Lacked not, for love, fair objects whom they wooed With gentle whisper. Withered boughs grotesque, Stripped of their leaves and twigs by hoary age, 880 From depth of shaggy covert peeping forth In the low vale, or on steep mountain side; And, sometimes, intermixed with stirring horns Of the live deer, or goat's depending beard,-- These were the lurking Satyrs,[FM] a wild brood 885 Of gamesome Deities; or Pan himself, The simple shepherd's awe-inspiring God!" The strain was aptly chosen; and I could mark[378] Its kindly influence, o'er[379] the yielding brow Of our Companion, gradually diffused; 890 While, listening, he had paced the noiseless turf, Like one whose untired ear a murmuring stream Detains; but tempted now to interpose, He with a smile exclaimed:-- "'Tis well you speak At a safe distance from our native land, 895 And from the mansions where our youth was taught. The true descendants of those godly men Who swept from Scotland, in a flame of zeal, Shrine, altar, image, and the massy piles That harboured them,--the souls retaining yet 900 The churlish features of that after-race Who fled to woods, caverns, and jutting rocks,[380] In deadly scorn of superstitious rites, Or what their scruples construed to be such-- How, think you, would they tolerate this scheme 905 Of fine propensities, that tends, if urged Far as it might be urged, to sow afresh The weeds of Romish phantasy, in vain Uprooted; would re-consecrate our wells To good Saint Fillan[FN] and to fair Saint Anne; 910 And from long banishment recal Saint Giles,[FO] To watch again with tutelary love O'er stately Edinborough throned on crags? A blessed restoration,[FP] to behold The patron, on the shoulders of his priests, 915 Once more parading through her crowded streets Now simply guarded by the sober powers Of science, and philosophy, and sense!"