Nor doth the outward ear alone At that high warning start; Conscience gives back th' appalling tone; "Tis echoed in the heart. It fills the Church of God; it fills Only in stubborn hearts and wills To other strains our souls are set : Fills ear and brain, and will not let Heaven's harmonies come in, Come, Lord, come, Wisdom, Love, and Power, Open our ears to hear; Let us not miss th' accepted hour; Save, Lord, by Love or Fear. MONDAY IN WHITSUN-WEEK. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth and they left off to build the city. Genesis xi. 8. SINCE all that is not heav'n must fade, Light be the hand of Ruin laid Upon the home I love : With lulling spell let soft Decay Far opening down some woodland deep And wild-flower wreaths from side to side What ruthless Time has wrought. Such are the visions green and sweet In Asia's sea-like plain, Where slowly, round his isles of sand, Winds toward the pearly main. Slumber is there, but not of rest; What shapeless form, half lost on high', Seems like a ghost to glide, And watch, from Babel's crumbling heap, Is fall'n imperial Pride? f See Sir R. K. Porter's Travels, ii. 387. "In my second visit to Birs Nimrood, my party suddenly halted, having descried several dark objects moving along the summit of its hill, which they construed into dismounted Arabs on the look out: I took out my glass to examine, and soon distinguished that the causes of our alarm were two or three majestic lions, taking the air upon the heights of the pyramid." With half-clos'd eye a lion there Sprang from rough ocean's womb. But where are now his eagle wings, Hiding the glorious sky From half the nations, till they own No holier name, no mightier throne? Quench'd is the golden statue's ray h The breath of heaven has blown away What toiling earth had pil'd, Scattering wise heart and crafty hand, The fabrics of a child. Divided thence through every age g Daniel vii. 4. h Daniel ii. and iii. And hoarse and jarring all Mount up their heaven assailing cries To thy bright watchmen in the skies From Babel's shatter'd wall. Thrice only since, with blended might The nations on that haughty height Have met to scale the heaven: Thrice only might a Seraph's look A moment's shade of sadness brook— Such power to guilt was given. Now the fierce Bear and Leopard keen i Are perish'd as they ne'er had been, Oblivion is their home: Ambition's boldest dream and last That sounds the dirge of Rome. Heroes and Kings, obey the charm, Withdraw the proud high-reaching arm There is an oath on high, i Daniel vii. 5, 6. |