LETTER II. THE CHURCH. "W HAT is a Church ?"-let Truth and Reason speak, They would reply, The Faithful, Pure and Meek; 'From Christian folds, the one selected race, Of all Professions, and in every place.' What is a Church ?"-A-Flock,' our Vicar cries, 'Whom Bishops govern and whom Priests advise ; 'Wherein are various states and due degrees, 'The Bench for Honour, and the Stall for Ease; 'That Ease be mine, which after all his cares, 'The pious, peaceful Prebendary shares.' 66 What is a Church ?"-our honest Sexton tells, "Tis a tall Building, with a Tower and Bells; 'Where Priest and Clerk with joint exertion strive 'To keep the ardour of their Flock alive; ‹ That, by his periods eloquent and grave, This, by responses, and a well-set stave: These for the Living; but when Life be fled, "I toll myself the Requiem for the dead.’ C "Tis to this Church I call thee, and that place Where slept our Fathers when they'd run their race: We too shall rest, and then our Children keep Their road in Life, and then, forgotten, sleep; Meanwhile the Building slowly falls away, And like the Builders, will in time decay. The old Foundation-but it is not clear When it was laid-you care not for the Year; On this, as Parts decayed by Time and Storms, Arose these varied disproportion'd Forms; Yet Gothic all, the Learn'd who visit us (And our small Wonders) have decided thus: "Yon noble Gothic Arch," "that Gothic Door:" So have they said; of proof you'll need no more. Here large plain Columns rise in solemn style, You'd love the Gloom they make in either Aisle ; When the Sun's Rays, enfeebled as they pass (And shorn of splendour) through the storied Glass, Faintly display the Figures on the Floor, Which pleas'd distinctly in their place before. But e'er you enter, yon bold Tower survey, There Science loves to trace her Tribes minute,1, -- And wouldst thou, Artist! with thy Tints and Brush, Form Shades like these? Pretender, where thy Blush? In three short Hours shall thy presuming Hand Th' effect of three slow Centuries command ? * Thou may'st thy various Greens and Greys contrive, They are not Lichens, nor like aught alive ; But yet proceed, and when thy Tints are lost, Fled in the Shower, or crumbled by the Frost ; When all thy Work is done away as clean As if thou never spread'st thy Grey and Green; Then may'st thou see how Nature's Work is done, How slowly true she lays her Colours on ; When her least Speck upon the hardest Flint Has Mark and Form and is a living Tint; And so embodied with the Rock, that few Can the small Germ upon the Substance view. t * If it should be objected that Centuries are not slower than Hours, because the speed of Time must be uniform, I would answer, that I understand so much, and mean that they are slower in no other sense, than because they are not finished so soon. + This kind of vegetation, as it begins upon silicious stones, is very thin, and frequently not to be distinguished from the surface of the Flint. The Byssus Jolithus of Linnæus (Lepraria Jolithus of the present System), an adhesive carmine crust on rocks and old Seeds, to our Eye invisible, will find On the rude Rock the Bed that fits their kind; But ours yet stands, and has its Bells renown'd buildings, was, even by scientific persons, taken for the substance on which it spread. A great variety of these minute vegetables are to be found in some parts of the coast, where the beach, formed of stones of various kind, is undisturbed, and exposed to every change of weather: in this situation, the different species of Lichen, in their different stages of growth, have an appearance interesting and agreeable even to those who are ignorant of, and indifferent to the cause. * The several purposes for which bells are used, are expressed in two Latin verses of this kind. Such wond'rous good, as few conceive could spring ; Wonder not, Mortal, at thy quick decay- With few such stately proofs of Grief or Pride * Quandoquidem data sunt ipsis quoque fata sepulchris. Juvenal. Sat. x. 146. ア |