A maiden knight-to me is given

Such hope, I know not fear;
I yearn to breathe the airs of heaven
That often meet me here.

I muse on joys that will not cease,
Pure spaces clothed in living beams,
Pure lilies of eternal peace,

Whose odours haunt my dreams;
And, stricken by an angel's hand,
This mortal armour that I wear,

This weight and size, this heart and eyes,
Are touched, are turn'd to finest air.

The clouds are broken in the sky,
And thro' the mountain-walls
A rolling organ-harmony

Swells up, and shakes and falls.
Then move the trees, the copses nod,
Wings flutter, voices hover clear:
"O just and faithful knight of God!
Ride on the prize is near."

So pass I hostel, hall, and grange;
By bridge and ford, by park and pale,
All-arm'd I ride, whate'er betide,

Until I find the holy Grail.

Tennyson.

ille ego castus eques tanta spe fervidus insto
ut nequeant molli corda labare metu.
hoc tantum in votis, vesci caelestibus auris,
quas vel in hac terra ducere saepe datur.
infinita meam pertemptant gaudia mentem,

en! loca quae purum vestit alitque iubar; en! mihi quae spirant aeternam lilia pacem, quarum etiam in somnis integer halat odor. nuntius ecce Dei, quo contrectante videntur humana quamvis arma polita manu,

in tenues auras discedere, nec velut olim aut cordi aut oculis pondus inesse suum.

cernimus effracto vanescere nubila caelo
et circumfusi claustra patere iugi :
volvitur immenso tractu concordia vocum,
iamque effusa tumet, iamque relapsa cadit.
silvarum nutant apices. arbusta moventur.
fit tremor alarum: murmur in aure sonat:
perge age, iustitia praestans, fidissime Divom
miles: adest longae meta petita viae.
hospitia agricolum sedes, regumque ministrant
atria: trans pontes per vada ducit iter.
armiger incedo: nil non iuratus obire,
ante oculos donec stet sacer ille calix.

E. D. S.

XLII

ABT VOGLER

Would that the structure brave, the manifold music I

build,

Bidding my organ obey, calling its keys to their work, Claiming each slave of the sound, at a touch, as when Solomon willed

Armies of angels that soar, legions of demons that

lurk,

Man, brute, reptile, fly,-alien of end and of aim,

Adverse, each from the other heaven-high, hell-deep

removed,—

Should rush into sight at once as he named the ineffable Name,

And pile him a palace straight, to pleasure the princess he loved!

Would it might tarry like his, the beautiful building of

mine,

This which my keys in a crowd pressed and importuned to raise !

Ah, one and all, how they helped, would dispart now and now combine,

Zealous to hasten the work, heighten their master his praise!

And one would bury his brow with a blind plunge down to hell,

Burrow awhile and build, broad on the roots of

things,

Then up again swim into sight, having based me my palace well,

Founded it, fearless of flame, flat on the nether

springs.

And another would mount and march, like the excellent minion he was,

Ay, another and yet another, one crowd but with

many a crest,

Raising my rampired walls of gold as transparent as

glass,

Eager to do and die, yield each his place to the rest :

XLII

TEMPLUM POLYHYMNIAE

Sic maneat domus alta, novae symphonia musae, aedes sonorum multiplex, organa quos referunt, dum cieo digitis genios ad iussa paratos

quo more turbam caelitum rex Salomo sapiens, seu libuit manes hominesve aut saecla animantum, quaecumque vel repunt humi vel per inane volant, vel vastis semota locis habitantia monstra

caelum vel ima Tartari, dissimiles animas, iussit adesse profatus inenarrabile Nomen, ut tecta conderent sibi deliciisque suis.

sic maneat domus alta mihi, praeclaraque templa quae fistularum multiplex accumulat series. in numerum genii properant et iussa facessunt,

disiuncta vel consors manus, libera mancipia, ut laudem domino cumulent operique coronam : pronis ruentes frontibus lata domus alii fundamenta locant mundi in radicibus altis,

vim nil timentes ignium Tartareosque lacus, mox sublime volant, structo quod duret in aevum primordiis in ultimis rerum, opus egregium;

ast alii celeres-mens omnibus una-capessunt
denso frequentes agmine prompta ministeria,
clarior ut vitro domus exstet, clarior auro:
cessurus alteri facem suscipit alter opus,
dum tandem aeriis fastigia fulta columnis
surgunt in altum, consili structa corona mei.

For higher still and higher (as a runner tips with fire, When a great illumination surprises a festal night— Outlining round and round Rome's dome from space to spire)

Up, the pinnacled glory reached, and the pride of my soul was in sight.

In sight? Not half! for it seemed, it was certain, to match man's birth,

Nature in turn conceived, obeying an impulse as I; And the emulous heaven yearned down, made effort to reach the earth,

As the earth had done her best, in my passion, to scale the sky :

Novel splendours burst forth, grew familiar and dwelt with mine,

Not a point nor peak but found and fixed its wander

ing star;

Meteor-moons, balls of blaze: and they did not pale nor pine,

For earth had attained to heaven, there was no more near nor far.

Nay more; for there wanted not who walked in the glare and glow,

Presences plain in the place; or, fresh from the Protoplast,

Furnished for ages to come, when a kindlier wind should blow,

Lured now to begin and live, in a house to their liking at last;

Or else the wonderful Dead who have passed through the body and gone,

But were back once more to breathe in an old world worth their new:

What never had been, was now; what was, as it shall

be anon;

And what is,-shall I say, matched both? for I was

made perfect too.