Toward regions yet more tranquil.
That he, whose fixed despondency had given Impulse and motive to that strong discourse, Was less upraised in spirit than abashed; Shrinking from admonition, like a man Who feels that to exhort is to reproach.
Yet not to be diverted from his aim, The Sage continued:
The loss of confidence in social man,
By the unexpected transports of our age
Carried so high, that every thought, which looked Beyond the temporal destiny of the Kind, To many seemed superfluous, -as no cause Could e'er for such exalted confidence Exist, so none is now for fixed despair: The two extremes are equally disowned By reason: if, with sharp recoil, from one You have been driven far as its opposite, Between them seek the point whereon to build Sound expectations. So doth he advise Who shared at first the allusion; but was soon Cast from the pedestal of pride by shocks Which Nature gently gave, in woods and fields; Nor unreproved by Providence, thus speaking To the inattentive children of the world:
Vainglorious Generation! what new powers
On you have been conferred? what gifts, withheld From your progenitors, have ye received,
Fit recompense of new desert? what claim Are ye prepared to urge, that my decrees For you should undergo a sudden change; And the weak functions of one busy day, Reclaiming and extirpating, perform What all the slowly moving years of time, With their united force, have left undone? By nature's gradual processes be taught; By story be confounded! Ye aspire Rashly, to fall once more; and that false fruit, Which, to your overweening spirits, yields Hope of a flight celestial, will produce Misery and shame. But Wisdom of her sons Shall not the less, though late, be justified.'
"Such timely warning," said the Wanderer, Gave that visionary voice; and, at this day, When a Tartarean darkness overspreads The groaning nations; when the impious rule, By will or by established ordinance,
Their own dire agents, and constrain the good To acts which they abhor; though I bewail This triumph, yet the pity of my heart Prevents me not from owning, that the law By which mankind now suffers is most just For by superior energies; more strict Affiance in each other; faith more firm In their unhallowed principles; the bad Have fairly earned a victory o'er the weak, The vacillating, inconsistent good.
Therefore, not unconsoled, I wait, in hope To see the moment when the righteous cause Shall gain defenders zealous and devout
As they who have opposed her; in which Virtue Will, to her efforts, tolerate no bounds That are not lofty as her rights; aspiring By impulse of her own ethereal zeal. That spirit only can redeem mankind; And when that sacred spirit shall appear, Then shall our triumph be complete as theirs. Yet, should this confidence prove vain, the wise Have still the keeping of their proper peace; Are guardians of their own tranquillity. They act, or they recede, observe, and feel; 'Knowing the heart of man is set to be The centre of this world, about the which These revolutions of disturbances
Still roll; where all the aspects of misery Predominate; whose strong effects are such As he must bear, being powerless to redress; And that unless above himself he can
Erect himself, how poor a thing is Man !'*
"Happy is he who lives to understand, Not human nature only, but explores All natures, to the end that he may find
The law that governs each; and where begins The union, the partition where, that makes
Kind and degree, among all visible Beings; The constitutions, powers, and faculties Which they inherit, cannot step beyond, - And cannot fall beneath; that do assign To every class its station and its office, Through all the mighty commonwealth of things; Up from the creeping plant to sovereign Man. Such converse, if directed by a meek, Sincere, and humble spirit, teaches love: For knowledge is delight; and such delight Breeds love: yet, suited as it rather is To thought and to the climbing intellect, It teaches less to love than to adore; If that be not indeed the highest love!"
"Yet," said I, tempted here to interpose, The dignity of life is not impaired. By aught that innocently satisfies
The humbler cravings of the heart; and he Is still a happier man, who, for those heights Of speculation not unfit, descends;
And such benign affections cultivates
Among the inferior kinds; not merely those That he may call his own, and which depend, As individual objects of regard, Upon his care, from whom he also looks For signs and tokens of a mutual bond; But others, far beyond this narrow sphere, Whom, for the very sake of love, he loves Nor is it a mean praise of rural life
And solitude, that they do favor most, Most frequently call forth, and best sustain, These pure sensations; that can penetrate The obstreperous city; on the barren seas Are not unfelt; and much might recommend, How much they might inspirit and endear, The loneliness of this sublime retreat!"
"Yes," said the Sage, resuming the discourse Again directed to his downcast Friend, "If with the froward will and grovelling soul Of man offended, liberty is here,
And invitation every hour renewed,
To mark their placid state, who never heard Of a command which they have power to break, Or rule which they are tempted to transgress: These, with a soothed or elevated heart, May we behold; their knowledge register; Observe their ways; and, free from envy, find Complacence there:- but wherefore this to you? I guess that, welcome to your lonely hearth, The redbreast, ruffled up by winter's cold Into a 'feathery bunch,' feeds at your hand: A box, perchance, is from your casement hung For the small wren to build in ; not in vain, The barriers disregarding that surround This deep abiding-place, before your sight Mounts on the breeze the butterfly; and soars, Small creature as she is, from earth's bright flowers, Into the dewy clouds. Ambition reigns.
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