deep fair ships which though they move
Seem fixed, to eyes that watch them from afar;
As to the sandy desert fountains are,

With palm-groves shaded at wide intervals,
Whose fruit around the sun-burnt Native falls

Of roving tired or desultory war—

Such to this British Isle her christian Fanes,
Each linked to each for kindred services;

Her Spires, her Steeple-towers with glittering vanes
Far-kenned, her Chapels lurking among trees,

Where a few villagers on bended knees
Find solace which a busy world disdains.

*

XVIII.

PASTORAL CHARACTER.

A GENIAL hearth, a hospitable board,

And a refined rusticity, belong†

Compare The Excursion, Book VI., I. 17-29 (Vol. V., p. 242.)—Ed. + Among the benefits arising, as Mr Coleridge has well observed, from a Church Establishment of endowments corresponding with the wealth of the country to which it belongs, may be reckoned as eminently important, the examples of civility and refinement which the Clergy, stationed at intervals, afford to the whole people. The established clergy in many parts of England have long been, as they continue to be, the principal bulwark against barbarism, and the link which unites the sequestered peasantry with the intellectual advancement of the age. Nor is it below the dignity of the subject to observe, that their taste, as acting upon rural residences and scenery often furnishes models which country gentlemen, who are more at liberty to follow the caprices of fashion, might profit by. The precincts of an old residence must be treated by ecclesiastics with respect, both from prudence and necessity. I remember being much pleased, some years ago, at Rose Castle, the rural seat of the See of Carlisle, with a style of garden and architecture, which, if the place had belonged to a wealthy layman, would no doubt have been swept away. A parsonage-house generally stands not far from the church; this proximity imposes favourable restraints, and sometimes suggests an affecting union of the accommodations and elegancies of life with the outward signs of piety and mortality.

THE LITURGY.

To the neat mansion, where, his flock among,
The learned Pastor dwells, their watchful lord. *
Though meek and patient as a sheathed sword;
Though pride's least lurking thought appear a wrong
To human kind; though peace be on his tongue,
Gentleness in his heart; can earth afford
Such genuine state, pre-eminence so free,
As when, arrayed in Christ's authority,
He from the pulpit lifts his awful hand;
Conjures, implores, and labours all he can
For re-subjecting to divine command
The stubborn spirit of rebellious man?

XIX.

THE LITURGY.

YES, if the intensities of hope and fear
Attract us still, and passionate exercise
Of lofty thoughts, the way before us lies
Distinct with signs, through which in set career,1
As through a zodiac, moves the ritual year t

85

With pleasure I recal to mind a happy instance of this in the residence of an old and much-valued Friend in Oxfordshire. The house and church stand parallel to each other, at a small distance; a circular lawn or rather grass-plot, spreads between them; shrubs and trees curve from each side of the dwelling, veiling, but not hiding, the church. From the front of this dwelling, no part of the burial-ground is seen; but as you wind by the side of the shrubs towards the steeple-end of the church, the eye catches a single, small, low, monumental head-stone, moss-grown, sinking into, and gently inclining towards the earth. Advance, and the churchyard, populous and gay with glittering tombstones, opens upon the view. This humble, and beautiful parsonage called forth a tribute, for which see the seventh of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets," Part 3.-W. W. 1822.

Compare the sonnet, On the sight of a Manse in the South of Scotland, belonging to the Tour in the year 1831.-ED.

+ Compare the Christian Year by Keble, passim.-ED.