AMBITION. LXIX. SLEEP. UNWEARIED God, before whose face The night is clear as day, Whilst we, poor worms, o'er life's scant race Now creep, and now delay; We with death's foretaste alternate Our labour's dint and sorrow's weight, Save, in that fever-troubled state When pain and care hold sway. Dread Lord! Thy glory, watchfulness, Is but disease in man; O! hence upon our hearts impress Our place in the world's plan! Pride grasps the powers by Heaven displayed; But ne'er the rebel effort made But fell beneath the sudden shade Of nature's withering ban. LXX. THE ELEMENTS. πολλὰ τὰ δεῖνα, κουδεν MAN is permitted much To scan and learn In Nature's frame; Till he well-nigh can tame Brute mischiefs, and can touch Invisible things, and turn All warring ills to purposes of good. 8. Thus, as a God below, He can control, And harmonize, what seems amiss to flow As severed from the whole And dimly understood. But o'er the elements One Hand alone One Hand has sway. What influence day by day In straiter belt prevents The impious Ocean, thrown Alternate o'er the ever-sounding shore? Or who has eye to trace How the Plague came? Forerun the doublings of the Tempest's race? Or the Air's weight and flame On a set scale explore? Thus GoD has willed That man, when fully skilled Still gropes in twilight dim; Inflexible to him That so he may discern His feebleness, And e'en for earth's success TO HIM in wisdom turn, Who holds for us the Keys of either home, Earth and the world to come. ACTIVITY. LXXI. "Freely ye have received: freely give." "GIVE any boon for peace! Why should our fair-eyed Mother e'er engage In the world's course and on a troubled stage, From which her very call is a release? No! in thy garden stand, And tend with pious hand The flowers thou findest there, Which are thy proper care, O man of God! in meekness and in love, And waiting for the blissful realms above.' |