The loaded soil, and ye may waste much good In senseless riot, but ye will not find,
In feast, or in the chase, in song or dance, A liberty like his who, unimpeached
Of usurpation, and to no man's wrong, Appropriates nature as his Father's work, And has a richer use of yours than you. He is indeed a freeman. Free by birth Of no mean city-planned or ere the hills Were built, the fountains opened, or the sea With all his roaring multitude of waves. His freedom is the same in every state; And no condition of this changeful life, So manifold in cares, whose every day Brings its own evil with it, makes it less; For he has wings that neither sickness, pain, Nor penury, can cripple or confine:
No nook so narrow but he spreads them there With ease, and is at large. The oppressor holds His body bound; but knows not what a range His spirit takes, unconscious of a chain; And that to bind him is a vain attempt,
Whom God delights in, and in whom He dwells. Acquaint thyself with God, if thou wouldst taste His works. Admitted once to His embrace, Thou shalt perceive that thou wast blind before: Thine eye shall be instructed; and thine heart, Made pure, shall relish with divine delight, Till then unfelt, what hands divine have wrought. Brutes graze the mountain-top, with faces prone, And eyes intent upon the scanty herb
It yields them; or, recumbent on its brow,
Ruminate, heedless of the scene outspread Beneath, beyond, and stretching far away From inland regions to the distant main. Man views it, and admires; but rests content With what he views. The landscape has his praise, Unconcerned who formed
But not its Author.
The paradise he sees, he finds it such,
And, such well pleased to find it, asks no more.
Not so the mind that has been touched from Heaven, And in the school of sacred wisdom taught
To read His wonders, in whose thought the world, Fair as it is, existed ere it was.
Not for its own sake merely, but for His
Much more who fashioned it, he gives it praise,- Praise that, from earth resulting, as it ought, To earth's acknowledged Sovereign, finds at once Its only just proprietor in Him.
The soul that sees Him or receives sublimed New faculties, or learns at least to employ More worthily the powers she owned before; Discerns in all things what, with stupid gaze Of ignorance, till then she overlooked, A ray of heavenly light, gilding all forms Terrestrial in the vast and the minute- The unambiguous footsteps of the God Who gives its lustre to an insect's wing, And wheels His throne upon the rolling worlds. Much conversant with heaven, she often holds With those fair ministers of light to man,
That fill the skies nightly with silent pomp, Sweet conference. Inquires what strains were they With which heaven rang, when every star, in haste
To gratulate the new-created earth,
Sent forth a voice, and all the sons of God Shouted for joy." Tell me, ye shining hosts, That navigate a sea that knows no storms, Beneath a vault unsullied with a cloud, If from your elevation, whence ye view Distinctly scenes invisible to man,
And systems, of whose birth no tidings yet Have reached this nether world, ye spy a race Favoured as ours-transgressors from the womb, And hasting to a grave, yet doomed to rise, And to possess a brighter heaven than yours?" As one who, long detained on foreign shores, Pants to return, and when he sees afar
His country's weather-bleached and battered rocks, From the green wave emerging, darts an eye Radiant with joy towards the happy land; So I with animated hopes behold,
And many an aching wish, your beamy fires, That show like beacons in the blue abyss, Ordained to guide the embodied spirit home From toilsome life to never-ending rest. Love kindles as I gaze. I feel desires That give assurance of their own success, And that, infused from heaven, must thither tend. So reads he nature whom the lamp of truth Illuminates. Thy lamp, mysterious Word! Which whoso sees no longer wanders lost, With intellect bemazed in endless doubt, But runs the road of wisdom. Thou hast built, With means that were not till by thee employed, Worlds that had never been hadst thou in strength
Been less, or less benevolent than strong. They are thy witnesses, who speak thy power And goodness infinite, but speak in ears That hear not, or receive not their report. In vain thy creatures testify of thee, Till thou proclaim thyself. Theirs is indeed A teaching voice; but 'tis the praise of thine, That whom it teaches it makes prompt to learn, And with the boon gives talents for its use. Till thou art heard, imaginations vain Possess the heart, and fables false as hell; Yet, deemed oracular, lure down to death
The uninformed and heedless souls of men.
We give to chance, blind chance, ourselves as blind, The glory of thy work; which yet appears Perfect and unimpeachable of blame, Challenging human scrutiny, and proved Then skilful most when most severely judged. But chance is not; or is not where thou reign'st: Thy providence forbids that fickle power
(If power she be that works but to confound)
To mix her wild vagaries with thy laws.
Yet thus we dote, refusing while we can Instruction, and inventing to ourselves Gods such as guilt makes welcome; gods that sleep, Or disregard our follies, or that sit
Amused spectators of this bustling stage.
Thee we reject, unable to abide
Thy purity, till pure as thou art pure.
Made such by thee, we love thee for that cause For which we shunned and hated thee before.
Then we are free. Then liberty, like day,
Breaks on the soul, and by a flash from heaven Fires all the faculties with glorious joy.
A voice is heard that mortal ears hear not Till thou hast touched them; 'tis the voice of song, A loud hosanna sent from all thy works;
Which he that hears it with a shout repeats, And adds his rapture to the general praise. In that blest moment, nature, throwing wide Her veil opaque, discloses with a smile. The Author of her beauties, who, retired Behind His own creation, works unseen By the impure, and hears His power denied. Thou art the source and centre of all minds- Their only point of rest, eternal Word! From thee departing, they are lost, and rove At random, without honour, hope, or peace. From thee is all that soothes the life of man, His high endeavour, and his glad success, His strength to suffer, and his will to serve. But, O thou bounteous Giver of all good, Thou art of all thy gifts thyself the crown! Give what thou canst, without thee we are poor; And with thee rich, take what thou wilt away.
THE SECOND ADVENT.
THE groans of nature in this nether world, Which Heaven has heard for ages, have an end. Foretold by prophets, and by poets sung, Whose fire was kindled at the prophet's lamp,
The time of rest, the promised Sabbath, comes.
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