The Christian Scholar :: :: University of Virginia Library

Like awful tones from Nature's mouldering shrine,
Or voices from the Dead, almost divine,
Two bards of Epicurus seem to preach,
Speaking as from their tombs with wondrous speech.

The one—how poor life's pleasures are and vain,
And cannot satisfy while they remain;
The other with what fleetness they are fled,
When Death amidst them lifts his pallid head.

Such was man's Nature in its fairest show;
She loath'd the roses withering on her brow,
Which as they wither'd left a thorny crown
With blood upon the temples trickling down.

289

II. THE WORLD RENOUNCED.

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Paraphrase.

What youth now courts, with sweets bedew'd,
The World so seeming fair,
Where in some cave with roses strew'd
She binds her golden hair,

Now plain and guileless? he full soon
The fatal change shall weep,
And see aghast the coming on
Of black and stormy deep.

All gold, fond youth, he hopes her now,
And thinks that ne'er will fail
The heart at ease and lovely brow;
Nor knows the treacherous gale.

Ah, hapless they who deem her fair!
Sav'd from a watery grave,
I vow me in His house of prayer
To Him that walk'd the wave.

291

III. ECCLESIA LABORANS.

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Paraphrase.

O ship! shall waves bear thee away
Again to sea? oh, why delay?
Thine harbour seize;—for see how torn
Thy side, of tackle shorn!

Thy mast is marr'd by Afric's gale,
Thy sail-yards groan, thy cables fail,
Thy tottering keel can scarcely brave
The too imperious wave.

Thou hast not left one untorn sail:—
How can thy prayers again avail?
Though noblest daughter of the grove,
The Wood of God's dear love .

Will birth and name avail thee now?
Can sailors trust a painted prow?
Take heed lest sport of every wind
Thou leav'st a wreck behind.

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Of late my anxious weary care,
Now object of my hope and prayer,
Mayst thou escape the sea that smiles
'Mid fair and shining Isles.

“This Wood in which our weakness is carried is the Cross of the Lord, by which we are delivered from the dangerous tempests of this world.”Aug. Ser. xxv.

295

IV. ECCLESIA MIGRATURA.

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Paraphrase.

Hence with unmanly plaint, and weak dismay!
Fleet by th' ill-fated shores, ye that are found
Still faithful, us vast Ocean calls away,
Flowing blest isles and happy fields around!

Earth's doom of toil ne'er reach'd that peaceful shore;
There the true Vine needs not the Pruner's care!
Nor His own Olive can deceive Him more ;
Nor fig-tree ever found unfruitful there .

But streams of honey flow, which cannot cloy:
From th' everlasting hills the living well
Springs forth afresh; and flocks, without annoy,
By waters still with their own Shepherd dwell.

No evening foe can prowl that fold around
With watchful circuitings,—nor faithless prove
With hidden vipers the o'er-teeming ground:
More shall we there admire, admiring love,—

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For ever happy—how no watery wind
Can come our better hopes and us between;
Nor sun to grain it foster'd prove unkind;
But all is temper'd to a glad serene.

By the King's countenance. No armed band
Hath e'er come near to vex that quiet shore,
Nor aught polluted ever touch'd the strand:
No toil of restless man could e'er explore

Aught of that bliss, not Thought on venturous sail.
There ne'er been heard poor Nature's suffering cry
From flocks contagion-struck, or 'neath hot gale
And starry influence breathing piteously.

Such seats the Father laid up for the good,
What time the golden bloom, which had its part
In blissful Eden, turn'd to hardihood
Of brazen front, and thence to iron heart,

Of these our latter days, most sad of all,
Spurning a better love! Oh, strange to see,
And yet foretold of yore ! my warning call
Hear ye, and to the Ark of Refuge flee!

Rom. xi.

St. Matt. xxi. 19.

St. Matt. xxiv. 37.

298

V. PROTECTING PROVIDENCE.

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Lib. iii. Od. iv. l. 5.

“Hark, lovely phrensy charms my ear,
“Or sounds unearthly do I hear?
“I seem to walk the hallow'd grove,
“Where pleasant winds and waters rove.
“On Vultur, the Apulian steep,
“Once when a child I lay asleep,
“Wearied with play, and there was found
“Far from my home Apulia's bound,
“Where fabled wood-doves, strange to tell,
“With the fresh leaf had veil'd me well.
“And long there liv'd the wondrous tale
“'Mid Bantia's groves, the hilly crest
“Of Acherontia's mountain nest,
“And rich Ferentum's lowly vale.
“That safe from bears and snakes that creep
“My infant limbs unharm'd should sleep,
“With bay and myrtle o'er me pil'd,
“Not without guardian Gods a fearless child.”

A heathen child, yet without fear
Because he felt his Gods were near,
Instinctive felt and own'd their care;
That child amid the fields of air

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May look surprise at our unrest,
Who are by angel-guardians blest.

In bulrush ark when Moses lay
Monsters of Nile around him play;
For there is One that cannot sleep
Who rocks his cradle on the deep;
And to th' Egyptian maid his cry
Is full of highest destiny.

And with Elijah in the wild,
Like Angels tending on a child,
Sustaining ravens o'er him borne
Descending wheel each eve and morn;
Wing'd pursuivants, they hear God's voice
And wait on children of His choice.

Then shall one born a child of Heaven
Be bow'd to earth, to sorrow given?

300

VI. THE SICILIAN FEAST.

“Districtus ensis cui super impiâ
Cervice pendet, non Siculæ dapes
Dulcem elaborabunt saporem;
Non avium citharæve cantus
Somnum reducent.”
Lib. iii. Od. i. l. 17.

The sword of dread eternity
Had we but faith to see,—
Hung o'er our heads by one weak thread
Between us and the dead,—
We ne'er could dare with curious eye
At the World's feast to lie.
No viands which her skill bestows
To work desired repose;
No birds that sing in rural grove,
When all the earth is love;
Nor harps that sound in princely hall
To poet's madrigal,
Could lull us in the spirit's sleep,
When bid our watch to keep.
Yet by a thread o'er old and young
The endless change is hung;
And truth itself is not less true
Though hid from human view.

301

VII. MEN DEIFIED.

“Sive mutatâ juvenem figurâ
Ales in terris imitaris, almæ
Filius Maiæ.”
Lib. i. Od. ii. 41.

“Deus nobis hæc otia fecit,
Namque erit ille mihi semper Deus; illius aram
Sæpe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus.”
Virgil's Ecl i.

“They lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The Gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.” Acts xiv. 11.

When God in Canaan spake with men,
By tree or mount or glen,
Then erst in Homer's early song
Gods walk'd mankind among;
And worship mix'd with Gods on high
The heroes as they die.
But what time on this world of woes
The Sun of glory rose,
Then kings on earth in their own pride
Themselves were deified;
And the prerogatives of Heaven
To earth and ashes given.

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As if in souls with flesh inwreath'd
A sense was stilly breath'd
Of God Himself invisible
Come down in flesh to dwell;
Or evil spirits at the time
O'er-heard th' angelic chime
Of truth emerging,—at the birth
Of God Himself on earth.
Thence in men's souls the unconscious news
With poison they infuse,
And blend with their idolatries
The secrets of the skies.