Truth's consecrated residence, the seat
Impregnable, of Liberty and Peace.

And yet, O happy Pastor of a Flock Faithfully watched, and by that loving care And heaven's good providence preserved from taint! With You I grieve, when on the darker side Of this great change I look; and there behold, Through strong temptation of those gainful Arts, Such outrage done to Nature as compels The indignant Power to justify herself;

Yea to avenge her violated rights

For England's bane.-When soothing darkness spreads
O'er hill and vale," the Wanderer thus expressed
His recollections," and the punctual stars,

While all things else are gathering to their homes,
Advance, and in the firmament of heaven
Glitter-but undisturbing, undisturbed,
As if their silent company were charged
With peaceful admonitions for the heart
Of all-beholding Man, earth's thoughtful Lord;

Then, in full many a region, once like this

The assured domain of calm simplicity
And pensive quiet, an unnatural light,
Prepared for never-resting Labour's eyes,
Breaks from a many-windowed Fabric huge;
And at the appointed hour a Bell is heard-
Of harsher import than the Curfew-knoll
That spake the Norman Conqueror's stern behest,
A local summons to unceasing toil!
Disgorged are now the Ministers of day;

And, as they issue from the illumined Pile,

A fresh Band meets them, at the crowded door,

And in the Courts-and where the rumbling Stream,

That turns the multitude of dizzy wheels,

Glares, like a troubled Spirit, in its bed

Among the rocks below. Men, Maidens, Youths,

Mother and little Children, Boys and Girls,
Enter, and each the wonted task resumes
Within this Temple-where is offered up
To Gain-the Master Idol of the Realm,
Perpetual sacrifice. Even thus of old
Our Ancestors, within the still domain
Of vast Cathedral or Conventual Church,

Their vigils kept; where tapers day and night

On the dim altar burned continually,

In token that the House was evermore

Watching to God. Religious Men were they;
Nor would their Reason, tutored to aspire

Above this transitory world, allow

That there should pass a moment of the year,

When in their land the Almighty's Service ceased.

Triumph who will in these profaner rites

Which We, a generation self-extolled,
As zealously perform! I cannot share
His proud complacency; yet I exult,
Casting reserve away, exult to see
An Intellectual mastery exercised
O'er the blind Elements; a purpose given,

A perseverance fed; almost a soul

Imparted to brute Matter. I rejoice,

Measuring the force of those gigantic powers,

Which by the thinking Mind have been compelled

To serve the Will of feeble-bodied Man.

For with the sense of admiration blends

The animating hope that time may come

When strengthened, yet not dazzled, by the might

Of this dominion over Nature gained,

Men of all lands shall exercise the same

In due proportion to their Country's need;
Learning, though late, that all true glory rests,
All praise, all safety, and all happiness,
Upon the Moral law. Egyptian Thebes;
Tyre by the margin of the sounding waves;
Palmyra, central in the Desart, fell;

And theArts died by which they had been raised.
-Call Archimedes from his buried Tomb

Upon the plain of vanished Syracuse,
And feelingly the Sage shall make report
How insecure, how baseless in itself,

Is that Philosophy, whose sway is framed
For mere material instruments :-how weak
Those Arts, and high Inventions, if unpropped
By Virtue. He with sighs of pensive grief,
Amid his calm abstractions, would admit
That not the slender privilege is theirs

To save themselves from blank forgetfulness!"

When from the Wanderer's lips these words had fallen,

I said, " And, did in truth these vaunted Arts

Possess such privilege, how could we escape
Regret and painful sadness, who revere,

And would preserve as things above all price,
The old domestic morals of the land,

Her simple manners, and the stable worth
That dignified and cheered a low estate.
Oh! where is now the character of peace,
Sobriety, and order, and chaste love,
And honest dealing, and untainted speech,
And pure good-will, and hospitable cheer;
That made the very thought of Country-life
A thought of refuge, for a Mind detained
Reluctantly amid the bustling crowd?
Where now the beauty of the Sabbath kept
With conscientious reverence, as a day
By the Almighty Law-giver pronounced
Holy and blest? and where the winning grace

Of all the lighter ornaments attached

To time and season, as the year rolled round?"

"Fled!" was the Wanderer's passionate response,

"Fled utterly! or only to be traced

In a few fortunate Retreats like this;