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Alas! that such perverted zeal

Should spread on Britain's favoured ground!

That public order, private weal,

Should e'er have felt or feared a wound

From champions of the desperate law

Which from their own blind hearts they draw;
Who tempt their reason to deny

God, whom their passions dare defy,
And boast that they alone are free
Who reach this dire extremity!

But turn we from these "bold bad

men;

The way, mild Lady! that hath led
Down to their "dark opprobrious den,"
Is all too rough for Thee to tread.

Softly as morning vapours glide

Through Mosedale-cove from Carrock's side,

Should move the tenour of his song

Who means to Charity no wrong;

Whose offering gladly would accord

With this day's work, in thought and word.

Heaven prosper it! may peace, and love,
And hope, and consolation, fall,
Through its meek influence, from above,
And penetrate the hearts of all;

All who, around the hallowed Fane,
Shall sojourn in this fair domain;
Grateful to Thee, while service pure,
And ancient ordinance, shall endure,
For opportunity bestowed

To kneel together, and adore their God!

XXVI.

ON THE SAME OCCASION.

Oh! gather whencesoe'er ye safely may
The help which slackening Piety requires ;
Nor deem that he perforce must go astray
Who treads upon the footmarks of his Sires.

Our churches, invariably perhaps, stand east and west, but why is by few persons exactly known; nor, that the degree of deviation from due east often noticeable in the ancient ones was determined, in each particular case, by the point in the horizon, at which the sun rose upon the day of the Saint to whom the church was dedicated. These observances of our Ancestors, and the causes of them, are the subject of the following stanzas.

WHEN in the antique age of bow and spear
And feudal rapine clothed with iron mail,
Came Ministers of peace, intent to rear
The mother Church in yon sequestered vale;

Then, to her Patron Saint a previous rite
Resounded with deep swell and solemn close,
Through unremitting vigils of the night,

Till from his couch the wished-for Sun uprose.

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They who had waited for that sign to trace Their work's foundation, gave with careful hand To the high Altar its determined place;

Mindful of Him who in the Orient born
There lived, and on the cross his life resigned,
And who, from out the regions of the Morn,
Issuing in pomp, shall come to judge Mankind.

So taught their creed;-nor failed the eastern sky,
Mid these more awful feelings, to infuse
The sweet and natural hopes that shall not die
Long as the Sun his gladsome course renews.

For us hath such prelusive vigil ceased;
Yet still we plant, like men of elder days,

Our Christian Altar faithful to the East,
Whence the tall window drinks the morning rays;

That obvious emblem giving to the eye
Of meek devotion, which erewhile it gave,
That symbol of the dayspring from on high,
Triumphant o'er the darkness of the grave.

XXVII.

THE FORCE OF PRAYER *;

OR,

THE FOUNDING OF BOLTON PRIORY.

A TRADITION.

"What is good for a bootless bene?"

With these dark words begins my Tale;

And their meaning is, whence can comfort spring When Prayer is of no avail?

"What is good for a bootless bene?"

The Falconer to the Lady said;

And she made answer" ENDLESS SORROW!"

For she knew that her Son was dead.

She knew it by the Falconer's words,
And from the look of the Falconer's eye;
And from the love which was in her soul
For her youthful Romilly.

See the White Doe of Rylstone, ante,

VOL. IV.

N

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