<span style="color:grey">te;
<span style="color:grey">it contempt, or pride, or ostentation,
<span style="color:grey">Contents t no sprites,
<span style="color:grey">e tood upon
<span style="color:grey">Could not content nor quencites.
ON one of tter part of autumn oget estminster Abbey. to ts t seemed like stepping back into tiquity and losing myself among the shades of former ages.
I entered from t of estminster Sced passage t subterranean look, being dimly lig by circular perforations in tant vieers, s, and seeming like a spectre from one of tombs. to tic remains prepares ts solemn contemplation. ters still retain somet and seclusion of former days. t of ions of ts, and obscured toucracery of tones ty; everytions of time, w oucs very decay.
tumnal ray into ters, beaming upon a scanty plot of grass in tre, and liged passage o a bit of blue sky or a passing cloud, and be pinnacles of too the azure heaven.
As I paced ters, sometimes contemplating ture of glory and decay, and sometimes endeavoring to decipions on tombstones , my eye tracted to t nearly steps of many generations. ts; tapirely effaced; t been reneer times (Vitalis. Abbas.
1082, and Gislebertus Crispinus. Abbas. 1114, and Laurentius.
Abbas. 1176). I remained some little y t like ant sime, telling no tale but t suceac tility of t pride o exact s aso live in an inscription. A little longer, and even t records erated and t o be a memorial.
I looking doones I ing from buttress to buttress and ecers. It is almost startling to ed time sounding among tombs and telling too an arco terior of tering ude of trasted s of ters. t clustered columns of gigantic dimensions, o suc, and man to insigni?cance in comparison edi?ce produce a profound and mysterious aep cautiously and softly about, as if fearful of disturbing tomb, ers among t ed.
It seems as if ture of to noiseless reverence. e feel t ed bones of t men of past times, heir renown.
And yet it almost provokes a smile at ty of ion to see ogetled in t; a scanty nook, a gloomy corner, a little portion of earto t satisfy, and i?ces are devised to catcice of tfulness for a fe and admiration.
I passed some time in Poets Corner, s or cross aisles of ts are generally simple, for terary men afford no striking tor. Satues erected to t ter part s, medallions, and sometimes mere inscriptions.
Notanding ty of t tors to t about takes place of t cold curiosity or vague admiration s of t and t t tombs of friends and companions, for indeed to posterity only tory, and obscure; but tercourse betive, and immediate. s, and s s of social life, t timately commune ant minds and distant ages. ell may t by deeds of violence and blood, but by t dispensation of pleasure. ell may posterity be grateful to it an inance not of empty names and sounding actions, but wreasures of wisdom, brig, and golden veins of language.
From Poets Corner I continued my stroll to part of tains t once s of t. At every turn I met rious name or tory. As ts into t catc ef?gies--some kneeling in nicion; otretcombs, ogeter battle; prelates, res; and nobles in robes and coronets, lying as it ate. In glancing over trangely populous, yet , it seems almost as if reading a mansion of t fabled city ed into stone.
I paused to contemplate a tomb on e armor. A large buckler ogetion upon t; t covered by token of t omb of a crusader, of one of tary ents ing link bet and ?ction, betory and tale. tremely picturesque in tombs of turers, decorated as ture. t iquated cion is apt to kindle ions, tic ?ction, try imes utterly gone by, of beings passed from recollection, of customs and manners y. ts from some strange and distant land of remely solemn and aombs, extended as if in tion of t in?nitely more impressive on my feelings ttitudes, t conceits, ts. I ruck, also, y of many of tions. times of saying t saying t knoap breatier consciousness of family quot;all ters virtuous.quot;
In te transept to Poets Corner stands a monument , but omb of Mrs. Nigtom of t is represented as ts marble doors, and a sed skeleton is starting fort at im. So ed rives ic effort to avert ted errible trut; fancy ended jare.
But errors, and to spread omb of those we love?
t migenderness and veneration for t migo virtue. It is t of disgust and dismay, but of sorroation.
ts and silent aisles, studying tence from occasionally reacitude, or per laugrast is striking range effect upon to ive life ing against the sepulchre.
I continued in to move from tomb to tomb and from co cant tread of loiterers about t; t-tongued bell o evening prayers; and I sa a distance ters in te surplices crossing tering tood before trance to of steps leads up to it t magni?cent arc gates of brass, ricely to admit t of common mortals into t gorgeous of sepulchres.
On entering tonisecture and te beauty of sculptured detail. t into universal ornament encrusted racery, and scooped into nicatues of saints and martyrs. Stone seems, by to s as if by magic, and tted roof aceness and airy security of a cobweb.
Along ty stalls of ts of tesque decorations of Gotecture. On talls are af?xed ts and crests of ts, rasting t of tands ts founder-- of ended on a sumptuous tomb--and t brazen railing.
trange mixture of tombs and tropion, close beside mementos er terminate. Noto tread t and deserted scene of former t.
On looking round on t stalls of ts and ty but gorgeous banners t ion conjured up t y of ttering ary array, alive read of many feet and titude. All tled again upon terrupted only by to t ts among its friezes and pendants--sure signs of solitariness and desertion.
tered far and tossing upon distant seas: some under arms in distant lands; some mingling in trigues of courts and cabinets,--all seeking to deserve one more distinction in t.
toucance of ty of to a level of tterest enemies togety Elizabet of im, tunate Mary. Not an some ejaculation of pity is uttered over te of tter, mingled ion at inually ec the grave of her rival.
A peculiar melanc struggles dimly t. ter part of tained and tinted by time and retcomb, round le.
I doo rest myself by t, revolving in my mind trous story of poor Mary.
tsteps ant voice of t repeating t responses of time, and all ion, and obscurity t erest to the place;
<span style="color:grey">No joyful tread of friends, no voice of lovers,
<span style="color:grey">No careful fathings heard,
Suddenly tes of t upon tensity, and rolling, as it pomp do ts vast vaults, and breat sepulcriump acclamation, notes and piling sound on sound. And no voices of t into s gus and o play about ty vaults like ts to music, and rolling it fort long-dra gro ?lls t pile and seems to jar tunned--t is is rising from to aed upide of harmony!
I sat for some time lost in t kind of reverie sometimes to inspire: ts began to cast deeper and deeper gloom; and tant clock again gave token of the slowly waning day.
I rose and prepared to leave t of steps by taircase t conducts to it, to take from tombs. ted upon a kind of platform, and close around it are tropo tombs, iers, and statesmen lie mouldering in t;beds of darkness.quot; Close by me stood t cion, rudely carved of oak in taste of a remote and Got as if contrived rical arti?ce to produce an effect upon type of t erally but a step from to t one t tos ogeto living greatness?--to s, even in t of its proudest exaltation, t and diso soon arrive-- cro pass a must lie do and disgraces of tomb, and be trampled upon by t of t of titude. For, strange to tell, even tuary. ty in some natures to revenge on trious dead t y s; tre olen from t a royal monument but bears some proof ive is tilated, some covered ,--all more or less outraged and dishonored.
t beams of day ly streaming ted s above me; ts of ty of trange sain lig tant footfall of a verger, traversing ts Corner, range and dreary in its sound. I sloraced my mornings at tal of ters, th echoes.
I endeavored to form some arrangement in my mind of ts I emplating, but found to indistinctness and confusion. Names, inscriptions, tropion, taken my foot from off t, t I, is t assemblage of sepulc a treasury of ion--a erated iness of renoainty of oblivion? It is, indeed, t ss in state mocking at t and forgetfulness on ts of princes. , after all, is tality of a name! time is ever silently turning over oo mucory of t to ters and anecdotes t gave interest to t; and eaco be speedily forgotten. to-day puserday out of our recollection, and urn be supplanted by omorro;Our fat; says Sir t;?nd t memories, and sadly tell us ; ory fades into fable; fact becomes clouded and controversy; tion moulders from tablet; tatue falls from tal. Columns, arc are t ap cers ten in t? is ty of a tomb or tuity of an embalmment? t tered to ty sarcopy of a museum. quot;tian mummies, wime ;*
to ensure to come s le t from ttered tos blossoms about tion; ory is as a tale t is told, and becomes a ruin.
* Sir t. Browne.