TO THE REV. F. D. MAURICE, COME, when no graver cares employ, Your presence will be sun in winter, For, being of that honest few, Who give the Fiend himself his due, Should eighty-thousand college-councils Thunder Anathema,' friend, at you; M Should all our churchmen foam in spite At you, so careful of the right, Yet one lay-hearth would give you welcome (Take it and come) to the Isle of Wight; Where, far from noise and smoke of town, I watch the twilight falling brown All round a careless-order'd garden Close to the ridge of a noble down. You'll have no scandal while you dine, For groves of pine on either hand, TO THE REV. F. D. MAURICE. 163 Where, if below the milky steep Some ship of battle slowly creep, And on thro' zones of light and shadow Glimmer away to the lonely deep, We might discuss the Northern sin Which made a selfish war begin; Dispute the claims, arrange the chances; Emperor, Ottoman, which shall win: Or whether war's avenging rod Till you should turn to dearer matters, Dear to the man that is dear to God; How best to help the slender store, How mend the dwellings, of the poor; Valour and charity more and more. Come, Maurice, come: the lawn as yet Is hoar with rime, or spongy-wet ; But when the wreath of March has blossom'd, Crocus, anemone, violet, Or later, pay one visit here, For those are few we hold as dear; WILL. 1. O WELL for him whose will is strong! He suffers, but he will not suffer long; He suffers, but he cannot suffer wrong: For him nor moves the loud world's random mock, Nor all Calamity's hugest waves confound, Who seems a promontory of rock, That, compass'd round with turbulent sound, In middle ocean meets the surging shock, But ill for him who, bettering not with time, Corrupts the strength of heaven-descended Will, |