And her wrongs shall cling around his neck, to hinder him from rising with the just: For his last most solemn act hath linked his name with liar, And the crime of Ananias is branded on his brow! A good man commendeth his cause to the one great Patron of innocence, Convinced of justice at the last, and sure of good meanwhile. He knoweth he hath a Guardian, wise and kind and strong, And can thank Him for giving, or refusing, the trust or the curse of riches: His confidence standeth as a rock; he dreadeth not malice nor caprice, No gain, but by its price; labour, for the poor man's meal, Labour, with fear, for the merchant, whose hopes are ventured on the sea; Labour, with care, for the man of law, responsible in his gains; Labour, with envy and annoyance, where strangers will thee wealth; And the grasp of the mind is weakened, as the talons of a caged vulture. And he that hath more than enough, is a thief of the rights of his brother. OF INVENTION. MAN is proud of his mind, boasting that it giveth him divinity, Yet with all its powers can it originate nothing; For the great God into all his works hath largely poured out himself, To improve and expand is ours, as well as to limit and defeat; The potter must have his clay, and the mason his quarry, Doth the soil generate herbs, or the torrid air breed flies, Or the water frame its monads, or the mist its swarming blight? Mediately, through thousand generations, having seeds within themselves, All things, rare or gross, own one common Father. Truly spake Wisdom, There is nothing new under the sun : We only arrange and combine the ancient elements of all things. A sharpening of the spiritual sight, to discern hidden aptitudes. From the basket and acanthus, is modelled the graceful capital: The shadowed profile on the wall helpeth the limner to his likeness: The footmarks stamped in clay, lead on the thoughts to printing; The strange skin garments cast upon the shore suggest another hemisphere: (23) A falling apple taught the sage pervading gravitation; The Huron is certain of his prey, from tracks upon the grass; And shrewdness, guessing on the hint, followeth on the trail: But the hint must be given, the trail must be there, or the keenest sight is as blindness. BEHOLD the barren reef, which an earthquake hath just left dry; It hath no beauty to boast of, no harvest of fair fruits : But soon the lichen fixeth there, and, dying, diggeth its own grave, (24) And softening suns and splitting frosts crumble the reluctant surface; And cormorants roost there, and the snail addeth its slime, And efts, with muddy feet, bring their welcome tribute; And the sea casteth out her dead, wrapped in a shroud of weeds; The wild vine clingeth to the briar, and ivy runneth green among the corn, Lordly beeches are studded on the down, and willows crowd around the .rivulet, And the tall pine and hazel thicket shade the rambling hunter. Shall the rock boast of its fertility? shall it lift the head in pride?— Shall the mind of man be vain of the harvest of its thoughts? For we learn upon a hint, we find upon a clue, We yield an hundred-fold; but the great sower is Analogy. A boll of rotting flax before the bridal veil, An egg before an eagle, a thought before a thing, A spark struck into tinder, to light the lamp of knowledge, A slight suggestive nod to guide the watching mind, A half-seen hand upon the wall, pointing to the balance of Comparison, By culture man may do all things, short of the miracle,-Creation; Here is the limit of thy power,-here let thy pride be stayed : The soil may be rich, and the mind may be active, but neither yield unsown; The eye cannot make light, nor the mind make spirit: It is to cling to contiguities, to be keen in catching likeness, Atoms and thoughts are used again, mixing in varied combinations; |