OR,

COLLOQUIES

ON

THE PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS

OF

SOCIETY.

BY

ROBERT SOUTHEY, Esq. LL.D.
POET LAUREATE,

BONORARY 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.

Ἢ ζητῶ ἀνθρώποις ἀρέσκειν ;—GALATIANS, I. 10. Ωστε ἐχθρὸς ὑμῶν γέγονα ἀληθεύων ὑμῖν ;-GALATIANS, IV. 16.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY C. ROWORTH, BELL YARD,

TEMPLE BAR.

FORMERLY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD: SUCCESSIVELY
CHAPLAIN TO THE BRITISH FACTORIES AT PORTO AND AT
LISBON; AND LATE RECTOR OF STREATHAM; WHO
WAS RELEASED FROM THIS LIFE, SEPT. 19, 1828,
IN THE 80TH YEAR OF HIS AGE.

NOT

upon marble or sepulchral brass
Have I the record of thy worth inscribed,
Dear Uncle! nor from Chantrey's chisel ask'd
A monumental statue, which might wear
Thro' many an age thy venerable form.

Such tribute, were I rich in this world's wealth,
Should rightfully be rendered, in discharge
Of grateful duty, to the world evinced
When testifying so by outward sign

Its deep and inmost sense. But what I can
Is rendered piously, prefixing here
Thy perfect lineaments, two centuries

Before thy birth by Holbein's happy hand

Prefigured thus. It is the portraiture

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