The Amaranth :: :: University of Virginia Library

Deep in a vale, where cloud-born Rhyne
Thro' meads his Alpine waters roll'd,
Where pansies mixt with daisies shine,
And asphodels instarr'd with gold;
Two forests, skirting round the feet
Of everlasting mountains, meet,
Half-parted by an op'ning glade;
Around Hercynian oaks are seen.—
Larches , and cypress ever-green,
Unite their hospitable shade.

II

Impearl'd with dew, the rosy Morn
Stood tip-toe on the mountain's brow;
Gleams following gleams the heav'ns adorn,
And gild the theatre below:

Nature from needful slumber wakes,
And from her misty eye-balls shakes
The balmy dews of soft repose:
The pious lark with grateful lays
Ascends the skies, and chants the praise
Which man to his Creator owes

III

When lo! a venerable Sire appears,
With sprightly foot-steps hast'ning o'er the plain;
His tresses bore the marks of fourscore years,
Yet free from sickness he, and void of pain:
His eyes with half their youthful clearness shone .
Still on his cheeks health's tincture gently glow'd,

His aged voice retain'd a manly tone,
His peaceful blood in equal tenour flow'd;
At length, beneath a beechen shade reclin'd,
He thus pour'd forth to Heav'n the transports of his mind.

This river takes its rise from one of the highest ice-mountains in Switzerland.

The species of Larch-tree here meant is called Sempervirens: The other larches are deciduis foliis.

Tip-toe. Shakespeare.

“Before we engage in worldly business, or any common amusements of life, let us be careful to consecrate the first-fruits of the day, and the very beginning of our holy thoughts unto the service of God.” St. Basil. .

Thomas à Kempis had no manifest infirmities of old-age, and retained his eye-sight perfect to the last.

All that I have ever been able to learn in Germany, upon good authority, concerning him, is as follows: He was born at Kempis, or Kempen, a small walled town in the dutchy of Cleves, and diocese of Cologn. His family-name was Hamerlein, which signifies in the German language a little Hammer. We find also that his parents were named John and Gertrude Hamerlein. He lived chiefly in the monastery of Mount St. Agnes; where his effigy, together with a prospect of the monastery, was engraven on a plate of copper that lies over his body. The said monastery is now called Bergh-Clooster, or, as we might say in English, Hill-Cloyster. Many strangers in their travels visit it. Kempis was certainly one of the best and greatest men since the primitive ages His Book of the Imitation of Christ has seen near forty Editions in the original Latin, and above sixty Translations have been made from it into modern languages.

Our author died August the 8th, 1471, aged 92 years.

In the engraving on copper above-mentioned, and lying over his grave, is represented a person respectfully presenting to him a label, on which is written a verse to this effect:

“Oh! where is Peace? for Thou its paths hast tred.”—

To which Kempis returns another strip of paper, inscribed as follows:

“In poverty, retirement, and with God.”

He was a canon regular of Augustins, and sub-prior of Mount St. Agnes' monastery. He composed his treatise On the Imitation of Christ in the sixty-first year of his age, as appears from a note of his own writing in the library of his convent.