MISCELLANIES.

A

SONG, FOR ST. CECILIA'S DAY,

AT OXFORD.

CECILIA! whose exalted hymns

With joy and wonder fill the bless'd, In choirs of warbling seraphims

Known and distinguish'd from the rest; Attend, harmonious Saint! and see

Thy vocal sons of Harmony;

Attend, harmonious Saint! and hear our prayers;
Enliven all our earthly airs,

And as thou sing'st thy God, teach us to sing of thee:
Tune every string and every tongue;
Be thou the Muse and subject of our song.

Let all Cecilia's praise proclaim,

Employ the echo in her name.

Hark how the flutes and trumpets raise,
At bright Cecilia's name, their lays!
The organ labours in her praise.
Cecilia's name does all our numbers grace;
From every voice the tuneful accents fly;
In soaring trebles now it rises high,
And now it sinks, and dwells upon the base.

Cecilia's name through all the notes we sing,
The work of every skilful tongue,

The sound of every trembling string,
The sound and triumph of our song.
For ever consecrate the day
To music and Ceciliâ;

Music! the greatest good that mortals know,
And all of Heaven we have below,
Music can noble hints impart,
Engender fury, kindle love,

With unsuspected eloquence can move
And manage all the man with secret art.
When Orpheus strikes the trembling lyre,
The streams stand still, the stones admire;
The listening savages advance,

The wolf and lamb around him trip,
The bears in awkward measures leap,
And tigers mingle in the dance:

The moving woods attended as he play'd,
And Rhodope was left without a shade.

Music religious heats inspires;

It wakes the soul and lifts it high, And wings it with sublime desires, And fits it to bespeak the Deity. The' Almighty listens to a tuneful tongue, And seems well pleased, and courted with a song. Soft moving sounds and heavenly airs [prayers. Give force to every word, and recommend our When time itself shall be no more, And all things in confusion hurl'd, Music shall then exert its power,

And sound survive the ruins of the world;

Then saints and angels shall agree

In one eternal jubilee ;

All Heaven shall echo with their hymns divine, And God himself with pleasure see

The whole creation in a chorus join.

CHORUS.

Consecrate the place and day

To music and Cecilia:

Let no rough winds approach, nor dare
Invade the hallow'd bounds,
Nor rudely shake the tuneful air,
Nor spoil the fleeting sounds;
Nor mournful sigh nor groan be heard,
But gladness dwell on every tongue,
Whilst all, with voice and strings prepared,
Keep up the loud harmonious song,
And imitate the bless'd abode
In joy, and harmony, and love.

THE PLAY-HOUSE.

WHERE gentle Thames through stately channels
And England's proud metropolis divides; [glides,
A lofty fabric does the sight invade,

And stretches o'er the waves a pompous shade;
Whence sudden shouts the neighbourhood surprise,
And thundering claps and dreadful hissings rise.
Here thrifty R-- hires monarchs by the day,
And keeps his mercenary kings in pay;
With deep-mouth'd actors fills the vacant scenes,
And rakes the stews for goddesses and queens.

1 Probably Rich.