Similar alterations in the outward figure and deportment of persons brought to like trial were not uncommon.  See note to the above passage in Dr. Wordsworth’s Ecclesiastical Biography, for an example in an humble Welsh fisherman.

352. Craft.

    ——­’craftily incites
    The overweening, personates the mad.’ [Sonnet XLI. l. 11.]

A common device in religious and political conflicts.  See Strype in support of this instance.

353. The Virgin Mountain. [Sonnet XLIII.]

Jung-frau.

354. Laud. [Sonnet XLV.]

In this age a word cannot be said in praise of Laud, or even in compassion for his fate, without incurring a charge of bigotry; but fearless of such imputation, I concur with Hume, ’that it is sufficient for his vindication to observe that his errors were the most excusable of all those which prevailed during that zealous period.’  A key to the right understanding of those parts of his conduct that brought the most odium upon him in his own time, may be found in the following passage of his speech before the bar of the House of Peers:—­’Ever since I came in place, I have laboured nothing more than that the external publick worship of God, so much slighted in divers parts of this kingdom, might be preserved, and that with as much decency and uniformity as might be.  For I evidently saw that the publick neglect of God’s service in the outward face of it, and the nasty lying of many places dedicated to that service, had almost cast a damp upon the true and inward worship of God, which while we live in the body, needs external helps, and all little enough to keep it in any vigour.’

* * * * *

PART III.  FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE PRESENT TIME.

355. The Pilgrim Fathers. [Sonnet XIII.]

American episcopacy, in union with the church in England, strictly belongs to the general subject; and I here make my acknowledgments to my American friends, Bishop Doane, and Mr. Henry Reed of Philadelphia, for having suggested to me the propriety of adverting to it, and pointed out the virtues and intellectual qualities of Bishop White, which so eminently fitted him for the great work he undertook.  Bishop White was consecrated at Lambeth, Feb. 4, 1787, by Archbishop Moor; and before his long life was closed, twenty-six bishops had been consecrated in America, by himself.  For his character and opinions, see his own numerous Works, and a ’Sermon in commemoration of him, by George Washington Doane, Bishop of New Jersey.’

356. The Clergyman.

    ’A genial hearth——­
    And a refined rusticity, belong
    To the neat mansion.’ [Sonnet XVIII. ll. 1-3.]