om loins enthroned,[339-13] and rulers of the earth;
But higher far my proud pretensions rise,--
The son of parents passed into the skies.
And now, farewell!--Time, unrevoked,[340-14] has run
His wonted course; yet what I wished is done.
By contemplation's help, not sought in vain,
I seem to have lived my childhood o'er again,--
To have renewed the joys that once were mine,
Without the sin of violating thine;
And, while the wings of fancy still are free,
And I can view this mimic show of thee,
Time has but half succeeded in his theft,--
Thyself removed, thy power to soothe me left.

FOOTNOTES:

[335-1] As _though_ the request were her own.

[335-2] The Elysian Fields were the blessed lands of beauty and joy to
which the Greeks hoped to go at their death.

[337-3] The _pastoral house_ means the rectory, the home of the
clergyman.

[338-4] _Humour_ here means _temper_.

[338-5] _Numbers_ is used for _poetic measures; poetry_.

[338-6] _Tissued_ is a poetic word for _variegated_.

[338-7] He pricked into paper with a pin the outlines of the variegated
forms of violets, pinks and jessamine that decorated his mother's dress.

[339-8] _England's._ The old name Albion, which means _white_, is still
used in poetry. Just how the name originated no one knows. Perhaps it
alluded to the white chalk cliffs of England which the Gauls could see.

[339-9] Cowper's father died in 1756; his mother in 1737.

[339-10] _Me_ is repeated for emphasis; it is the object of _drive_:
"Howling blasts drive me out of the straight line," is what the lines
mean.

[339-11] Cowper was too strongly conscious of his weakness and his
difference from other men. He wrote in a letter to a friend, "Certainly
I am not an absolute fool, but I have more weaknesses than the greatest
of all the fools I can recollect at present. In short, if I was as fit
for the next world as I am unfit for this,--and God forbid I should
speak of it in vanity,--I would not change conditions with any saint in
Christendom."

[339-12] "That thou art safe, and that he is safe."

[339-13] Cowper descended from ancient and high lineage on both sides.

THOSE EVENING BELLS

_By_ THOMAS MOORE

Those evening bells! those evening bells.
How many a tale their music tells,
Of youth, and home, and that sweet time
When last I heard their soothing chime!

Those joyous hours are passed away;