At length the doubtful victory's won, It was a cunning ambuscade The World for my felicities had laid; Yet now at length the day's our own, Now conqueror-like let us new laws set down. Henceforth let all our love seraphic turn, The sprightly and the vigorous flame On th' altar let it ever burn, And sacrifice its ancient name: A tablet on my heart next I'll prepare 170 Where I would draw the Holy Sepulchre, Behind it a soft landskip I would lay Of melancholy Golgotha! On th' altar let me all my spoils lay down, And if I had one, there I'd hang my laurel crown. Give me the Pandects of the Law Divine, Such was the Law made Moses' face to shine. Thus beyond Saturn's heavy orb I'll tower, And laugh at his malicious power: Raptur'd in contemplation thus I'll go 180 Above unactive earth, and leave the stars below. X. Toss'd on the wings of every wind, After these hoverings to and fro (And still the waters higher grow), Not knowing where a resting-place to find, Whither for sanctuary should I go But, Reverend Sir, to you? You that have triumph'd o'er th' impetuous flood, That, Noah-like, in bad times durst be good, And the stiff torrent manfully withstood, 190 Can save me too; One that have long in fear of drowning bin, Surrounded by the rolling waves of sin; Do you but reach out a propitious hand And charitably take me in, I will not yet despair to see dry land. 'Tis done;--and I no longer fluctuate, I've made the Church my Ark, and Sion's Hill my Ararat. [_The Review._] Dated in the Firth MS. December 17, 1666. Entered in the Stationers' Register on December 17, 1673, as 'A poem or copy intituled the Review, To the Reverend my honored freind Dr. Wm. Sancroft, Deane of St. Paules, A Pindarique Ode'. Similarly in the Firth MS. 'The Review. A Pindarique Ode. To the Reverend, my worthy friend, Dr. Wm. Sandcroft, Dean of St. Paul's': the chief variants only are recorded. The words 'now Lord Archbishop of Canterbury' are added in the fourth edition. In the earlier editions--even that of 1682, when Sancroft had been Primate for four years--the poem is addressed 'to Dr. W. S.' The piece is a rather remarkable 'Religio _Laici_' for the time, and as anticipating Dryden's; and has some, though rather vague, autobiographic interest. It seems (_v._ Commendatory Poems) to have attracted some attention as such.] [Line: 16 must] will _MS._] [Line: 40 had] has _MS._, _1674-82_.] [Line: 46 fair] my _MS._] [Line: 51 couldn't] did not _MS._] [Line: 56 breathless] shipwrack'd _MS._] [Line: 64 could] should _MS._] [Line: 81 fit] apt _MS._] [Line: 93 ever _added in 1684_.] [Line: 113 what] whom _MS._]