A land of settled government,

A land of just and old renown,

Where Freedom broadens slowly down From precedent to precedent :

Where faction seldom gathers head,

But by degrees to fulness wrought,

The strength of some diffusive thought llath time and space to work and spread.

Should banded unions persecute

Opinion, and induce a time

When single thought is civil crime, Anel individual freedom mute;

Tho' Power should make from land to land

The name of Britain trebly great

Tho' every channel of the State Should almost choke with golden sand —

Yet waft me from the harbor-mouth,

Wild wind! I seek a warmer sky,

And I will see before I die
The palms and temples of the South.,

Of old sat Freedom on the heights,

The thunders breaking at her teet: Above her shook the starry lights:

She heard the torrents meet.

There in her place she did rejoice,

Self-gather'd in her prophet-mind, But fragments of her mighty voice

Came rolling on the wind.

Then stept she down thro' town and field

To mingle with the human race, And part by part to men reveald

The fulness of her face

Grave mother of majestic works,

From her isle-altar gazing down,

Who, God-like, grasps the triple forks, And, King-like, wears the crown:

Her open eyes desire the truth.

The wisdom of a thousand years Is in them. May perpetual youth

Keep dry their light from tears ;

That her fair form may stand and shine,

Make bright our days and light our dreams. Turning to scorn with lips divine

The falsehood of extremes !

LOVE thou thy land, with love far-brought

From out the storied Past, and used

Within the Present, but transfuseid Thro' future time by power of thought.

True love turn'd round on fixed poles,

Love, that endures not sordid ends,

For English natures, freemen, friends, Thy brothers and immortal souls.

But pamper not a hasty time,

Nor feed with crude imaginings

The herd, wild hearts and feeble wings, That every sophister can lime.

Deliver not the tasks of might

To weakness, neither hide the ray

From those, not blind, who wait for day, Tho' sitting girt with doubtful light.

Make knowledge circle with the winds ;

But let her heralıl, Reverence, fly

Before her to whatever sky
Bear seed of men and growth of minds.

Watch what main-currents draw the years :

Cut Prejudice against the grain:

But gentle words are always gain : Regard the weakness of thy peers :

Nor toil for title, place, or touch

Of pension, neither count on praise :

It grows to guerdon after-days: Nor deal in watchwords overmuch ;

Not clinging to some ancient saw ;

Not master'd by some modern term;

Not swift nor slow to change, but firm : And in its season bring the law;

That from Discussion's lip may fall

With Life, that, working strongly, binds –

Set in all lights by many minds, To close the interests of all.

For Nature also, cold and warm,

And moist and dry, devising long,

Thro' many agents making strong, Matures the individual form.

Meet is it changes should control

Our being, lest we rust in ease.

We all are changed by still degrees, All but the basis of the soul.

So, let the change which comes be free

To ingroove itself with that, which flies,

And work, a joint of state, that plies Its office, moved with sympathy.

A saying, hard to shape in act;

For all the past of Time reveals

A bridal dawn of thunder-peals, Wherever Thought hath wedded Fact.

Ev'n now we hear with inward strife

A motion toiling in the gloom –

The Spirit of the years to come Yearning to mix himself with Life.

A slow-develop'd strength awaits

Completion in a painful school ;

Phantoms of other forms of rule, New Majesties of mighty States

But vague

The warders of the growing hour,

in
vapor,

hard to mark; And round them sea and air are dark With great contrivances of Power.

Of many changes, aptly join'd,

Is bodied forth the second whole.

Regard gradation, lest the soul Of Discord race the rising wind;

A wind to puff your idol-fires,

And heap their ashes on the head;

To shame the boast so often made, That we are wiser than our sires.

Oh yet, if Nature's evil star

Drive men in manhood, as in youth,

To follow flying steps of Truth Across the brazen bridge of war

If New and Old, disastrous feud,

Must ever shock, like armed foes,

And this be true, till Time shall close, That Principles are rain'd in blood ;

Not yet the wise of heart would cease

To hold his hope thro' shame and guilt,

But with his hand against the hilt, Would pace the troubled land, like Peace;

Not less, tho' dogs of Faction bay,

Would serve his kind in deed and word,

Certain, if knowledge bring the sword, That knowledge takes the sword away

Would love the gleams of good that broke

From either side, nor veil his eyes :

And if some dreadful need should rise Would strike, and firmly, and one stroke:

'To-morrow yet would reap to-day,

As we bear blossoms of the dead;

Earn well the thrifty months, nor wed Raw Haste, half-sister to Delay:

THE GOOSE.

I KNEW an old wife lean and poor,
Her

rags scarce held together; There strode a stranger to the door,

And it was windy weather.

He held a goose upon his arm,

He utter'd rhyme and reason, “ Here, take the goose, and keep you warm,

It is a stormy season."

A goose

She caught the white goose by the leg,

- 't was no great matter. The goose let fall a golden egg

With cackle and with clatter.

She dropt the goose, and caught the pelf,

And ran to tell her neighbors ;
And bless'd herself, and cursed herself,

And rested from her labors.

And feeding high, and living soft,

Grew plump and able-bodied ;
Until the grave churchwarden doff',

The parson smirk'd and nodded.

So sitting, served by man and maid,

She felt her heart grow prouder: But ah! the more the white goose laid

It clack'd and cackled louder.

It clutter'd here, it chuckled there;

It stirr'd the old wife's mettle: She shifted in her elbow-chair,

And hurl'd the pan and kettle.