Wandering round this holy spot one comes at every step to the monument of some man who has earned deathless fame by his pen, though the monument does not always mark the last resting-place of him whose. name it bears. Shakspeare, for instance, was buried at Stratford, Milton in the city of London, Burns in Dumfries, Longfellow far across the Atlantic, and Ben Jonson in the nave of the Abbey.

Chaucer was the first great poet to be laid to rest in the Poets' Corner, and it is with him that the peculiar glory of the place began. Near his monument stands the bust of Longfellow, and near him lie the bodies of Dryden, Beaumont, Cowley, and Drayton. Drayton's epitaph is a fine one

Do, pious marble, let thy readers know
What they and what their children owe
To Drayton's name, whose sacred dust
We recommend unto thy trust.

Protect his memory and preserve his story;
Remain a lasting monument of his glory.
And when the ruins shall disclaim
To be thy treasurer of his name,

His name, that cannot fade, shall be

An everlasting monument to thee.

Close to the monument of Drayton is that of a great poet buried, as already stated, in another part of the Abbey: "O rare Ben Jonson!"

Here, nigh to Chaucer, Spenser lies; to whom

In genius next he was, as now in tomb.

His epitaph says that he was "the prince of poets in his time," and that "his divine spirit needs no other witness than the works which he left behind him".

The monuments of Butler, Milton, and Gray come. next. Then, passing the tombs of several writers now

more or less forgotten, we reach that of Granville Sharp, whose untiring labours proved that—

Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free;
They touch our country, and their shackles fall.

Following the wall we come to the graves, the busts, or the monuments of Campbell, Southey, Coleridge, Shakspeare, Burns, Thomson, and Gay.

Gay's neighbour is Goldsmith, whose beautiful Latin epitaph, the work of Dr. Johnson, says that "he left scarcely any kind of writing untouched, and touched nothing which he did not adorn," and that his memory was cherished "by the love of companions, the faithfulness of friends, and the reverence of readers". Johnson himself was buried not far off.

Addison, Dickens, Thackeray, Macaulay, and Handel lie close together, Addison's tomb with this epitaph

Ne'er to these chambers, where the mighty rest,

Since their foundation, came a nobler guest;

Nor e'er was to the bowers of bliss conveyed

A fairer spirit or more welcome shade.

Oh, gone for ever! take this long adieu,

And sleep in peace next thy loved Montague.

One of the latest to be laid to rest in the Poets' Corner is Tennyson, buried (in his own words)—

With an empire's lamentation..

To the noise of the mourning of a mighty nation.

Transept. When the ground plan Nave. The middle or body of a

of a church is in the shape of a cross, those parts of the building! which form, as it were, the arms of the cross are called the transepts.

church. (Supposed to be so called because the roof was in shape much like the hull of a ship (Lat., navis = a ship). Epitaph. An inscription or writing on a tomb.

LESSON 12.

CHARACTER OF THE HAPPY WARRIOR.

WHO is the happy warrior? Who is he

That every man in arms should wish to be?
-It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought
Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
Upon the plan that pleased his childish thought:
Whose high endeavours are an inward light
That makes the path before him always bright:
Who, with a natural instinct to discern

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What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn ;
Abides by this resolve, and stops not there,
But makes his moral being his prime care;
Who, doomed to go in company with Pain,
And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train!
Turns his necessity to glorious gain;
In face of these doth exercise a power
Which is our human nature's highest dower;
Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves
Of their bad influence, and their good receives:
By objects, which might force the soul to abate
Her feeling, rendered more compassionate;

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Is placable-because occasions rise

So often that demand such sacrifice;

More skilful in self-knowledge, even more pure,

As tempted more; more able to endure,

As more exposed to suffering and distress;

Thence, also more alive to tenderness.

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'Tis he whose law is reason; who depends

Upon that law as on the best of friends;

Whence, in a state where men are tempted still
To evil for a guard against worse ill,

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And what in quality or act is best

Doth seldom on a right foundation rest,

He fixes good on good alone, and owes

--

To virtue every triumph that he knows:
35 Who, if he rise to station of command,
Rises by open means; and there will stand
On honourable terms, or else retire,

And in himself possess his own desire;
Who comprehends his trust, and to the same
40 Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim;

And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait
For wealth, or honours, or for worldly state:
Whom they must follow: on whose head must fall,
Like showers of manna, if they come at all:

45 Whose powers shed round him in the common strife, Or mild concerns of ordinary life,

A constant influence, a peculiar grace;

But who, if he be called upon to face

Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined 50 Great issues, good or bad for human kind,

Is happy as a lover; and attired

With sudden brightness, like a man inspired;
And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law
In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw ;

55 Or if an unexpected call succeed,

Come when it will, is equal to the need:

He who, though thus endued as with a sense
And faculty for storm and turbulence,

Is yet a soul whose master-bias leans

60 To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes; Sweet images! which, wheresoe'er he be, Are at his heart; and such fidelity

It is his darling passion to approve;

More brave for this, that he hath much to love :

65 'Tis, finally, the man, who, lifted high, Conspicuous object in a Nation's eye, Or left unthought-of in obscurity,

Who, with a toward or untoward lot,
Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not-

Plays, in the many games of life, that one Where what he most doth value must be won: Whom neither shape of danger can dismay, Nor thought of tender happiness betray;

Who, not content that former worth stand fast, Looks forward, persevering to the last,

From well to better, daily self-surpassed:

Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth

For ever, and to noble deeds give birth,

Or he must fall, to sleep without his fame,

And leave a dead unprofitable name,

Finds comfort in himself and in his cause

And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws

His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause :
This is the happy Warrior; this is he
Who every man in arms should wish to be.