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MARTIN LUTHER.

AN ODE.

WHO sits upon the Pontiff's throne?
On Peter's holy chair

Who sways the keys? At such a time
When dullest ears may hear the chime
Of coming thunders-when dark skies
Are writ with crimson prophecies,
A wise man should be there;
A godly man, whose life might be
The living logic of the sea;

One quick to know, and keen to feel-
A fervid man, and full of zeal,
Should sit in Peter's chair.

Alas! no fervid man is there,

No earnest, honest heart;

One who, though dress'd in priestly guise,
Looks on the world with worldling's eyes;
One who can trim the courtier's smile,
Or weave the diplomatic wile,

But knows no deeper art;

One who can dally with fair forms,

Whom a well-pointed period warms

No man is he to hold the helm

Where rude winds blow, and wild waves whelm, And creaking timbers start.

In vain did Julius pile sublime

The vast and various dome,

That makes the kingly pyramid's pride,
And the huge Flavian wonder, hide

Their heads in shame-these gilded stones

(O heaven!) were very blood and bones
Of those whom Christ did come

To save-vile grin of slaves who sold
Celestial rights for earthy gold,

Marketing grace with merchant's measure,
To prank with Europe's pillaged treasure
The pride of purple Rome.

The measure of her sins is full,
The scarlet-vested whore !

Thy murderous and lecherous race
Have sat too long i' the holy place;
The knife shall lop what no drug cures,
Nor Heaven permits, nor earth endures,
The monstrous mockery more.
Behold! I swear it, saith the Lord :
Mine elect warrior girds the sword-
A nameless man, a miner's son,

Shall tame thy pride, thou haughty one,
And pale the painted whore!

Earth's mighty men are nought. I chose
Poor fishermen before

To preach my gospel to the poor;

A pauper boy from door to door

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The eye profound and front sublime
Where speculation reigns.

He to the learned seats shall climb,
On Science' watch-tower stand sublime;
The arid doctrine shall inspire
Of wiry teachers with swift fire;

And, piled with cumbrous pains,
Proud palaces of sounding lies

Lay prostrate with a breath. The wise
Shall listen to his word; the youth
Shall eager seize the new-born truth
Where prudent age refrains.

Lo! when the venal pomp proceeds
From echoing town to town!
The clam'rous preacher and his train,
Organ and bell with sound inane,
The crimson cross, the book, the keys,
The flag that spreads before the breeze,
The triple-belted crown!

It wends its way; and straw is sold-
Yea! deadly drugs for heavy gold,
To feeble hearts whose pulse is fear;
And though some smile, and many sneer,
There's none will dare to frown.

None dares but one-the race is rare-
One free and honest man:
Truth is a dangerous thing to say
Amid the lies that haunt the day;
But He hath lent it voice; and, lo!
From heart to heart the fire shall go,
Instinctive without plan;

Proud bishops with a lordly train,

Fierce cardinals with high disdain,
Sleek chamberlains with smooth discourse,
And wrangling doctors all shall force,
In vain, one honest man.

In vain the foolish Pope shall fret,

It is a sober thing.

Thou sounding trifler, cease to rave,

Loudly to damn, and loudly save,

And sweep with mimic thunders' swell
Armies of honest souls to hell!

The time on whirring wing

Hath fled when this prevail'd. O, Heaven!
One hour, one little hour, is given,

If thou could'st but repent. But no!
To ruin thou shalt headlong go,

A doom'd and blasted thing.

VOL LVI. NO. CCCXLV.

F

Thy parchment ban comes forth; and lo!
Men heed it not, thou fool!
Nay, from the learned city's gate,
In solemn show, in pomp of state,
The watchmen of the truth come forth,
The burghers old of sterling worth,
And students of the school:

And he who should have felt thy ban
Walks like a prophet in the van;
He hath a calm indignant look,
Beneath his arm he bears a book,
And in his hand the Bull.

He halts; and in the middle space
Bids pile a blazing fire.

The flame ascends with crackling glee ;
Then, with firm step advancing, He
Gives to the wild fire's wasting rule
The false Decretals, and the Bull,

While thus he vents his ire:-
"Because the Holy One o' the Lord
Thou vexed hast with impious word,
Therefore the Lord shall thee consume,
And thou shalt share the Devil's doom
In everlasting fire!"

He said; and rose the echo round

"In everlasting fire!"

The hearts of men were free; one word
Their inner depths of soul had stirr'd;
Erect before their God they stood
A truth-shod Christian brotherhood,
And wing'd with high desire.
And ever with the circling flame
Uprose anew the blithe acclaim :—
"The righteous Lord shall thee consume,
And thou shalt share the Devil's doom
In everlasting fire!"

Thus the brave German men; and we
Shall echo back the cry;

The burning of that parchment scroll
Annull'd the bond that sold the soul
Of man to man; each brother now
Only to one great Lord will bow,

One Father-God on high.
And though with fits of lingering life
The wounded foe prolong the strife,
On Luther's deed we build our hope,
Our steady faith-the fond old Pope
Is dying, and shall die.

TRADITIONS AND TALES OF UPPER LUSATIA.

DISCREET Reader!

No. II.

THE FAIRY TUTOR.

You have seen—and 'tis no longer ago than YESTERDAY!-you must well remember the picture-which showed you from the rough yet delicate-the humorous yet sympathetic and picturesque-the original yet insinuating pencil of a shrewd and hearty Lusatian mountaineer-the acrial, brilliant, sensitive, subtle, fascinating, enigmatical, outwardly-mirth-given,

inwardly-sorrow-touched, congregated folk numberless-of the Fairies Proper!-showed them at the urgency of a rare and strange need--clung, in DEPENDENCY, to one fair, kind, good and happily-born Daughter of Man! -And what wonder?-The once glorious, but now forlorn spirits, leaning for one fate-burthened instant their trust upon the spirits ineffably favoured!-What wonder! that often as the revolution of ages brings on the appointed hour, the rebellious and OUTCAST children of heaven must sue to their keen emergency-help --oh! speak up to the height of the want, of the succour! and call it a lent ray of grace, from the rebellious and REDEEMED children of the earth! -And see, where, in the serene eyes of the soft Christian maiden, the hallowing influence shines!-Auspiciously begun, the awed though aspiring Rite, the still, the multitudinous, the mystical, prospers!-Gratefully, as for the boon inexpressibly worth-easily, as of their own transcending powerpromptly, as though fearing that a benefit received could wax cold, the joyful Elves crown upon the bright hair of their graciously natured, but humanly and womanly weak benefactress-the wedded felicity of pure love!

And the imaginary curtain has dropped! Lo, where it rises again, discovering to view our stage, greatly changed, and, a little perhaps, our actors!-Once more, attaching to the HUMAN DRAMA, slight, as though it were structured of cloud, of air, the

same light and radiant MACHINERY! Once more, only that They, whom you lately saw tranquil, earnest even to pathos-"now are frolic" — enough and to spare!-Once more-THE FAIRIES.

And see, too-where, centring in herself interest and action of the rapidly shifting scenery-ever again a beautiful granddaughter of Eve steps

free and fearless, and buoyant and bounding—our fancy-laid boards!— Ah! but how much unresembling the sweet maid!-Outwardly, for loftypiled is the roof that ceils over the superb head of the modern Amazon, Swanhilda- more unlike within. Instead of the clear truth, the soul's gentle purity, the "plain and holy Innocence" of the poor fairy-beloved mountain child-SHE, in whose person and fortunes you are invited-for the next fifty minutes-to forget your own-harbours, fondly harbours, ill housemates of her virginal breast! a small, resolute, well-armed and well confederated garrison of unwomanly faults. Pride is there!-The ironhard and the iron-cold! There Scorn -edging repulse with insult!-and envenoming insult with despair!— leaps up, in eager answer to the beseeching sighs, tears, and groans of earth-bent Adoration. And there is the indulged Insolency of a domineering-and as you will precipitately augur-an indomitable Will! there is exuberant SELF-POWER. that, from the innermost mind, oozing up, out, distilling, circulating along nerve and vein, effects a magical metamorphosis! turns the nymph into a squire of arms; usurping even the clamorous and blood-sprinkled joy of manthe tempestuous and terrible CHASE, which, in the bosom of peace, imaging war, shows in the rougher lord o creation himself, as harsh, wild, and turbulent! Oh, how much other than yon sweet lily of the high Lusatian valleys, the shade-loving Flower, the good Maud-herself looked upon with

And

love by the glad eyes of men, women, children, Fairies, and Angels! oh, other indeed! And yet, have you, in this thickly clustered enumeration of unamiable qualities, implicitly heard the CALL which must fasten, which has fastened, upon the gentle Maud's haughty antithesis-the serviceable regard, and the FAVOUR, even of THE FAIRIES.

The FAVOUR!!

Hear, impatient spectator, the simple plot and its brief process. You are, after a fashion, informed with what studious, persevering, and unmerciful violation of all gentle decorum and feminine pity, the lovely marble-souled tyranness has, in the course of the last three or four years, turned back from her beetle-browed castle-gate, one by one, as they showed themselves there a hundred, all worthily born-otherwise more and less meritorious-petitioners for that whip-and-javelin-bearing hand. You are NOW to know, that upon this very morning, an embassy from the willowwearers all-or, to speak indeed more germanely to the matter, of the BASKET-BEARERS,* waited upon their beautiful enemy with an ultimatum and manifesto in one, importing first a requisition to surrender; then, in case of refusal to capitulate, the announcement that HYMEN having found in CUPID an inefficient ally, he was about associating with himself, in league offensive, the god MARS, with intent of carrying the Maiden-fortress by storm, and reducing the aforesaid wild occupants of the stronghold into captivity-whereunto she made an

swer

our castle's strength Will laugh a siege to scornherself laughing outrageously to scorn the senders and the sent. This crowning of wrong upon wrong will the Fairies, in the first place, wreak and right.

But further, later upon the same unlucky day, the Kingdom of Elves, being in full council assembled in the broad light of the sun, upon the fair greensward; ere the very numerous, but not widely sitting diet had yet

well opened its proceedings-" tramp, tramp, across the land," came, flying at full speed, boar-spear in hand, our madcap huntress; and without other note of preparation sounded than their own thunder, her iron-grey's hoofs were in the thick of the sage assembly, causing an indecorous trepidation, combined with devastation dire to persons and-wearing apparel.

This wrong, in the second place, the Fairies will wreak and right.

And all transgression and injury, under one procedure, which is-summary; as, from the character of the judges and executioners, into whose hands the sinner has fallen, you would expect; sufficiently prankish too. With one sleight of their magical hand they turn the impoverished heiress of illpossessed acres forth upon the highway, doomed to earn, with strenuous manual industry, her livelihood; until, from the winnings of her handicraft, she is moreover able to make good, as far as this was liable to pecuniary assessment, the damage sustained under foot of her fiery barb by the Fairy realm; comfort with handsome presents the rejected suitors; and until, thoroughly tame, she yields into her softened and opened bosom, now rid of its intemperate inmates, an entrance to the once debarred and contemned visitant-Love.

As to the way and style of the Fairy operations that carry out this drift, comparing the Two Tales, you will see, that omitting, as a matter that is related merely, not presented, that misadventure under the oak-tree -there is, in the chamber of Swanhilda, but a Fairy delegation active, whilst under the Sun's hill whole Elfdom is in presence; in that resplendent hollow, wearing their own lovely shapes; within the German castlewalls, in apt masquerade. There they were grave. Here, we have already said, that they are merry. There their office was to feel and to think. Here, if there be any trust in apparitions, they drink, and what is more critical for an Elfin lip-they eat!

Lastly, to end the comparisons for our well-bred, well-dressed, and right courtly cavalier, who transacted be

*To German ears-to SEND A BASKET—is to REFUSE A PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE.

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