Part 34 (1/2)

LVI TO THE EVENING WIND

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT--1794-1878

Spirit that breathest through ht of the sultry day, Gratefully flows thy freshness roundall day the wild blue waves till now, Roughening their crests, and scattering high their spray, And swelling the white sail I welcome thee To the scorch'd land, thou wanderer of the sea

Nor I alone;--a thousand bosouid for of the wind of night; And languishi+ng to hear thy grateful sound, Lies the vast inland stretch'd beyond the sight

Go forth into the gathering shade; go forth, God's blessing breathed upon the fainting earth!

Go, rock the little wood-bird in his nest, Curl the still waters, bright with stars, and rouse The wide old wood frohs The strange deep harmonies that haunt his breast; Pleasant shall be thy herewaters pass, And where the o'er-shadowing branches sweep the grass

The faint old man shall lean his silver head To feel thee; thou shalt kiss the child asleep, And dry the moisten'd curls that overspread His terows more deep; And they who stand about the sick man's bed Shall joy to listen to thy distant sweep, And softly part his curtains to allow Thy visit, grateful to his burning brow

Go,--but the circle of eternal change, Which is the life of nature, shall restore, With sounds and scents froe, Thee to thy birthplace of the deep once e, Shall tell the ho to thystream

LVII--DEATH OF THE PROTECTOR[M]

THOMAS CARLYLE--1795-1881

_From_ OLIVER CROMWELL'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES

And so we have now nothing s, and also his Actings, all his reat God's-Message that was in him,--have here e call ended This Sule, is his last in our World of Time Thenceforth he enters the Eternities; and rests upon his ar for his years, which were Fifty-nine last April The ”Three-score and ten years,” the Psalhts and in those of others there, ht have been anticipated for him: Ten Years iven another History to all the Centuries of England But it was not to be so, it was to be otherwise Oliver's health, as we ht observe, was but uncertain in late ti before last His course of life had not been favorable to health! ”A burden too heavy for h, would sometimes say Incessant toil; inconceivable labor, of head and heart and hand; toil, peril, and sorrow manifold, continued for near Twenty years now, had done their part: those robust life-energies, it afterwards appeared, had been gradually eaten out Like a Tower strong to the eye, but with its foundations under to stand; the fall of which, on any shock, may be sudden--

The Manzinis and Ducs de Crequi, with their splendors, and congratulations about Dunkirk, interesting to the street-populations and general public, had not yet withdrahen at Haun a private scene, of much deeper and quite opposite interest there

The Lady Claypole, Oliver's favorite Daughter, a favorite of all the world, had fallen sick we know not when; lay sick now,--to death, as it proved Her disease was of a nature, the painfullest andto mind and sense, it is understood, that falls to the lot of a human creature Hampton Court we can fancy once more, in those July days, a house of sorrow; pale Death knocking there, as at the door of the reat exercises of spirit”

Yes:--and in the depths of the old Centuries, we see a pale anxious Mother, anxious Husband, anxious weeping Sisters, a poor young Frances weeping anew in her weeds ”For the last fourteen days” his Highness had been by her bedside at Hampton Court, unable to attend to any public business whatever Be still, my Child; trust thou yet in God: in the waves of the Dark River, there too is He a God of help!--On the 6th day of August she lay dead; at rest forever My young, my beautiful, my brave! She is taken froiveth, and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the Name of the Lord!--

In the sae Fox's third and last intervieith Oliver-- George dates nothing; and his facts everywhere lie round hie it may have been about the ti in their gilt coaches, That George and two Friends ”going out of Town,” on a summer day, ”two of Hacker's ht them to the Mews ”Prisoners there awhile:”--but the Lord's poas over Hacker's o Whereupon:

”The saston, and from thence to Has of Friends Iinto Hampton-Court Park; and before I cauard, I saw and felt a waft” (_whiff_) ”of death go forth against hie? His life, if thou knew it, has not been afor thiswhile, to give it up, whenever the Commander-in-Chief required To quit his laborious sentry-post; honorably lay-up his are! Was thy own life merry, for example, in the hollow of the tree; clad per refractory worlds instead of stitching coarse shoes, ainst _hiainst thee, and e, when the Nell-Gwynn Defender and Two Centuries of all-victorious Cant have coo forth against him; and when I came to his of Friends before hi as I was moved to speak to histon; and, the next day, went up to Hampton Court to speak farther with him But when I came, Harvey, as one that waited on hi that I should speak with him

So I passed away, and never saw hiust 1658, this was probably the day on which George Fox saw Oliver riding into Hampton Park with his Guards, for the last tihness seee had taken place; feverish syorously prescribed quiet Saturday to Tuesday the syue, ”bastard tertian” as the old Doctors nahness should return to Whitehall, as to a ly he quitted Hampton Court;--never to see it more

”His time was come,” says Harvey; ”and neither prayers nor tears could prevail with God to lengthen out his life and continue hier to us

Prayers abundantly and incessantly poured out on his behalf, both publicly and privately, as was observed, in a h,--secret and unheard byhold on God, than many spoken supplications All which,--the hearts of God's People being thus et confidence in sohts in himself, that God would restore hiining to ourselves

Meetings of Preachers, Chaplains, and Godly Persons; ”Owen, Goodwin, Sterry, with a co rooland, fervent outpourings of many a loyal heart For there were hearts to whom the nobleness of this man was known; and his worth to the Puritan Cause was evident

Prayers,--strange enough to us; in a dialect fallen obsolete, forgotten now Authentic wrestlings of ancient Human Souls,--ere alive then, with their affections, awestruck pieties; with their Hu to prevail with the Inexorable All sed now in the depths of dark Ti!--Truly it is a great scene of World-History, this in old Whitehall: Oliver Croh to his end The exit of Oliver Croht, one of our few authentic Solar Lu do areat victorious Summer Sun; its course now finished ”_So stirbt ein Held_,” says Schiller, ”So dies a Hero! Sight worthy to be worshi+pped!”--He died, this Hero Oliver, in Resignation to God; as the Brave have all done ”We could not be more desirous he should abide,” says the pious Harvey, ”than he was content and willing to be gone” The struggle lasted, aust 30th, there roared and howled all day a hty stor winds, heard in the sickroo aloud, that Thurloe and an Official person entered to enquire, Who, in case of the worst, was to be his Highness's Successor? The Successor is nao, at Ha in such and such a place The Paper was sent for, searched for; it could never be found