For succor; but perhaps he sits alone On stormy waters, tossed in a little boat That holds but him, and can contain no more!
Religion tells of amity sublime
Which no condition can preclude; of One Who sees all suffering, comprehends all wants,
All weakness fathoms, can supply all needs: But is that bounty absolute ?-His gifts, Are they not, still, in some degree, rewards For acts of service? Can his love extend To hearts that own not him? Will showers of grace,
When in the sky no promise may be seen, Fall to refresh a parched and withered land
Or shall the groaning Spirit cast her load At the Redeemer's feet?" In rueful tone, With some impatience in his mien, he spake :
Back to my mind rushed all that had been urged
To calm the Sufferer when his story closed; I looked for counsel as unbending now; But a discriminating sympathy Stooped to this apt reply.
Do, in the constitution of their souls, Differ, by mystery not to be explained; And as we fall by various ways, and sink One deeper than another, self-condemned, Through manifold degrees of grief and shame;
So manifold and various are the ways Of restoration, fashioned to the steps Of all infirmity, and tending all To the same point, attainable by all- Peace in ourselves, and union with our God. For you, assuredly, a hopeful road Lies open we have heard from you a voice At every moment softened in its course By tenderness of heart; have seen your
Authentic tidings of invisible things; Of ebb and flow, and ever-during power; And central peace, subsisting at the heart Of endless agitation. Here you stand, Adore, and worship, when you know it not; Pious beyond the intention of your thought; Devout above the meaning of your will. -Yes, you have felt, and may not cease to feel.
The estate of man would be indeed forlorn If false conclusions of the reasoning power Made the eye blind, and closed the passages Through which the ear converses with the heart.
Has not the soul, the being of your life, Received a shock of awful consciousness, In some calm season, when these lofty
Sends inspiration from the shadowy heights, And blind recesses of the caverned rocks; The little rills, and waters numberless, Inaudible by daylight, blended their notes With the loud streams: and often, at the hour
When issue forth the first pale stars, is heard,
Within the circuit of this fabric huge, One voice-the solitary raven, flying Athwart the concave of the dark blue dome, Unseen, perchance above all power of sight-
An iron knell! with echoes from afar Faint-and still fainter-as the cry, with which
The wanderer accompanies her flight Through the calm region, fades upon the ear,
Diminishing by distance till it seemed To expire; yet from the abyss is caught again,
And yet again recovered!
But descending From these imaginative heights, that yield
Far-stretching views into eternity, Acknowledge that to Nature's humble power Your cherished sullenness is forced to bend Even here, where her amenities are sown With sparing hand. Then trust yourself abroad [fields,
To range her blooming bowers, and spacious Where on the labours of the happy throng She smiles, including in her wild embrace City, and town, and tower,--and sea with ships
Sprinkled; - be our Companion while we track
Her rivers populcus with gliding life; While, free as air, o'er printless sands we march,
Or pierce the gloom of her majestic woods; Roaming, or resting under grateful shade In peace and meditative cheerfulness; Where living things, and things inanimate, Do speak, at Heaven's command, to eye and ear,
And speak to social reason's inner sense, With inarticulate language.
For, the ManWho, in this spirit, communes with the Forms
Of nature, who with understanding heart Both knows and loves such objects as excite No morbid passions, no disquietude, No vengeance, and no hatred-needs must feel
The joy of that pure principle of love So deeply, that, unsatisfied with aught Less pure and exquisite, he cannot choose But seek for objects of a kindred love In fellow-natures and a kindred joy. Accordingly he by degrees perceives His feelings of aversion softened dowr; A holy tenderness pervade his frame. His sanity of reason not impaired, Say rather, all his thoughts now flowing clear,
From a clear fountain flowing, he looks round
And seeks for good; and finds the good he seeks:
Until abhorrence and contempt are things He only knows by name; and, if he hear, From other mouths, the language which they speak,
He is compassionate; and has no thought; No feeling, which can overcome his love.
And further; by contemplating these Forms
In the relations which they bear to man,
He shall discern, how, through the various
Which silently they yield, are multiplied The spiritual presence of absent things. Trust me, that for the instructed, time will [teach When they shall meet no object but may Some acceptable lesson to their minds Of human suffering, or of human joy. So shall they learn, while all things speak of man, [laws, Their duties from all forms; and general And local accidents, shall tend alike To rouse, to urge; and, with the will, confer The ability to spread the blessings wide Of true philanthropy. The light of love Not failing, perseverance from their steps Departing not, for them shall be confirmed The glorious habit by which sense is made Subservient still to moral purposes, Auxiliar to divine. That change shall clothe
The naked spirit, ceasing to deplore The burthen of existence. Science then Shall be a precious visitant; and then, And only then, be worthy of her name: For then her heart shall kindle her dull eye, Dull and inanimate, no more shall hang Chained to its object in brute slavery; But taught with patient interest to watch The process of things, and serve the cause Of order and distinctness, not for this Shall it forget that its most noble use, Its most illustrious province, must be found In furnishing clear guidance, a support Not treacherous to the mind's excursive power.
-So build we up the Being that we are; Thus deeply drinking-in the soul of things, We shall be wise perforce; and while inspired [free By choice, and conscious that the Will is Shall move unswerving, even as if impelled
By strict necessity, along the path
Of order and of good. Whate'er we see, Or feel, shall tend to quicken and refine; Shall fix, in calmer seats of moral strength, Earthly desires; and raise, to loftier heights Of divine love, our intellectual soul."
In open circle seated round, and hushed As the unbreathing air, when not a leaf Stirs in the mighty woods. So did he speak:
The words he uttered shall not pass away Dispersed, like music that the wind takes up By snatches, and lets fall, to be forgotten; No-they sank into me, the bounteous gift Of one whom time and nature had made wise,
Gracing his doctrine with authority Which hostile spirits silently allow; Of one accustomed to desires that feed On fruitage gathered from the tree of life; To hopes on knowledge and experience built;
Of one in whom persuasion and belief Had ripened into faith, and faith become A passionate intuition; whence the Soul, Though bound to earth by ties of pity and love,
From all injurious servitude was free.
The Sun, before his place of rest were reached,
Had yet to travel far, but unto us, To us who stood low in that hollow dell, He had become invisible,-a pomp Leaving behind of yellow radiance spread Over the mountain sides, in contrast bold With ample shadows, seemingly, no less Than those resplendent lights, his rich be- quest;
A dispensation of his evening power. -Adown the path that from the glen had led [Mate
The funeral train, the Shepherd and his Were seen descending :-forth to greet them
With ostentatious zeal.-Along the floor Of the small Cottage in the lonely Dell A grateful couch was spread for our repose; Where, in the guise of mountaineers, we lay, [sound Stretched upon fragrant heath, and lulled by Of far-off torrents charming the still night, And. to tired limbs and over-busy thoughts, Inviting sleep and soft forgetfulness.
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