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    land , his still-beloved Spain , thence naturally alluding to the causes which led to his present banishment from it , and to the privilege v > hicfe he enjoys ; in his lonely retreat of praising and praying to his God , unfettered by any of the restraints imposed upon the minds of his countrymen by a superstitious and ignorant , but ambitious , priesthood :

    " Is it not much that I may worship Him r With nought my spirit's breathings to controul , And feel His presence in the vast , and dim , And whispering woods , where dying thunders roll From the far cataracts ? Shall I not rejoice That I have learn'd at last to know His voice

    From man ' s ? I will rejoice ! my soaring soul Now hath redeeVned her birth-right of the day , And wore , through clouds , to Him , her own unfettered way " And thou , my boy ! that silent at my knee Dost lift to mjne thy soft , dark , earnest eyes ,

    FilPd with the love of childhood , which I see Pure through its depths , a thing without disguise : Thou that hast breath'd in slumber on my breast , When I have check'd its throbs to give thee rest , Mine own ! whose young thoughts fresh before me rise Is it not much that I may guide thy prayer , And circle thy glad soul with free and healthful air ?"

    He proceeds to relate the events which had produced the change in his religious opinions ; a change which had branded him with the name of heretic , caused him to be immurred for years in a dungeon , and at last obliged him to seek a refuge in the solitary wilds of the New World . After serving in the armies of Spain , he returned home from a foreign country just at the time when the celebration of an auto-da-fe was taking place . The sad spectacle is described in forcible and striking language ; the rush of fhe gazing multitude , and . the mournful . procession of the condemned prisoners ,

    " They , that had learn'd , in cells of secret gloom , , How sunshine is forgotten ! they , to whom The very features of mankind were grown Things that bewildered , " are both drawn with energy . Among this crowd of idle spectators the exile forms one . The indifference , and even approval , with which , from early association , he viewed this dreadful ceremony , are well depicted in the following stanza :

    " And I too thought it well ! That very morn From a far land I came , yet round me clung The spirit of my own . No hanc ( had torn With a strong grasp away the veil which hung Between mine eyes and truth . I gaz'd , I saw , I watch'd the fearful rites : and it there sprung One rebel feeling from its deep founts up , Shuddering , I flung it back , as guilt ' s own poison-cup . "

    He returns to his dwelling , and is overwhelmed with melanchol y on meeting his son , an infant in his mother's arms , and reflecting on what might be his future destiny in a country thus enslaved by superstition ; and the first part of the poem ends with an address ; to the same boy , now a free arid joyous child , sporting beneath an ancient ; pine , congratulating him on *

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    Review . —Mrs . Hemum' Poems . 333 \

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  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1828, page 333, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2560/page/45/