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 eye, Even like an altar lit by fire from heaven, Kindle before us. Your discourse this day, That, like the fabled Lethe, wished to flow In creeping sadness, through oblivious shades Of death and night, has caught at every turn The colors of the sun. Access for you
Is yet preserved to principles of truth, Which the imaginative Will upholds In seats of wisdom, not to be approached By the inferior Faculty that moulds, With her minute and speculative pains, Opinion, ever changing!
A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract Of inland ground, applying to his ear The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell; To which, in silence hushed, his very soul Listened intensely; and his countenance soon Brightened with joy; for from within were heard Murmurings, whereby the monitor expressed Mysterious union with its native sea.
Even such a shell the universe itself
Is to the ear of Faith; and there are times, I doubt not, when to you it doth impart
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 rocks At night's approach bring down the unclouded sky, To rest upon their circumambient walls;
A temple framing of dimensions vast,
And yet not too enormous for the sound Of human anthems,
- choral song, or burst Sublime of instrumental harmony, To glorify the Eternal! What if these Did never break the stillness that prevails Here, if the solemn nightingale be mute, And the soft woodlark here did never chant Her vespers, Nature fails not to provide Impulse and utterance. The whispering air Sends inspiration from the shadowy heights, And blind recesses of the caverned rocks;
The little rills, and waters numberless,
Inaudible by daylight, blend 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
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!
From these imaginative heights, that yield Far-stretching views into eternity, Acknowledge that to Nature's humbler power Your cherished sullenness is forced to bend Even here, where her amenities are sown With sparing hand. Then trust yourself abroad To range her blooming bowers, and spacious fields Where on the labors of the happy throng
She smiles, including in her wide embrace City, and town, and tower, and sea with ships Sprinkled; be our Companion while we track
Her rivers populous 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
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.
Who, 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 down; 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 means Which silently they yield, are multiplied
The spiritual presences of absent things.
Trust me, that, for the instructed, time will come When they shall meet no object but may teach Some acceptable lesson to their minds
Of human suffering, or human joy.
So shall they learn, while all things speak of man, Their duties from all forms; and general laws, 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 burden 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 processes of things, and serve the cause Of order and distinctness, not for this Shall it forget that its most noble use,
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