and contains truths, which, although they have been so often ex- pressed, are not like to find so large reception, as to dispense with new and manifold utterance.
The Lord has power
To guard his own: pray, Mary, pray to Him,
Nor fear what man can do. A rule there is
Above all circumstance, a current deep
Beneath all fluctuations. This who knows,
Though seeming weakest, firmly as the sun
Walks in blind paths where earthly strongest fall,
Reason is God’s own voice to man, ordains
All holy duties, and all truth inspires:
And he who fails, errs not by trusting it,
But deafening to the sound his ear, from dread
Of the stern roar it speaks with. O, my child,
Pray still for guidance, and be sure ’twill come.
Lift up your heart upon the knees of God;
Losing yourself, your smallness, and your darkness,
In his great light, who fills and moves the world,
Who hath alone the quiet of perfect motion—
Sole quiet, not mere death.
The speech of Vane is nobly rendered.
The conversations of the populace are tolerably well done. Only the greatest succeed in these; nobody except Goethe in modern times. Here they give, not the character of the people, but the spirit of the time, playing in relation to the main action the part of chorus.
| SECOND WOMAN. |
| There’s Master St. John has a tongue |
| That threshes like a flail. |
| THIRD WOMAN. |
| And Master Fiennes |
| That’s a true lamb! He'd roast alive the Bishop. |
| CITIZEN. |
| I was close by the coach, and with my nose |
