XLI.

OLD AGE.

OR can the fnows, which now

hath fhed

Upon thy reverend head,

Quench or allay the noble fires within. For all that thou haft been, and all that

youth can be,

Thou'rt yet-fo fully ftill doft thou

Poffefs the manhood and the bloom of wit.

To things immortal time can do no wrong,

And that which never is to die, for ever must be

young.

COWLEY.

XLII.

THE CHURCH.

HE has a charm, a word of fire,
A pledge of love, that cannot tire ;
By tempefts, earthquakes, and by wars,
By rufhing waves and falling ftars,

By every fign her Lord foretold,
She fees the world is waxing old;
And through the last and direft ftorm
Defcries, by faith, her Saviour's form,

244

Abbey Jumieges.—Lebanon.

XLIII.

THE ABBEY JUMIEGES.

A

GLORIOUS remnant of the Gothic

pile

(Which once was Rome's) ftood half apart

In a grand arch,-which once fcreened

many an aisle;

The last had disappeared,—a lofs to art,-
The first yet frowned fuperbly o'er the foil,
And kindled feelings in the roughest heart
Which mourned the power of time and temper's
march,

In gazing on the venerable arch.

BYRON.*

XLIV.

LEBANON.

ID the deep filence of the pathlefs wild, Where kindlier Nature once profufely fmiled,

Th' eternal cedars ftand; unknown

their age,

Untold their annals in hiftoric page!

All that around them ftood, now far away,

Single in ruin, mighty in decay!

* Copied by the Editor from the ruins A.D. 1839, where "the lame Lord," as the Sacriftan faid, had carved them twenty years previous, and whofe vifit he well remembered.

Between the mountains and the neighbouring main
They claim the empire of the lonely plain.

In folemn beauty through the clear blue light
The leafy columns rear their awful height!
And they are still the fame; alike they mock
Th' invader's menace and the tempeft's fhock;
And ere the world had bow'd at Cæfar's throne,
Ere'yet proud Rome's all-conquering name was known,
They ftood; and fleeting centuries in vain.
Have poured their fury on the enduring fane,
While in the progrefs of their long decay
Thrones fink to duft and empires melt away.

G. HOWARD.

XLV.

LIBERTY.

OMPULSION, from its deftined course,
The magnet may awhile detain;
But, when no more withheld by force,
It trembles to the North again.

Thus, though the idle world may hold
My fetter'd thoughts awhile from Thee,
To Thee they spring, when uncontroll'd
In all the warmth of liberty.

246 Correction.-Controversy.

XLVI.

CORRECTION.

ORD, as a tender mother day by day
Weans the weak babe fhe loves, left it
fhould pine,

So wean us, Lord, fo make us wholly
Thine,

Left in our feebleness we ftart away

From Thy loved chaftening; for we could not bear The fudden vifion of ourselves and Thee,

Or learn at once how vain our bright hopes be. Then be our earthly weaknefs, Lord, Thy care, And e'en in wounding heal, in breaking spare.

BISHOP WILBERFORCE.

XLVII.

CONTROVERSY.

E calm in arguing, for fierceness makes
Error a fault, and truth difcourtesy.
Why fhould I feel another man's mif-
takes

More than his fickness or his poverty?
In love I fhould: but anger is not love,
Nor wisdom neither; therefore, gently move.

Calmness is great advantage: he that lets
Another chafe, may warm him at his fire,

Mark all his wanderings, and enjoy his frets;

As cunning fencers suffer heat to tire.

Truth dwells not in the clouds; the bow that's there

Doth often aim at, never hit, the sphere.

GEORGE HERBERT.

XLVIII.

THE SOUL.

NOW'ST thou the value of a foul im

mortal?

Behold the midnight glory, worlds on worlds!

Amazing pomp! Redouble this amaze;

Ten thousand add; and twice ten thousand more; Then weigh the whole,- one foul outweighs them all.

YOUNG.

XLIX.

MUSIC.

HERE be none of Beauty's daughters

With a magic like thee;
And like Mufic on the waters,

Is thy fweet voice to me:

When as if its found were caufing,
The charmed ocean's paufing,