&c. The grandeur of scriptural sublimity, or simplicity, admits of few or no embellishments. George Sandys, in the reign of Charles I. seems only to have known this secret.

And in the morning, rising up a great while be
fore day, he went and departed into a solitary
place, and there prayed.

Mark, c. i. v. 35.
DEEP in avale, where cloud-born Rhyne 1
Through meads his Alpine waters roll'd,
Where pansies mixt with daisies shine,
And asphodels instarr'd with gold;
Two forests, skirting round the feet
Of everlasting mountains, meet,
Half parted by an op'ning glade;
Around Hercynian oaks are seen.→→→
Larches 2, and cypress ever green,
Unite their hospitable shade.

Impearl'd with dew, the rosy Morn
Stood tip-toe on the mountain's brow;
Gleams following gleams the Heav'ns adorn,
And gild the theatre below:

Nature from needful slumber wakes,
And from her misty eye-balls shakes
The balmy dews of soft repose:
The pious lark with grateful lays
Ascends the skies, and chants the praise
Which man to his Creator owes 4.
When lo! a venerable sire appears,
With sprightly footsteps hast'ning o'er the plaing
His tresses bore the marks of fourscore years,
Yet free from sickness he, and void of pain:
His eyes with half their youthful clearness shones.
Still on his cheeks health's tincture gently glow'd,
His aged voice retain❜d a manly tone,
His peaceful blood in equal tenour flow'd.
At length, beneath a beechen shade reclin'd,
He thus pour'd forth to Heav'n the transports of
his mind.

At the end of the 12th stanza in this poem, I had several inducements for venturing to change the ode into heroic measure. The first was, that I might diversify the doctrinal part from the descriptive. The second was, that our excellent and most learned poet, Cowley, had given me his authority for making this change, in his poem de Plantis. But the third and truer reason was, that I found it next to impracticable, to deliver short, unadorned, didactical sentences consistently with the copiousness, irregularity, and enthusiasm peculiar to ode-writing.-Let the reader only make the experiment, and I flatter inyself he will join with me in opinion.-Nor have I departed any further than in a metaphor or two from that original simplicity which characterises my author, however difficult and self-denying such an undertaking might be in a poetical composition. What gave me warning was, that Castalio and Stanhope had both spoiled Thomas a Kempis by attempting to adorn him with flowery language, false elegance, and glaring imagery. And, by the way, to this cause may be attributed the miscarriages of many poets, (otherwise confessedly eminent) in their para-fect to the last. phrases of the Psalms of David, the Book of Job,

to man as well as God. "Wo unto him that is faint-hearted; for he believeth not, therefore shall he not be defended. Wo unto you that have lost patience: what will ye do when the Lord shall visit you?-they that fear the Lord will say, we will fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men: for as his majesty is, so is his mercy."

In like manner St. Chrysostom informs us, “That, in proportion as God adds to our tribulation, he adds likewise to our retribution."

This river takes its rise from one of the highest ice-mountains in Switzerland.

2 The species of larch-tree here meant is called sempervirens: the other larches are deciduis folis.

3 Tip-toe. Shakespeare.

4" Before we engage in worldly business, or any common amusements of life, let us be careful to consecrate the first-fruits of the day, and the very beginning of our holy thoughts unto the service of God." St. Basil.

Thomas à Kempis had no manifest infirmities of old-age, and retained his eye-sight per

All that I have ever been able to learn in Germany upon good authority, concerning him, is as follows: He was born at Kempis, or Kempen, a small walled town in the dutchy of Cleves, and diocese of Cologn. His family-name was Hamerlein, which signifies in the German language a little hammer. We find also that his parents were named John and Gertrude Hamerlein. He lived chiefly in the monastery of Mount St. Agnes; where his effigy, together with a prospect of the monastery, was engraven on a plate of copper that lies over his body. The said monastery is now called Bergh-Clooster, or, as we might say in English, Hiit-Cloyster. Many strangers in their travels visit it. Kempis was certainly one of the best and greatest men since the primitive ages. His book of the Imitation of Christ has seen near forty editions in the ori

362

"Come unto me (Messiah cries) All that are laden and oppress'd: To Thee I come (my heart replies) O Patron of eternal rest!

Who walks with me (rejoins the voice)
In purest day-light shall rejoice,
Incapable to err, or fall.

With thee I walk, my gracious God;
Long I've thy painful foot-steps trod,
Redeemer, Saviour, Friend of all!

"Heav'n in my youth bestow'd each good
Of choicer sort: in fertile lands
A decent patrimony stood,
Sufficient for my just demands.
My form was pleasing; health refin'd
My blood; a deep-discerning mind
Crown'd all the rest,-The fav'rite child
Of un-affected eloquence,
Plain nature, un-scholastic sense:-
And once or twice the Muses smil'd!

"Blest with each boon that simpler minds desire,
Till Heav'n grows weary of their nauseous pray'rs,
I made the nobler option to retire 7,

And gave the world to worldlings and their heirs;
The warriors laurels, and the statesman's fame,
The vain man's hopes for titles and employ,
The pomp of station, and the rich man's name,
I left for fools to seek, and knaves t'enjoy;
An early whisper did its truths impart,
And all the God conceal'd irradiated my heart.
"Happy the man who turns to Heav'n,
When on the landscape's verge of green
Old-age appears, to whom 'tis giv'n
To creep in sight, but fly, unseen!

ginal Latin, and above sixty translations have
been made from it into modern languages.
Our author died August the Sth,, 1471, aged
92 years.

In the engraving on copper above-mentioned, and lying over his grave, is represented a person respectfully presenting to him a label on which is written a verse to this effect:

Stealer of marches, subtile foe,
Sinon of stratagem and woe!
Thy fatal blows, ah! who can ward?
Around thee lurks a motley train
Of wants, and fears, and chronic pain,
The hungry Croats of thy guard.

(Thus on the flow'r-enamell'd lawn,
Unconscious of the least surprize,
In thoughtless gambols sports the fawn,
Whilst veil'd in grass the tygress lies.
The silent trait'ress crouches low,
Her very lungs surcease to blow:
At length she darts on hunger's wings;
Sure of her distance and success,
Where Newton could but only guess,
She never misses, when she springs 9.)
"More truly wise the man, whose early youth 1a
Is offer'd a free off'ring to the Lord,
A self-addicted votary to truth,
Servant thro' choice, disciple by accord!
Heav'n always did th' unblemish'd turtle choose,
Where health conjoin'd with spirit most abounds:
Heav'n seeks the young, nor does the old refuse,
But youth acquits the debt, which age com-
pounds!

Awkward in time, and sour'd with self-disgrace,
The spend-thrift pays his all, and takes the
bankrupt's place."

Thus spoke the venerable sage
Who ne'er imbib'd Mæonian lore,
Who drew no aids from Maro's page,
And yet to nobler flights could soar.
Tanght by the Solyméan maid;
With native elegance array'd,
He gave his easy thoughts to flow;
The charms which anxious art deny'd
Truth and simplicity supply'd,
Melodious in religious woe.

Poet in sentiment! he feels

The flame; nor seeks from verse his aid!

The veil which artful charms conceals,
To real beauty proves a shade.
When nature's out-lines dubious are,

Oh! where is Peace? for Thou its paths hast Verse decks them with a slight cymarr 11; trod.

True charms by art in vain are drest.

To which Kempis returns another strip of paper, Not icy prose could damp his fire: inscribed as follows:

He com

In poverty, retirement, and with God. He was a canon regular of Augustins, and subprior of mount St. Agnes' monastery. posed his treatise On the Imitation of Christ in the sixty-first year of his age, as appears from a note of his own writing in the library of his

Convent.

❝ Imitation of Christ, Lib. I. c. i. 7" Solitude is the best school wherein to learn St. Jerom. the way to Heaven."

"Worldly honours are a trying snare to men of an exalted station; of course their chief care must be, to put themselves out of the reach of Nepotian. envy by humility."

"The pleasures of this world are only the mo-
mentary comforts of the miserable, and not the
rewards of the happy."
St. August.

Cætera solicita speciosa incommoda vitæ
Permisi stultis quærere, habere malis.
Couleius de Plant.

Intense the flame and mounting high'r,
Brightly victorious when opprest!
By this time morn in all its glory shone;
The Sun's chaste kiss absorb'd the virgin-dew:
Th' impatient peasant wish'd his labour done,
The cattle to th' umbrageous streams withdrew:
Beneath a cool impenetrable shade,
Quiet, he mus'd. So Jonas safely sate [play'd)
(When the swift gourd her palmy leaves dis-
To see the tow'rs of Ninus bow to fate 12.

9 This parenthesis was inserted by way of imitating the famous parenthesis in Horace's Ode, which begins

Qualem ministrum fulminis alitem, &c.

10 Even from the flower till the grape was ripe, hath my heart delighted in Wisdom."

Ecclus. c. li. v. 15. "A thin covering of the gause, or sarsuetkind. Dryd. Cymon & Iphigen; 12 Jonah, c. iv. v. 6.

Th' Ascetic then drew forth a parchment-scroll, And thus pour'd out to Heav'n th' effusions of his soul.

(7.) The men of Science aim themselves to

show 17,

And know just what imports them not to know 18.
(Once having miss'd the truth, they farther stray:
As men ride fastest who have lost their way ;)
Whilst the poor peasant that with daily care'
Improves his lands and offers Heav'n his pray'r,
With conscious boldness may produce his face
Where proud philosophers shall want a place1.
Philosophy in anxious doubts expires:
Religion trims her lamp, as life retires 20.
True faith, like gold into the furnace cast,
Maintains its sterling pureness to the last.
Conscience will ev'ry pious act attest 21:
A silent panegyrist, but the best!

(8.) All chastisements for private use are giv❜n;

The revelations Personal of Heav'n 22:
But man in misery mistakes his road,

Sighs for lost joys, and never turns to God 23.
Heav'n more than meets her child with sorrows
try'd;

Her dove brings olive, e'er the waves subside24.
Man gives but once, and grudges when we sue;
Heav'n makes old gifts the precedents for new.

(9.) Afflictions have their use of ev'ry kind;
At once they humble, and exalt the mind:
The ferment of the soul by just degrees
Refines the true clear spirit from the lees 25.
Boast as we will, and argue as we can,
None ever knew the virtues of a man,
Except affliction sifts the flour from bran26.

17" It is good to know much and live well: but, if we cannot attain both, it is better to desire piety than learning: for knowledge makes no man truly happy, nor doth happiness consist in intellectual acquisitions. The only valuable thing is a religious life."

Sti. Greg. Magn. Moral. And again: "That only is the best knowledge

which makes us better."

18 Imitat. of Christ.

19 Ibid.

20 Imitat. of Jesus Christ, L. II, c. 10.

21 As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." Prov. xxvii, v. 19. "Thou canst avoid, sooner or later, whatever molesteth thee, except thy own conscience." Augustin. in Psalm xxx.

22 Imitat. of Jesus Christ, L. I, c. 13. "God causeth (afflictions) to come, either for correction, or for his land, or for mercy." Job, c. xxxvii, v. 13.

Say, is it much indignities to bear,
When God for thee thy nature deign'd to wear?
If slander vilifies the good man's name,
It hurts not; but prevents a future shame,
The censure and reproaches of mankind
Are the true christian mentors of the mind.

No other way humility is gain'd;
No other way vain glory is restrain'd.
Nor worse, nor better we, if praise or blame
Lift or depress-the man is still the same 27.
The happy, if they're wise, must all things fear;
Nor need th' unhappy, if they're good, des-

pair.

(10.) Hard is the task 'gainst nature's strength to strive :

Perfection is the lot of none alive;

Or grant frail man could tread th' unerring road,
How could we suffer for the sake of God?
Affliction's ordeal, sharp, but brightly shines;
Sep'rates the gold29, and ev'ry vice calcines.
In adverse fortune, when the storm runs high,
And sickness graves death's image on the eye,
Nor wealth, nor rank, nor pow'r, assuage the

grief

Ask God to send thee patience or relief30.
The infant Moses 'scap'd his wat’ry grave31.
Heav'n half o'erwhelms the man it means to
save!

(11.) Th' ambitious and the covetous desire More than their worth deserves, or wants re quire :

field:

Not merely for the profit things may yield,
But, ah! their neighbour's pittance maims their
Thus, gain'd by force, or fraudulent design,
The grapes of Naboth yield them blood for
wine 33

(12) Nothing but truth can claim a lasting
date 94;

Time is truth's surest judge, and judges late:

27 Imitat. of Christ, L. III, c. 5.
28 Ibid.

29" For gold is tried in the fire, and accep-
table men in the furnace of adversity."
Ecclus. c. ii, v. 5.
30 Imitat. of Christ, L. III, c. 5.
31 Exod, c. II, v. 5.

32He that gathereth by defrauding his own soul, gathereth for others, that shall spend his goods riotously. A covetous man's eye is not satisfied with his portion, and the iniquity of the wicked drieth up his soul."

Ecclus. c. xiv.

"It is the work and providence of God's secret counsel, that the days of the elect should bé troubled in their pilgrimage. This present 33 "Ahab's excuse to Naboth, when he said life is the way to our eternal abode: God there- give me thy vineyard that I may make it a garfore in his secret wisdom afflicts our travel with den of herbs, represents in a lively manner the continual trouble, lest the delights of our jour-pretences that avaricious and ambitious men ney might take away the desire of our journey's use, when they want to make new acquisitions. St. Greg. Mag. "No servant of Christ is without affliction. If They lye to their consciences; asking a seeming you expect to be free from persecution, you have trifle, and meaning to obtain something very va not yet so much as begun to be a Christian." St. August.

end."

23 Imitat. of Christ, L. I, c. 11. 24 Imitat. of Christ, ibid. See also Gen. c. viii, v. 11.

25 Imitat. of Christ, L. I, c. 13.

26 lbid. Lib. I, c. 16. Lib. III, c. 12. See also Amos, c. ix, v. 3, and Luke c, xxii, v. 31.

luable."

St. Ambrose. "Woe unto them that covet fields, and take them away by violence," Micah, c. ii, v. 2. "They enlarge their desire as Hell, and are as death, and cannot be satisfied: woe unto them that encrease that which is not theirs."

Hab. c. ii, v. 5, 6

34 Imitat, of Jesus Christ, L. I, c. 3

But if vain glory prompts the tongue to boast,
In vain we strive to give, the gift is lost.
Wealth, unbestow'd, is the fool's alchymy ;-
Misers have wealth, but taste it not ;-and die.
In ev'ry purse that th' avaricious bears,
There's still a rent, which wily Satan tears11:

(13.) Flatt'ry and fame at death the vain for- A man may mend it, at returning light,