CISTERTIAN MONASTERY.

"HERE Man more purely lives, less oft doth fall,

More promptly rises, walks with stricter heed,

More safely rests, dies happier, is freed Earlier from cleansing fires, and gains withal

A brighter crown."-On yon Cistertian wall

That confident assurance may be read; And, to like shelter, from the world have fled

Increasing multitudes. The potent call Doubtless shall cheat full oft the heart's desires ;

Yet, while the rugged Age on pliant knee
Vows to rapt Fancy humble fealty,
A gentler life spreads round the holy spires;
Where'er they rise, the sylvan waste retires,
And aëry harvests crown the fertile lea.

V.

MONKS AND SCHOOLMEN,

RECORD we too, with just and faithful pen,
That many hooded Cenobites there are,
Who in their private cells have yet a care
Of public quiet; unambitious Men,
Counsellors for the world, of piercing ken;
Whose fervent exhortations from afar
Move Princes to their duty, peace or war;
And oft-times in the most forbidding den
Of solitude, with love of science strong,
How patiently the yoke of thought they
bear,

How subtly glide its finest threads along!
Spirits that crowd the intellectual sphere
With mazy boundaries, as the astronomer
With orb and cycle girds the starry throng.

I see a matchless blazonry unfurled
Of wisdom, magnanimity, and love;
And meekness tempering honorable pride;
The lamb is couching by the lion's side,
And near the flame-eyed eagle sits the dove.

VIII.

CRUSADERS.

FURL we the sails, and pass with tarcy oars Through these bright regions, casting many a glance

Upon the dream-like issues-the romance Of many-colored life that Fortune pours Round the Crusaders, till on distant shores Their labors end; or they return to lie, The vow performed, in cross-legged effigy, Devoutly stretched upon their chancel floors. Am I deceived? Or is their requiem chanted

By voices never mute when Heaven unties Her inmost, softest, tenderest harmonies; Requiem which Earth takes up with voice undaunted,

When she would tell how Brave, and Good, and Wise,

For their high guerdon not in vain have panted!

IX.

As faith thus sanctified the warrior's crest While from the Papal Unity there came, What feebler means had fail'd to give, one aim

Diffused thro' all the regions of the West; So does her Unity its power attest

By works of Art, that shed, on the outward frame

Of worship, glory and grace, which who shall blame

That ever looked to heaven for final rest? Hail countless Temples! that so well befit Your ministry; that, as ye rise and take Form, spirit, and character, from holy writ, Give to devotion, wheresoe'er awake, Pinions of high and higher sweep, and

make

The unconverted soul with awe submit.

X.

WHERE long and deeply hath been fixed the

root

In the blest soil of gospel truth, the Tree,
(Blighted or scathed tho' many branches be,
Put forth to wither, many a hopeful shoot)
Can never cease to bear celestial fruit.

Witness the Church that oft-times, with effect

Dear to the saints, strives carnestly to eject
Her bane, her vital energies recruit.
Lamenting, do not hopelessly repine
When such good work is doomed to be un-
done,

The conquests lost that were so hardly won; All promises vouchsafed by Heaven will shine

In light confirmed while years their course shall run,

Confirmed alike in progress and decline.

XI.
TRANSUBSTANTIATION.

ENOUGH! for see, with dim association The tapers burn; the odorous incense feeds

A greedy flame; the pompous mass proceeds;

The Priest bestows the appointed consecration;

And, while the HOST is raised, its elevation An awe and supernatural horror breeds; And all the people bow their heads, like reeds

To a soft breeze, in lowly adoration.

This Valdo brooks not. On the banks of Rhone

He taught, till persecution chased him thence,

To adore the Invisible, and Him alone. Nor are his followers loth to seek defence, 'Mid woods and wilds, on Nature's craggy throne,

From rites that trample upon soul and

sense.

XII.

THE VAUDOIS.

BUT whence came they who for the Saviour Lord

Have long borne witness as the Scriptures teach?

Ages ere Valdo raised his voice to preach
In Gallic ears the unadulterate Word,
Their fugitive Progenitors explored
Subalpine vales, in quest of safe retreats
Where that pure Church survives, though
summer heats

Open a passage to the Romish sword,
Far as it dares to follow. Herbs self-sown,
And fruitage gathered from the chestnut
wood,

Nourish the sufferers then; and mists, that brood

THOSE had given earliest notice, as the lark Springs from the ground the morn to gratulate;

Or rather rose the day to antedate,
By striking out a solitary spark,
When all the world with midnight gloom
was dark.-

Then followed the Waldensian bands, whom
Hate

In vain endeavors to exterminate,
Whom Obloquy pursues with hideous bark:
But they desist not ;-and the sacred fire,
Rekindled thus, from dens and savage
woods

Moves, handed on with never-ceasing care, Through courts, through camps, o'er limitary floods;

Nor lacks this sea-girt Isle a timely share
Of the new Flame, not suffered to expire.

XV.

ARCHBISHOP CHICHELY TO HENRY V. "WHAT beast in wilderness or cultured field

The lively beauty of the leopard shows?

What flower in meadow-ground or garden grows

1

That to the towering lily doth not yield?
Let both meet only on thy royal shield!
Go forth, great King! claim what thy birth
bestows;

Conquer the Gallic lily which thy foes
Dare to usurp ;-thou hast a sword to
wield,

And Heaven will crown the right." The mitred Sire

Thus spake—and lo! a Fleet, for Gaul addrest,

Ploughs her bold course across the wondering seas;

For, sooth to say, ambition, in the breast
Of youthful heroes, is no sullen fire,
But one that leaps to meet the fanning
breeze.

Is by these shocks exhausted, spiritual truth

Maintains the else endangered gift of life;
Proceeds from infancy to lusty youth;
And, under cover of this woeful strife,
Gathers unblighted strength from hour to
hour.

XVII. WICLIFFE.

ONCE more the Church is seized with sudden fear,

And at her call is Wicliffe disinhumed:
Yea, his dry bones to ashes are consumed
And flung into the brook that travels near;
Forthwith, that ancient Voice which Streams
can hear

Thus speaks (that Voice which walks upon the wind.

Though seldom heard by busy human kind)

bear

Into the Avon, Avon to the tide

Of Severn, Severn to the narrow seas,
Into main Ocean they, this deed accurst
An embiem vields to friends and enemies
How the bold Teacher's Doctrine, sanctified
By truth. shall spread, throughout the
world dispersed."

XVII.

CORRUPTIONS OF THE HIGHER CLERGY "WOE to you, Prelates! rioting in ease And cumbrous wealth-the shame of your estate; [await You, on whose progress dazzling trains Of pompous horses; whom vain titles please;

Who will be served by others on their knees,

Yet will yourselves to God no service pay;
Pastors who neither take nor point the way
To Heaven; for, either lost in vanities
Ye have no skill to teach, or if ye know
And speak the word---" Alas! of fearful
things

'Tis the most fearful when the people's eye
Abuse hath cleared from vain imaginings;
And taught the general voice to prophesy
Of Justice armed, and Pride to be laid low.

XIX.

ABUSE OF MONASTIC POWER.

While Bacchus, clothed in semblance of a

Friar,

Pours out his choicest beverage high and higher

Sparkling, until it cannot choose but run
Over the bowl, whose silver lip hath won
An instant kiss of masterful desire-
To stay the precious waste. Through every
brain

The domination of the sprightly juice Spreads high conceits to madding Fancy dear,

Till the arched roof, with resolute abuse
Of its grave echoes, swells a choral strain,
Whose votive burthen is-"OUR KING
DOM'S HERE!"

The warbling wren shall find a leafy cage;
The gadding bramble hang her purple fruit;
And the green lizard and the gilded newt
Lead unmolested lives, and die of age.
The owl of evening and the woodland fox

choose :

YE, too, must fly before a chasing hand,
Angels and Saints, in every hamlet mourned!!
Ah! if the old idolatry be spurned,
Let not your radiant Shapes desert the
Land:

Her adoration was not your demand,
The fond heart proffered it-the servile
heart;

And therefore are ye summoned to depart, Michael, and thou, St. George, whose flaming brand

The Dragon quelled; and valiant Margaret
Whose rival sword a like Opponent slew :
And rapt Cecilia, seraph-haunted Queen
Of harmony; and weeping Magdalene,
Who in the penitential desert met
Gales sweet as those that over Eden blew !

Issues from that dominion overthrown: Proud Tiber grieves, and far-off Ganges,

blind

As his own worshippers. and Nile, reclined Upon his monstrous urn, the farewell moan Renews. Through every forest, cave, and den,

Where frauds were hatched of old, hath sorrow past