Beneath each banner proud to stand, Till through the British world were known O'er Pitt's the mournful requiem sound, "Here let their discord with them die; Walter Scott. CLOUDLAND, OR FANCY IN NUBIBUS. O! Ir is pleasant with a heart at ease, Own each quaint likeness, issuing from the mould 'Twixt crimson banks; and then, a traveller, go From mount to mount through Cloudland, gorgeous land! By those deep sounds possessed with inward light, Rise to the swelling of the voiceful sea. Coleridge. AT A SOLEMN MUSIC.3 BLEST pair of Sirens, pledges of heaven's joy, With saintly shout and solemn jubilee; Singing everlastingly; That we on earth, with undiscording voice, May rightly answer that melodious noise ;10 1 Chian strand-It was an ancient tradition that Homer was born at Chios. 2 Beheld-i. e. with his mental eye; conceived the plan of. 3 At a solemn music-i. e. lines written at, or on, a sacred concert or oratorio. 4 Pledges―i. e. earnests or foretastes of the joys of heaven. 5 Wed your, &c.-Milton speaks in "L'Allegro," of airs "Married to immortal verse." 6 Mixed power, &c.-i. e. employ your united power, which is able to penetrate and breathe life even into dead things, and to our, &c. 7 Phantasy-the old spelling for, fancy. 8 Concent-from the Latin con, together, and centus, (for cantus,) singing; harmony. Aye-always, ever. 10 Noise-music. So the word used to be sometimes employed in prose. See Psalm xlvii, 5: "God is gone up with a merry noise, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet:" Cranmer's version. As once we did, till disproportioned1 sin Jarred against nature's chime, and with harsh din To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed In first obedience, and their state of good. And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ere long To live with him, and sing in endless morn of light! Milton. 1 ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT.3 AVENGE, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold To Heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow Disproportioned-mismatched, disorderly. Milton. 2 Diapason-from the Greek dia, through,and Tαowy, of all--" the interval of the octave, so called because it includes all admitted musical sounds"here, metaphorically, full harmony. 3 This sublime prayer, as it may truly be called, was written on occasion of the barbarous massacre in 1655, inflicted by the Duke of Savoy on his Protestant subjects, the Vaudois. So pure of old-The Vaudois appear to have kept themselves separate from the church of Rome from time immemorial. 5 Their moans, &c.-The simplicity of the expression, the fulness of meaning, and the fine movement of the verse, make this sentence truly sublime. 7 6 The triple tyrant-the Pope. Babylonian woe-the woe denounced on the spiritual Babylon, which is by many considered to be the Roman Catholic church. THE GOLDEN AGE. THE first fresh dawn1 then waked the gladdened race The sluggard sleep beneath her sacred beam; Was known among these happy sons of heaven; Shot his best rays; and still the gracious clouds Thomson. NIGHT. 1 NIGHT is the time for rest, How sweet! when labours close, To gather round an aching breast The curtain of repose; Stretch the tired limbs and lay the head The first dawn-a Latinism-like "primâ luce"-signifying, the first part of the dawn; day-break. 2 Warbling the varied, &c.-i. e. warbling forth the various emotions of the heart. Night is the time for dreams; The gay romance of life, When truth that is, and truth that seems, Blend in fantastic strife; Ah! visions less beguiling far Than waking dreams by daylight are. Night is the time for toil; Night is the time to weep, Hopes that were angels in their birth, But perished young, like things of earth. Night is the time for care; Like Brutus,' 'midst his slumbering host, Night is the time to pray; Our Saviour oft withdrew So will his followers do; Steal from the throng to haunts untrod, And hold communion there with God. 1 Like Brutus-in allusion to the phantom of Cæsar, which is said to have appeared to Brutus before the battle of Philippi. 2 Stalworth-from the Anglo-Saxon stæl-weorthe, worth stealing or taking, and therefore, (says Richardson,) by inference-brave, strong, daring. The word seems used here with questionable propriety. M |