Patriots have toil'd, and in their country's cause 705 710 715 The sweets of liberty and equal laws; But martyrs struggle for a brighter prize, And win it with more pain. Their blood is shed In confirmation of the noblest claim 720 Our claim to feed upon immortal truth, To walk with God, to be divinely free, To soar, and to anticipate the skies! Yet few remember them. They liv'd unknown 725 And chas'd them up to heaven. Their ashes flew He is the freeman whom the truth makes free, 735 Of Nature, and though poor perhaps compar'd 740 745 *See Hume. Are they not his by a peculiar right, And by an emphasis of interest his, Whose eye they fill with tears of holy joy, Whose heart with praise, and whose exalted mind 750 755 760 765 770 Nor penury, can cripple or confine. No nook so narrow but he spreads them there With ease, and is at large. The oppressor holds His body bound; but knows not what a range 775 Whom God delights in, and in whom he dwells. Acquaint thyself with God, if thou would'st taste 789 'Till then unfelt, what hands divine have wrought. It yields them; or recumbent on its brow, 785 790 With what he views. The landscape has his praise, But not its author. Unconcern'd who form'd The paradise he sees, he finds it such, And such well-pleas'd to find it, asks no more. 795 Not so the mind that has been touch'd from heaven, To read his wonders, in whose thought the world, Not for its own sake merely, but for his 800 Much more who fashion'd it, he gives it praise; To earth's acknowled'd sovereign, finds at once 805 The soul that sees him, or receives sublim'd 810 And wheels his throne upon the rolling worlds. Much conversant with heaven, she often holds 815 With those fair ministers of light to man, That fill the skies nightly with silent pomp, Sweet conference. Inquires what strains were they With which heaven rang, when every star, in haste 820 Sent forth a voice, and all the sons of God Shouted for joy.-" Tell me, ye shining hosts, "That navigate a sea that knows no storms, "Beneath a vault unsullied with a cloud, "Have reach'd this nether world, ye spy a race "Favour'd as our's; transgressors from the womb, "And hasting to a grave, yet doom'd to rise, 830 "And to possess a brighter heaven than your's? "As one who long detain'd on foreign shores "Pants to return, and when he sees afar "His country's weather-bleach'd and batter'd rocks, "From the green wave emerging, darts an eye 835 "Radiant with joy towards the happy land; "So I with animated hopes behold, "And many an aching wish, your beamy fires, "That shew like beacons in the blue abyss, 840 "And that, infus'd from heaven, must thither tend." 845 So reads he nature whom the lamp of truth Illuminates. Thy lamp, mysterious word! Which whoso sees no longer wanders lost, With intellects bemaz'd in endless doubt, But runs the road of wisdom. Thou hast built, With means that were not till by thee employ'd, 850 Worlds that had never been hadst thou in strength They are thy witnesses, who speak thy power 855 Till thou proclaim thyself. Their's is indeed 860 The uninform'd and heedless souls of men. We give to chance, blind chance, ourselves as blind, 865 The glory of thy work; which yet appears Perfect and unimpeachable of blame, Challenging human scrutiny, and prov'd Then skilful most when most severely judged. But chance is not; or is not where thou reign'st: 870 Thy providence forbids that fickle power (If power she be that works but to confound) To mix her wild vagaries with thy laws. Yet thus we dote, refusing while we can Instruction, and inventing to ourselves 875 Gods such as guilt makes welcome; gods that sleep, Or disregard our follies, or that sit Amus'd spectators of this bustling stage. Thee we reject, unable to abide Thy purity, till pure as thou art pure; 880 Made such by thee, we love thee for that cause For which we shunn'd and hated thee before. Then we are free. Then liberty, like day, Breaks on the soul, and by a flash from heaven 885 A voice is heard that mortal ears hear not Till thou hast touch'd them; 'tis the voice of song A loud hosanna sent from all thy works; Which he that hears it with a shout repeats, And adds his rapture to the general praise. 890 In that blest moment Nature, throwing wide 895 900 Give what thou can'st, without thee we are poor; 905 |