ight;--sought Him in
vain at the gate of that old garden where the fiery sword is set? He
is never there; but at the gate of _this_ garden He is waiting
always--waiting to take your hand--ready to go down to see the fruits
of the valley, to see whether the vine has flourished, and the
pomegranate budded. There you shall see with Him the little tendrils
of the vines that His hand is guiding--there you shall see the
pomegranate springing where His hand cast the sanguine seed;--more: you
shall see the troops of the angel keepers, that, with their wings, wave
away the hungry birds from the pathsides where He has sown, and call to
each other between the vineyard rows, "Take us the foxes, the little
foxes, that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes."
Oh--you queens--you queens; among the hills and happy greenwood of this
land of yours, shall the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air
have nests; and in your cities, shall the stones cry out against you,
that they are the only pillows where the Son of Man can lay His head?

[1] This lecture was given December 14, 1864, at the Town Hall,
Manchester, in aid of the St. Andrew's Schools.

[2] I ought, in order to make this assertion fully understood, to have
noted the various weaknesses which lower the ideal of other great
characters of men in the Waverley novels--the selfishness and
narrowness of thought in Redgauntlet, the weak religious enthusiasm in
Edward Glendinning, and the like; and I ought to have noticed that
there are several quite perfect characters sketched sometimes in the
backgrounds; three--let us accept joyously this courtesy to England and
her soldiers--are English officers; Colonel Gardiner, Colonel Talbot,
and Colonel Mannering.

[3] Coventry Patmore. You cannot read him too often or too carefully;
as far as I know he is the only living poet who always strengthens and
purifies; the others sometimes darken, and nearly always depress and
discourage, the imagination they deeply seize.

[4] Observe, it is "Nature" who is speaking throughout, and who says,
"While she and I together live."

[5] "Joan of Arc: in reference to M. Michelet's History of France." De
Quincey's Works, Vol. III, page 217.

[6] I wish there were a true order of chivalry instituted for our
English youth of certain ranks, in which both boy and girl should
receive, at a given age, their knighthood and ladyhood by true title;
attainable only by certain probation and t