ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
X. OBLIGATIONS OF CIVIL TO RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
UNGRATEFUL Country, if thou e’er forget The sons who for thy civil rights have bled! How, like a Roman, Sidney bowed his head, And Russel’s milder blood the scaffold wet; But these had fallen for profitless regret Had not thy holy Church her champions bred, And claims from other worlds inspirited The star of Liberty to rise. Nor yet (Grave this within thy heart!) if spiritual things Be lost, through apathy, or scorn, or fear, 10 Shalt thou thy humbler franchises support, However hardly won or justly dear: What came from heaven to heaven by nature clings, And, if dissevered thence, its course is short.