‘It was before the summer holidays, A noon I well remember, as we sat Conversing in my College rooms, my thoughts Mingling unconscious with the trembling leaves Of poplars from the window; and meanwhile, In converse still unbroken, thence we passed Into the stately garden-walks, and there Paced to and fro beside the aged yews Which once like living guardians of the lawn Had marshalled all the place with verdant walls: Now, mere memorials of their former sway. ’Twas a dark vapoury noon, while ruddy gleams Were mingling with the sun, and fell athwart The cloistral lime-tree avenue beyond; And like a curtain, the moist atmosphere Hung heavily around us, yet withal Glowing and warm, not adverse to my friend (Lately returned from genial Italy, Death in his frame and cheek), and to his eye Lent more than its own brightness. He was one I loved: ah, would that I had loved him more! For he was worthy of a good man’s love. “Yes,” said he, with my name, as he was wont, Sportfully playing, “we must make a noise In the large world; why should we not? How they Of Low Church views, Peculiar, through the land Make themselves felt and heard; and ring aloud With a few truths, half-truths! and shall not we With the whole Truth forgotten for our theme, The pillar and the ground of all our hopes, Or, rather, say the Faith entire and one In all its due proportions, and the Church Our witness of old time,――why should we not Lift up, as like a trumpet through the land, With no uncertain sound, our warning voice?” My answer I remember: “Noise abroad I doubt not we can make as well as they. And then to be as hollow partisans, Supporters,――this were easy, and the Church To be familiar in men’s mouths; but then Will they beneath all this be better men, More humble?” “They will be so,” he replied. “For the great Truths themselves, depend on it, Will work, and work for good; but hollow men There will be, and needs must.” Yet, to and fro, I urged the adverse part: “I fear the weight On spirits unprepared, undisciplined; Of others and ourselves I am afraid. Could men be fuller leavened with the thought Of Judgement and Hereafter, could we lay Foundations deep in honesty, ’twere well; But else, mere superstructure on the sand! Fashion, religious fashion, and the tide Of popular feelings,――I can never wish To have them with us. We must walk in doubt And fear, and do our parts, come what come may.”