And these - for beauty was the rule And there the odorous feast was spread; Blew welcome round the walls of heaven. In skyey garments, silky thin, A thousand forms, and yet no din: Far flew the music's circling sound; Did any great door ope or close, Then once again the groups were drawn There, midst the brightest, brightly shone No further might the scene unfold; "O master of these broad estates, So I may leave these fields of pain! ... THOMAS BUCHANAN READ. THE RELIGION OF HUDIBRAS. And prove their doctrine orthodox SAMUEL BUTLER. THE COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT. INSCRIBED TO R. AIKEN, ESQ. "Let not ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys and destiny obscure; Nor grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile, The short but simple annals of the poor."-GRAY. 1. My loved, my honored, much-respected friend, No mercenary bard his homage pays : To help her parents dear, if they in hardship be. | Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the even The soupe their only hawkie does afford, That 'yont the hallan snugly chows her cood; The dame brings forth, in complimental mood, To grace the lad, her weel-hained kebbuck fell, An' aft he's prest, an' aft he ca's it guid; The frugal wifie, garrulous, will tell, Hope "springs exulting on triumphant wing," That thus they all shall meet in future days; There ever bask in uncreated rays, No more to sigh, or shed the bitter tear, Together hymning their Creator's praise, In such society, yet still more dear; How 't was a towmond auld, sin' lint was i' the While circling Time moves round in an eternal bell. sphere. XVII. Compared with this, how poor Religion's pride, In all the pomp of method and of art, When men display to congregations wide, Devotion's every grace, except the heart! The Power, incensed, the pageant will desert, The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole ; But, haply, in some cottage far apart, May hear, well pleased, the language of the soul; And in his Book of Life the inmates poor enroll. XVIII. Then homeward all take off their several way; The youngling cottagers retire to rest : The parent-pair their secret homage pay, And proffer up to heaven the warm request, That He who stills the raven's clamorous nest, And decks the lily fair in flowery pride, Would, in the way his wisdom sees the best, For them and for their little ones provide ; But, chiefly, in their hearts with grace divine preside. XIX. From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs, That makes her loved at home, revered abroad; Princes and lords are but the breath of kings, "An honest man's the noblest work of God!" And certes, in fair Virtue's heavenly road, The cottage leaves the palace far behind : What is a lordling's pomp?-a cumbrous load, Disguising oft the wretch of human kind, Studied in arts of hell, in wickedness refined! XX. O Scotia! my dear, my native soil! For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent, Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content! And, O, may Heaven their simple lives prevent From luxury's contagion, weak and vile! Then, howe'er crowns and coronets be rent, A virtuous populace may rise the while, And stand a wall of fire around their much-loved isle. |