ENGLISH MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECTURE. 183 



the prayers and thanksgivings of ages past are still the 

 places where our own spirits may worship the one God of 

 past and present ; and that you will all join with me in 

 embracing the sentiments of him who wrote 



"Where'er I roam in this fair English land 

 The vision of a temple meets my eyes ; 

 Modest without ; within, all glorious, rise 

 Its love-enclustered columns, and expand 

 Their slender arms : like olive plants they stand, 

 Each answering each in home's soft sympathies, 

 Sisters and brothers. At the altar sighs 

 Parental fondness, and with anxious hand 

 Tenders its offering of young vows and prayers. 

 The same, and not the same, go where I will, 

 The vision beams ! Ten thousand shrines, all one. 

 Dear fertile soil ! What foreign culture bears 

 Such fruit ? And I through distant climes may run 

 My weary round, yet miss thy likeness still." 



