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XLIX.

Thus said the Angel, Thou to whom one day
There shall in earthly guardianship be given
The English Church, preserve it from decay!

Ere now for that most sacred charge hath Heaven
In perilous times provided female means,
Blessing it beneath the rule of pious Queens.

L.

Bear thou that great Eliza in thy mind,
Who from a wreck this fabric edified;
And HER who to a nation's voice resign'd,

When Rome in hope its wiliest engines plied, By her own heart and righteous Heaven approved, Stood up against the Father whom she loved.

LI.

Laying all mean regards aside, fill Thou

Her seats with wisdom and with learned worth; That so whene'er attacked, with fearless brow

Her champions may defend her rights on earth: Link'd is her welfare closely with thine own, One fate attends the Altar and the Throne!

LII.

Think not that lapse of ages shall abate

The inveterate malice of that Harlot old; Fall'n though thou deem'st her from her high estate, She proffers still the envenom'd cup of gold, And her fierce Beast, whose names are Blasphemy, The same that was, is still, and still must be.

LIII.

The stern Sectarian in unnatural league

Joins her to war against their hated foe; Error and Faction aid the bold intrigue,

And the dark Atheist seeks her overthrow, While giant Zeal in arms against her stands, Barks with an hundred mouths, and lifts an hundred hands.

LIV.

Built on a rock, the fabric may repel

Their utmost rage, if all within be sound: But if within the gates Indifference dwell,

Woe to her then! there needs no outward wound! Through her whole frame benumb'd, a lethal sleep, Like the cold poison of the asp will creep.

LV.

In thee, as in a cresset set on high,

The light of piety should shine far seen, A guiding beacon fixed for every eye:

Thus from the influence of an honour'd Queen, As from its spring, should public good proceed,The peace of Heaven will be thy proper meed.

LVI.

So should return that happy state of yore

When piety and joy went hand in hand; The love which to his flock the shepherd bore, The old observances which cheer'd the land,

LVII.

Thus having spoke, away the Angel past
With all his train, dissolving from the sight:
A transitory shadow overcast

The sudden void they left; all meaner light Seeming like darkness to the eye which lost The full effulgence of that heavenly host.

LVIII.

Eftsoon, in reappearing light confess'd,
There stood another minister of bliss,

With his own radiance clothed as with a vest.
One of the angelic company was this,
Who, guardians of the rising human race,
Alway in Heaven behold the Father's face.

LIX.

Somewhile he fix'd upon the royal Bride

A contemplative eye of thoughtful grief; The trouble of that look benign implied

A sense of wrongs for which he sought relief, And that Earth's evils which go unredrest May waken sorrow in an Angel's breast.

LX.

I plead for babes and sucklings, he began,
Those who are now, and who are yet to be;

I plead for all the surest hopes of man,
The vital welfare of humanity:

Oh let not bestial Iguorance maintain
Longer within the land her brutalizing reign.

LXI.

O Lady, if some new-born babe should bless,
In answer to a nation's prayers, thy love,

When thou, beholding it in tenderness,

The deepest, holiest joy of earth shalt prove,

In that the likeness of all infants see,

And call to mind that hour what now thou hear'st from

me.

LXII.

Then seeing infant man, that Lord of Earth,

Most weak and helpless of all breathing things, Remember that as Nature makes at birth

No different law for Peasants or for Kings,
And at the end no difference may befall,
The « short parenthesis of life » is all.'

LXIII.

But in that space, how wide may be their doom
Of honour or dishonour, good or ill!
From Nature's hand like plastic clay they come,
To take from circumstance their woe or weal;
And as the form and pressure may be given,
They wither upon earth, or ripen there for Heaven.

LXIV.

Is it then fitting that one soul should pine
For lack of culture in this favour'd land?—
That spirits of capacity divine

Perish, like seeds upon the desert sand?—

The household prayers, which, honouring God's high That needful knowledge in this age of light

name,

Kept the lamp trimm'd and fed the sacred flame.

Should not by birth be every Briton's right?

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