P

Tell Zeal it lacks devotion,
Tell Love it is but lust,
Tell Time it is but motion,
Tell Flesh it is but dust;
And wish them not reply,
For thou must give the lie.

Tell Age it daily wasteth,
Tell Honour how it alters,
Tell Beauty how she blasteth,
Tell Favour how she falters;
And as they shall reply,
Give every one the lie.

Tell Wit how much it wrangles
In tickle points of niceness;
Tell Wisdom she entangles
Herself in over wiseness;

And when they do reply,
Straight give them both the lie.

Tell Physic of her boldness,
Tell Skill it is pretension,
Tell Charity of coldness,
Tell Law it is contention;
And as they do reply,
So give them still the lie.

Tell Fortune of her blindness,

Tell Nature of decay,
Tell Friendship of unkindness,

Tell Justice of delay;
And if they will reply,
Then give them all the lie.

Tell Arts they have no soundness,
But vary by esteeming;

Tell Schools they want profoundness,
And stand too much on seeming;

If Arts and Schools reply,

Give Arts and Schools the lie.

Tell Faith 'tis fled the city,
Tell how the country erreth,
Tell, manhood shakes off pity,
Tell, virtue least preferreth;"
And if they do reply,
Spare not to give the lie.

So, when thou hast, as I

Commanded thee, done blabbing;
Although to give the lie

Deserves no less than stabbing;
Yet stab at thee who will,

No stab the soul can kill.

SYLVESTER.

STANZAS TO A CHURCH BELL.

SONOROUS brass of changeful power,

Now whirl'd amain, now swinging slow; Alike prepared to hail the hour

Of hope or fear, of joy or woe!

When Sabbath-tracks to prayer invite,
Or babes acquire a Christian's name,
Or Wedlock's holy ties unite,

Thy notes the festival proclaim.

VOL. I.

Y

And when unbodied spirits fly,

Thy knell reveals the parting breath; And when the lifted bier draws nigh, Conducts it to the vault of death.

When rebecks greet the jocund wake,
Or May-day wreaths perfume the plain;
The labouring spire thy carols shake,
And rouse to mirth the village train.

When gleamy fires the corn-stack climb,
Or flames the sinking roof invade;
In quick alarm thy backward chime
On distant hamlets calls for aid.

When Jervis lops the flying host,

When Howe or Duncan shouts, "Destroy!' Thy changeful peals from coast to coast Explosive bear a people's joy.

And when to Henry's hallowed ground
In sable pomp shall George be borne;
Thy muffled strokes in broken sound

Shall tell how boding nations mourn.

Emblem of man's uncertain tongue,

*

That owns each varying passion's sway; From hope to fear, from plaint to song, Transferr'd within one little day!

Sonorous brass, let grief or joy,

Let sober truth or wild pretence, Or hope or fear thy tones employ, Alike in thee 'tis innocence.

* Henry the Seventh's Chapel.

Not so, when man's uncertain voice
Conspires to aid the foul intent,
Pursues unawed its headstrong choice,
By malice urged, on vengeance bent;

With rage o'erwhelms, with guile betrays,
The living wounds, defames the dead,
Love with envenom'd scorn repays,

With curses loads a brother's head;

The power, whose nod is fate, defies,
Disdains his mercy, braves his ire,
Scoffs the bright mansions of the skies,
And hell's blue lakes of endless fire.

O, when the dead of every age,

For judgment ranged in order due, In Accusation's open page

Each idle word' recorded view;

What crowds shall wish their tongues, like thee,
Had but perform'd a mimic's part;
Had moved from conscious meaning free,
Nor told the language of the heart!

REV. T. GISBORNE.

THE BIRTHDAY EVE.

O'ER the Lake's placid bosom, for hush'd was the night,

With its fires all unclouded the firmament glow'd, And saw kindred fires dart an emulous light, : Deep sunk in their fathomless crystal abode.

No screech owl disturb'd the repose of the wood; No watchdog foreboded disquiet and harm; No torrent, in cataracts hurling its flood,

With Fancy's calm dreams blended noise and alarm.

One streamlet remote, from the margin that fell, On the ear stealing soft in low murmur com

plain'd:

Yet the murmur but seem'd the more clearly to tell By a contrast so gentle the stillness that reign'd.

A sound by yon rock, nor uncheck'd nor suppress'd, As from lips half unconscious escaping was heard;

Then, as rapt meditation expanded the breast, Clear, strong, and unbroken the descant recurr'd.

< Yes, Morn, when emergent she crimsons the sea, And Noon, throned on high when she scorches

the plain;

And Eve, when she fades from each glimmering [her train; And Night, with new worlds when she spangles

tree,

'All, glorious all! Hark, in turn they declare The fount, whence the tide of resplendency flows! How glorious they in their mansions of air!

How glorious He, who such glory bestows!

'On the wings of the whirlwind He measures the sky,

Now viewless in light, now in darkness array'd; O'er Creation expands his unslumbering eye,

And in wisdom controls what in wisdom he made.