TO A MAGDALEN. 451 



righteous zeal for a misgoverned people. Let the prospective aboli- 

 tion of the corn-laws [console the hungry, while the new beer bill 

 inspires delight among the amateurs of heavy wet. 



Spirit of the gentle Thikes ! thou that didst account for every phe- 

 nomenon, visible and invisible, mental and physical, by thy sovereign 

 principle of associated ideas, how wouldst thou exult at the present 

 advancing prospects of society, if thou couldst peep through the win- 

 dows of the other world, and see into this nether sphere, how wouldst 

 thou glory in the great and essential changes of thy beloved country, 

 and reiterate, if the disembodied have the gift of speech, " That taste 

 which is the association of ideas, will prove the salvation of universal 

 man, and infinite perfection close the scene." 



TO A MAGDALEN. 



I saw thee, and I knew thee 



In thy girlhood's golden days 

 When the coldest came to sue thee, 

 And in wild devotion woo thee 



With love's own faltering praise ; 

 Wrung from their rugged nature 



By thy beauty's forceful powers : 

 For thou seem'd'st in mind and feature 

 Some fair and faultless creature, 

 Of a better world than ours. 

 O ! that so pure and peerless, 



So sinless and unstained, 

 So cloudless and so tearless 

 Thou ever had'st remained ! 



I see thee, and I know thee 



With a beating, burning heart : 

 How could guilt o'erthrow thee 

 In heart and soul yet shew thee 



So bright as still thou art ! 

 So lovely so alluring 



As some fair temple shines ! 

 Tempest and time enduring, 

 But mournfully immuring 



Its stained and shiver'd shrines. 

 'Tis all delusive seeming, 



I've seen thy fearful start, 

 When youth burst thro' thy dreaming ; 

 God help thy broken heart ! 



W. G. A. 



