Would that our scrupulous Sires had dared to leave Less scanty measure of those graceful rites And usages, whose due return invites A stir of mind too natural to deceive;...
Closing the sacred Book which long has fed Our meditations, give we to a day Of annual joy one tributary lay; This day, when, forth by rustic music led, The village Children, while the sky is red...
From low to high doth dissolution climb, And sink from high to low, along a scale Of awful notes, whose concord shall not fail; A musical but melancholy chime, Which they can hear who meddle not with crime,...
Be this the chosen site; the virgin sod, Moistened from age to age by dewy eve, Shall disappear, and grateful earth receive The corner-stone from hands that build to God....
Even while I speak, the sacred roofs of France Are shattered into dust; and self-exiled From altars threatened, leveled, or defiled, Wander the Ministers of God, as chance Opens a way for life, or consonance...
Thus all things lead to Charity secured By them who blessed the soft and happy gale That landward urged the great Deliverer's sail, Till in the sunny bay his fleet was moored!...
But liberty, and triumphs on the Main, And laureled armies, not to be withstood What serve they? if, on transitory good Intent, and sedulous of abject gain, The State (ah, surely not preserved in vain!)...
Monastic Domes! following my downward way, Untouched by due regret I marked your fall! Now, ruin, beauty, ancient stillness, all Dispose to judgments temperate as we lay...
Mercy and Love have met thee on thy road, Thou wretched Outcast, from the gift of fire And food cut off by sacerdotal ire, From every sympathy that Man bestowed!...
And what melodious sounds at times prevail! And, ever and anon, how bright a gleam Pours on the surface of the turbid Stream! What heartfelt fragrance mingles with the gale...
Furl we the sails, and pass with tardy oars Through these bright regions, casting many a glance Upon the dream-like issues, the romance Of many-coloured life that Fortune pours...
And, not in vain embodied to the sight, Religion finds even in the stern retreat Of feudal sway her own appropriate seat; From the collegiate pomps on Windsor's height...
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, Counselors for the world, of piercing ken;...
That heresies should strike (if truth be scanned Presumptuously) their roots both wide and deep, Is natural as dreams to feverish sleep. Lo! Discord at the altar dares to stand...
Praised be the Rivers, from their mountain springs Shouting to Freedom, "Plant thy banners here!" To harassed Piety, "Dismiss thy fear, And in our caverns smooth thy ruffled wings!"...
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,...
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;...
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,...
And what is Penance with her knotted thong; Mortification with the shirt of hair, Wan cheek, and knees indurated with prayer, Vigils, and fastings rigorous as long; If cloistered Avarice scruple not to wrong...
Men, who have ceased to reverence, soon defy, Their forefathers; lo! sects are formed, and split With morbid restlessness; the ecstatic fit Spreads wide; though special mysteries multiply,...