1832.] To Noon: 649 



stamped by truth, and that it cannot be effaced, but by the ample conces- 

 sions of these nobles; and that such a measure as the Reform Bill is 

 the only mode by which such concessions can be made. 



The admiring clown who stares over the hedge at the lord's equipage; 

 the small gentleman who is proud of his lordship's acquaintance j all men, 

 in short, in proportion as the range of their intellectual vision is extended, 

 and their thoughts are occupied on subjects of higher interest, must, whether 

 they will or no, think with less reverence of lords than they used to think. 

 There is absolutely no principle in existence, upon which to work, even 

 if it were worth while to save nobility from this depreciation. No help, 

 for instance, can be hoped for by lords from an increased activity of the 

 religious principle keeping pace with the advance of intelligence. This 

 alliance must inevitably be precluded then; since for one sentence to be 

 twisted by a courtly priest into a precept of religious respect for great 

 men, there are twenty in Scripture plainly disallowing their pretensions, 

 and calculated to detach us from admiring them. The enlarged intelli- 

 gence of the community, when applied to the subject of religion, cannot 

 fail to observe this. Formal Reform then can do the great man no harm. 

 Time in its silent revolutions has already done him the mischief he com- 

 plains of. It has not, indeed, made him in the abstract less than he was j 

 but it has made other men greater. Reform in Parliament will be to 

 him, if his spirit be riot too proud to submit to the plain intention of Pro- 

 vidence, instead of a curse, a great blessing. It will force him out of his 

 inordinate self-conceit, and bring home to him the conviction of a common 

 humanity. It will arouse his energies to a more lawful exercise of the 

 great privileges and advantages still left him. Thus as he becomes con- 

 scious of a real dignity, he will be the less careful of slight observances, 

 which still will be the more frequently and cheerfully rendered, the less he 

 seems to require them. Finally, he will have nought to fear from the com- 

 munity -, for as he will have ceased to injure it, there will no longer exist 

 among the people a wish to retaliate upon him. 



SONNET TO NOON. 



'Tis Noon the sun seems listening- in the skies, 

 The thick air hangs all motionless and warm 

 There's scarce a sound, but drowsy melodies 

 From the wild honey-birds in busy swarm, 

 Or the far tinkle of that music-note, 

 The sheep-bell, and perhaps a restless stream ! 

 All other pulse of life is now forgot 

 Nature is in her mid-day sleep and dream ! 

 What a sweet somnolence steals o'er the mind 

 In the retirement of a country glen, 

 Where all our thoughts like gentle rivers wind 

 In heedless turnings, o'er and o'er again ! 

 We fix on nothing, but on all we gaze 

 Wrapt, lost, bewilder'd, in deep Nature's maze ! W. 



M.M. New Series. Vol. XIII. No. 78 2 X 



