But when a happier Theme succeeds, and when
Men are our subjects and the Deeds of Men;
Then may we find the Muse in happier style,
And we may sometimes sigh and sometimes smile.

LETTER II.

THE CHURCH.

Festinat enim decurrere velox

Flosculus angustæ miseræque brevissima Vitæ
Portio dum bibimus, dum serta, unguenta, puellas
Poscimus, obrepit non intellecta senectus.

Juvenal. Satir. ix. lin. 136.

And when at last thy Love shall die,
Wilt thou receive his parting breath?
Wilt thou repress each struggling sigh,

And cheer with smiles the bed of death?

Percy.

LETTER II.

THE CHURCH.

Several Meanings of the word Church.-The Building so called, here intended.—Its Antiquity and Grandeur. -Columns and Ailes.-The Tower: The Stains made by Time compared with the mock Antiquity of the Artist. Progress of Vegetation on such Buildings.-Bells.-Tombs: One in decay.-Mural Monuments, and the Nature of their Inscriptions.— An Instance in a departed Burgess.- Church-yard Graves. Mourners for the Dead.- A Story of a betrothed Pair in humble Life, and Effects of Grief in the Survivor.

"WHAT is a Church?"-Let Truth and Reason speak,
They would reply, The Faithful, Pure, and Meek;
From Christian folds, the one selected Race,
Of all Professions, and in every place.'

"What is a Church?"- A Flock,' our Vicar cries, Whom Bishops govern and whom Priests advise; 'Wherein are various States and due Degrees, 'The Bench for Honour, and the Stall for Ease; That Ease be mine, which, after all his cares, The pious, peaceful Prebendary shares.' "What is a Church?"-Our honest Sexton tells, "Tis a tall Building, with a Tower and Bells; Where Priest and Clerk with joint exertion strive To keep the ardour of their Flock alive;

That, by his periods eloquent and grave; This, by responses, and a well-set stave: These for the Living; but when Life be fled, 'I toll myself the Requiem for the Dead.'

"Tis to this Church I call thee, and that Place, Where slept our Fathers when they'd run their race: We too shall rest, and then our Children keep Their road in Life, and then, forgotten, sleep; Meanwhile the Building slowly falls away, And, like the Builders, will in time decay.

The old Foundation-but it is not clear When it was laid-you care not for the Year; On this, as Parts decay'd by Time and Storms, Arose these various disproportion'd Forms; Yet Gothic, all the Learn'd who visit us (And our small Wonders) have decided thus: "Yon noble Gothic Arch," "That Gothic Door;" So have they said; of proof you'll need no more. Here large plain Columns rise in solemn style, You'd love the Gloom they make in either Aile; When the Sun's Rays, enfeebled as they pass (And shorn of splendour) through the storied Glass, Faintly display the Figures on the Floor, Which pleas'd distinctly in their place before.

But ere you enter, yon bold Tower survey,

Tall and entire, and venerably grey,

For Time has soften'd what was harsh when new,
And now the Stains are all of sober hue;
The living Stains which Nature's hand alone,
Profuse of Life, pours forth upon the Stone;
For ever growing; where the common Eye
Can but the bare and rocky Bed descry:
There Science loves to trace her Tribes minute,
The juiceless foliage, and the tasteless Fruit;

There she perceives them round the surface creep,
And while they meet, their due distinction keep;
Mix'd but not blended; each its name retains,
And these are Nature's ever-during Stains.

And wouldst thou, Artist! with thy Tints and Brush,
Form Shades like these? Pretender, where thy blush?
In three short Hours shall thy presuming Hand
Th' effect of three slow centuries command*?
Thou may'st thy various Greens and Greys contrive,
They are not Lichens, nor like aught alive;—
But yet proceed, and when thy Tints are lost,
Fled in the Shower, or crumbled by the Frost;
When all thy Work is done away as clean
As if thou never spread'st thy Grey and Green;
Then may'st thou see how Nature's Work is done,
How slowly true she lays her colours on;
When her least Speck upon the hardest Flint
Has Mark and Form and is a living Tint;
And so embodied with the Rock, that few
Can the small Germ upon the Substance view †.

* If it should be objected, that Centuries are not slower than Hours, because the speed of Time must be uniform; I would answer, that I understand so much, and mean that they are slower in no other sense, than because they are not finished so

soon.

+ This kind of vegetation, as it begins upon siliceous stones, is very thin, and frequently not to be distinguished from the surface of the Flint. The Byssus Jolithus of Linnæus (Lepraria Jolithus of the present System), an adhesive carmine crust on rocks and old buildings, was, even by scientific persons, taken for the substance on which it spread. A great variety of these minute vegetables are to be found in some parts of the coast, where the beach, formed of stones of various kinds, is undisturbed, and exposed to every change of weather; in this situation, the different species of Lichen, in their different stages of growth, have an appearance interesting and agreeable even to those who are ignorant of, and indifferent to the cause.