‹ There is a loveliness in the young day
Surpassing sense; bright in its purity
As is an infant angel, yet deep-souled;
As nature from her rest had risen up
In the refreshment of some heavenly dream
And do her suit as a subject, dutiful,"
With early duty; awake, arise; nor sell
The privilege, and first-born hope of the day,
For a foul mess of dreams-up and away
To the heavenly inspiration of fresh air,
Bove the weak taint of man; e'en as they did,
So shall ye rise in nature's purity,
Hermann and Hess, forth issuing that day
From their hot beds into the natural air,
The garden's lively cool luxuriance,
There to drink in the morn; and in the light
And gentle countenance of the eastern sun
To pace their pleasant path; communing things
That startled e'en the ear of privacy,
They were so fearful.'-pp. 30, 31.
And fearful indeed they are to every intelligent ear! Hess first relates his own history-that he cultivated his own patrimonial farm in a rich and very beautiful country; and was the happiest of men till the rector of the parish bethought him of turning a path to his own convenience. He breaks down the gate which the rector (we hear nothing of consent of magistrates) had set up across the path. The clergyman claims tithe of the farm, which by old usage had been exempt from it, and Hess is ruined by the lawsuit. From that time he vows eternal, unmitigable hatred to the Church.
That she had dreamt, and waking streams from I'll give thee all thy due; if I withhold
O'er earth and air that dreamy radiance.
And can there be of all mankind one man
Would doze the prime of his young life away-
Never to be a youth ?-the freshening stir
Of the early stream knowing, nor feeling not;
But when its course is wearied, its full flow
Settled to the stagnation of a pool,
Then to be flung in it, and struggle his way
Through the dull scum of life?-None would do
this.
But whoso flings away his morning pearl
Doth all as strange a thing, making a blotch
Of that most beauteous gentle radiance
With self.engendered darkness; lagging out
The freshness and the newborn fragrancy,
The silvery light and glistening dewiness,
The contemplative calm of the young dawn,
Till its pure life be tainted a death taint
In dust, and heat, and din of the noon day,
When man is rife, and Nature all fordone,
Blent with his troublous being, seems almost
To lose her own. But thou, be not so foul,
But spring up gladly, and look forth and breathe,
And walk abroad in peaceful blessedness-
Oh, 'tis most sad such bliss as all might have
The many know not. What? think ye to see
Visions of green fields, waters and deep woods
In the charnel-house, when death shall fling ye
For a nuisance, as ye are, out of the way,
To lie and rot? No; but your time is short,
And only provident use can lengthen it.
Oh then fling wide the portals of your sight;
But first, open your souls and learn to love.
'Tis the best learning; for the love you pay
To nature, she requites a thousand fold
With joy and blessedness: look to her then,
One curse of those I owe thee, may hell pains
Embrace me, body and soul.'
And so he goes on ranting and raving, and gradually unfolds his plans for the regeneration of mankind, and intimates the existence of widely ramified and secret plots for insurrection against the law and the government. These are among their generous and noble objects:
'Be it proclaimed, that whoso heretofore
Laboured the land but for a lord's behoof
Shall eat what he hath earned; cramming the soil
Down the disnatured and most greedy throat
Of whosoe'er dares to claim it for his own,
'Gainst the Creator's law; starving him so
With the glut of his own will: and this achieved,
Then shall the giant Aristocracy,
Dissevered from the earth which bred him first,
And feeds him to this hour, whereon indeed
Is his dependence and his very life,-
Shall die perforce, clutched in the people's claws,
Cursing his soul away.'-pp. 54, 55.
Of the thing whose name it bears, and the spirit | As being arrayed in that pure lustre of light, gone,
Shall be again a temple of the Lord,
Re-edified in simple lowliness,
Abated from its height, but all the more
Extended in its width and larger scope,
Lovingly to embrace all Christian souls
That call upon the Lord.'-pp. 56, 57.
Upon his espousing these principles to their utmost latitude, and joining the desperate league, depends the consent of old Hess to Arthur's marriage with his daughter.
The young preacher hesitates both to the wisdom and the justice of this unexpected proposition: he is as yet too clear-sighted not to discern the criminality of these measures; he can yet call them by their plain names:—
'I thought to win by righteousness,
And Christian love, and faith, and purity;
And if these serve not, how should robbery
Fulfil their service? robbery and rank
Rebellion ?'-p. 63.
"So did that youth choose duty before love!" Arthur has now a long interview with his own father, who it appears has likewise been tampered with by Hess, and whose vanity has been tempted with the offer of heading the glorious enterprise. Partly from jealousy at finding others placed over his head; partly from a sort of shrewdness, which cannot but discern the selfish and personal motives which are so imperfectly concealed by the show of patriotism; partly perhaps from some spice of cowardice which he dignifies by the name of prudence, the old man has determined not merely to drop the perilous connection, but to revenge himself by turning informer. He hints, not without some grounds, that Hess is using his daughter's beauty as a decoy to swell the patriotic ranks; and is actually, while thus endeavouring to work on Arthur, playing the same game with a certain Count Linsingen. Lucy's mother (for feminine weaknesses will intrude into the family of the loftiest patriot) is dazzled by the high name and gallant bearing of the Count. Under her auspices Linsingen appears at the cottage of Hess to press his suit. But who was this count Linsingen ?-how comes he in the camp of the enemy to title, privilege, and property?
Truly he was a man
Of high nobility, and yet withal,
Simple as is the simplest shepherd's boy,
And careless of himself, weening no more
Of his proud ancestors than they of him
While mouldering in their tombs, giving much
To his high house, but taking none therefrom,
That puts the false to shame. And so he stood, Scorning the far-fetched memory of names,
And usurpation of another's praise,
A simple man, great in simplicity,
Prouder without his plume; true he had felt
Erewhile the gripe of penury, and they
Whose duty then was friendliness of aid,
Left him to fight against her iron claws
With his bare hand, as though their common blood
Were but the water of the common pool,
To blow away and care no more of it.
So they were naught to him, nor he to them
And in his bitterness oft his heart yearned
To make nobility through all the world
Though well they nurse themselves in the inmost
The blank it bore in his eyes; but hate and scorn,
heart,
And kindred but a name for their cold breath
Keep not the body warm; nor drive the wolf
From the poor-nay, rather sharpen his keen fangs
And whet his rage. So having spent his all,
Save one poor plank whereon to 'scape the wreck,
To that same plank he did commit himself,
To sink or swim: leaving behind him naught
Save emptiness for who came after him,
And curses for his kin-so did he part;
Wishing naught more 'twixt him and those he left,
Save a far space. And on a little farm,
That in its littleness had been o'erlooked
When ruin struck the rest, he made his home:
Reckless, as any banished thief, of the world
He left behind.-Then he flung clean away
The memory of what so late he had been,
As one just waked from a dream of nobleness,
With the level of his place; and having thrown
And brought his spirit to keep even wing
His vain imaginations off from him,
'Stead of the puffed and feathery thing he was,
Stood armed in manhood: till being unthralled
And poor dependence on another's hands,
From the base beggary of idleness,
For uses that his own might well have wrought,
He found his loss the greatest gain of all,
Richer than his old wealth; nor lacked he aught;
Whether of field, orchard, or garden growth,
Only, what now he had, he enjoyed the more,
As earned by his strong toil; nor yet his sports
Did he not urge, and pastimes of old wont;
Changed but in this, that the same active means
Which erst he used to cut off his slow hours,
Stragglers and lagsters from time's tedious march,
Wasting the old enemy to minishment;
He did employ those selfsame weapons now,
Not to consume but fructify his life,
To toil, and raising up a goodly growth
With fruits whence it might live; so marrying sport
Of plenty, health, contentment, and what else
Springs of that parentage.'-pp. 97, 98.
He takes to shooting on some wild hills: the manor is one day claimed by a troublesome person who calls himself its owner. Linsingen is prosecuted for poaching, and becomes at once a determined captain of smugglers and, of course, a patriot.
A sort of pic-nic party is proposed in a beautiful spot, by a retired fountain, at some distance. The poet takes the opportunity of interspersing some very pleasing descriptions of rural scenery; very soft, rich, and English in its charac
The young o'erbrimming with their natural glee,
The old rejoicing in their children's joy,
Since their own source was spent; sweet was the
As they passed onward o'er the russet hills,
Those hills that smiled in sunshine a warm smile
To welcome them. All looked and all were pleased;
Some that they felt sorrow more soothingly,
And other some, pleasure more pleasingly,
For Nature, like a holy mother, looks
Upon her children with a tempering look,
Calming all passion; and whate'er they feel,
Subduing it to take a gentler tone,
Whether of joy or grief: still doth she wear
Some touch of sadness in her sweetest smile;
As knowing all must fade, how bright soe'er,
That she brings forth to life; and what she knows
Others do feel, who feel her influence,
And so partake her mood.'-p. 108.
They are joined by an old harper, and many others deeply imbued with the new opinions, and while the less initiate are
And we are met, and never shall we part-
I and despair.
And thou hast done all this, my sire, e'en thou!
Oh how could thou fall off, oh tell me how?
Was it in the battle fray,
Was it in the face of day,
I Was it in the front of men ?
Alas, I could have borne it then.
There is a majesty and might
In the high-swaying vengeful sword;
But poison'd shaft, and traitorous sleight,
E'en by the tempter is abhorr'd.
The rebel may be bold and true,
And he may bear a glorious name :
But such as thou! what doom's thy due?
'Tis shameful death, and deathless shame.
Oh 'tis indeed a fortune most forlorn,
Where fain we would love well,
To feel our love disnatured into scorn,
Our heart, our home, turned to a very hell.
But no! thou art my father still,
And I must love thee 'gainst my will-
Then thou art free, and so am I.
Aye, be it so; and so be each as free
Till the severance of our tie:
Tear it off, and fling it far, merrily and innocently amusing them-As is the branch I tear from this lone tree : To lie wide sever'd, as we are: selves by a dance on the spirators withdraw to discuss their griev-See, it is done! ances, their hopes, and their plans of in- Alas! vain fool, thou'rt still thy father's son— surrection and revenge. They are inter-Oh! who will be my friend, See here I bare mine arm; come, rupted by an old shepherd with the intel- E'en to the utmost end? And coldly drain ligence that they are denounced to the magistracy by the father of Hermann. At this the youth seems suddenly convinced of the full justice of their cause, plunges headlong into the very depths of the plot, and becomes, in fact, the leader of the enterprise :
Struck with the palsy of his wonderment,
Each shrinking vein
Of its rich flood of crimson life,
That my sire's blood may pour its hideous blot
There on that heather, and I own it not.
.. Curse on ye all, ye dreams of idleness,
know ye not,-back to your nothingness.
No; I will redeem the shame
Of our vile, dishonoured name :
Now that name throughout the land
Is charactered in felon brand;
Stood fixed to the spot-passion oft speeds the soul Soon it shall be pure and bright,
To energy of act by its swift stream;
But there it came in such a rushing flood
As quite o'erwhelmed the wheels it should drive on,
Clashing them each 'gainst each. Long time he
stood
Like to a lion bayed by many hounds,
Doubtful which first; then did his vehemence,
Frantic awhile, collect itself in strength,
To be hurled at once, forcefully, all in all
Upon his destined point: so grew his thoughts
To issue, and flashed forth in fiery words.
"Yes, 'tis e'en so-
The deed is done, and stricken is the blow;
Come then, I know thee well, thou fatal hour-
Come to thine own;
E'en as a reed before thy stormy power
'Tis thy stern shadow that I see,
It deepens still; all hail to thee !
Hark! I hear thy rushing pinion!
I bend me to thy dark dominion:
Come, and sweep me hence away,
In thy full, registless sway.
I am thine, both sense and soul,
Take thy slave to thy control.
Once I strove, but strive no longer,
For I am weak, and thou confess'd the stronger.
But tell me, wherefore art thou so
Trick'd in Hope's delusive show?
Ah no! I see thee, truly, what thou art!
And lo! my breast I bare;
VOL. LXV.
Written in a sunbeam's light,
Uttered in the thunder's voice-
Hear it and quake, my foes, and ye, my friends,
rejoice;
For there shall live a spirit in that name,
Who breathes it forth shall breathe a fiery flame :
Evermore proclaim'd aloud
In the council and the crowd:
Strong to comfort and to save,
To cheer the faint, to steel the brave :
Soul of the battle shout,
Rallying here and scattering there in rout.
-But what strange cloud o'erhung my brow, That I was blind till even now ?
I saw it not, yet was it there,
That precious truth so heavenly fair.
All in vain did Love and Hope
Point me to this glorious scope,
Till another counsel came,
Muttered in my ear by shame.
Yes, Honour, unto thee
To redeem the foul disgrace
Lowering o'er my name and race:
Thy bidding have I done,
So be the Sire forgotten in the Son!
-Oh! yes, a thousand thanks, my sire, to thee,
Tis all thy gift the glory that I see;
Not now a vision, but a truth indeed,
For fate's own hand hath written what I read.
I see it all, I see the opening sky:
Oh! yet a moment, ere the scene pass by-
All is one blazing truth before my eyes,
Cleansed from old custom, purg'd of priestly lies;
The giant people, the all-sovereign sun
Waked up in glory, his glad course to run;
Quenching the chilly lustre of each star
That ruled the sky while yet he was afar;
Claiming our homage, though they shine but so
Their own vain glory 'mid the night to show,
Their glory and the general gloom of man ;
But who shall chase that gloom ?-they neither
Nor light nor warmth is theirs, and earth and sky
Must bide in darkness while they sit on high-
Bide darkling still that they may shine more bright;
Then come, thou Sovereign Sun, and re-assert thy
right,
Give the warm grace those lordly things deny,
And bid them fade before thy fiery eye-
Fade in avoidance like a fumy dream:
They know thy power, they tremble as they gleam;
See, darkness faints in day-the pitchy night
Bursts into brilliance at one touch of light :
And mid that light doth Truth ascend her throne,
And points to man, and man asserts his own.
Wondering to see where erst he was so blind,
A clayey mass enlightened to a mind.
And what he wills, that will is now the Lord,
And what he says, the act obeys the word;
Kings tremble and crouch down, for he hath
drawn his sword.
Then doth resistance vainly faint away,
E'en as those darksome clouds dissolv'd in day;
Threatening the eye, and thundering on the ear,
But to the touch a foolish empty fear-
So right is 'stablished, and old wrongs redrest,
The few abated, and the many blest.
But oh! the joy, the tumult, the surprise,
One voice, one will, one world in ecstasies,
Oh swell not so my heart; oh veil ye my fond eyes.
Yes, 'tis decreed-
I've seen the sight, and now to do the deed!" pp. 126-130.
Hermann is not merely to be the leader but the lawgiver of the new social institution; he expounds at length the views of these political regenerators. Let us hear the principles of the new philosophical and religious republic:
''Tis just and fitting that the commonalty,
In virtue of its sovereign majesty,
Seeing it hath entrusted its estate
To certain men who have abused that trust-
Should exercise itself the care of its own,
And order all things for its interest,
By its proper voice, and will immediate :
And be resolved, all laws should be for use
Of the main, and not for 'vantage of some few;
Therefore for furtherance of such main good
The rule of property should be redrest
From its wrong bias unto its right scope,
Which was indeed to comfort industry;
As sure it doth where reason limits it:
Though oft of late, selfishness most perverse
Hath wrested it to ends of idleness.
Then be it resolved, only the labourer,
Or they who do provide labour its means,
Have right and title to the land's increase.
Hence that the farmer's stock upon each farm
Be rated; and a yearly usury
Be paid him on that rate, from the land's growth;
And for his management and master-skill,
A further portion of the yearly increase:
Then for the surplus of such payment made,
They who have toiled the ground, 'tis theirs of right
To share it, and enjoy it, and thank God;
Sharing by rule of elders, duly ordained
To make apportionment of labourers,
And judge all controversies in each farm.
But for the landlord-'tis an impious pame,
By man usurped from God-so be it resolved,
To make no further mention of that name,
But let the state take their dominion,
Paying them compensation lest they starve;
So much the less as they have taxed the more
Our bread, long time, and now must quit the ac-
But that which each man's skill hath made for him, Procured, or earned, as money, and house, and goods,
And what he hath by gift of the like kind,
Be it all his own to hold and to enjoy.
And be it resolved, that labour respiteless
Befits not man, being brute drudgery;
Changing to beastliness his nature, born
A little lower than the angels are:
And in this rule the labourer hath right
Of leisure and appliance to enjoy
His life, nor only toil for means to live,-
As was his old compulsion, and is now :
Barring all spiritual exercise,
Stunting all holy growth, and robbing so
His soul of its immortal privilege,
Its means of grace, and faculty for heaven.
Then to forfend that evil, and gain this good,
Be there provided recreative means,
Both for refreshment of man's weekly toil,
And holy comfort after worldliness.
But since vice ever grows from vacancy,
Therefore, 'tis need all aids be ministered,
To further blameless action to its end,
And occupy in sport or seriousness
The space that else the evil one would fill.
And be those aids varied for various needs-
Gardens and spacious shades, where the weary
And contemplative leisure study God
In their cool freedom may refresh itself;
By Nature's help-his best interpreter:
Besides, what ground for pastime may seem fit,
For lusty games, and proof of manliness.
In frequency of popular resort,
Next, since man sins only in ignorance,
And as he learns, e'en so he practises,
Practising only what he first hath learnt;
Therefore it is the common good of all,
And common right, that each man be taught well,
Lest evil discipline lead to ill deeds;
And then the law rising up wrathfully-
Albeit itself worthier far of blame
In its default, than was the man in his act-
Do bloody vengeance on the deed foredone;
Making much evil in its slothfulness,
And mending it with more in its hastiness:
To punish eager, as careless to prevent;
A hangman's office-'stead of the kind grace
Of a loving teacher and good governor-
Rule most irregular and mischievous.
Therefore be there provided public schools,
Industrial, labour and art with letters joined,
Where each shall send his own, save on proof made
Of homely discipline as sure and good-
From tender infancy even to youth,
And next, when liberty in riper years
Shall grow beyond constraint; then let free-will
Be kindly aided to take up the aim,
By discipline foregone at her due time.
And to that end be furnished treasuries
Of various knowledge, books and liberal arts
Lectures mechanic, concerts musical,
And whate'er else quickens humanity-
That finer sentiment so to the soul
Attempered, may prevail o'er brutishness;
Subduing passion by its gentler sway.
And be it resolved again-the Church is naught;
A thing corrupt,-essence and ordinance :
No church indeed, but a foul den of thieves
And money changers, trafficking men's souls
With hire and sale, 'stead of salvation;
Being one half of them to their own flocks,
Foreigners, knowing nor regarding them-
that which is utterly crude and baselessthere is much which the sober statesman may consider worthy of serious consideration; much which may occupy the grave reflection of one whose deep and conscientious study is to make the people happy and virtuous; and, as far as is consistent with the well-being of society, and the fundamental principles of right, happy in their own way, and virtuous through
Though feeding on their flesh-clothed with their the means which are accordant with their
Truly, a sin to draw damnation down,
Not only on them, but us who suffer them;
As God will sure require it at our hands.
Therefore, that this huge scandal be pulled down,
And then reframed in frame Apostolic:
So shall each congregation rule itself,
Without all bias of authority
For things of faith, save of the bible alone;
Choosing its elders as it judgeth best ;
And they upon that choice, choosing again
The deacons and the preachers of the word;
Each of these last holding authority
To interpret Scripture by his conscience,
So he profess Christ's word for his rule of faith.
And that tithes cease; and each church bear its
charge;
They who own none being taxed for aid of all.
And be it resolved,-soldiership shall be called
No longer; but all men enured in arms.
Not to be helpless for defensive need.
And be it resolved,-'tis an unholy thing
To make a general dearth for gain of few;
Therefore be this land free what other lands
Can give without all hindrance to receive,
Saving the dues imposed to serve state needs.
And be it resolved-the law is much in fauit;
Therefore behoves the counsel of men skilled
To settle a sure rule of right and wrong,
Bringing back error to simplicity.
Further, 'tis good the general voice should be
Arbitress of the general estate,
Since discipline hath given intelligence
Abroad, and with that gift the right of its use.
So be it resolved,-'twere fit that every man
(Saving the felon and taker of public alms)
Should give his suffrage for the choice of those
Proposed for rulers of the commonweal.
And that such suffrage be in secret-wise;
And that such chosen rulers rule alone,
Forbye all claim of birth and privilege.
Last, since these things-being our righteous due-
Are, by our rulers, yet denied to us,
With whom nor right, nor reason, availeth aught;
And patience of their heavy oppression
Doth but provoke them to heap wrong on wrong,
As this poor land hath proved under their power
Groaning and travailing in pain till now :-
Therefore, be it resolved-there is strong need
That we rise up from our long passiveness
In arms, and so redress ourselves to right,
Manfully, as behooves good and true men.'-pp.
145-150,
In all this wild confusion of the lofty and the puerile, the generous and the ferocious, the black misrepresentation of the past and present, and the vague, though brilliant, unreality of the future that which might be attainable under a wise, strong, and paternal legislature, and
own desires. No one will doubt that there is much in our present social state to awaken the apprehension, the anxiety, the sorrow of all true lovers of their country. Our unexampled prosperity threatens us with a fearful reaction; a heavy payment appears likely to be exacted from us for our enormous wealth, for the unprecedented comfort, we will not say luxury, which is diffused through all the upper and middling classes of society. Our productive energies have created and concentred enormous masses of population, unsoftened by any of those feelings of kindliness and charity which bind together, in some degree, the rich and poor in most of our rural districts.--(Among many even of these, it is true, the administration of the old poor-laws made much havoc we are not at present to meddle again with the controversy as to the effects of the newbut here is not the dangerous part of our system-in this respect the author of Ernest has chosen the wrong ground; not, indeed, for his poetry, but for his political principles). It is the dense masses of our manufacturing population, who have no intercourse with any of the higher orders but their employers; with the most miserable want of salutary control, with habits of improvidence, fostered by occasional periods of great gain, succeeded by times of indolence and total want of employ ment, uneducated, without churches, without schools-here is the part of our social state, to the improvement of which all our energies of wise philanthropy should be directed. Before this appalling scene political faction ought to be silent here, the voice of the people declaring its own wants, should receive a patient hearing and dispassionate investigation; and no narrow jealousy should be allowed to stand in the way of any practicable ameli oration.
But, when the writer of 'Ernest' proceeds to mingle up, not with these visions of social perfectibility alone, but with the bloody, brutal and atrocious scenes which, by his own showing, must prepare the
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