LV.

UPON THE LATE GENERAL FAST, MARCH 1832.

RELUCTANT call it was; the rite delayed;

And in the senate some there were who doffed
The last of their humanity, and scoffed
At providential judgments, undismayed

By their own daring. But the people prayed
As with one voice; their flinty heart grew soft
With penitential sorrow, and aloft

Their spirit mounted, crying, "God us aid!"
Oh that with aspirations more intense,
Chastised by self-abasement more profound,
This people, once so happy, so renowned
For liberty, would seek from God defence
Against far heavier ill, the pestilence
Of revolution, impiously unbound.

LVI.

IN

my mind's eye a Temple, like a cloud Slowly surmounting some invidious hill,

Rose out of darkness: the bright Work stood still; And might of its own beauty have been proud,

But it was fashioned and to God was vowed

By Virtues that diffused, in every part,

Spirit divine through forms of human art:

Faith had her arch-her arch, when winds blow loud,

Into the consciousness of safety thrilled;

And Love her towers of dread foundation laid
Under the grave of things; Hope had her spire
Star-high, and pointing still to something higher;
Trembling I gazed, but heard a voice-it said,
"Hell-gates are powerless Phantoms when we build."

LVII.

CONCLUSION.

TO.

If these brief Records, by the Muses' art
Produced as lonely Nature or the strife
That animates the scenes of public life *
Inspired, may in thy leisure claim a part;
And if these Transcripts of the private heart
Have gained a sanction from thy falling tears;
Then I repent not. But my soul hath fears
Breathed from eternity; for as a dart

Cleaves the blank air, Life ffies: now every day

Is but a glimmering spoke in the swift wheel
Of the revolving week. Away, away,

All fitful cares, all transitory zeal !

So timely Grace the immortal wing may heal,
And honour rest upon the senseless clay.

*This line alludes to Sonnets which will be found in another Class.

MEMORIALS

OF

A TOUR IN SCOTLAND.