Yet Truth is keenly sought for, and the wind Charged with rich words poured out in thought's defence; Whether the Church inspire that eloquence,[254] Or a Platonic Piety confined To the sole temple of the inward mind;[255] 5 And One there is who builds immortal lays, Though doomed to tread in solitary ways,[256] Darkness before and danger's voice behind; Yet not alone, nor helpless to repel Sad thoughts; for from above the starry sphere 10 Come secrets, whispered nightly to his ear; And the pure spirit of celestial light Shines through his soul--"that he may see and tell Of things invisible to mortal sight."[257] FOOTNOTES: [254] As in the case of John Hales of Eton, William Chillingworth, who wrote _The Religion of Protestants_, and Jeremy Taylor, author of _The_ _Liberty of Prophesying_.--ED. [255] The Cambridge Platonists, Ralph Cudworth, John Smith, and Henry More, are referred to.--ED. [256] Milton.--ED. [257] Compare _Paradise Lost_, book iii. ll. 54, 55.--ED. V WALTON'S BOOK OF LIVES[258] There are no colours in the fairest sky So fair as these. The feather, whence the pen Was shaped that traced the lives of these good men, Dropped from an Angel's wing.[259] With moistened eye We read of faith and purest charity 5 In Statesman, Priest, and humble Citizen: O could we copy their mild virtues, then What joy to live, what blessedness to die! Methinks their very names shine still and bright; Apart--like glow-worms on a summer night; 10 Or lonely tapers when from far they fling A guiding ray;[260] or seen--like stars on high, Satellites burning in a lucid ring Around meek Walton's heavenly memory. FOOTNOTES: [258] Izaak Walton, author of _The Complete Angler_, wrote also _The Lives of_ John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Richard Hooker, George Herbert, and Robert Sanderson.--ED. [259] With those lines of Wordsworth compare the following: a Sonnet addressed "to the King of Scots," in Henry Constable's _Diana_, published in 1594-- The pen wherewith thou dost so heavenly singe, Made of a quill pluck't from an Angell's winge. A sonnet by Dorothy Berry, prefixed to Diana Primrose's _Chain of Pearl, a memorial of the peerless graces, etc., of Queen Elizabeth_, London, 1639-- Whose noble praise Deserves a quill pluck't from an angel's wing. Also John Evelyn, in his _Life of Mrs. Godolphin_, "It would become the pen of an angel's wing to describe the life of a saint," etc.--ED. [260] 1827. ... glow-worms in the woods of spring, Or lonely tapers shooting far a light That guides and cheers,-- ... 1822. VI CLERICAL INTEGRITY