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_,