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The brute and boisterous force of violent men,
Hardy and industrious to support,
Tyrannic power, but raging to pursue
The righteous, and all such as honor truth!
He all their ammunition
And feats of war defeats;

With plain heroic magnitude of mind,
And celestial vigor arm'd,

Their armories and magazines contemns,
Renders them useless, while
With winged expedition,

Swift as the lightning glance, he executes
His errand on the wicked, who, surpris'd,
Lose their defence, distracted and amaz'd.

19. On Shakspeare. MILTON. WHAT needs my Shakspeare for his honor'd bones

The labor of an age in piled stones,

Or that his hallow'd reliques should be hid
Under a starry pointing pyramid ?

Dear son of memory! great heir of fame!
What need'st thou such weak witness of thy
name?

Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Hast built thyself a live-long monument. [art
For whilst to th' shame of slow-endeavoring
Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart
Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued book
Those Delphic lines with deep impression took,
Then thou our fancy of itself bereaving, [ing;
Dost make us marble with too much conceiv-
And so sepulchred in such pomp dost lie,
That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.
MILTON.
§ 20. Song: on May Morning.
Now the bright morning-star, day's har-
binger,

§ 15. Patience. MILTON. MANY are the sayings of the wise, In ancient and in modern books inroll'd, Extolling Patience as the truest fortitude; And to the bearing well of all calamities, All chances incident to man's frail life, Consolatories writ [sought, With studied argument, and much persuasion [her Lenient of grief and anxious thought; Comes dancing from the east, and leads with But with th' afflicted, in his pangs, their sound The flow'ry May, who from her green lap Little prevails, or rather seems a tune [plaint; Harsh, and of dissonant mood from his comUnless he feel within

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Some source of consolation from above,
Secret refreshings, that repair his strength,
And fainting spirits uphold.

16. Spirits. MILTON.

SPIRITS, when they please,
Can either sex assume, or both; so soft
And uncompounded is their essence pure;
Not tied or manacled with joint or limb,
Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,
Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they
choose,

Dilated or condens'd, bright or obscure,
Can execute their airy purposes,

And works of love or enmity fulfil.

17. Pain. MILTON.

WHAT avails
[with pain,
Valor or strength, though matchless, quell'd
Which all subdues, and make remiss the
hands

Of mightiest? Sense of pleasure we may well
Spare out of life, perhaps, and not repine;
But live content, which is the calmest life :
But pain is perfect misery, the worst
Of evils! and, excessive, overturns
All patience.

18. Hypocrisy. MILTON.
NEITHER man nor angel can discern
Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone,

By his permissive will thro' heaven and earth:
And oft though Wisdom wake, Suspicion sleeps
At Wisdom's gate, and to Simplicity
Resigns her charge, while Goodness thinks no
Where no ill seems.

[ill

throws

The yellow cowslip, and the pale primrose.
Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire
Mirth, and youth, and warm desire!
Woods and groves are of thy dressing,
Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing.
Thus we salute thee with our early song,
And welcome thee, and wish thee long.

§ 21. Sonnet on his deceased Wife.

MILTON.

METHOUGHT I saw my late espoused saint
Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave,
Whom Jove's great son to her glad husband
[and faint.

gave,
Rescued from death by force, though pale
Mine, as whom wash'd from spot of child-bed
Purification in the old law did save, [taint

And such, as yet once more I trust to have
Full sight of her in heaven without restraint,
Came vested all in white, pure as her mind:
Her face was veil'd, yet to my fancied sight
Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person
shin'd

So clear, as in no face with more delight.
But, oh! as to embrace me she inclin'd,

I wak'd, she fled, and day brought back my
night.

§ 22. Sonnet to the Nightingale. MILTON.
O NIGHTINGALE, that on yon bloomy spray
Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still,
Thou with fresh hope the lover's heart dost
fill,
[May.
While the jolly hours lead on propitious
Thy liquid notes, that close the eye of day,
First heard before the shallow cuckoo's bill,
Portend success in love; oh if Jove's will
Have link'd that amorous pow'r to thy soft

lay,

Now timely sing, ere the rude bird of hate
Foretel my hopeless doom in some grove
nigh;

As thou from year to year hast sung too late
For my relief, yet hadst no reason why:
Whether the muse or love call thee his mate,
Both them I serve, and of their train am I.

23. Christmas Hymn. MILTON.

Ir was the winter wild,

While the Heaven-born child

He saw a greater sun appear

[could bear.

Than his bright throne, or burning axle-tree,
The shepherds on the lawn,

Or e'er the point of dawn,

Sat simply chatting in a rustic row;
Full little thought they then,
That the mighty Pan

Was kindly come to live with them below
Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep, [keep.
Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy

All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies; When such music sweet Nature in awe to him,

Had doff'd her gaudy trim,

With her great Master so to sympathize:

It was no season then for her

To wanton with the Sun, her lusty paramour.

Only with speeches fair

She wooes the gentle air

To hide her guilty front with innocent snow; And on her naked shame,

Pollute with sinful blame,

The saintly veil of maiden white to throw ;
Confounded, that her Maker's eyes
Should look so near upon her foul deformities.
But he, her fears to cease,
Sent down the meek-ey'd Peace; [sliding
She, crown'd with olive green, came softly
Down through the turning sphere,
His ready harbinger,

Their hearts and ears did greet,

As never was by mortal finger strook ;
Divinely-warbled voice

Answering the stringed noise,

As all their souls in blissful rapture took ; The air, such pleasure loth to lose,

With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly close.

Nature that heard such sound,

Beneath the hollow round

Of Cynthia's seat, the aery region thrilling, Now was almost won

To think her part was done,

And that her reign had here its last fulfilling; She knew such harmony alone [union. Could hold all Heaven and Earth in happier

At last surrounds their sight

[viding; A globe of circular light,

With turtle wing the amorous clouds di-
And, waving wide her myrtle wand, [land.
She strikes an universal peace through sea and

No war, or battle's sound,
Was heard the world around:

[array'd;
That with long beams the shamefac'd night
The helmed Cherubim,
And sworded Seraphim,

[play'd,

Are seen in glittering ranks with wings disHarping in loud and solemn quire, [Heir.

The idle spear and shield were high up hung; With unexpressive notes, to Heaven's new-born

The hooked chariot stood

Unstain'd with hostile blood;

The trumpet spake not to the armed throng;| And kings sat still with aweful eye,

[by.

As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was

But peaceful was the night
Wherein the Prince of light

His reign of peace upon the Earth began:
The winds, with wonder whist,
Smoothly the waters kist,

Whispering new joys to the mild ocean,
Who now hath quite forgot to rave, [ed wave.
While birds of calm sit brooding on the charm-
The stars, with deep amaze,
Stand fix'd in stedfast gaze,

Bending one way their precious influence;
And will not take their flight,
For all the morning light,

Or Lucifer that often warn'd them thence;
But in their glimmering orbs did glow, [go.
Until their Lord himself bespake, and bid them

And, though the shady gloom

Had given day her room,

Such music (as 'tis said)

Before was never made,

But when of old the sons of morning sung, While the Creator great

His constellations set,

And the well-balanc'd world on hinges hung; And cast the dark foundations deep,

And bid the weltering waves their oozy chan-
nel keep.

Ring out, ye crystal spheres,
Once bless our human ears,

If ye have power to touch our senses so;
And let your silver chime
Move in melodious time;
[blow;
And let the base of Heaven's deep organ
And with your ninefold harmony,
Make

up full consort to the angelic symphony.
For, if such holy song
Enwrap our fancy long,

[gold;

Time will run back, and fetch the age of
And speckled Vanity
Will sicken soon and die,

The Sun himself withheld his wonted speed, And Hell itself will pass away,

And hid his head for shame,

As his inferior flame

[mould.

And leprous Sin will melt from earthly [day. And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering [need: Yea, Truth and Justice then

The new-enlightened world no more should Will down return to men,

Orb'd in a rainbow; and, like glories wear-The Libyc Hammon shrinks his horn,
[ing, In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Tham-

Mercy will sit between,

Thron'd in celestial sheen,

[steering;

muz mourn.

With radiant feet the tissued clouds down And sullen Moloch, fled,
[hall. Hath left in shadows dread

And Heaven, as at some festival,

Will open wide the gates of her high palace

But wisest Fate says no,
This must not yet be so,

The babe yet lies in smiling infancy,
That on the bitter cross

Must redeem our loss;

So both himself and us to glorify:
Yet first, to those ychain'd in sleep,
The wakeful trump of doom must thunder
through the deep;

With such a horrid clang
As on mount Sinai rang,

[outbrake:

While the red fire and smouldering clouds
The aged Earth aghast
With terror of that blast,

Shall from the surface to the centre shake;
When, at the world's last session, [his throne.
The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread
And then at last our bliss

Full and perfect is,

His burning idol all of blackest hue;
In vain with cymbals' ring

They call the grisly king,

In dismal dance about the furnace blue :
The brutish gods of Nile as fast,

Isis, and Orus, and the dog Anubis, haste.
Nor is Osiris seen

In Memphian grove or green,

[ings loud:
Trampling the unshower'd grass with low-
Nor can he be at rest
Within his sacred chest ;

[shroud;
Nought but profoundest Hell can be his
In vain with timbrell'd anthems dark [ark.
The sable-stoled sorcerers bear his worshipt
He feels from Judah's land
The dreaded infant's hand,

The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn;
Nor all the gods beside

Longer dare abide,

Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine:

But now begins; for, from this happy day, Our babe, to show his Godhead true,

The old Dragon, under ground

In straiter limits bound,

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Not half so far casts his usurped sway;
And, wroth to see his kingdom fail,
Swindges the scaly horror of his folded tail.

The oracles are dumb,
No voice or hideous hum

[ceiving.

Runs through the arched roof in words de-
Apollo from his shrine
Can no more divine,

Can in his swaddling bands control the dam

ned crew.

So, when the Sun in bed,

Curtain'd with cloudy red,

Pillows his chin upon an orient wave,
The flocking shadows pale

Troop to the infernal jail,

Each fetter'd ghost slips to his several grave;
And the yellow-skirted Fayes [lov'd maze.
[leaving. Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-
Delphos But see, the Virgin blest

[cell. Hath laid her babe to rest;

With hollow shriek the steep of
No nightly trance, or breathed spell,
Inspires the pale-ey'd priests from the prophetic
The lonely mountains o'er,
And the resounding shore,

A voice of weeping heard and loud lament;
From haunted spring and dale,
Edg'd with poplar pale,

The parting genius is with sighing sent;
With flower-inwoven tresses torn

The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thick

ets mourn.

In consecrated earth,

And on the holy hearth,

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[ending:

Time is, our tedious song should here have
Heaven's youngest-teemed star
Hath fix'd her polish'd car,

[tending.
Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp at-
And all about the courtly stable
Bright-harness'd angels sit in order serviceable.
MILMAN.

$ 24. Ode, to the Saviour.

-FOR thou wert born of woman! thou

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[night plaint;

Nor

The Lars, and Lemures, moan with midIn urns, and altars round,

A drear and dying sound

[quaint;

Affrights the Flamens at their service And the chill marble seems to sweat, [seat. While each peculiar Power foregoes his wonted Peor and Baälim

Forsake their temples dim,

With that twice-batter'd god of Palestine ; And mooned Ashtaroth,

Heaven's queen and mother both,

And not by thunders strew'd
Was thy tempestuous road;
indignation burnt before thee on thy way.
But thee, a soft and naked child,

Thy mother undefil'd

In the rude manger laid to rest
From off her virgin breast.

[pare

The heavens were not commanded to pre-
A gorgeous canopy of golden air;
Nor stoop'd their lamps th' enthroned fires
A single silent star [on high:
Came wandering from afar,

[sky;

Now sits not girt with taper's holy shine; Gliding uncheck'd and calm along the liquid

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A little while the conscious earth did shake

At that foul deed by her fierce children done;
A few dim hours of day

The world in darkness lay;
Then bask'd in bright repose beneath the
cloudless sun.

While thou didst sleep within the tomb,
Consenting to thy doom;

Ere yet the white-rob'd angel shone
Upon the sealed stone.

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THEN 'gan the Palmer thus: Most wretched That to affections does the bridle lend: [man, In their beginning they are weak and wan, But soon, thro' suffrance, growe to fearfull end; Whiles they are weak, betimes with them con[growe, For when they once to perfect strength do Plaguing the guilty city's murtherous crew: Strong warres they make, and cruel batt'ry

And when thou didst arise, thou didst not

stand

With Devastation in thy red right hand,

But thou didst haste to meet

Thy mother's coming feet,

[few.

And bear the words of peace unto the faithful
Then calmly, slowly didst thou rise

Into thy native skies,
Thy human form dissolved on high
In its own radiancy.

VARIOUS DESCRIPTIONS FROM
SPENSER.

§ 25. Adonis's Garden.
BUT were it not that Time their troubler is,
All that in this delightful garden grows

Should happy be, and have immortal bliss: For here all plenty and all pleasure flowes, And sweet love gentle fits emongst them throws,

Without fell rancour, or fond jealousie; Frankly each paramour his leman knows, VOL. VI. Nos. 89 & 90.

tend:

bend

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Wrath, jealousy, grief, love, do thus expell : Wrath is a fire, and jealousy a weed;

Grief is a flood, and love a monster fell; The fire of sparke, the weed of little seed, The flood of drops, the monster filth did breed: But sparks, seed, drops, and filth do thus decay; [outweed, The sparks soon quench, the springing seed The drops dry up, and filth wipe clean away; So shall wrath, jealousy, grief, love, die and decay.

$27. Ambition.

A ROUT of people there assembled were, Of every sort and nation under sky,

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near

Which with great uprore preassed, to draw | And all within with flowres was garnished That, when mild Zephyrus amongst them [colors shew. Did breathe out bounteous smells, and painted

To th' upper part, where was advanced hie
A stately seat of soveraigne majestie

And thereon sate a woman gorgeous gay,
And richly clad in robes of royaltie.

}

That never earthly prince in such array His glory did enchaunce, and pompous pride display.

Her face right wondrous faire did seem to be, That her broad beauties beam great brightness threw [might see: Through the dim shade, that all men here Yet was not that same her own native hew, But wrought by art; and counterfeited shew,

Thereby more lovers unto her to call ; Nath'less, more heavenly faire in deed and She by creation was, till she did fall; [view Thenceforth she sought for helps to cloke

her crimes withall.

There, as in glist'ring glory she did sit,
She held a great gold chain ylinked well,
Whose upper end to highest heaven was
knit,

And lower part did reach to lowest hell;
And all that prease did round about her swell,
To catchen hold of that long chaine, thereby
To climb aloft, and others to excell;

That was Ambition, rash desire to stie ;
And ev'ry link thereof a step of dignitie.
Some thought to raise themselves to high
By riches and unrighteous reward; [degree
Some by close should'ring, some by flat-
teree;

Others through friends, others for base reward;
And all, by wrong ways, for themselves pre-
par'd.
[lowe ;
Those that were up themselves, kept others

Those that were lowe themselves held others
hard,

Ne suffer'd them to rise, or greater growe; But every one did strive his fellow down to throwe.

O sacred hunger of ambitious mindes, And impotent desire of men to raigne !

blew,

$29. Avarice.

AND greedy Avarice by him did ride,
Upon a camel loaden all with gold;

Two iron coffers hung on either side,
With precious metall full as they might hold,
And in his lap a heap of coin he told;
For of his wicked pelf his god he made,
And unto hell himself for money sold:
Accursed usury was all his trade, [waide.
And right and wrong ylike in equall balance

At last he came into a gloomy glade, [light,
Cover'd with boughs and shrubs from heaven's

Whereas he sitting found, in secret shade,
An uncouth, salvage, and uncivill wight,
Of griesly hew, and foul ill-favour'd sight;
His face with smoake was tann'd, and eyes

were blear❜d;

His head and beard with soot were ill bedight;
His coale-black hands did seem to have been
[claws appear'd.
In smithe's fire-speting forge, and nails like

sear'd

His iron coat, all overgrown with rust,
Was underneath enveloped with gold, [dust,
Whose glist'ring gloss, darken'd with filthy
Well it appeared to have been of old
A work of rich entaile, and curious mould,
Woven with anticks, and wild imagery;
And in his lap a mass of coine he told,

And turn'd upside down, to feed his eye,
And covetous desire, with his huge treasury.

And round about him lay, on every side,
Great heaps of gold, that never could be spent ;
Of which, some were ore not purifide
Of Mulciber's devouring element;
Some others were new driven, and distent
Into great ingots, and to wedges square;
Some in round plates withouten monument;
But most were stampt, and in their metall
bare
[and rare.

Who neither dread of God, that devils The antick shapes of kings and Cæsars strange

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