  All-Saints’ day, as all good Christians should remember, is the first day of November. Halloween, is a sweet Scotticism for its vigil, familiar to the reader of Burns, but which I have grudged to the degrading use which has been made of it, by that unhappy bard. Instead of the profane rites by which it has been desecrated, I have supposed it observed in Christian homes, by fire-side tales and recollections of the departed, and conversations about the state of Intermediate Repose. Such would be a less unfitting way of preparing for a Festival, in which the Church commemorates her Saints and Martyrs, and all the dead in Christ, as part of her Holy Communion, expecting with her the resurrection of the body, and the final award of the life everlasting. This Festival is the counterpart of Easter—telling of Death, as Easter does of Resurrection; and as God has given to the latter, the reviving blossom and the sweet Spring-time; so He has set the former in the Autumn, and strewed the sere leaves in our path to Church, as its becoming symbol. And thus the true Catholic always finds himself living in harmony with nature; for the Author of Nature is the Author of his Holy Religion. He has a joy which the world knows not, in beholding all the works of God. They have a place in that system of the universe, of which the Catholic Church is a part; and Niagara, and Mont Blanc, possess for him a ritual character, as really as the Te Deum, in which he sings, “All the earth doth worship thee the Father Everlasting.” The warlocks are at their play. Strophe vii. Such is one of the familiar superstitions concerning Halloween. There is a world, &c. Strophe ix. See Ps. 78; 49. Zech. 13; 2. Eph. 6; 12. 1. Tim. 4; 1. And for Guardian Angels see S. Matt. 18; 10, and the service for Michaelmas, in the Prayerbook. But one whose soul hath been in Hell. Strophe x. The word Hell is here used, as in the Creed, to signify Hades, or the place of departed spirits. I have purposely shunned any imagining of its secret things, whether in the Paradise of the just, or the Phylace of the wicked; and have simply employed some of the revelations of the Apocalypse, in a reverent hint at the employment of the Angels in Heaven. The episode of Ulla and Arah is introduced to illustrate the received doctrine of the recognition of friends in the final abodes of the righteous. A pig from Epicurus’ stye. Strophe xix. The reader will recognize this truly Horatian, though some what inelegant metaphor, as borrowed from “Porcus de grege Epicuri.” And I could see when there above. Strophe xlv. This passage was written with Southey’s famous lines in memory, beginning “Oh when a mother meets on high.” As God in flesh did once declare. Strophe lxv. See the Gospel for the second Sunday in Advent. That hath all colours bright. Strophe lxvi. A year or so after this was written, I read some of the Dialogues of Plato, and found in the PhÆdon, (I think,) a passage, which might be supposed to have suggested this whole strophe. Such as ye ken through the telescope. Strophe lxvii. The appearance here described may be observed through a telescope in an inverted order, when the moon is nearly full and rises about sunset. Green Earth is all around reviving. Strophe lxxxii. The reader is referred to a sweet description of Easter, in the charming book entitled “Scenes in Our Parish.” Christ is arisen. Strophe lxxxvii. The famous chorus of the women in Faust, suggested this little ode, which is partly translated from the German of Goethe. And risen, seek the things above. Strophe xcv. See Epistle for Easter-day, in the Church Service. The moral of all is, in the words of Augustine, “Ibam longe a te in plura sterilia semina dolorum, O tardum gaudium meum!” LAYS, |
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