iving a gentle kiss to every flower
It overtaketh on its pilgrimage."

All is purity and peace; as we look and listen, we partake of the
universal calm, and feel in nature the presence of Him from whom it
emanated. Indeed, we do not remember any poetry nearly so beautiful as
this, which reminds one so seldom of the poet's art. We read it without
ever thinking of the place which its author may hold among poets, just
as we behold a "lily of the field" without comparing it with other
flowers, but satisfied with its own pure and simple loveliness; or each
separate poem may be likened, in its
unostentatious--unambitious--unconscious beauty--to

"A violet by a mossy stone,
Half hidden to the eye."

Of all the flowers that sweeten this fair earth, the violet is indeed
the most delightful in itself--form, fragrance, and colour--nor less in
the humility of its birthplace, and its haunts in the "sunshiny shade."
Therefore, 'tis a meet emblem of those sacred songs that may be said to
blossom on Mount Sion.

The most imaginative poetry inspired by Nature, and dedicated to her
praise, is never perfectly and consummately beautiful till it ascends
into the religious; but then religion breathes from, and around, and
about it, only at last when the poet has been brought, by the leading of
his own aroused spirit, to the utmost pitch of his inspiration. He
begins, and continues long, unblamed in mere emotions of beauty; and he
often pauses unblamed, and brings his strain to a close, without having
forsaken this earth, and the thoughts and feelings which belong alone to
this earth. But poetry like that of the "Christian Year" springs at
once, visibly and audibly, from religion as its fount. If it, indeed,
issue from one of the many springs religion opens in the human heart, no
fear of its ever being dried up. Small indeed may seem the silver line,
when first the rill steals forth from its sacred source! But how soon it
begins to sing with a clear loud voice in the solitude! Bank and
brae--tree, shrub, and flower--grow greener at each successive
waterfall--the rains no more disturb that limpid element than the
dews--and never does it lose some reflection of the heavens.

In a few modest words, Mr Keble states the aim and object of his volume.
He says truly, that it is the peculiar happiness of the Church of
England to possess in her authorised formularies an ample and secure
provision, both for a sound rule of faith and a