The master of a single instrument, But that the Cathedral Organ; Milton sings With drooping spheres about him, and his eye Fixed steadily upward, through its mortal cloud, Seeing the glories of Eternity! The sense of the invisible and true Still present to his soul, and in his song; The consciousness of duration through all time, Of work in each condition, and of hopes Ineffable, that well sustain through life, Encouraging through danger and in death, Cheering, as with a promise rich in wings! A godlike voice that, through cathedral towers Still rolls, prolonged in echoes, whose deep tones Seem born of thunder, that subdued to music Soothe when they startle most! A Prophet Bard, With utt'rance equal to his mission of power, And harmonies that, not unworthy heaven, Might well lift earth to equal worthiness. VI.--BURNS AND SCOTT. ----Not forgotten or denied, Scott's trumpet-lay, and Burns's violin-song; The one a call to arms, of action fond; The other, still discoursing to the heart-- The lowly human heart--of loves and joys-- Such as beseem the cotter's calm fireside-- Cheerful and buoyant still amid a sadness-- Such sadness as still couples love with care! VII.--BYRON. ----For Byron's home and fame, It needed manhood only! Had he known How sorrow should be borne, nor sunk in shame, For that his destiny decreed to moan-- His Muse had been triumphant over Time As still she is o'er Passion; still sublime-- Having subdued her soul's infirmity To aliment; and, with herself o'ercome, O'ercome the barriers of Eternity, And lived through all the ages, with a sway Complete, and unembarrassed by the doom That makes of Nature's porcelain, common clay! VIII.-A GROUP. _Shelly and Wordsworth,--Tennyson, Barrett, Horne and Browning;--Baily and Taylor;--Campbell and Moore._ ----As one who had been brought, By Fairy hands, and as a changeling left In human cradle, the sad substitute For a more smiling infant--Shelly sings Vague minstrelsies that speak a foreign birth, Among erratic tribes; yet not in vain His moral, and the fancies in his flight Not without profit for another race! He left his spirit with his voice--a voice Solely spiritual, which will long suffice To wing the otherwise earthy of the time, And, with the subtler leaven of the soul, Inform the impetuous passions!