To thee, beloved Sion! vain were given Blessing and honour, wealth and power-in vain The glorious present majesty of Heaven Irradiated thy chosen holy fane! Fallen from thy God, the heathen's barbarous hand Despoils thy temple, and thine altar stains; Reft of her children mourns the parent land, And in her dwellings deathlike silence reigns. Rise, sacred tree; a monument to tell How vanity and folly lead to woe; Under what wrath unfaithful Israel fell, What mighty arm laid Babel's triumphs low. Rise, sacred tree! on Thames's gorgeous shore, To warn the people, and to guard the throne; Teach them their pure religion to adore, And foreign faiths, and rites, and pomps disown! Teach them, that their forefathers' noble race, The throne and altar's strength have intertwined: The lofty glories of the land and main, The stream of industry, and trade's proud course, The majesty of empire to sustain, God's blessing on sound faith is Britain's force. Me, when thy shade, and Thames's meads and flowers Invite to soothe the cares of waning age, May memory bring to me my long-past hours To calm my soul, and troubled thoughts assuage! Come, parent Eton! turn the stream of time Back to thy sacred fountain crowned with bays! Recal my brightest, sweetest days of prime; When all was hope, and triumph, joy, and praise. Guided by thee I raised my youthful sight To the steep solid heights of lasting fame, And hail'd the beams of clear ethereal light That brighten round the Greek and Roman name. O blest instruction! friend to generous youth! Source of all good! you taught me to entwine The muse's laurel with eternal truth, And wake her lyre to strains of faith divine. Firm, incorrupt, as in life's dawning morn, Nor sway'd by novelty, nor public breath, Teach me false censure and false fame to scorn, And guide my steps through honour's paths to death. And thou, time-honoured fabric, stand! A tower Impregnable, a bulwark of the state! Untouched by visionary folly's power Above the vain, and ignorant, and great! The mighty race with cultured minds adorn, And spread thy gifts through ages yet unborn, Thy country's pride, and heaven's parental care ! Fern-hill, Windsor, Lord Wellesley adds, in a note, that " a reform of Eton College, on the principles of the new system of education, has been menaced by high authority." INDEX Censoriousness, 330. Confidence in the powers that Conscience, 199, 316, 350. Contentedness, 32, 227, 342. 317, 338, 360, 310. Society, Courtesy, 246, 360. 279. Covetousness, 97, 228. D. Death, Considerations prepa- ratory to, 123. |