1. The Puritans were men whose minds had derived a peculiar character from the daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal interests. Not content with acknowledging,in general terms, an overruling Providence, they habitually ascribed every event to the will of the Great Being, for whose power nothing was too vast, for whose inspection nothing was too minute. To knowl him, to serve him, to enjoy him,1 was with them the great end of existence.

2. They rejected with contempt the ceremonious homage which other sects substituted for the pure worship of the soul. Instead of catching occasional glimpses of the Deity through an obscuring veil, they aspired to gaze full on the intolerable brightness, and to commune with him face to face. Hence originated their contempt for terrestrial distinctions.

3. The difference between the greatest and meanest of mankind seemed to vanish, when compared with the boundless interval which separated the whole race from him on whom their own eyes were constantly fixed. They recognized no title to superiority but his favor; and confident of that favor, they despised all the accomplishments and all the dignities of the world.

4. If they were unacquainted with the works of philosophers and poets, they were deeply read in the oracles of God. If their names were not found in the registers of heralds, they felt assured that they were recorded in the Book of Life. If their steps were not accompanied

1 Rule IV., Rem. 1.

by a splendid train of menials, legions of ministering angels had charge over them.

5. Their palaces were houses not made with hands; their diadems crowns of glory which should never fade away! On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked down with contempt: for they esteemed themselves1 rich in a more precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language; nobles1 by the right of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a mightier hand.

6. The very meanest of them was a being to whose fate a mysterious and terrible importance belonged-on whose slightest action the spirits of light and darkness looked with anxious interest-who had been destined, before heaven and earth were created, to enjoy a felicity which should continue when heaven and earth should have passed away.

7. Events which short-sighted politicians ascribed to earthly causes had been ordained to his account. For his sake empires had risen, and flourished, and decayed. For his sake the Almighty had proclaimed his will by the pen of the evangelist, and the harp of the prophet. He had been rescued by no common deliverer from the grasp of no common foe.

8. He had been ransomed by the sweat of no vulgar agony, by the blood of no earthly sacrifice. It was for him that the sun had been darkened, that the rocks had been rent, that the dead had arisen, that all nature had shuddered at the sufferings of her expiring God. * * * 9. The Puritans brought to civil and military affairs a coolness of judgment, and an immutability of purpose,

Rule XL

וי

which some writers have thought inconsistent with their religious zeal, but which were, in fact, the necessary effects of it.

10. The intensity of their feelings on one subject made them tranquil on every other. One overpowering sentiment had subjected to itself pity and hatred, ambition and fear. Death has lost its terrors, and pleasure its charms.

11. They had their smiles and their tears, their raptures and their sorrows, but not for the things of this world. Enthusiasm had made them stoics, had cleared their minds from every vulgar passion and prejudice, and raised them above the influence or danger of corruption.

In fair Circassia, where, to love inclined,
Each swain was blest, for every maid was kind;
At that still hour when awful midnight reigns,
And none but wretches haunt the twilight plains
What time the moon had hung her lamp on high,
And past in radiance through the cloudless sky;
Sad, o'er the dews, two brother shepherds fled
Where wildering fear and desperate sorrow led.
Fast as they prest their flight, behind them lay
Wide ravaged plains, and valleys stole away;
Along the mountain's bending sides they ran,
Till, faint and weak, Secander thus began.
Secander.

Oh stay thee, Agib, for my feet deny,
No longer friendly to my life, to fly.

5

10

Friend of my heart, oh turn thee and survey!
Trace our sad flight through all its length of way.
And first review that long extended plain,

And

yon wide groves already past with pain' Yon ragged cliff, whose dangerous path we tried. And, last, this lofty mountain's weary side!

Agib.

5

Weak as thou art, yet, hapless, must thou know
The toils of flight or some severer wo!

Still, as I haste, the Tartar shouts behind,

And shrieks and sorrows load the saddening wind:

10

In rage of heart, with ruin in his hand,

He blasts our harvests, and deforms our land.
Yon citron grove, whence first in fear we came,
Droops its fair honors to the conquering flame.
Far fly the swains, like us, in deep despair,
And leave to ruffian hands their fleecy care.
Secander.

Unhappy land, whose blessings tempt the sword,
In vain,2 unheard, thou call'st thy Persian lord!
In vain thou court'st him, helpless, to thine aid,
To shield the shepherd, and protect the maid!
Far off, in thoughtless indolence resigned,

Soft dreams of love and pleasure soothe his mind :
'Midst fair sultanas lost in idle joy

No wars alarm him, and no fears annoy.

Agib.

15

20

Yet those green hills in summer's sultry heat,
Have lent the monarch oft a cool retreat.

25

I What sentences does still connect? 2 Rule XXI., Rem. 12.

Sweet to the sight is Zabran's flowery plain;
At once by maids and shepherds loved in vain!
No more the virgins shall delight to rove
By Sargis' bank, or Irwan's shady grove;
On Tarkie's mountains catch the cooling gale,
Or breathe the sweets of Aly's flowery vale:

5

Fair scene! but, ah! no more with peace possest,
With ease alluring, and with plenty blest!

No more the shepherd's whitening tents appear,

Nor the kind products of a bounteous year;
No more the date, with snowy blossoms crowned!
But ruin spreads her baleful fires around.

10

Secander.

In vain Circassia boasts her spicy groves.
Forever famed for pure and happy loves;
In vain she boasts her fairest of the fair,

15

Their eyes blue languish, and their golden hair!

Those eyes in tears their fruitless grief must send;
Those hairs the Tartar's cruel hand shall rend.

The Turk and Tartar like designs pursue,
Fixed to destroy and steadfast to undo.
Wild as his land, in native deserts bred,
By lust incited, or by malice led,
The villain Arab, as he prowls for prey,

1 Rule XIII.

25