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Article A MASON'S STORY. ← Page 6 of 7 →
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A Mason's Story.
Of human art for human worship reared , What are they to great nature ' s grand cathedral ? There God in his own temple may be feared ; Compared to this tbose human hands may cede are all Mere mockeries ; what are all the sermons heard ? In those , or all the prayers we there may read , or all Their mural forms of pious administration
To the worship of tb' Creator thi-ough creation ? Nothing!—the lightning flashing through the sky ; The thunder pealing through the startled air ; The bright stars marshall'd gloriously on high , The convoy of the moon so chaste and fair ; The ocean blue , the verdant earth , supply A more sublime and boundless house of prayer Than the most gorgeous dome that ever man Did for the shrine of the Eternal plan .
The matins ot the early bn-ds my hymn—There is not in earth a more tuneful choir—My lamps the stars through solemn midnight dim , Earth's fragrance is my incense , aud my fire The lightning ' s flash and sunset ' s dying gleam ; My prayerful breath the free air I expire ; The thundercloud's my organ , and my preacher He who of all is Universal Teacher . "
" There , " Falconer would say when he had repeated this , " there is true poetry for you . It seems to come from the depths of the writer ' s heart . " ¦ But our pleasant noon-day rambles and strolls by moonlig ht soon came to a close ; alas ! all too soon . Lord Anglesea became better , and , acting under medical advice , he set off for the Continent , taking Penrhyn with him . Penrhyn paid a visit to Puddleton before he finall y left England . He used to tell the story quaintly .
" When I got out of the train , " he would say , " I made my way over to Mr . Morton ' s house , and saw Mary . At first she could hardly believe her own eyes ; but presently she became convinced that it was my veritable self . Then she sought refuge in my arms , which I willingly granted her . Then Mr . Orthodoxy Personified came on the scene , and thought I had come' back prepared to swallow all the doctrines he chose to cram me with , ancl was
disappointed to find it was not so . Next Mrs . Morton came , and I was glad to see her . She is a good sort , just like Mary . After this I tried it on at home ; and the governor , when he saw me , looked as he always does when he has made a bad speculation . He evidently imagined it was the proverbial " bad penny " turning up again . But I undeceived the lot of them , ancl after a pleasant week I came here again . I managed by my most cunning rhetoric
to cajole a promise out of Mr . Morton that I should have Mary in three years , so I can go away content . And so Penrhyn left England . The first place they halted at was a little town , situated on the Gulf ot Genoa , named Yoltri , and but a few leagues from the mighty Alpine mountains . Here Falconer felt for the first time that nature in all her grandeur and magnificence was being unfolded to him . Compared to this lofty mountainous scenery , the hills which had surrounded his
native town—and which , up till now , he had imagined veritable giants—were mere pigmies . He often used to wander out—when not in attendance on his lordship—alone . One of his letters which he wrote to me about this time shows that the God-nature within him was striving to assert itself . He said , "I have been for a long ramble to-day ,-among the grandest ancl most sublime scenery I ever beheld . I had walked some distance , and at last I came to a sort of verdant oasis , which had been left untouched b y the snow . Feeling somewhat tired , I lay down on the grass and began to smoke my pipe , giving
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Mason's Story.
Of human art for human worship reared , What are they to great nature ' s grand cathedral ? There God in his own temple may be feared ; Compared to this tbose human hands may cede are all Mere mockeries ; what are all the sermons heard ? In those , or all the prayers we there may read , or all Their mural forms of pious administration
To the worship of tb' Creator thi-ough creation ? Nothing!—the lightning flashing through the sky ; The thunder pealing through the startled air ; The bright stars marshall'd gloriously on high , The convoy of the moon so chaste and fair ; The ocean blue , the verdant earth , supply A more sublime and boundless house of prayer Than the most gorgeous dome that ever man Did for the shrine of the Eternal plan .
The matins ot the early bn-ds my hymn—There is not in earth a more tuneful choir—My lamps the stars through solemn midnight dim , Earth's fragrance is my incense , aud my fire The lightning ' s flash and sunset ' s dying gleam ; My prayerful breath the free air I expire ; The thundercloud's my organ , and my preacher He who of all is Universal Teacher . "
" There , " Falconer would say when he had repeated this , " there is true poetry for you . It seems to come from the depths of the writer ' s heart . " ¦ But our pleasant noon-day rambles and strolls by moonlig ht soon came to a close ; alas ! all too soon . Lord Anglesea became better , and , acting under medical advice , he set off for the Continent , taking Penrhyn with him . Penrhyn paid a visit to Puddleton before he finall y left England . He used to tell the story quaintly .
" When I got out of the train , " he would say , " I made my way over to Mr . Morton ' s house , and saw Mary . At first she could hardly believe her own eyes ; but presently she became convinced that it was my veritable self . Then she sought refuge in my arms , which I willingly granted her . Then Mr . Orthodoxy Personified came on the scene , and thought I had come' back prepared to swallow all the doctrines he chose to cram me with , ancl was
disappointed to find it was not so . Next Mrs . Morton came , and I was glad to see her . She is a good sort , just like Mary . After this I tried it on at home ; and the governor , when he saw me , looked as he always does when he has made a bad speculation . He evidently imagined it was the proverbial " bad penny " turning up again . But I undeceived the lot of them , ancl after a pleasant week I came here again . I managed by my most cunning rhetoric
to cajole a promise out of Mr . Morton that I should have Mary in three years , so I can go away content . And so Penrhyn left England . The first place they halted at was a little town , situated on the Gulf ot Genoa , named Yoltri , and but a few leagues from the mighty Alpine mountains . Here Falconer felt for the first time that nature in all her grandeur and magnificence was being unfolded to him . Compared to this lofty mountainous scenery , the hills which had surrounded his
native town—and which , up till now , he had imagined veritable giants—were mere pigmies . He often used to wander out—when not in attendance on his lordship—alone . One of his letters which he wrote to me about this time shows that the God-nature within him was striving to assert itself . He said , "I have been for a long ramble to-day ,-among the grandest ancl most sublime scenery I ever beheld . I had walked some distance , and at last I came to a sort of verdant oasis , which had been left untouched b y the snow . Feeling somewhat tired , I lay down on the grass and began to smoke my pipe , giving