When distant Tweed is heard to rave, And the owlet to hoot o'er the dead man's grave, Then go; but go alone the while Then view St. David's ruin'd pile: Was never scene so sad and fair! 2. Again on the knight look'd the churchman old, And again he sighed heavily; For he had himself been a warrior bold, And fought in Spain and Italy. And he thought on the days that were long since by, When his limbs were strong and his courage was high: Now, slow and faint, he led the way, Where, cloister'd round, the garden lay; The pillar'd arches were over their head, And beneath their feet were the bones of the dead. . Spreading herbs and flowrets bright Glisten'd with the dew of night! * Nor herb nor floweret glistened there But was carved in the cloister-arches as fair. The youth in glittering squadrons start; And hurl the unexpected dart. He knew, by the streamers that shot so bright, . By a steel-clench'd postern-door They enter'd now the chancel tall; The darken'd roof rose high aloof On pillars lofty, and light, and small; The keystone, that lock'd each ribbèd aisle, The corbells were carved grotesque and grim; 5. Full many a scutcheon and banner riven Around the screenèd altar's pale! And thine, dark knight of Liddesdale ! O fading honors of the dead! O high ambition, lowly laid! The moon on the east oriel shone By foliaged tracery combined; Thou wouldst have thought some fairy's hand In many a freakish knot, had twined; And trampled the apostate's pride. 87 THE FIRST SOLITARY OF THE THEBAIS. CHATEAUBRIAND. The name of CHATEAUBRIAND stands distinguished among the literary men of modern France, and his vivid imagination and poetical fervor would have made him conspicuous in any age. His masterpiece is the "Genius of Christianity," which contains more brilliant and varied eloquence than any work of the kind produced by the present century. 1. "To the east of this vale of palms arose a high mountain. I directed my course to this kind of Pharos, that seemed to call me to a haven of security, through the immovable floods and solid billows of an ocean of sand. I reached the foot of the mountain, and began to ascend the black and calcined rocks, which closed the horizon on every side. Night descended. Thinking I heard some sound near me, I halted, and plainly distinguished the footsteps of some wild beast, which was wandering in the dark, and broke through the dried shrubs that opposed his progress. I thought that I recognized the lion of the fountain. 2. Suddenly he sent forth a tremendous roar. The echoes of these unknown mountains seemed to awaken for the first time, and returned the roar in savage murmurs. He had paused in front of a cavern whose entrance was closed with a stone. I beheld a light glimmering between the crevices of this rock, and my heart beat high with hope and with wonder. I approached and looked in, when, to my astonishment, I really beheld a light shining at the bottom of the cavern. "Whoever thou art,' cried I, 'that feedest the savage beasts, have pity on a wretched wanderer.' Scarcely had I pronounced these words, when I heard the voice of an old man who was chanting one of the Scripture canticles. I cried in a loud tone: 66 6 Christian, receive your brother.' 3. "Scarcely had I uttered these words, when a man ap proached, broken with age; his snowy beard seemed whitened with all the years of Jacob, and he was clothed in a garment formed of the leaves of the palm. 66 6 Stranger,' said he, 'you are welcome. You behold a man who is on the point of being reduced to his kindred dust. The hour of my happy departure is arrived: yet still I have a few moments left to dedicate to hospitality. Enter, my brother, the grotto of Paul.' 66 Overpowered with veneration, I followed this founder of Christianity in the deserts of the Thebais. 4. "A palm-tree, which grew in the recess of the grotto, entwined its spreading branches along the rock, and formed a species of vestibule. Near it flowed a spring remarkable for its transparency; out of this fountain issued a small rivulet, that had scarcely escaped from its source before it buried itself in the bosom of the earth. Paul seated himself with me on the margin of the fountain, and the lion that had shown me the Arab's well, came and crouched himself at our feet. 5. "Stranger,' said the anchorite, with a happy simplicity, 'how do the affairs of the world go on? Do they still build cities? Who is the master that reigns at present? For a hundred and thirteen years have I inhabited this grotto? and for a hundred years I have seen only two men-yourself, and Anthony, the inheritor of my desert; he came yesterday to visit me, and will return to-morrow to bury me.' 66 6. As he said this, Paul went and brought some bread of the finest kind, from the cavity of the rock. He told me that Providence supplied him every day with a fresh quantity of this food. He invited me to break the heavenly gift with him. 'We drank the water of the spring in the hollow of our hands; and after this frugal repast, the holy man inquired what events had conducted me to this inaccessible retreat. After listening to the deplorable history of my life : 7. “'Eudorus,' said he, 'your faults have been great; but there is no stain which the tears of penitence cannot efface. It s not without some design that Providence has made you a witness of the introduction of Christianity into every land. You will also find it here in this solitude, among the lions, beneath the fires of the tropic, as you have encountered it amidst the bears and the glaciers of the pole. Soldie of Jesus Christ, you are destined to fight and to conquer for the faith. O God! whose ways are incomprehensible, it is thou that hast conducted this young confessor to my grotto, that I might unveil futurity to his view; that by perfecting him in the knowledge of his religion, I might complete in him by grace the work that nature has begun! Eudorus, repose here for the rest of the day; to-morrow, at sunrise, we will ascend the mountain to pray, and I will speak to you before I die.' 8. After this, the holy man conversed with me for a long time on the beauty of religion, and on the blessings it should one day shed upon mankind. During this discourse the old man presented an extraordinary contrast; simple as a child when left to nature alone, he seemed to have forgotten everything, or rather to know nothing, of the world, of its grandeurs, its miseries, and its pleasures; but when God descended into his soul, Paul became an inspired genius, filled with experience of the present, and with visions of the future. Thus in his person two opposite characters seemed to unite: still it was doubtful which was the more admirable, Paul the ignorant, or Paul the prophet; since to the simplicity of the former was granted the sublimity of the latter. 9. "After giving me many instructions full of a wisdom intermingled with sweetness, and a gravity tempered with cheerfulness, Paul invited me to offer with him a sacrifice of praise to the Eternal; he arose, and placing himself under the palm-tree, thus chanted aloud: "Blessed be thou, the God of my fathers, who hast had regard to the lowliness of thy servant ! "O solitude, thou spouse of my bosom, thou art about to lose him for whom thou didst possess unfading charms! "The votary of solitude ought to preserve his body in chastity, to have his lips undefiled, and his mind illuminated with divine light. 66 6 'Holy sadness of penitence, come, pierce my soul like a needle of gold, and fill it with celestial sweetness ! "Tears are the mother of virtue, and sorrow is the footstool to heaven.' 10. "The old man's prayer was scarcely finished, when I fell into a sweet and profound sleep. I reposed on the stony couch which Paul preferred to a bed of roses. The sun was on |