Come, and Thy mildness
Tenderly show!

All of us need it ;
We, Thy mother's kin,
Yearn to Thy mystery,
Vainly endeavouring
To know the Father.

Bless thou this mid-earth
By Thine incoming,
Saviour Christ!

Ope thou the golden gates,

They that in days of old

Long stood locked.

High Lord of heaven,
Seek us, O seek us,
(Sorely we need Thee)
By Thine own coming
Lowly to earth!

The wolf, the wicked one,
Ranging in darkness,
Widely hath scattered,
Lord, Thy flock,

Which, in the old days,

Thou with Thy life-blood
Hast dearly bought.
He, the baleful One,

With cruel clutch,

Though our souls rebel,
Holds us in thrall.

Wherefore to Thee, O Christ,

Warder and Guard,

Earnest, from depths of heart,
Warmly we pray.

Help us, O! speedily,
Banished from heaven,

Weary and faint.

So may the Slayer
Into the gulph of hell
With scathe be driven !
So may Thy handywork,
Moulder of men!-
With right arise

Into the heavenly,
The noble realm!
Whence the swart spirit
In the foul lust of sin,

Drew and beguiled us,

That we of glory reft
Should in an endless harm
Painfully drudge.

But do Thou speedily,

Lord everlasting,
Shield of all beings,
Quench our Destroyer,
The death of our people,
O Living God! 1

The Legend of St. Guthlac is a paraphrase of a Latin poem by Felix of Croyland. But there is nothing in it of the stiffness of a translation from an alien tongue. It is a story full of tender devotional feeling, touchingly and poetically told. Near the beginning he describes with vivid force a great struggle between the power of good and evil in the critical turning-point of Guthlac's life. Afterwards comes a tale of sore combats with terrible temptations, of angelic comforters, of conquests over evil, and, finally, the account of his saintly death. Here is a fair picture of the Christian life :—

1 Exeter Codex: On the Nativity, ed. by B. Thorpe, 1842: pp. 15-17: 'Cum nu sigores.'

Shrink from sin,

Hold sooth and right.
They shall not rue
After hence-going
Into the holy burgh.
Forthwith they fare
To Jerusalem.
There they for aye
In happiness
God's face
Gladly behold,

In kin and friendship.
There in sooth they dwell,
Beauteous, bright,

For furthest length,
In the bliss

Of the land of the living.1

The Wanderer is the pensive reverie of an aged man, who, long ago, had lost by death a powerful and generous liege, and had wandered away from his country, lonely and an exile, in quest of a new home, sailing through the rime and snows of the Northern seas. There runs throughout it a strong sense of loneliness, as he muses over the ever-changing tide of the world, of the hardships of life, the manifold forms of death, his own sad memories, his dreams of home, his recollections of good friends long ago departed. But amidst it all there is a deep spirit of pious trustfulness, and of firm faith in the guiding hand of God. It begins with gratitude for the lovingkindness he had met with, and ends with the exclamation

O well for him who seeketh grace,
And comfort of his Father's face,
In whom all fastness standeth.2

The poem on The Endowments and Pursuits of Men is like some Greek choral hymn, passed through a Christian mould. It tells in length how each of the dwellers among the people receives from God his

1 Exeter Book, 150: 'Beradh in breóstum.'

2 Id.: The Wanderer, 293: 'Wel bidh tham the him are secedh.'

separate gifts, in wisdom or in craft, in comeliness or strength, in council or in war, in eloquence, in skill of books, in hymnody and song, and knowledge of mysteries. Thus excellently doth the Lord dispense His bounty, and show to man His tender mercies. So doth He quell pride, that no man may deem that he alone is great, and, for that greatness, arrrogance injure him. The Various Fortunes of Men may be looked upon as a sort of companion-piece to it. The poem is full of a reverential feeling of the mystery of life, and that God rules all the infinite circumstances of destiny, in darkness indeed beyond man's exploring, but yet in wondrousness, mercy, and love. A review of the evils and woes which beset mankind in nowise shakes the poet's faith in the control of an all-wise providence, and thus he concludes :

:

Even thus wondrously
Has the great God of all,
Over mid earth,

Crafts of mankind
Moulded and made;

And to each one on earth
Of the great kin of man
Dealt His decrees.
Wherefore let each one

Yield to Him thanks for all,
Which He in His mercies

To man hath awarded.1

The Wonders of Creation is yet again on a kindred topic. It is a pondering over 'the web of mystery (rune),' which is everywhere spread over the earth, and shows a mind keenly alive to the beauty of created things. The following translations into modern English will, I think, be found very close to the original:

The deeply-heeding man, whose mind is set
Strongly to live, will search the hoarded craft
Of words that tell of wondrous, hidden things
In all that God hath shaped.

1 Exeter Book: The Various Fortunes of Men, 332: 'Swa hrætlice.'

But as for thee, if thou wouldst learn such lore,
Behold, I ope to thee the power of God.
And if thy thought can reach widely and far,
Then, grasp its teaching. Yet be well aware,
It is not in the bourne and bound of man
Further to fathom the deep things of God
Than the Lord's gift enables. Only thank
High God, the Everlasting, who doth give
Fit store of wit, whereby each soul of man—
If it but strive to keep the King's behest,
And faint not feebly on the path He set-
May rise with ease to the blest realm on high.

Lo, each morn,

Comes the light brightness o'er the misty hills,
Wading o'er eastern waves, winsome and fair.
Yea, it bears light to every kin of man,
That all to whom our King bath given sight
May feel its cheer.

Until at eventide

O'er depths of western waters forth it fares.
Gloom calleth gloom, and soon the coming night
Holdeth the bidding of the Holy Lord.1

6

A Father's Instruction to his Son is a didactic poem stored with the soundest religious morality. It is represented as the teaching of a man skilled in mind, old in goodness, wise-fast in words, so that he was held well worth,' who entreats his dear son to 'let his mind hold the far-forth writings and the dooms of the Lord.'

The Sea Farer is a song of travel and toil, and of the wild joy of waters. Thence, by a natural transition, it passes on to muse with a manly pathos on the pilgrim's journey of life, its deep thoughts, its trials, and aspirations. It is a fine poem, and is doubtless by the same author as The Wanderer. I may refer the reader to a part of it as rendered by Professor Morley in the second volume of his English Writers. The swooping flight and wild cry of the sea-bird stirs a responsive chord in the heart of the sea-farer :—

1 Exeter Book: The Wonders of Creation, 367: 'Deop hydig mon.'