Chapter VI: Part III: From the Restoration to the Present Times

[When I came to this part of the series I had the dream described in this Sonnet.[241] The figure was that of my daughter, and the whole passed exactly as here represented. The Sonnet was composed on the middle road leading from Grasmere to Ambleside: it was begun as I left the last house of the vale, and finished, word for word as it now stands, before I came in view of Rydal. I wish I could say the same of the five or six hundred I have written: most of them were frequently retouched in the course of composition, and, not a few, laboriously.

I have only further to observe that the intended Church which prompted these Sonnets was erected on Coleorton Moor towards the centre of a very populous parish between three and four miles from Ashby-de-la-Zouch, on the road to Loughborough, and has proved, I believe, a great benefit to the neighbourhood.--I.F.]

FOOTNOTES:

[241] The first of Part III. p. 74.--ED.

I

"I SAW THE FIGURE OF A LOVELY MAID"

I saw the figure of a lovely Maid
Seated alone beneath a darksome tree,
Whose fondly-overhanging canopy
Set off her brightness with a pleasing shade.
No Spirit was she; _that_[242] my heart betrayed, 5
For she was one I loved exceedingly;
But while I gazed in tender reverie
(Or was it sleep that with my Fancy played?)
The bright corporeal presence--form and face--
Remaining still distinct grew thin and rare, 10
Like sunny mist;--at length the golden hair,
Shape, limbs, and heavenly features, keeping pace
Each with the other in a lingering race
Of dissolution, melted into air.

FOOTNOTES:

[242] 1837.

Substance she seem'd (and _that_ ... 1822.

II

PATRIOTIC SYMPATHIES

Last night, without a voice, that Vision spake
Fear to my Soul, and sadness which might seem[243]
Wholly[244] dissevered from our present theme;
Yet, my belovèd Country! I partake[245]
Of kindred agitations for thy sake; 5
Thou, too, dost visit oft[246] my midnight dream;
Thy[247] glory meets me with the earliest beam
Of light, which tells that Morning is awake.
If aught impair thy[248] beauty or destroy,
Or but forebode destruction, I deplore 10
With filial love the sad vicissitude;
If thou hast[249] fallen, and righteous Heaven restore
The prostrate, then my spring-time is renewed,
And sorrow bartered for exceeding joy.

FOOTNOTES:

[243] 1845.

... this Vision spake
Fear to my Spirit--passion that might seem 1822.

... this Vision spake
Fear to my Soul, and sadness that might seem 1837.

[244] 1827.

To lie ... 1822.

[245] 1832.

Yet do I love my Country--and partake 1822.

[246] 1832.

... for her sake;
She visits oftentimes ... 1822.

[247] 1832.

Her ... 1822.

[248] 1832.

... her ... 1822.

[249] 1832.

If she hath ... 1822.

III

CHARLES THE SECOND

Who comes--with rapture greeted, and caress'd
With frantic love--his kingdom to regain?[250]
Him Virtue's Nurse, Adversity, in vain
Received, and fostered in her iron breast:
For all she taught of hardiest and of best, 5
Or would have taught, by discipline of pain
And long privation, now dissolves amain,
Or is remembered only to give zest
To wantonness--Away, Circean revels![251]
But for what gain? if England soon must sink 10
Into a gulf which all distinction levels--
That bigotry may swallow the good name,[252][253]
And, with that draught, the life-blood: misery, shame,
By Poets loathed; from which Historians shrink!

FOOTNOTES:

[250] "No event ever marked a deeper or a more lasting change in the temper of the English people, than the entry of Charles the Second into Whitehall. With it modern England begins." (Green's _Short History of the English People_, chap. ix. sec. 1.)--ED.

[251] "The Restoration brought Charles to Whitehall; and in an instant the whole face of England was changed. All that was noblest and best in Puritanism was whirled away." (Green, chap. ix. sec. I.) The excesses of every kind that came in with the Restoration were notorious.--ED.

[252] 1837.

Already stands our Country on the brink
Of bigot rage, that all distinction levels
Of truth and falsehood, swallowing the good name, 1822.

[253] In 1672 the Duke of York was publicly received into the Church of Rome.--ED.

IV

LATITUDINARIANISM

Yet Truth is keenly sought for, and the wind
Charged with rich words poured out in thought's defence;
Whether the Church inspire that eloquence,[254]
Or a Platonic Piety confined
To the sole temple of the inward mind;[255] 5
And One there is who builds immortal lays,
Though doomed to tread in solitary ways,[256]
Darkness before and danger's voice behind;
Yet not alone, nor helpless to repel
Sad thoughts; for from above the starry sphere 10
Come secrets, whispered nightly to his ear;
And the pure spirit of celestial light
Shines through his soul--"that he may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight."[257]

FOOTNOTES:

[254] As in the case of John Hales of Eton, William Chillingworth, who wrote _The Religion of Protestants_, and Jeremy Taylor, author of _The_ _Liberty of Prophesying_.--ED.

[255] The Cambridge Platonists, Ralph Cudworth, John Smith, and Henry More, are referred to.--ED.

[256] Milton.--ED.

[257] Compare _Paradise Lost_, book iii. ll. 54, 55.--ED.

V

WALTON'S BOOK OF LIVES[258]

There are no colours in the fairest sky
So fair as these. The feather, whence the pen
Was shaped that traced the lives of these good men,
Dropped from an Angel's wing.[259] With moistened eye
We read of faith and purest charity 5
In Statesman, Priest, and humble Citizen:
O could we copy their mild virtues, then
What joy to live, what blessedness to die!
Methinks their very names shine still and bright;
Apart--like glow-worms on a summer night; 10
Or lonely tapers when from far they fling
A guiding ray;[260] or seen--like stars on high,
Satellites burning in a lucid ring
Around meek Walton's heavenly memory.

FOOTNOTES:

[258] Izaak Walton, author of _The Complete Angler_, wrote also _The Lives of_ John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Richard Hooker, George Herbert, and Robert Sanderson.--ED.

[259] With those lines of Wordsworth compare the following: a Sonnet addressed "to the King of Scots," in Henry Constable's _Diana_, published in 1594--

The pen wherewith thou dost so heavenly singe,
Made of a quill pluck't from an Angell's winge.

A sonnet by Dorothy Berry, prefixed to Diana Primrose's _Chain of Pearl, a memorial of the peerless graces, etc., of Queen Elizabeth_, London, 1639--

Whose noble praise
Deserves a quill pluck't from an angel's wing.

Also John Evelyn, in his _Life of Mrs. Godolphin_, "It would become the pen of an angel's wing to describe the life of a saint," etc.--ED.

[260] 1827.

... glow-worms in the woods of spring,
Or lonely tapers shooting far a light
That guides and cheers,-- ... 1822.

VI

CLERICAL INTEGRITY

Nor shall the eternal roll of praise reject
Those Unconforming; whom one rigorous day
Drives from their Cures, a voluntary prey
To poverty, and grief, and disrespect,[261]
And some to want--as if by tempests wrecked[262] 5
On a wild coast; how destitute! did They
Feel not that Conscience never can betray,
That peace of mind is Virtue's sure effect.
Their altars they forego, their homes they quit,
Fields which they love, and paths they daily trod, 10
And cast the future upon Providence;
As men the dictate of whose inward sense
Outweighs the world; whom self-deceiving wit
Lures not from what they deem the cause of God.

FOOTNOTES:

[261] By the Act of Uniformity (1662), nearly 2000 Presbyterian and Independent Ministers, who had been admitted to benefices in the Church of England during the Puritan Ascendency, were ejected from their livings.--ED.

[262] 1827.

... tempest wreck'd 1822.

VII

PERSECUTION OF THE SCOTTISH COVENANTERS

Published 1827

When Alpine Vales threw forth a suppliant cry,
The majesty of England interposed[263]
And the sword stopped; the bleeding wounds were closed;
And Faith preserved her ancient purity.
How little boots that precedent of good, 5
Scorned or forgotten, Thou canst testify,
For England's shame, O Sister Realm! from wood,
Mountain, and moor, and crowded street, where lie[264]
The headless martyrs of the Covenant,
Slain by Compatriot-protestants that draw 10
From councils senseless as intolerant
Their warrant. Bodies fall by wild sword-law;
But who would force the Soul, tilts with a straw
Against a Champion cased in adamant.

FOOTNOTES:

[263] See Milton's Sonnet XVIII., _On the late Massacre in Piedmont_, beginning--

Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, ...

This was in 1655. In the following year Cromwell, to whom the persecuted Vaudois subjects of the Duke of Savoy had appealed, interposed in their behalf. Nearly £40,000 were collected in England for their relief.--ED.

[264] Compare _The Excursion_, book i. 11. 175, 176.--ED.

VIII

ACQUITTAL OF THE BISHOPS[265]

A voice, from long-expecting[266] thousands sent,
Shatters the air, and troubles tower and spire;
For Justice hath absolved the innocent,
And Tyranny is balked of her desire:
Up, down, the busy Thames--rapid as fire 5
Coursing a train of gunpowder--it went,
And transport finds in every street a vent,
Till the whole City rings like one vast quire.
The Fathers urge the People to be still, 9
With outstretched hands and earnest speech[267]--in vain!
Yea, many, haply wont to entertain
Small reverence for the mitre's offices,
And to Religion's self no friendly will,
A Prelate's blessing ask on bended knees.

FOOTNOTES:

[265] The Bishops who protested against James II.'s Declaration of Indulgence and refused to read it. He ordered the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, to deprive them of their Sees, and the Bishops were sent to the Tower. "They passed to their prison amidst the shouts of a great multitude, the sentinels knelt for their blessing as they entered the gates, and the soldiers of the garrison drank their healths.... The Bishops appeared as criminals at the bar of the King's Bench. The jury had been packed, the judges were mere tools of the Crown, but judges and jury were alike overawed by the indignation of the people at large. No sooner had the foreman of the jury uttered the words 'Not guilty,' than a roar of applause burst from the crowd, and horsemen spurred along every road to carry over the country the news of the acquittal." (Green.) See Wordsworth's note to the eleventh sonnet in Part I. (p. 12.)--ED.

[266] 1827.

... long-expectant ... 1822.

[267] 1827.

... voice ... 1822.

IX

WILLIAM THE THIRD

Calm as an under-current, strong to draw
Millions of waves into itself, and run,
From sea to sea, impervious to the sun
And ploughing storm, the spirit of Nassau[268]
(Swerves not, how blest if by religious awe[269] 5
Swayed, and thereby enabled to contend
With the wide world's commotions) from its end
Swerves not--diverted by a casual law.
Had mortal action e'er a nobler scope?
The Hero comes to liberate, not defy; 10
And, while he marches on with stedfast hope,[270]
Conqueror beloved! expected anxiously!
The vacillating Bondman of the Pope[271]
Shrinks from the verdict of his stedfast eye.

FOOTNOTES:

[268] William III. of Nassau, Prince of Orange, was invited over to England by the nobles and commons who were disaffected towards James II., and landed at Torbay in November 1688.--ED.

[269] 1845.

(By constant impulse of religious awe ... 1822.

[270] 1845.

... righteous hope, 1822.

[271] King James II., who fled to France in December 1688.--ED.

X

OBLIGATIONS OF CIVIL TO RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

Ungrateful Country, if thou e'er forget
The sons who for thy civil rights have bled!
How, like a Roman, Sidney bowed his head,[272]
And Russell's milder blood the scaffold wet;[273]
But these had fallen for profitless regret 5
Had not thy holy Church her champions bred,
And claims from other worlds inspirited
The star of Liberty to rise. Nor yet
(Grave this within thy heart!) if spiritual things
Be lost, through apathy, or scorn, or fear, 10
Shalt thou thy humbler franchises support,
However hardly won or justly dear:
What came from heaven to heaven by nature clings,
And, if dissevered thence, its course is short.

FOOTNOTES:

[272] Algernon Sidney, second son of the Earl of Leicester, equally opposed to the tyranny of Charles and of Cromwell, was implicated in the Rye House Plot, arraigned before the chief-justice Jeffries, condemned illegally, and executed at Tower Hill in December 1683.--ED.

[273] Lord William Russell, third son of the Duke of Bedford, member of the House of Commons like Sidney, and like him implicated in the Rye House Plot, condemned at the Old Bailey, and beheaded at Lincoln's-Inn-Fields in July 1683.--ED.

XI

SACHEVEREL[274]

Published 1827

A sudden conflict rises from the swell
Of a proud slavery met by tenets strained
In Liberty's behalf. Fears, true or feigned,
Spread through all ranks; and lo! the Sentinel
Who loudest rang his pulpit 'larum bell 5
Stands at the Bar, absolved by female eyes
Mingling their glances with grave flatteries[275]
Lavished on _Him_--that England may rebel
Against her ancient virtue. HIGH and LOW,
Watch-words of Party, on all tongues are rife; 10
As if a Church, though sprung from heaven, must owe
To opposites and fierce extremes her life,--
Not to the golden mean, and quiet flow
Of truths that soften hatred, temper strife.

FOOTNOTES:

[274] Henry Sacheverel, a high-church clergyman, preached two sermons in 1709, one at Derby, and the other in St. Paul's, London, in which he attacked the principles of the Revolution Settlement, taught the doctrine of non-resistance, and decried the Act of Toleration. He was impeached by the Commons, and tried before the House of Lords in 1710, was found guilty, and suspended from office for three years. This made him for the time the most popular man in England; and the general election which followed was fatal to the Government which condemned him. He was a weak and a vain man, who attained to notoriety without fame.--ED.

[275] 1832.

... Light with graver flatteries, 1827.

XII[276]

"DOWN A SWIFT STREAM, THUS FAR, A BOLD DESIGN"

Published 1827

Down a swift Stream, thus far, a bold design
Have we pursued, with livelier stir of heart
Than his who sees, borne forward by the Rhine,
The living landscapes greet him, and depart;
Sees spires fast sinking--up again to start! 5
And strives the towers to number, that recline
O'er the dark steeps, or on the horizon line
Striding with shattered crests his[277] eye athwart.
So have we hurried on with troubled pleasure:
Henceforth, as on the bosom of a stream 10
That slackens, and spreads wide a watery gleam,
We, nothing loth a lingering course to measure,
May gather up our thoughts, and mark at leisure
How widely spread the interests of our theme.[278]

FOOTNOTES:

[276] Compare the extracts from Mary and Dorothy Wordsworth's Journals in the "Memorials of a Tour on the Continent" (vol. vi. p. 300).--ED.

[277] 1845.

... the ... 1827.

[278] 1845.

Features that else had vanished like a dream. 1827.

... sound at leisure
The depths, and mark the compass of our theme. C.

XIII

ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY IN AMERICA[279]

I. THE PILGRIM FATHERS[280]

Published 1845

Well worthy to be magnified are they
Who, with sad hearts, of friends and country took
A last farewell, their loved abodes forsook,
And hallowed ground in which their fathers lay;
Then to the new-found World explored their way, 5
That so a Church, unforced, uncalled to brook
Ritual restraints, within some sheltering nook
Her Lord might worship and his word obey
In freedom. Men they were who could not bend;
Blest Pilgrims, surely, as they took for guide 10
A will by sovereign Conscience sanctified;
Blest while their Spirits from the woods ascend
Along a Galaxy that knows no end,
But in His glory who for Sinners died.

FOOTNOTES:

[279] In a letter to Professor Henry Reed, dated March 1, 1842, Wordsworth wrote:--"I have sent you three sonnets upon certain 'Aspects of Christianity in America,' having, as you will see, a reference to the subject upon which you wished me to write. I wish they had been more worthy of the subject: I hope, however, you will not disapprove of the connection which I have thought myself warranted in tracing between the Puritan fugitives and Episcopacy."--ED.

[280] American episcopacy, in union with the church in England, strictly belongs to the general subject; and I here make my acknowledgments to my American friends, Bishop Doane, and Mr. Henry Reed of Philadelphia, for having suggested to me the propriety of adverting to it, and pointed out the virtues and intellectual qualities of Bishop White, which so eminently fitted him for the great work he undertook. Bishop White was consecrated at Lambeth, Feb. 4, 1787, by Archbishop Moore; and before his long life was closed, twenty-six bishops had been consecrated in America, by himself. For his character and opinions, see his own numerous Works, and a "Sermon in commemoration of him, by George Washington Doane, Bishop of New Jersey."--W. W. 1845.

XIV

II. CONTINUED

Published 1845

From Rite and Ordinance abused they fled
To Wilds where both were utterly unknown;
But not to them had Providence foreshown
What benefits are missed, what evils bred,
In worship neither raised nor limited 5
Save by Self-will. Lo! from that distant shore,
For Rite and Ordinance, Piety is led
Back to the Land those Pilgrims left of yore,
Led by her own free choice.[281] So Truth and Love
By Conscience governed do their steps retrace.-- 10
Fathers! your Virtues, such the power of grace,
Their spirit, in your Children, thus approve.
Transcendent over time, unbound by place,
Concord and Charity in circles move.

FOOTNOTES:

[281] The Book of Common Prayer of the American Episcopal Church was avowedly derived from that of England, and substantially agrees with it.--ED.

XV

III. CONCLUDED.--AMERICAN EPISCOPACY

Published 1845

Patriots informed with Apostolic light
Were they, who, when their Country had been freed,
Bowing with reverence to the ancient creed,
Fixed on the frame of England's Church their sight,[282]
And strove in filial love to reunite 5
What force had severed. Thence they fetched the seed
Of Christian unity, and won a meed
Of praise from Heaven. To Thee, O saintly WHITE,[283]
Patriarch of a wide-spreading family,
Remotest lands and unborn times shall turn, 10
Whether they would restore or build--to Thee,
As one who rightly taught how zeal should burn,
As one who drew from out Faith's holiest urn
The purest stream of patient Energy.

FOOTNOTES:

[282] "I hope you will not disapprove of the connection which I have thought myself warranted in tracing between the Puritan fugitives and Episcopacy." (Wordsworth to Henry Reed, March 1, 1842.)--ED.

[283] Dr. Seabury was consecrated Bishop of Connecticut by Scottish Bishops at Aberdeen, in November 1784. Dr. White was consecrated Bishop of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Provoost, Bishop of New York, at Lambeth, in February 1787. It was Wordsworth's intention, in 1841, to add a sonnet to his "Ecclesiastical Series" "On the union of the two Episcopal Churches of England and America."--ED.

XVI

"BISHOPS AND PRIESTS, BLESSÈD ARE YE, IF DEEP"

Published 1845

Bishops and Priests, blessèd are ye, if deep
(As yours above all offices is high)
Deep in your hearts the sense of duty lie;
Charged as ye are by Christ to feed and keep
From wolves your portion of his chosen sheep:
Labouring as ever in your Master's sight,
Making your hardest task your best delight,
What perfect glory ye in Heaven shall reap!--
But, in the solemn Office which ye sought
And undertook premonished, if unsound 10
Your practice prove, faithless though but in thought,
Bishops and Priests, think what a gulf profound
Awaits you then, if they were rightly taught
Who framed the Ordinance by your lives disowned!

XVII

PLACES OF WORSHIP

As star that shines dependent upon star
Is to the sky while we look up in love;
As to the deep fair ships which though they move
Seem fixed, to eyes that watch them from afar;
As to the sandy desert fountains are, 5
With palm-groves shaded at wide intervals,
Whose fruit around the sun-burnt Native falls
Of roving tired or desultory war--
Such to this British Isle her christian Fanes,
Each linked to each for kindred services; 10
Her Spires, her Steeple-towers with glittering vanes[284]
Far-kenned, her Chapels lurking among trees,
Where a few villagers on bended knees
Find solace which a busy world disdains.

FOOTNOTES:

[284] Compare _The Excursion_, book vi. ll. 17-29 (vol. v. p. 236).--ED.

XVIII

PASTORAL CHARACTER

A GENIAL hearth, a hospitable board,
And a refined rusticity, belong[285]
To the neat mansion, where, his flock among,
The learned Pastor dwells, their watchful Lord.[286]
Though meek and patient as a sheathèd sword; 5
Though pride's least lurking thought appear a wrong
To human kind; though peace be on his tongue,
Gentleness in his heart--can earth afford
Such genuine state, pre-eminence so free,
As when, arrayed in Christ's authority, 10
He from the pulpit lifts his awful hand;
Conjures, implores, and labours all he can
For re-subjecting to divine command
The stubborn spirit of rebellious man?

FOOTNOTES:

[285] Among the benefits arising, as Mr. Coleridge has well observed, from a Church establishment of endowments corresponding with the wealth of the country to which it belongs, may be reckoned as eminently important, the examples of civility and refinement which the Clergy stationed at intervals, afford to the whole people. The established clergy in many parts of England have long been, as they continue to be, the principal bulwark against barbarism, and the link which unites the sequestered peasantry with the intellectual advancement of the age. Nor is it below the dignity of the subject to observe, that their taste, as acting upon rural residences and scenery, often furnishes models which country gentlemen, who are more at liberty to follow the caprices of fashion, might profit by. The precincts of an old residence must be treated by ecclesiastics with respect, both from prudence and necessity. I remember being much pleased, some years ago, at Rose Castle, the rural seat of the See of Carlisle, with a style of garden and architecture which, if the place had belonged to a wealthy layman, would no doubt have been swept away. A parsonage-house generally stands not far from the church; this proximity imposes favourable restraints, and sometimes suggests an affecting union of the accommodations and elegancies of life with the outward signs of piety and mortality. With pleasure I recall to mind a happy instance of this in the residence of an old and much-valued Friend in Oxfordshire. The house and church stand parallel to each other, at a small distance; a circular lawn or rather grass-plot, spreads between them; shrubs and trees curve from each side of the dwelling, veiling, but not hiding, the church. From the front of this dwelling, no part of the burial-ground is seen; but as you wind by the side of the shrubs towards the steeple-end of the church, the eye catches a single, small, low, monumental headstone, moss-grown, sinking into, and gently inclining towards the earth. Advance, and the churchyard, populous and gay with glittering tombstones, opens upon the view. This humble, and beautiful parsonage called forth a tribute which will not be out of its place here.--W. W. 1822.

He then quotes the seventh of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets," Part III. (see vol. vi. p. 217).--ED.

[286] Compare the sonnet, _On the sight of a Manse in the South of Scotland_, belonging to the Tour in the year 1831.--ED.

XIX

THE LITURGY

Yes, if the intensities of hope and fear
Attract us still, and passionate exercise
Of lofty thoughts, the way before us lies
Distinct with signs, through which in set career,[287]
As through a zodiac, moves the ritual year[288] 5
Of England's Church; stupendous mysteries!
Which whoso travels in her bosom eyes,
As he approaches them, with solemn cheer.
Upon that circle traced from sacred story
We only dare to cast a transient glance, 10
Trusting in hope that Others may advance
With mind intent upon the King of Glory,[289]
From his mild advent till his countenance
Shall dissipate the seas and mountains hoary.[290]

FOOTNOTES:

[287] 1837

... fixed career, 1822.

[288] Compare _The Christian Year_, by Keble, _passim_.--ED.

[289] 1845.

Enough for us to cast a transient glance
The circle through; relinquishing its story
For those whom Heaven hath fitted to advance
And, harp in hand, rehearse the King of Glory-- 1822.

Enough for us to cast no careless glance
Upon that circle, leaving Christian story
To those ... has ... C.

(Or)

Here let us cast a more than Transient glance,
And harp in hand endeavour to advance,
With mind intent ... C.

[290] See _The Revelation of St. John_, chapter xx. v. II.--ED.

XX

BAPTISM

Published 1827

Dear[291] be the Church, that, watching o'er the needs
Of Infancy, provides a timely shower
Whose virtue changes to a Christian Flower
A Growth from sinful Nature's bed of weeds!--[292]
Fitliest beneath the sacred roof proceeds 5
The ministration; while parental Love
Looks on, and Grace descendeth from above
As the high service pledges now, now pleads.
There, should vain thoughts outspread their wings and fly
To meet the coming hours of festal mirth, 10
The tombs--which hear and answer that brief cry,
The Infant's notice of his second birth--
Recal the wandering Soul to sympathy
With what man hopes from Heaven, yet fears from Earth.

FOOTNOTES:

[291] 1845.

Blest ... 1827.

[292] 1832.

The sinful product of a bed of Weeds! 1827.

XXI

SPONSORS

Published 1832

Father! to God himself we cannot give
A holier name! then lightly do not bear
Both names conjoined, but of thy spiritual care
Be duly mindful: still more sensitive
Do Thou, in truth a second Mother, strive[293] 5
Against disheartening custom, that by Thee
Watched, and with love and pious industry[294]
Tended at need, the adopted Plant may thrive
For everlasting bloom. Benign and pure[295]
This Ordinance, whether loss it would supply, 10
Prevent omission, help deficiency,
Or seek to make assurance doubly sure.[296][297]
Shame if the consecrated Vow be found
An idle form, the Word an empty sound![298][299]

FOOTNOTES:

[293] 1832.

... yet more sensitive,
More faithful, thou, a second Mother, MS.

W. W., Dec. 7, 1827.

[294] 1832.

Watched at all seasons, and with industry MS.

W. W., Dec. 7, 1827.

[295] 1832.

... Benign must be. MS.

W. W., Dec. 7, 1827.

[296] Compare _Macbeth_, act IV. scene i. l. 83.--ED.

[297] 1832.

... "Assurance doubly sure." MS.

W. W., Dec. 7, 1827.

[298] 1832.

... the Name an empty sound. MS.

W. W., Dec. 7, 1827.

[299] This Sonnet was sent by Wordsworth in holograph MS. to Orton Hall in the form indicated in the footnotes, dated Dec. 7, 1827.--ED.

XXII

CATECHISING

From Little down to Least, in due degree,
Around the Pastor, each in new-wrought vest,
Each with a vernal posy at his breast,
We stood, a trembling, earnest Company!
With low soft murmur, like a distant bee, 5
Some spake, by thought-perplexing fears betrayed;
And some a bold unerring answer made:
How fluttered then thy anxious heart for me,
Belovèd Mother! Thou whose happy hand
Had bound the flowers I wore, with faithful tie:[300] 10
Sweet flowers! at whose inaudible command
Her countenance, phantom-like, doth re-appear:
O lost too early for the frequent tear,
And ill requited by this heartfelt sigh!

FOOTNOTES:

[300] See Wordsworth's reference to his Mother in his _Autobiographical Memoranda_.--ED.

XXIII

CONFIRMATION

Published 1827

The Young-ones gathered in from hill and dale,
With holiday delight on every brow:
'Tis passed away; far other thoughts prevail;
For they are taking the baptismal Vow
Upon their conscious selves; their own lips speak 5
The solemn promise. Strongest sinews fail,
And many a blooming, many a lovely, cheek
Under the holy fear of God turns pale;
While on each head his lawn-robed servant lays
An apostolic hand, and with prayer seals 10
The Covenant. The Omnipotent will raise
Their feeble Souls; and bear with _his_ regrets,
Who, looking round the fair assemblage, feels
That ere the Sun goes down their childhood sets.

XXIV

CONFIRMATION CONTINUED

I saw a Mother's eye intensely bent
Upon a Maiden trembling as she knelt;
In and for whom the pious Mother felt
Things that we judge of by a light too faint:
Tell, if ye may, some star-crowned Muse, or Saint! 5
Tell what rushed in, from what she was relieved--
Then, when her Child the hallowing touch received,
And such vibration through[301] the Mother went
That tears burst forth amain. Did gleams appear?
Opened a vision of that blissful place 10
Where dwells a Sister-child? And was power given
Part of her lost One's glory back to trace
Even to this Rite? For thus _She_ knelt, and, ere
The summer-leaf had faded, passed to Heaven.[302]

FOOTNOTES:

[301] 1837.

... to ... 1827.

[302] Compare the tribute to a Daughter, who died within the year after her confirmation, in _A Presbyterian Clergyman looking for the Church_, by the Rev. Flavel S. Mines, p. 95.--ED.

XXV

SACRAMENT

Published 1827

By chain yet stronger must the Soul be tied:
One duty more, last stage of[303] this ascent,
Brings to thy food, mysterious[304] Sacrament!
The Offspring, haply at the Parent's side;
But not till They, with all that do abide 5
In Heaven, have lifted up their hearts to laud
And magnify the glorious name of God,
Fountain of Grace, whose Son for sinners died.
Ye, who have duly weighed the summons, pause
No longer; ye,[305] whom to the saving rite 10
The Altar calls; come early under laws
That can secure for you a path of light
Through gloomiest shade; put on (nor dread its weight)
Armour divine, and conquer in your cause!

FOOTNOTES:

[303] 1827.

... to ... Coleorton MS.

[304] 1845.

... memorial ... 1827.

[305] 1845.

Here must my Song in timid reverence pause:
But shrink not ye ... 1827.

XXVI

THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY[306]

Composed 1842.--Published 1845

The Vested Priest before the Altar stands;
Approach, come gladly, ye prepared, in sight
Of God and chosen friends, your troth to plight
With the symbolic ring, and willing hands[307]
Solemnly joined. Now sanctify the bands, 5
O Father!--to the Espoused thy blessing give,
That mutually assisted they may live
Obedient, as here taught, to thy commands.
So prays the Church, to consecrate a Vow
"The which would endless matrimony make";[308] 10
Union that shadows forth and doth partake
A mystery potent human love to endow
With heavenly, each more prized for the other's sake;
Weep not, meek Bride! uplift thy timid brow.

FOOTNOTES:

[306] In a letter to Professor Henry Reed, dated "Rydal Mount, Sept. 4, 1842," Wordsworth says: "A few days ago, after a very long interval, I returned to poetical composition; and my first employment was to write a couple of Sonnets upon subjects recommended by you to take place in the Ecclesiastical Series. They are upon the Marriage Ceremony and the Funeral Service. I have, about the same time, added two others, both upon subjects taken from the Services of our Liturgy."--ED.

[307] 1842.

Together they kneel down who come in sight
Of God and chosen friends their troth to plight.
This have they done, by words, and prayers, and hands c.

XXVII

THANKSGIVING AFTER CHILDBIRTH

Composed 1842.--Published 1845

Woman! the Power who left his throne on high,
And deigned to wear the robe of flesh we wear,
The Power that thro' the straits of Infancy
Did pass dependent on maternal care,
His own humanity with Thee will share, 5
Pleased with the thanks that in his People's eye
Thou offerest up for safe Delivery
From Childbirth's perilous throes. And should the Heir
Of thy fond hopes hereafter walk inclined
To courses fit to make a mother rue 10
That ever he was born, a glance of mind
Cast upon this observance may renew
A better will; and, in the imagined view
Of thee thus kneeling, safety he may find.

FOOTNOTES:

[308] Compare Spenser's _Epithalamion_, stanza xl. ll. 216, 217--

The sacred ceremonies these partake,
The which do endlesse matrimony make;

Also, Southey's _All for Love, or a sinner well saved_, Part IV. stanza 46--

While they the sacred rites partake
Which endless matrimony make.--ED.

XXVIII

VISITATION OF THE SICK

Composed 1842.--Published 1845

The Sabbath bells renew the inviting peal;
Glad music! yet there be that, worn with pain
And sickness, listen where they long have lain,
In sadness listen. With maternal zeal
Inspired, the Church sends ministers to kneel 5
Beside the afflicted; to sustain with prayer,
And soothe the heart confession hath laid bare--
That pardon, from God's throne, may set its seal
On a true Penitent. When breath departs
From one disburthened so, so comforted, 10
His Spirit Angels greet; and ours be hope
That, if the Sufferer rise from his sick-bed,
Hence he will gain a firmer mind, to cope
With a bad world, and foil the Tempter's arts.

XXIX

THE COMMINATION SERVICE

Published 1845

Shun not this rite, neglected, yea abhorred,
By some of unreflecting mind, as calling
Man to curse man, (thought monstrous and appalling.)
Go thou and hear the threatenings of the _Lord_;[309]
Listening within his Temple see his sword 5
Unsheathed in wrath to strike the offender's head,
Thy own, if sorrow for thy sin be dead,
Guilt unrepented, pardon unimplored.
Two aspects bears Truth needful for salvation;
Who knows not _that_?--yet would this delicate age 10
Look only on the Gospel's brighter page:
Let light and dark duly our thoughts employ;
So shall the fearful words of Commination
Yield timely fruit of peace and love and joy.

FOOTNOTES:

[309] 1845.

... as dealing
With human curses, banish the false feeling.
Go thou ... terrors ... C.

XXX

FORMS OF PRAYER AT SEA

Published 1845

To kneeling Worshippers no earthly floor
Gives holier invitation than the deck
Of a storm-shattered Vessel saved from Wreck
(When all that Man could do avail'd no more)
By him who raised the Tempest and restrains: 5
Happy the crew who this have felt, and pour
Forth for his mercy, as the Church ordains,
Solemn thanksgiving. Nor will _they_ implore
In vain who, for a rightful cause, give breath
To words the Church prescribes aiding the lip 10
For the heart's sake, ere ship with hostile ship
Encounters, armed for work of pain and death.
Suppliants! the God to whom your cause ye trust
Will listen, and ye know that He is just.

XXXI

FUNERAL SERVICE

Composed 1842.--Published 1845

From the Baptismal hour, thro' weal and woe,
The Church extends her care to thought and deed;
Nor quits the Body when the Soul is freed,
The mortal weight cast off to be laid low.
Blest Rite for him who hears in faith, "I know 5
That my Redeemer liveth,"--hears each word
That follows--striking on some kindred chord
Deep in the thankful heart;--yet tears will flow.
Man is as grass that springeth up at morn,
Grows green, and is cut down and withereth 10
Ere nightfall--truth that well may claim a sigh,
Its natural echo; but hope comes reborn
At JESU'S bidding. We rejoice: "O Death
Where is thy Sting?--O Grave where is thy Victory?"

XXXII

RURAL CEREMONY[310]

Closing the sacred Book[311] which long has fed
Our meditations,[312] give we to a day
Of annual[313] joy one tributary lay;
This[314] day, when, forth by rustic music led,
The village Children, while the sky is red 5
With evening lights, advance in long array
Through the still church-yard, each with garland gay,
That, carried sceptre-like, o'ertops the head
Of the proud Bearer. To the wide church-door,
Charged with these offerings which their fathers bore 10
For decoration in the Papal time,
The innocent Procession softly moves:--
The spirit of Laud is pleased in heaven's pure clime,
And Hooker's voice the spectacle approves!

FOOTNOTES:

[310] This is still continued in many churches in Westmoreland. It takes place in the month of July, when the floor of the stalls is strewn with fresh rushes; and hence it is called the "Rush-bearing."--W. W. 1822.

[311] 1822.

... precious Book ... C.

[312] 1845.

With smiles each happy face was overspread,
That trial ended ... 1822.

Content with calmer scenes around us spread
And humbler objects, ... 1827.

[313] 1827.

Of festal ... 1822.

[314] 1827.

That ... 1822.

XXXIII

REGRETS

Would that our scrupulous Sires had dared to leave
Less scanty measure of those graceful rites
And usages, whose due return invites
A stir of mind too natural to deceive;
Giving to[315] Memory help when she would weave 5
A crown for Hope!--I dread the boasted lights
That all too often are but fiery blights,
Killing the bud o'er which in vain we grieve.
Go, seek, when Christmas snows discomfort bring,
The counter Spirit found in some gay church 10
Green with fresh holly, every pew a perch
In which the linnet or the thrush might sing,
Merry and loud and safe from prying search,
Strains offered only to the genial Spring.

FOOTNOTES:

[315] 1845.

Giving the ... 1822.

XXXIV

MUTABILITY

From low to high doth dissolution climb,
And sink[316] from high to low, along a scale
Of awful notes, whose concord shall not fail;
A musical but melancholy chime,
Which they can hear who meddle not with crime, 5
Nor avarice, nor over-anxious care.
Truth fails not; but her outward forms that bear
The longest date do melt like frosty rime,
That in the morning whitened hill and plain
And is no more; drop like the tower sublime 10
Of yesterday, which royally did wear
His[317] crown of weeds, but could not even sustain
Some casual shout that broke the silent air,
Or the unimaginable touch of Time.

FOOTNOTES:

[316] 1840.

And sinks ... 1822.

[317] 1837.

Its ... 1822.

XXXV

OLD ABBEYS

Monastic Domes! following my downward way,
Untouched by due regret I marked your fall!
Now, ruin, beauty, ancient stillness, all
Dispose to judgments temperate as we lay
On our past selves in life's declining day: 5
For as, by discipline of Time made wise,
We learn to tolerate the infirmities
And faults of others--gently as he may,[318]
So with[319] our own the mild Instructor deals
Teaching us to forget them or forgive.[320] 10
Perversely curious, then, for hidden ill
Why should we break Time's charitable seals?
Once ye were holy, ye are holy still;
Your spirit freely let me drink, and live!

FOOTNOTES:

[318] 1822.

...--so, where'er he may 1837.

The edition of 1845 returns to the text of 1822.

[319] 1837.

Towards ... 1822.

[320] This is borrowed from an affecting passage in Mr. George Dyer's History of Cambridge.--W. W. 1822.

XXXVI

EMIGRANT FRENCH CLERGY

Published 1827

Even while I speak, the sacred roofs of France
Are shattered into dust; and self-exiled
From altars threatened, levelled, or defiled,
Wander the Ministers of God, as chance
Opens a way for life, or consonance 5
Of faith invites. More welcome to no land
The fugitives than to the British strand,
Where priest and layman with the vigilance
Of true compassion greet them. Creed and test
Vanish before the unreserved embrace 10
Of catholic humanity:--distrest
They came,--and, while the moral tempest roars
Throughout the Country they have left, our shores
Give to their Faith a fearless[321] resting-place.

FOOTNOTES:

[321] 1837.

... dreadless ... 1827.

XXXVII

CONGRATULATION

Thus all things lead to Charity, secured
By THEM who blessed the soft and happy gale
That landward urged the great Deliverer's sail,[322]
Till in the sunny bay his fleet was moored!
Propitious hour! had we, like them, endured 5
Sore stress of apprehension,[323] with a mind
Sickened by injuries, dreading worse designed,
From month to month trembling and unassured,
How had we then rejoiced! But we have felt,
As a loved substance, their futurity: 10
Good, which they dared not hope for, we have seen;
A State whose generous will through earth is dealt;
A State--which, balancing herself between
Licence and slavish order, dares be free.

FOOTNOTES:

[322] The Statesmen of the Revolution, who hailed the arrival of William of Orange from Holland.--ED.

[323] See Burnet, who is unusually animated on this subject; the east wind, so anxiously expected and prayed for, was called the "Protestant wind."--W. W. 1822.

XXXVIII

NEW CHURCHES

But liberty, and triumphs on the Main,
And laurelled armies, not to be withstood--
What serve they? if, on transitory good
Intent, and sedulous of abject gain,
The State (ah, surely not preserved in vain!) 5
Forbear to shape due channels which the Flood
Of sacred truth may enter--till it brood
O'er the wide realm, as o'er the Egyptian plain
The all-sustaining Nile. No more--the time
Is conscious of her want; through England's bounds,
In rival haste, the wished-for Temples rise![324] 11
I hear their sabbath bells' harmonious chime
Float on the breeze--the heavenliest of all sounds
That vale or hill[325] prolongs or multiplies!

FOOTNOTES:

[324] In 1818, under the ministry of Lord Liverpool, £1,000,000 was voted by Parliament to build new churches in England.--ED.

[325] 1837.

That hill or vale ... 1822.

XXXIX

CHURCH TO BE ERECTED[326]

Be this the chosen site; the virgin sod,
Moistened from age to age by dewy eve,
Shall disappear, and grateful earth receive
The corner-stone from hands that build to God.
Yon reverend hawthorns, hardened to the rod 5
Of winter storms, yet budding cheerfully;
Those forest oaks of Druid memory,
Shall long survive, to shelter the Abode
Of genuine Faith. Where, haply, 'mid this band
Of daisies, shepherds sate of yore and wove 10
May-garlands, there let[327] the holy altar stand
For kneeling adoration;--while--above,
Broods, visibly portrayed, the mystic Dove,
That shall protect from blasphemy the Land.

FOOTNOTES:

[326] This, and the two following sonnets, were probably the first composed of these "Ecclesiastical Sketches." The "church to be erected" was a new one built on Coleorton Moor by Sir George Beaumont. (See Prefatory note to the series, p. 1.)--ED.

[327] 1840.

May-garlands, let ... 1822.

XL

CONTINUED

Mine ear has rung, my spirit[328] sunk subdued,
Sharing the strong emotion of the crowd,
When each pale brow to dread hosannas bowed
While clouds of incense mounting veiled the rood,
That glimmered like a pine-tree dimly viewed 5
Through Alpine vapours. Such appalling rite
Our Church prepares not, trusting to the might
Of simple truth with grace divine imbued;
Yet will we not conceal the precious Cross,
Like men ashamed:[329] the Sun with his first smile
Shall greet that symbol crowning the low Pile: 11
And the fresh air of incense-breathing morn[330]
Shall wooingly embrace it; and green moss
Creep round its arms through centuries unborn.

FOOTNOTES:

[328] 1827.

... spirits ... 1822.

[329] The Lutherans have retained the Cross within their churches: it is to be regretted that we have not done the same.--W. W. 1822.

It has always been retained _without_, and is now scarcely less common _within_ the churches of England. Did the poet confound the Cross with the Crucifix?--ED.

[330] Compare Gray's _Elegy_, stanza v.--

The breezy call of incense-breathing morn.--ED.

XLI

NEW CHURCH-YARD

The encircling ground, in native turf arrayed,
Is now by solemn consecration given
To social interests, and to favouring Heaven,
And where the rugged colts their gambols played,
And wild deer bounded through the forest glade, 5
Unchecked as when by merry Outlaw driven,
Shall hymns of praise resound at morn and even;
And soon, full soon, the lonely Sexton's spade
Shall wound the tender sod. Encincture small,
But infinite its grasp of weal and woe![331] 10
Hopes, fears, in never-ending ebb and flow;--
The spousal trembling, and the "dust to dust,"
The prayers, the contrite struggle, and the trust
That to the Almighty Father looks through all.

FOOTNOTES:

[331] 1837.

... its grasp of joy and woe! 1822.
... in grasp of weal and woe! 1832.

XLII

CATHEDRALS, ETC.

Open your gates, ye everlasting Piles!
Types of the spiritual Church which God hath reared;
Not loth we quit the newly-hallowed sward
And humble altar, 'mid your sumptuous aisles
To kneel, or thrid your intricate defiles, 5
Or down the nave to pace in motion slow;
Watching, with upward eye,[332] the tall tower grow
And mount, at every step, with living wiles
Instinct--to rouse the heart and lead the will
By a bright ladder to the world above. 10
Open your gates, ye Monuments of love
Divine! thou Lincoln, on thy sovereign hill!
Thou, stately York! and Ye, whose splendours cheer
Isis and Cam, to patient Science dear![333]

FOOTNOTES:

[332] 1827.

... eyes, ... 1822.

[333] This Sonnet was published in _Time's Telescope_, September 1823, p. 260.--ED.

XLIII

INSIDE OF KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE

Tax not the royal Saint[334] with vain expense,
With ill-matched aims the Architect who planned--
Albeit labouring for a scanty band
Of white-robed Scholars only--this immense
And glorious Work of fine intelligence! 5
Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore
Of nicely-calculated less or more;
So deemed the man who fashioned for the sense
These lofty pillars, spread that branching roof
Self-poised, and scooped into ten thousand cells, 10
Where light and shade repose, where music dwells
Lingering--and wandering on as loth to die;
Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof
That they were born for immortality.

FOOTNOTES:

[334] King Henry VI., who founded King's College, Cambridge.--ED.

XLIV

THE SAME

What awful pérspective! while from our sight
With gradual stealth the lateral windows hide
Their Portraitures, their stone-work glimmers, dyed
In[335] the soft chequerings of a sleepy light.
Martyr, or King, or sainted Eremite, 5
Whoe'er ye be, that thus, yourselves unseen,
Imbue your prison-bars with solemn sheen,
Shine on, until ye fade with coming Night!--
But, from the arms of silence--list! O list!
The music bursteth into second life; 5
The notes luxuriate, every stone is kissed
By sound, or ghost of sound, in mazy strife;
Heart-thrilling strains, that cast, before the eye
Of the devout, a veil of ecstasy!

FOOTNOTES:

[335] 1827.

Their portraiture the lateral windows hide,
Glimmers their corresponding stone-work, dyed
With ... 1822.

XLV

CONTINUED

They dreamt not of a perishable home
Who thus could build.[336] Be mine, in hours of fear
Or grovelling thought, to seek a refuge here;
Or through the aisles of Westminster to roam;
Where bubbles burst, and folly's dancing foam 5
Melts, if it cross the threshold; where the wreath
Of awe-struck wisdom droops: or let my path
Lead to that younger Pile, whose sky-like dome[337]
Hath typified by reach of daring art
Infinity's embrace; whose guardian crest, 10
The silent Cross, among the stars shall spread
As now, when She hath also seen her breast
Filled with mementos, satiate with its part
Of grateful England's overflowing Dead.

FOOTNOTES:

[336] Compare _The Excursion_, book v. l. 145--

Not raised in nice proportions was the pile;
But large and massy; for duration built.

[337] St. Paul's Cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren (1675-1710).--ED.

XLVI

EJACULATION

Glory to God! and to the Power who came
In filial duty, clothed with love divine,
That made his human tabernacle shine
Like Ocean burning with purpureal flame;
Or like the Alpine Mount, that takes its name 5
From roseate hues,[338] far kenned at morn and even,
In hours of peace, or when the storm is driven
Along the nether region's rugged frame!
Earth prompts--Heaven urges; let us seek the light,
Studious of that pure intercourse begun 10
When first our infant brows their lustre won;
So, like the Mountain, may we grow more bright
From unimpeded commerce with the Sun,
At the approach of all-involving night.

FOOTNOTES:

[338] Some say that Monte Rosa takes its name from a belt of rock at its summit--a very unpoetical and scarcely a probable supposition.--W. W. 1822.

XLVII