Resolved, though in body thou diest,
In spirit to wrestle up-hill,
Lo! here is a gain

To be won by a word,

If under the main

The first that is heard

Be brotherly kindness and heavenly praise;
If, while thou in courage defiest

The winds and the waves and all perils always,
Enslaving those giants, until

They meekly obey thy desire,—

If thus, the first whisper that proves thee their lord,
Their master and gaoler by fetters of fire,

Be this-the sublimest and happiest word—
(O Message! rejoice as thou fliest,
All saints and all angels who fill
Infinity farthest and nighest)—
Be-"Glory to GOD in the Highest,
Peace upon Earth, and Goodwill!"

TRUE NOBILITY.

AVAUNT-Exclusions cold and proud!

Your doom is come, your day is past; Not even Fashion dares to cast Contempt upon the common crowd.

The loftiest noble now must bend

To own his humblest brother-man,

TRUE NOBILITY.

And stoop to teach the artizan, In hope betimes to make a friend.

It will not do to stand aside;

Rank has its duties, as its dues ;
The latter will we not refuse,
If met with anything but pride.

It shall not serve, that old-time plan
Of making worship cling to birth;
A magnate shorn of private worth
Is but the scorn and shame of Man.

O Rank! from nobler sires derived,

O Wealth! purse-rich, but nothing more, Grow worthier of your state and store, Or of their homage go deprived.

The time is come for truer things,
When honour, love, and all beside,
Refused to supercilious pride,
Are paid to peasants as to kings.

For both alike are brethren true,
Each in his station doing right,—
Beheld in superhuman light
GOD's servants, earning wages due.

None will deny the first and best

To king and noble, gladly given,

91

If they but live as, under Heaven, Set in high place to help the rest:

But let them heed this mighty truth,

(Which, for their weakness, we would ken Indulgently, as due to men

Pamper'd in age and snared in youth) —

If pride, or lust, or sloth forlorn
Dim and defile their high estate,
Our willing love is turn'd to hate,
Our ready homage smiles in scorn.

DUTY.

DUTY! shorn of which the wisest
And the best were little worth,

How with dignity thou risest
O'er the littleness of earth:
How thou blessest each condition
Shedding peace and glory round,

Even binding hot Ambition
In thy service to be found!

Duty, though the lot be lowly,

GOD's broad-arrow thou art seen

Making very trifles holy,

And exalting what were mean;

MOVING ON.

In this thought the poor may revel
That, obeying Duty's word,
Lowliness is on a level

With my lady or my lord.

Duty, seen in lofty station
As the brightest jewel there,
Providence doth bless the nation
Where thy badge its rulers bear;
England! GOD regards with favour
Both thy Queen and People too,
For that, Duty's precious savour
Still is found in all they do.

MOVING ON.

In vain,—there is no slack'ning and no rest,
No flagging in our headlong reckless race;
In vain with clutching grasp and yearning breast
We strive to check the steeds of Time and Space:

All rushes on; no creature stops an hour;
The babe, the boy, the man, the dotard-dies;
Perpetual changes vex the wayside flower,
And the great worlds careering through the skies.

Yet is it sad that Beauty scarce can bloom,
Hardly can Wisdom drop one word of truth,
Before the sage is humbled to the tomb,

And wrinkles gather round the eyes of youth.

93

Alas! because it hardens us at heart,

This constant moving-on,-this phantom scene
Of daily hourly meetings soon to part,
And made to be as they had never been :

New hopes, new motives, all things ever new
Expelling all things old, however dear,
Uproot the mind from growing strong and true,
And the poor heart in all its longings sear.

A gloom, a solemn sadness, and a hope—
A mighty hope, but mix'd with bitter dread,
All lie within this sad reflection's scope

That nothing is that shall not soon be dead:

We wake, and yesterday is thrown behind
To play to-day's half-masqueraded part;
Energy cheering on the hopeful mind,

But pale-faced Memory holding back the heart.

Alas! I cannot read these thoughts aright;

I fain would say that we shall see once more Some resurrection of the visions bright

That here, like mountain-mists, have swept us o'er:

I fain, in this perpetual moving-on,

Would see the shadowy type of stabler things; Old loves renew'd, old victories rewon,

Old chords restruck upon the old heartstrings!