L 56 RELIGIOUS MUSINGS Спеший з блиц зво But o'er some plain that steameth to the (Black hell laughs horrible-to hear the Feeling himself, his own low self the From all sides rush the thirsty brood of / whole; When he by sacred sympathy might make The whole one Self! Self, that no alien knows! Self, far diffused as Fancy's wing can travel! Self, spreading still! Oblivious of its own, Yet all of all possessing! This is Faith! This the Messiah's destined victory! But first offences needs must come ! Even now 1 1 January 21st, 1794, in the debate on the Address to his Majesty, on the speech from the Throne, the Earl of Guildford moved an amendment to the following effect :-'That the House hoped his Majesty would seize the earliest opportunity to conclude a peace with France,' etc. This motion was opposed by the Duke of Portland, who 'considered the war to be merely grounded on one principle-the preservation of the Christian Religion.' May 30th, 1794, the Duke of Bedford moved a number of resolutions, with a view to the establishment of a peace with France. He was opposed (among others) by Lord Abingdon in these remarkable words: 'The best road to Peace, my Lords, is War! and War carried on in the same manner in which we are taught to worship our Creator, namely, with all our souls, and with all our minds, and with all our hearts, and with all our strength.' Will go forth with our armies and our To scatter the red ruin on their foes! 190 Lord of unsleeping Love,1 From everlasting Thou! We shall not die. These, even these, in mercy didst thou form, And the pale-featured Sage's trembling hand Strong as an host of armed Deities, Teachers of Good through Evil, by brief Such as the blind Ionian fabled erst. wrong Making Truth lovely, and her future From Avarice thus, from Luxury and War O'er waken'd realms Philosophers and Spread in concentric circles: they whose Conscious of their high dignities from Hence the soft couch, and many-coloured And the low puppetry of thrones, to muse On that blest triumph, when the Patriot robe, The daggered Envy, spirit - quenching Have roused with pealing voice the un Then o'er the wild and wavy chaos rush And tame the outrageous mass, with plastic might Moulding Confusion to such perfect forms, As erst were wont,—bright visions of the day!— To float before them, when, the summer noon, Beneath some arched romantic rock reclined 250 Caught in whose monstrous twine Behemoth1 yells, His bones loud-crashing! O ye numberless, Whom foul Oppression's ruffian gluttony Drives from life's plenteous feast! O thou poor wretch Who nursed in darkness and made wild by want, Roamest for prey, yea thy unnatural hand They felt the sea-breeze lift their youthful Dost lift to deeds of blood! O_pale locks; Or in the month of blossoms, at mild eve, Wandering with desultory feet inhaled The wafted perfumes, and the flocks and woods And many-tinted streams and setting sun With all his gorgeous company of clouds Ecstatic gazed! then homeward as they strayed Cast the sad eye to earth, and inly mused Why there was misery in a world so fair. Ah! far removed from all that glads the sense, 260 From all that softens or ennobles Man, The wretched Many! Bent beneath their loads They gape at pageant Power, nor recognise Their cots' transmuted plunder! From the tree Of Knowledge, ere the vernal sap had risen Rudely disbranched! Blessed Society! Fitliest depictured by some sun-scorched waste, Where oft majestic through the tainted eyed form, 281 More blood must stream, or ere your She that reeled heavily, whose wine was And lo! the Great, the Rich, the Mighty Hunted by ghastlier shapings than sur round Men, The Kings and the Chief Captains of the Moon-blasted Madness when he yells at 310 midnight! World, With all that fixed on high like stars of Return pure Faith! return meek Piety! The kingdoms of the world are your's: Heaven Shot baleful influence, shall be cast to earth, each heart Self-governed, the vast family of Love 340 Vile and down-trodden, as the untimely Raised from the common earth by com Pure Faith! meek Piety! The abhorred Perceives them, and his silent spirit drinks Strange bliss which he shall recognize in Form With conscious zeal had urged Love's How the black-visaged, red-eyed_Fiend Beneath the unsteady feet of Nature groans, Coadjutors of God. To Milton's trump Raises to heaven: and he of mortal kind Up the fine fibres through the sentient Lo! Priestley there, patriot, and saint, and sage, Him, full of years, from his loved native 2 Rev. chap. iv. v. 2 and 3.--And immediately I was in the Spirit : and behold, a Throne was set in Heaven and one sat on the Throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone, etc. ll 395-401" an wake, 390 When fiery whirlwinds thunder his dread name And Angels shout, Destruction! How The last great Spirit lifting high in air Believe thou, O my soul, Shapes of a dream! The veiling clouds And lo the Throne of the redeeming moa 11 X3 And ye of plastic power, that interfused avowedly Berleian in proclaming & final happiness y all men; but this is also Hartley." |