-When ZISKA, burning with fanatic zeal,

Exchanged the Spirit's sword for patriot steel,
And through the heart of Austria's thick array
To Tabor's summit stabb'd resistless way;
But there, (as if transfigured on the spot
The world's Redeemer stood,) his rage forgot;

Deposed his arms and trophies in the dust,

Wept like a babe, and placed in God his trust,
While prostrate warriors kiss'd the hallow'd ground,

And lay, like slain, in silent ranks around: (ƒ)

-When mild GREGORIUS, in a lowlier field,

As brave a witness, as unwont to yield

AS ZISKA's self, with patient footsteps trod
A path of suffering, like the Son of God,

(f) After the martyrdom of John Huss, his followers and countrymen took up arms for the maintenance of their civil and religious liberties. The first and most distinguished of their leaders was John Ziska. He seized possession of a high mountain, which he fortified, and called Tabor. Here he and his people (who were hence called Taborites) worshipped God according to their consciences and his holy word; while in the plains they fought and conquered their persecutors and enemies.

And nobler palms, by meek endurance, won,

Than if his sword had blazed from sun to sun: (g)

Though nature fail'd him on the racking wheel,

He felt the joys which parted spirits feel;

Rapt into bliss from exstacy of pain,
Imagination wander'd o'er a plain :

Fair in the midst, beneath a morning sky,
A Tree its ample branches bore on high,
With fragrant bloom, and fruit delicious hung,
While birds beneath the foliage fed and sung;
All glittering to the sun with diamond dew,
O'er sheep and kine a breezy shade it threw ;

A lovely boy, the child of hope and prayer,

With crook and shepherd's pipe, was watching there;

At hand three venerable forms were seen,

In simple garb, with apostolic mien,

Who mark'd the distant fields convulsed with strife,

-The guardian Cherubs of that Tree of Life;

(g) See Note (B.) in the Appendix, for a brief account of this Gregory, and an illustration of the lines that follow concerning his trance and vision while he lay upon the rack.

Not arm'd like Eden's host, with flaming brands,

Alike to friends and foes they stretch'd their hands,
In sign of peace; and while Destruction spread
His path with carnage, welcomed all who fled :
-When poor COMENIUS, with his little flock,
Escaped the wolves, and from the boundary rock,
Cast o'er Moravian hills a look of woe,

Saw the green vales expand, the waters flow,

And happier years revolving in his mind,

Caught every sound that murmur'd on the wind;

As if his eye could never thence depart,

As if his ear were seated in his heart,

And his full soul would thence a passage break,
To leave the body, for his country's sake;
While on his knees he pour'd the fervent prayer,
That God would make that martyr-land his care,
And nourish in its ravaged soil a root

Of GREGOR'S Tree, to bear perennial fruit. (h)

(h) John Amos Comenius, one of the most learned as well as pious men of his age, was minister of the Brethren's con

His prayer was heard:-that Church, through ages

past,

Assail'd and rent by persecution's blast;

Whose sons no yoke could crush, no burthen tire,

Unawed by dungeons, tortures, sword, and fire,

(Less proof against the world's alluring wiles,

Whose frowns have weaker terrors than its smiles ;) -That Church o'erthrown, dispersed, unpeopled, dead,

Oft from the dust of ruin raised her head,

And rallying round her feet, as from their graves,

Her exiled orphans, hid in forest-caves;

Where, midst the fastnesses of rocks and glens,

Banded like robbers, stealing from their dens,

gregation at Fulneck, in Moravia, from 1618 to 1627, when the Protestant nobility and clergy being expatriated, he fled with a part of his people through Silesia into Poland. On the summit of the mountains forming the boundary, he turned his sorrowful eyes towards Bohemia and Moravia, and kneeling down with his brethren there, implored God, with many tears, that He would not take away the light of his holy word from those two provinces, but preserve in them a remnant for Himself. A remnant was saved. See Appendix, Note (C.)

By night they met, their holiest vows to pay,

As if their deeds were dark, and shunn'd the day;

While Christ's revilers, in his seamless robe,

And parted garments, flatinted round the globe;

From east to west while priestcraft's banners flew,
And harness'd kings his iron chariot drew:

-That Church advanced, triumphant, o'er the ground,

Where all her conquering martyrs had been crown'd, Fearless her foe's whole malice to defy,

And worship God in liberty, or die:

For truth and conscience oft she pour'd her blood,

And firmest in the fiercest conflicts stood,

Wresting from bigotry the proud controul

Claim'd o'er the sacred empire of the soul,

Where God, the judge of all, should fill the throne,

And reign, as in his universe, alone. (i)

'Twas thus through centuries she rose and fell; At length victorious seem'd the gates of hell;

(i) See Note (D.) in the Appendix.