George Spencer Cautley

“ In robes symbolical, through incensed air,
Some pray in temples amid lights and hues,
While some in tabernacles simply bare,
Beauty's bright aid mistrustingly refuse.
Pray, Christians, as ye will, by nurture swayed,
Habit, tradition, phantasy, or youth—
With faith is all; our Lord hath only said,
He will be served in spirit and in truth.
But, brethren of a brotherhood divine,
So dear to Him on whom ye daily call,
Why darken with the dust of strife malign
The sunshine of that love that blesses all?
[10]
THE BEACON CREST.
To the Memory of Spencer, Marquis of Northampton. ”

“ FRANCIS PERRIER THE ENGRAVER.
With our needs change our deeds.
That coinless youth who left his home
Was wealthy in an ardent soul,
For, failing other ways to Rome,
He led the blind and shared his dole.
But when the guidance reached its end, [111]
The sacred seat of art and fame,
His skilful burin stood his friend,
And won him competence and name.
He leads no more the poor and blind,
His walk in life is altered quite;
The rich he guides to art refined,
And caters for the keenest sight. ”

“ An emblem of His loving speech
Who said, if every mouth were dumb
The very stones His truth would teach.
[87]
ROSE GARDEN AT ASHRIDGE.
Softly at noontide one reposes
When sunshine melts the thought to dream,
Within this labyrinth of roses
Whose centre is the fountain's gleam.
We match our mortal life and beauty,
With this ineffable array
Of creatures free from sin and duty,
Delicious even in decay ”

“ The landscape colourless and cold,
While all the hovel foul and frail,
The ragged thatch and battered sail,
Are gorgeous in the sunset gold!
Such seems the girl's capricious part, [40]
Who flouts the noble, wise, and true,
And wastes her loving burning heart,
And glorifies with doting art
The basest of her courting crew.
THE PUDDLE.
This shallow pool which ruffling in the breeze,
Spurts gold and azure at the morning sun,
Ere night will be a blot of slimy lees,
By the absorbing heat and wind foredone. ”

“ Emblem of him whose every wish
Concentres in a feast;
Like duck he gobbles, drinks like fish,
And proves himself a beast.
[36]
THE RAPE OF PROSERPINE.
Sweet Proserpine you here behold
Far from her corn-crowned mother's care,
Dragged down by Pluto, swart and old,
His dismal throne to share.
She figures many a one the prey [37]
Of passion's ill-resisted powers,
Who, spurning all that love can say,
Seeks but for earthly flowers. ”

“ Round corners and up trees,
And left the monster all alone
In death's unbroken peace.
Emblem of cowardice is here,
Patent to mind and eye:
What they deserve such wretches fear,
Without a danger nigh. ”

“ SMOKE NOT ASCENDING.
The lolling smoke which clouds the noonday skies
And mars the outline of our orchard trees,
Smirching the buds and blossoms, here supplies
An emblem of the gross ignoble ease
Of apathetic souls, which lost in sloth,
Lifting no thought to heaven, with sordid care
Infect young hearts around, and check the growth
Of aspirations craving purer air. ”

“ Now Emblem books have had their day, and are no longer regarded as a means of instruction or delight. They have done their duty as ornamental wits and lively educators, and now make way for others more suited to the age. There will be found very few theological teachers of our day who would, like Sebastian Stockhamer, [3] not only advise a patron to have the Emblems of Alciati always at hand at home and abroad, but suggest that he should do as Alexander did with the works of Homer, sleep with them under his pillow. ”

“ Fact, stubborn ass, breaks in and all devours.
Facts and Imagination. In facts amassed a world chaotic lies,
Imagination bids the Kosmos rise.
Faith. Faith prays more fervently for love than light;
Love's voice will guide to Heaven though all be night.
Faith without Love. [126] Who loveless faith imbibes, that devil's drink,
Makes life a mad-house, death a fiery sink. ”

“ Candour. You always speak your mind; then cautious be;
No mind from prejudice is always free.
Certain Preachers. He preaches like those thorn trees which men say
Pierce to the quick, and hold you half the day.
Christian Love. A loving nature is a lovely prize,
But Christian love all nature beautifies.
Communism. Equalise all men! let a year go round,
And where will your equality be found?
Comparison of Poets. Comparison of poets nought avails:
Eagles with pards, gazelles with nightingales! ”

“ Some, perhaps, who may look into these pages, will sympathise with the Author in the pleasure he has enjoyed in following the footsteps of the ingenious Emblematists of old, and will accept the subjoined Emblem as an illustration of their common feeling upon the subject:—
Though the new be gold, some love the old. ”

“ Emblem of Heaven! sublime device!
No air can thee retain:
Read in the Word, the Heart, the Skies,
Thee we shall meet again.
[26]
COTTAGE SMOKE ASCENDING.
The silent smoke in column true
Streams from the poor man's hearth,
Right up into the ether blue,
Uniting heaven and earth. ”

“ But leave no light within the heart.
[21]
THE GIRANDOLA AT ROME.
O suns! O founts! O domes of fire,
O palaces of seraph kings!
O shining ones who all aspire
To fan the stars with flaming wings! ”

“ An emblem of all war
Beneath the waves of Time's deep sea
Buried for evermore!
[69]
THE MASTER'S WILL.
Two Caravels to sea were gone,
Two striplings passed the city gate;
A shattered hull returns alone,
A brother wails a brother's fate.
But who elects for good or ill?
Distrust not mercy though bereft ”

“ The arms that toil and tongues that sing
Might Homer's lyre employ.
My emblem briefly would express
The wealth of deed and speech
Man brings to man, wherewith to bless
All hearts within their reach ”

“ Both kindness here, and grace above, [83]
Duly should every heart confess;
And they who slight a brother's love,
Slight God's no less.
THE NUBIAN BOATMEN.
These bronze-armed slaves so lithe and strong,
Row on for many a glassy mile
Through burning hours, and all the while
They praise in sweet recurring song,
"The Lord that brings the Nile." ”

“ Stark murdered Symmachus' avenging frown.
[113]
SOCIAL LIFE A PICNIC.
By many an image, saint and sage
Have figured human life;
A mart, a maze, a pilgrimage,
A race, a battle strife.
And many another he might phrase
Who studies as they pass
The human emmet's social ways,
Through observation's glass.
So in my emblem I compare
Life to that summer feast
Where every guest supplies a share,
The greatest and the least ”

“ This book consisted of nearly a hundred Latin Epigrams, some original, some translated or paraphrased from the Greek, and each accompanied by a [x] rude woodcut illustration. Alciati was the first author who gave the name of Emblem to this form of expressing his ideas: and the notion for so doing was suggested by the original meaning of the word Emblem, which signifies anything inserted. ”

“ See p. 8 of Preface to "Andrea Alciati and his Book of Emblems," etc., by Henry Green, M.A.; London, Trübner and Co., 1872, in which the learned writer states he has "formed an index of Emblem Books of which the titles number upwards of 3000, and the authors above 1300.
[2] This little book was followed by another of the same description published at Venice 1546. These two were afterwards combined into one volume.
[3] See p. 5 of his edition of A. Alciati Emblemata, 1556. ”

“ The Wayside Monitor 95 The Boomerang96 The Wrong Place 97 The Wrong Time 98 Travelling for Excitement99 The Hawser100 Trained Cormorants 101 The Bat102 Waterfall by the Sea103 The Dying Swan104 The Peacock105 The Hunter 106 The Racer 108 The Sybarites109 Francis Perrier the Engraver110 Rome 111 Theodoric112 Social Life a Picnic113 The Hippocampus, or Sea-Horse117 Bivalves121
[xvii]
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE Emblems EverywhereR. Barnes3 From Drawing by the Author. Cupid ReformedJ. D. Cooper7 From a slight Sketch by the late Marquis of Northampton. ”

“ The Beacon CrestRear-Admiral Lord W. Compton10 Lighthouse like a ChurchThe Author13 The Brook at SunsetDo.16 The CometDo. and J. D. Cooper19 The MoonDo. 22 Cottage Smoke AscendingDo. 26 Child and SnakesLady Marian Alford29 The Foolish ColtThe Author33 The Rape of ProserpineDo.36 The Strange ChoiceDo.39 The Doubtful RaceDo. ”