Where all those endless do remain, Lord, preserve us from this paine. In Sion lodge me, Lord, for pitty-- Sion, David's kingly citty, Built by Him that's onely good; Whose gates be of the Crosse's wood; Whose keys are Christ's undoubted word; Whose dwellers feare none but the Lord; Whose wals are stone, strong, quicke and bright; Whose Keeper is the Lord of Light: Here the light doth never cease, Endlesse Spring and endles peace; Here is musicke, heaven filling, Sweetnesse evermore distilling; Here is neither spot nor taint, No defect, nor no complaint; No man crookèd, great nor small, But to Christ conformèd all. Blessed towne, divinely gracèd, On a rocke so strongly placèd, Thee I see, and thee I long for; Thee I seek, and thee I grone for. O what ioy thy dwellers tast, All in pleasure first and last! What full enioying blisse divine, What iewels on thy wals do shine! Ruby, iacinth, chalcedon, Knowne to them within alone. In this glorious company, In the streets of Sion, I With Iob, Moses, and Eliah, Will sing the heauenly Alleviah. Amen. Surely this is a very noteworthy transfusion of old Latin pieties into vivid English. 'Visions' of Jerusalem the Golden transfigure even the austere words towards the close. One can picture Master Richard's eyes kindling over his Father's verses when he was gone. So endeth what I have thought it needful to tell of the elder Crashaw. As hitherto almost nothing has been told of him, even our compressed little Memorial--keeping back many things and notices that have gathered in our note-books--may be welcome to some. I pass now to II. A STUDY OF THE LIFE AND POETRY OF RICHARD CRASHAW. The outward facts of our 'sweet Singer's' story are given with comparative fulness in our Memorial-Introduction (vol. i. pp. xxvii.-xxxviii.). In the present brief Essay we wish to look into some of these, so as to arrive at a true estimate of them and of the Poetry, now fully (and for the first time) collected. I think I shall be able to say what has struck myself as worth saying about Crashaw, under these three things: I. His change from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism, using the terms as historic words, not polemically. II. His friends and associates, as celebrated in his Writings. III. His characteristics and place as a Poet. These successively.