S.H. 1829

Sir Thomas More:

OR,

COLLOQUIES

ON

THE PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS

OF

SOCIETY.

BY

ROBERT SOUTHEY, Esq. LL.D.

POET LAUREATE,

HONORARY MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SPANISH ACADEMY, OF THE ROYAL SPANISH ACADEMY OF HISTORY,
OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF THE NETHERLANDS, OF THE CYMMRODORION, OF THE MASSA-
CHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, OF THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY,

OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY, OF THE BRISTOL PHILOSOPHICAL

AND LITERARY SOCIETY, OF THE METROPOLITAN
INSTITUTION, OF THE PHILOMATHIC
INSTITUTION, &c.

RESPICE, ASPICE, PROSPICE.-St. Bernard.

WITH PLATES.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.

MDCCCXXIX.

6970

Of More the mild, the learned and the good;
Traced in that better stage of human life,
When vain imaginations, troublous thoughts,

And hopes and fears have had their course, and left
The intellect composed, the heart at rest,

Nor yet decay hath touch'd our mortal frame.
Such was the man whom Henry, of desert
Appreciant alway, chose for highest trust;
Whom England in that eminence approved;
Whom Europe honoured, and Erasmus loved.
Such he was ere heart-hardening bigotry
Obscured his spirit, made him with himself
Discordant, and, contracting then his brow,
With sour defeature marr'd his countenance.
What he was, in his best and happiest time,
Even such wert thou, dear Uncle! such thy look
Benign and thoughtful; such thy placid mien;

Thine eye serene, significant and strong,
Bright in its quietness, yet brightening oft
With quick emotion of benevolence,

Or flash of active fancy, and that mirth
Which aye with sober wisdom well accords.
Nor ever did true Nature, with more nice
Exactitude, fit to the inner man

The fleshly mould, than when she stampt on thine

Her best credentials, and bestowed on thee

An aspect, to whose sure benignity

Beasts with instinctive confidence could trust,
Which at a glance obtained respect from men,
And won at once good will from all the good.

Such as in semblance, such in word and deed
Lisbon beheld him, when for many a year
The even tenour of his spotless life
Adorn'd the English Church,..her minister
In that strong hold of Rome's idolatry,

To God and man approved. What Englishman,
Who in those peaceful days of Portugal
Resorted thither, curious to observe

Her cities, and the works and ways of men,
But sought him, and from his abundant stores
Of knowledge profited? What stricken one,
Sent thither to protract a living death,

Forlorn perhaps, and friendless else, but found

A friend in him? What mourners,.. who had seen
The object of their agonizing hopes

In that sad cypress ground deposited,

Wherein so many a flower of British growth,
Untimely faded and cut down, is laid,

In foreign earth compress'd,.. but bore away
A life-long sense of his compassionate care,
His Christian goodness? Faithful shepherd he,