And if error cometh in like a flood, it mixeth with streams of truth:
And the Adversary loveth to have it so, for thereby many are decoyed.
Providence is dark in its permissions; yet one day, when all is known,
The universe of reason shall acknowledge how just and good were they;
For the wise man leaneth on his wisdom, and the righteous trusteth to his
righteousness,
[ment.
And those who thirst for independence are suffered to drink of disappoint-
Wherefore?--to prove and humble them; and to teach the idolaters of
That it is but the ladder unto Him, on whom only they should trust. [truth
THERE is truth in the wildest scheme that imaginative heat hath engendered,
And a man may gather somewhat from the crudest theories of fancy;
The alchemist laboureth in folly, but catcheth chance gleams of wisdom,
And findeth out many inventions, though his crucible breed not gold;
The sinner, toying with witchcraft, thinketh to delude his fellows,
But there be very spirits of evil, and what if they come at his bidding?
He is a bold, bad man who dareth to tamper with the dead;
For their whereabout lieth in a mystery-that vestibule leading to eternity,
The waiting-room for unclad ghosts, before the presence-chamber of their
Mind may act upon mind, though bodies be far divided;
For the life is in the blood, but souls communicate unseen;
And the heat of an excited intellect, radiating to its fellows,
Doth kindle dry leaves afar off, while the green wood around it is un-
The dog may have a spirit, as well as his brutal master;
A spirit to live in happiness; for why should he be robbed of his existence?
Hath he not a conscience of evil, a glimmer of moral sense,
Love and hatred, courage and fear, and visible shame and pride?
There may be a future rest for the patient victims of the cruel;
And a season allotted for their bliss, to compensate for unjust suffering.
Spurn not at seeming error, but dig below its surface for the truth;
And beware of seeming truths, that grow on the roots of error:
For comely are the apples that spring from the Dead Sea's cursed shore:
But within are they dust and ashes, and the hand that plucketh them shall
A FREQUENT similar effect argueth a constant cause;
Yet who hath counted the links that bind an omen to its issue?
Who hath expounded the law that rendereth calamities gregarious,
Pressing down with yet more woes the heavy-laden mourner?
Who knoweth wherefore a monsoon should swell the sails of the prosperous,
Blithely speeding on their course the children of good luck?
Who hath companied a vision from the horn or ivory gate,*
Or met another's mind in his, and explained its presence?
There is a secret somewhat in antipathies; and love is more than fancy; Yea, and a palpable notice warneth of an instant danger;
For the soul hath its feelers, cobwebs floating on the wind,
That catch events in their approach with sure and apt presentiment,
So that some halo of attraction heraldeth a coming friend,
Investing in his likeness the stranger that passed on before;
And while the word is in thy mouth, behold thy word fulfilled,
And he of whom we spake can answer for himself.
Oh, man! little hast thou learned of truth in things most true;
How therefore shall thy blindness wot of truth in things most false?
Thou hast not yet perceived the causes of life or motion;
How then canst thou define the subtle sympathies of mind?
For the spirit, sharpest and strongest when disease hath rent the body, Hath welcomed kindred spirits in nightly visitations,
Or learned from restless ghosts dark secrets of the living,
And helped slow Justice to her prey by the dreadful teaching of a dream.
VERILY, there is nothing so true, that the damps of error have not warped
Verily, there is nothing so false, that a sparkle of truth is not in it. [it,
For the enemy, the father of lies, the giant Upas of creation,
Whose deadly shade hath blasted this once green garden of the Lord,
Can but pervert the good, but may not create the evil;
He destroyeth, but cannot build; for he is not antagonist deity;
Mighty in his stolen power, yet is he a creature and a subject;
Not a maker of abstract wrong, but a spoiler of concrete right:
The fiend hath not a royal crown; he is but a prowling robber,
Suffered, for some mysterious end, to haunt the king's highway;
And the keen sword he beareth, once was a simple ploughshare;
Yea, and his panoply of error is but a distortion of the truth;
The sickle that once reaped righteousness, beaten from its useful curve,
With axe, and spike, and bar, headeth the marauder's halbert.
Seek not further, oh, man! to solve the dark riddle of sin;
Suffice it, that thine own bad heart is to thee thine origin of evil.
"Who hath companied a vision from the horn," &c.] Virg. En. VI. 894-897: "Sunt geminæ somni portæ ; quarum altera fertur
Cornea; qua veris facilis datur exitus umbris;
Altera candenti perfecta nitens elephanto;
Sed falsa ad cœlum mittunt insomnia Manes."
THOU hast seen many sorrows, travel-stained pilgrim of the world,
But that which hath vexed thee most, hath been the looking for evil;
And though calamities have crossed thee, and misery been heaped on thy
Yet ills that never happened have chiefly made thee wretched. [head,
The sting of pain and the edge of pleasure are blunted by long expectation,
For the gall and the balm alike are diluted in the waters of patience;
And often thou sippest sweetness, ere the cup is dashed from thy lip;
Or drainest the gall of fear, while evil is passing by thy dwelling.
A man too careful of danger liveth in continual torment,
But a cheerful expecter of the best, hath a fountain of joy within him:
Yea, though the breath of disappointment should chill the sanguine heart,
Speedily gloweth it again, warmed by the live embers of hope;
Though the black and heavy surge close above the head for a moment,
Yet the happy buoyancy of Confidence riseth superior to Despair.
Verily, evils may be courted, may be wooed and won by distrust;
For the wise Physician of our weal loveth not an unbelieving spirit;
And to those giveth he good, who rely on his hand for good;
And those leaveth he to evil, who fear, but trust him not..
Ask for good, and hope it; for the ocean of good is fathomless;
Ask for good, and have it; for thy Friend would see thee happy;
But to the timid heart, to the child of unbelief and dread,
That leaneth on his own weak staff, and trusteth the sight of his eyes,
The evil he feared shall come, for the soil is ready for the seed,
And suspicion hath coldly put aside the hand that was ready to help him.
Therefore look up, sad spirit; be strong, thou coward heart,
Or fear will make thee wretched, though evil follow not behind:
Cease to anticipate misfortune-there are still many chances of escape;
But, if it come, be courageous; face it, and conquer thy calamity.
There is not an enemy so stout as to storm and take the fortress of the
Unless its infirmity turn traitor, and fear unbar the gates. [mind,
The valiant standeth as a rock, and the billows break upon him;
The timorous is a skiff unmoored, tost and mocked at by a ripple;
The valiant holdeth fast to good, till evil wrench it from him;
The timorous casteth it aside, to meet the worst half way:
Yet often-times is evil but a braggart, that provoketh and will not fight;
Or the feint of a subtle fencer, who measureth his thrust elsewhere;
Or perchance a blessing in a masque, sent to try thy trust,
The precious smiting of a friend, whose frowns are all in love;
Often the storm threateneth, but is driven to other climes, [confidence.
And the weak hath quailed in fear, while the firm hath been glad in his
THE sea-wort,* floating on the waves, or rolled up high along the shore, Ye counted useless and vile, heaping on it names of contempt;
Yet hath it gloriously triumphed, and man been humbled in his ignorance,
For health is in the freshness of its savour, and it cumbereth the beach with
Comforting the tossings of pain with its violet-tinctured essence, [wealth;
And by its humbler ashes enriching many proud.
Be this, then, a lesson to thy soul, that thou reckon nothing worthless,
Before thou heedest not its use, nor knowest the virtues thereof.
And herein, as thou walkest by the sea, shall weeds be a type and an earnest
Of the stored and uncounted riches lying hid in all creatures of God;
There be flowers making glad the desert, and roots fattening the soil,
And jewels in.the secret deep, scattered among groves of coral,
And comforts to crown all wishes, and aids unto every need,
Influences yet unthought, and virtues, and many inventions,
And uses above and around, which man hath not yet regarded.
Not long to charm away disease, hath the crocust yielded up its bulb,
"The sea-wort floating on the waves," &c.] The common sea-weeds on the shores of Europe, the algae and fuci, after having, for ages, been considered as synonymous with every thing vile and worthless, have, in modern times, been found to be abundant in iodine, the only known cure for scrofula, and kelp, so useful in many manufactures. Horace has signalized his ignorance of this fact in Od. III. 17, 10, "algâ inutili," &c.; and in II. Sat. 5, 8, ironically saying, that,"——————virtus, nisi cum re, vilior algâ est." Virgil also has put into the mouth of Thyrsis, in Ecl. VII. 42,
"Hath the crocus yielded up its bulb," &c.] The autumnal crocus, or colchicum, which consists of little more than a deep bulbous root and a delicate lilac flower, produces a substance which is called veratrin, and has been used with signal success in the cure of gout and similar diseases. A few lines lower down, with reference to the elm, I would remark, that no use has yet been discovered in the principle called ulmine. The boon of far Peru" is the potato.
Nor the willow lent its bark, nor the night-shade its vanquished poison;
Not long hath the twisted leaf, the fragrant gift of China,
Nor that nutritious root, the boon of far Peru,
Nor the many-coloured dahlia, nor the gorgeous flaunting cactus,
Nor the multitude of fruits and flowers, ministered to life and luxury;
Even so, there be virtues yet unknown in the wasted foliage of the elm,
In the sun-dried harebell of the downs, and the hyacinth drinking in the
In the sycamore's winged fruit, and the facet-cut cones of the cedar;
And the pansy and bright geranium live not alone for beauty,
Nor the waxen flower of the arbute, though it dieth in a day,
Nor the sculptured crest of the fir, unseen but by the stars;
And the meanest weed of the garden serveth unto many uses,
The salt tamarisk, and juicy flag, the freckled orchis, and the daisy.
The world may laugh at famine when the forest-trees yield bread,
When acorns give out fragrant drink,* and the sap of the linden is as
For every green herb, from the lotus to the darnel,
Is rich with delicate aids to help incurious man.
STILL, Mind is up and stirring, and pryeth in the corners of contrivance, Often from the dark recesses picking out bright seeds of truth: Knowledge hath clipped the lightning's wings, and mewed it up for a Training to some domestic task the fiery bird of heaven; [purpose, Tamed is the spirit of the storm, to slave in all peaceful arts, [death: To walk with husbandry and science; to stand in the vanguard against And the chemist balanceth his elements with more than magic skill, Commanding stones that they be bread, and draining sweetness out of Yet man, heedless of a God, counteth up vain reckonings, [wormwood. Fearing to be jostled and starved out, by the too prolific increase of his And asketh, in unbelieving dread, for how few years to come [kind, Will the black cellars of the world yield unto him fuel for his winter? Might not the wide waste sea be pent within narrower bounds?
* "When acorns give out fragrant drink," &c.] At a meeting of the MedicoBotanical Society, (in 1837,) the president introduced to the notice of the members a new beverage, which very much resembled coffee, and was made from acorns peeled, chopped, and roasted. Bread made from sawdust is certainly not very palatable, but no one can doubt that it is far more sweet and wholesome than "no bread;" in a famine, this discovery, which has passed almost sub silentio, would prove to be of the highest importance. The darnel, it may be observed in passing, is highly poisonous, and a proper opposite to the lotus.
|