"A verie pithie and mournful Ballate

Of Glassenbury Abbey, and the Abbott and Freres thereof; Right profitable unto alle godlie soules that in these backslidinge tymes doe nathelesse cease not to honour Scte Joseph and our Lady.

They hangid the Abbott on Michael's hille,
And they seized on his church and lande;
For so it was stoute kynge Harry's wille,
Whose wille there mote none withstande.

They smote on the walles of the Abbey fayre,
And spoyled its high roofe of stone;
And windowe, and tower, and winding staire,
They pullid down one by one.

Its tenante now is the boding crowe,

In stedde of the hooded friar;

On its ruinnes the ivy and walle-floure growe,
The ferne and the white-blossomed briar.

Its altar the pilgrim he seeketh no more
From the lande of another sunne,

For Masse, and Prayer, and Confessioun are ower,
And Mattines and Vespers are done.

And the brethren, so holie, are scattered abroad,
To labour, to begge, and to die;

Withouten a frende-but their pittying Lord,
And our Ladie that sitteth on high.

But laughe not, proude Harry, nor joie in thy strengthe,
For thou, too, in Ruinnes shalt falle,

And the pitilesse Spoyler shalle finde thee at lengthe,
Despight of thy stronge pallace walle.

And ruinne to thee shalle be darknesse and shame,
Foulle wormes, crumbling bones, and coulde clay;
While the Abbey, though ruinned, shalle flourishe in fame,
And looke fayre in the swete light of daie.

The Stranger from farre distante shoares shall come here, Its beauteouse relickes to see,

And shall give to its glories a sighe and a teare,

And a curse, cruelle monarcke, to thee." - pp. 177, 178.

404

Cheever s Writings.

ART. VI.-CHEEVER'S WRITINGS.*

[Nov.

WE have placed the first of these works of Dr. Cheever at the head of our article, rather to show that we are not unmindful of the production upon which many may think his reputation as an author will chiefly rest, than to give to it an extended review. It is the literary character of these books which we propose to examine, and our limits will not permit us to consider their theological bearings. The Lectures upon Bunyan and his famous allegory are a purely theological, and we may also with propriety say, sectarian work; and cannot be criticised, in justice either to the writer or the reviewer, except in connexion with the whole scheme of Orthodox theology. With proper time and space, this might not be a very severe task, for the work carries with it no overpowering logic; but, in its constant reference to dogmas, contents itself with assuming as matter of illustration according to the views of the author, what it does not undertake to prove to the minds of others. Dr. Cheever uses ideas and follows up associated images, to adorn and explain and amplify what is to himself true; but draws no consequential and connected inferences, that might enforce the assumptions upon less informed minds. There is but one sustained argument that we rememberthat on Justification, on page 427. For the rest, Dr. Cheever, though professing a zealous love for liberty of conscience and freedom of opinion, assumes in every line, with a most nonchalant and quiet air of infallibility, the incontrovertible nature of his own religious theories; as one might assume, in the concoction of a narrative of events supposed to take place while the sun was above the horizon, that objects would appear to all parties with the universal and unvarying hue of daylight. His very lan

1. Lectures on the Pilgrim's Progress, and on the Life and Times of John Bunyan. By Rev. GEORGE B. CHEEVER. Fifth Edition. New York: Edward Walker. 1846. 8vo. pp. 514.

2. Wanderings of a Pilgrim in the Shadow of Mont Blanc. By GEORGE B. CHEEVER, D. D. New York: Wiley & Putnam. 1845. 12mo. pp. 166.

3. The Pilgrim in the Shadow of the Jungfrau Alp. By GEORGE B. CHEEVER, D. D. New York: Wiley & Putnam. 1846. 12mo. pp.

214.