21.

In scenes domestic thou wert seen
To most advantage: there serene
Thy virtues knew no cloud:
Not like our modern matrons, thou,
With theories primed; in all the shew
Of education proud!

22.

Thou sattest like the brooding hen,

Thy little ones round thee! No ken
From thee did ever roam,

Like as from those of baffled aim

In prouder flatteries, to claim
Divinity at home!

23.

Love was thy ruling principle;

Love that has neither wish, nor will,

Save those which end in love:

As others' praise thou ne'er hadst sought,

Their praise or blame ne'er caused thy thought

From love's calm sphere to rove.

24.

Thou little wishedst child of thine
In vain accomplishments to shine,
Nor yet, with cynic tongue,

Sought'st thou to check its growth, if chance
Some genial exuberance

In nature's order sprung.

25.

All affectation thou didst hate:

To be, not to appear: to wait

In patience for the hour,

Was thine, when thou, by choice of mood,
Of time, and place, couldst call up good,
Clothed from above with power !

26.

Thou mov'dst in patience, and wert still
In mind; seeking to work the will

Of Him who rules above:

Of Him who, to his little ones,

Gives to repress earth's mightiest sons,
With energy of love!

G

27.

Yes; thou, in thy humility,

Thy gentleness, simplicity,

Might'st be an instance quoted,

That God, the worldly to confound,

Than strength more signally hath crowned,

Weakness to him devoted.

28.

By weakness here none can suspect

Is meant deficient intellect ;

That lowliness we mean

Which dare not move in its own will;

That finds its strength in being still:
In anguish is serene.

29.

Though tender thou, and delicate,

And, in thy youth, on thee did wait,

To fallen flesh and blood,

Those comforts which are most endeared;

As one that all defilement feared,

These were by thee withstood!

30.

Why, if to render man the sport
Of fate, is he thus taught to court
E'en voluntary pain?

Why see we not each brutish tribe
The strange obliquity imbibe ?
From appetites refrain ?

31.

'Twould be as easy so to make Instinctively e'en brutes forsake

That which they most desired, If this were but a play in Him Who rules the universal scheme, And for no end required.

32.

By instinct thwarting instinct, so Brutes might the like confusion know As that of tongues in Babel,

Were it, as sophists oft have written Men are with love of penance smitten,

To be their Maker's fable.

G 2

Yes, if entire perplexity,

33.

And one grand universal lie

Were that which heaven devised,

Thus it might be! But no, 'tis proved That man by heaven is chiefly lov'd,

Since man's alone "chastised."

34.

Yes, man-and man alone is left!

The noblest of all creatures 'reft

Alone, of powers to reap

A satisfaction full, entire,

From what as creatures men desire,
To sleep, to feed, -and weep!

35.

Man is the sole discordant thing;
In man alone there jars a string

Of endless discontent:

He is, 'till influence from above
Tune him to harmony of love,

Like shattered instrument.