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    and suggestive notes of the music of that noblest of all national airs ; and I looked , and the elements were « unk to repose , and the sun was beaming down that sweet first smile of fond complacency that follows passion and agitation , and the billows were as giants who had died and been regenerated into little children , and they were gently and playfully kissing the feet of the white cliffs

    of our island ., which had , amid those convulsive throes of nature , arisen c from out the azure main . ' And the meaning of what I saw revealed itself to me , and I knew by the thrilling prelude of that harp that angels were about to hymn ' the charter of the land ; ' but their song was not yet . The island was covered with mist . It hung heavy over the valleys , and wreathed itself around the hills and mountains . But towards their summits it was thin

    and fleecy , and as it disparted , I had glimpses of celestial forms , the minstrels who struck at intervals the broken , yet most harmonious symphony of that well known ' strain , ' the new-born genii of the new-born land , its guardian angels' in the delicate spring of their being , the same that were seen by the bard of the seasons , of patriotism , and of liberty .

    i here was one amongst them who appeared to be their queen , so lofty was her stature , and so stately her bearing . She stood on the summit of a cliff , and stretched her hand towards the waves , as if demanding of them some token of submission and fealty . But the billows dashed themselves upon the cliff , and flung their foam high up against its face as in defiance and in

    scorn . And the deep abysmal thunders again uttered their voices , but in angrier and discordant tone . And that wild volcanic action , and the elemental confusion , came back with aggravated horrors . Yet amid it all , from time to time , I heard stray notes of that heavenly harping , till at one louder and longer swell , it seemed ( but all was quick as lightning ) as if that being of

    loveliness and majesty had thrown herself from the cliff-top into the furious waves , snatched , from some reluctant power beneath , a colossal trident , and regained her rocky throne , waving it proudly around her crowned and helmed head . Then the thunderings ceased , and the sea was calm and gentle as an inland lake , and the mists cleared away , and the land lay in sunshine , and I had

    vision of sparkling rivers , and waving fields , and crowded ports , and stately towers , and multitudinous cities ; and the spirits thronged around their queen , and they twined a laurel bough in her helmet-crown , and their harps and voices rung out the full strain of the patriotic chant , and it resounded with a martial

    clang , and there were armies on the heights in glittering array , and gallant navies covering the ocean ; and lightly as I reck of the glory of arms , I felt my heart swell within me at that triumphal chorus . But soon I perceived , that though the familiar air was again and again repeated , it was with a varied tone and spirit . The associations , which in these diversified changes it called up ,

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    452 Rule Britannia .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1833, page 452, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2618/page/12/