a poem of much beauty
upon a monastic subject, by Charlotte Smith: a lady to whom English
verse is under greater obligations than are likely to be either
acknowledged or remembered. She wrote little, and that little
unambitiously, but with true feeling for rural Nature, at a time when
Nature was not much regarded by English Poets; for in point of time her
earlier writings preceded, I believe, those of Cowper and Burns.

396. _Requiems_.

'Are not, in sooth, their Requiems sacred ties?' (XI. l. 73.)

I am aware that I am here treading upon tender ground; but to the
intelligent reader I feel that no apology is due. The prayers of
survivors, during passionate grief for the recent loss of relatives and
friends, as the object of those prayers could no longer be the suffering
body of the dying, would naturally be ejaculated for the souls of the
departed; the barriers between the two worlds dissolving before the
power of love and faith. The ministers of religion, from their habitual
attendance upon sick-beds, would be daily witnesses of these benign
results; and hence would be strongly tempted to aim at giving to them
permanence, by embodying them in rites and ceremonies, recurring at
stated periods. All this, as it was in course of nature, so was it
blameless, and even praiseworthy; since some of its effects, in that
rude state of society, could not but be salutary. No reflecting person,
however, can view without sorrow the abuses which rose out of thus
formalising sublime instincts and disinterested movements of passion,
and perverting them into means of gratifying the ambition and rapacity
of the priesthood. But, while we deplore and are indignant at these
abuses, it would be a great mistake if we imputed the origin of the
offices to prospective selfishness on the part of the monks and clergy;
_they_ were at first sincere in their sympathy, and in their degree
dupes rather of their own creed than artful and designing men. Charity
is, upon the whole, the safest guide that we can take in judging our
fellow-men, whether of past ages or of the present time.

397. _Sir William Hillary_.

'And they are led by noble Hillary' (XV. l. 14).

The TOWER OF REFUGE, an ornament to Douglas Bay, was erected chiefly
through the humanity and zeal of Sir William Hillary; and he also was
the founder of the lifeboat establishment at that place; by which, under
his superintendence, and often by his exertions at the imminent h