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To thee, beloved Sion! vain were given

Blessing and honour, wealth and power-in

vain

The glorious present majesty of Heaven

Irradiated thy chosen holy fane!

Fallen from thy God, the heathen's barbarous hand

Despoils thy temple, and thine altar stains; Reft of her children mourns the parent land, And in her dwellings deathlike silence reigns.

Rise, sacred tree; a monument to tell

How vanity and folly lead to woe; Under what wrath unfaithful Israel fell, What mighty arm laid Babel's triumphs low.

Rise, sacred tree! on Thames's gorgeous shore, To warn the people, and to guard the throne; Teach them their pure religion to adore,

And foreign faiths, and rites, and pomps disown!

Teach them, that their forefathers' noble race,
With virtue, liberty, and truth combined,
And honest zeal, and piety, and grace,

The throne and altar's strength have intertwined:

The lofty glories of the land and main,

The stream of industry, and trade's proud

course,

The majesty of empire to sustain,

God's blessing on sound faith is Britain's force.

Me, when thy shade, and Thames's meads and flowers

Invite to soothe the cares of waning age, May memory bring to me my long-past hours To calm my soul, and troubled thoughts assuage!

Come, parent Eton! turn the stream of time

Back to thy sacred fountain crowned with bays! Recal my brightest, sweetest days of prime; When all was hope, and triumph, joy, and praise.

Guided by thee I raised my youthful sight

To the steep solid heights of lasting fame, And hail'd the beams of clear ethereal light

That brighten round the Greek and Roman

name.

O blest instruction! friend to generous youth!

Source of all good! you taught me to entwine The muse's laurel with eternal truth,

And wake her lyre to strains of faith divine.

Firm, incorrupt, as in life's dawning morn,

Nor sway'd by novelty, nor public breath, Teach me false censure and false fame to scorn,

And guide my steps through honour's paths to death.

And thou, time-honoured fabric, stand! A tower Impregnable, a bulwark of the state!

Untouched by visionary folly's power

Above the vain, and ignorant, and great!

The mighty race with cultured minds adorn,
And piety and faith; congenial pair!

And spread thy gifts through ages yet unborn, Thy country's pride, and heaven's parental care !

Fern-hill, Windsor,
Aug. 22, 1839.

Lord Wellesley adds, in a note, that " a reform of Eton College, on the principles of the new system of education, has been menaced by high authority."

[graphic]

LONDON:

GILBERT & RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,

ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.

INDEX

[blocks in formation]

Censoriousness, 330.
Change of Opinion, 302.
Charity, 146.
Cheerfulness, 319, 330.
Christian, a poor, 272.
Christian's work, the, 260.
Church of England, 176.
Coach being stopped, a, 356.
Comparison of Earth and
Heaven, 275-7.

Confidence in the powers that
be, 358.

Conscience, 199, 316, 350.
Contemplation of Heaven,
270.

Contentedness, 32, 227, 342.
Contention, 266.
Conversation and

317, 338, 360, 310.

Society,

Courtesy, 246, 360.
Customs or Habits, 313.
Covenant not broken, the,

279.

Covetousness, 97, 228.

D.

Death, Considerations prepa-

ratory to, 123.
Despatch, 305.

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