Change, the law of the 990 universe
Did most resemble him. Degrees and ranks, Fraternities and orders-heaping high New wealth upon the burthen of the old, And placing trust in privilege confirmed And re-confirmed-are scoffed at with a smile Of greedy foretaste, from the secret stand Of Desolation, aimed: to slow decline These yield, and these to sudden overthrow : Their virtue, service, happiness, and state Expire; and nature's pleasant robe of green, Humanity's appointed shroud, enwraps Their monuments and their memory. vast Frame
Of social nature changes evermore Her organs and her members with decay Restless, and restless generation, powers And functions dying and produced at need, And by this law the mighty whole subsists: With an ascent and progress in the main ; Yet, oh! how disproportioned to the hopes And expectations of self-flattering minds!
The courteous Knight, whose bones are here interred,
Lived in an age conspicuous as our own
For strife and ferment in the minds of men ; Whence alteration in the forms of things, IOII Various and vast. A memorable age! Which did to him assign a pensive lot- To linger 'mid the last of those bright clouds That, on the steady breeze of honour, sailed In long procession calm and beautiful.
He who had seen his own bright order fade,
Think And its devotion gradually decline,
gently of (While war, relinquishing the lance and shield, the past Her temper changed, and bowed to other laws) Had also witnessed, in his morn of life,
That violent commotion, which o'erthrew, In town and city and sequestered glen, Altar, and cross, and church of solemn roof, And old religious house-pile after pile; And shook their tenants out into the fields, Like wild beasts without home! Their hour
But why no softening thought of gratitude, No just remembrance, scruple, or wise doubt? Benevolence is mild; nor borrows help, 1030 Save at worst need, from bold impetuous force, Fitliest allied to anger and revenge. But Human-kind rejoices in the might Of mutability; and airy hopes, Dancing around her, hinder and disturb
Those meditations of the soul that feed
The retrospective virtues.
Break from the maddened nations at the sight
Of sudden overthrow; and cold neglect
Is the sure consequence of slow decay.
Even," said the Wanderer, " as that courteous
Bound by his vow to labour for redress
Of all who suffer wrong, and to enact By sword and lance the law of gentleness, (If I may venture of myself to speak, Trusting that not incongruously I blend Low things with lofty) I too shall be doomed
To outlive the kindly use and fair esteem Of the poor calling which my youth embraced With no unworthy prospect. But enough; 1050 -Thoughts crowd upon me-and 'twere seemlier now
To stop, and yield our gracious Teacher thanks For the pathetic records which his voice Hath here delivered; words of heartfelt truth, Tending to patience when affliction strikes ; To hope and love; to confident repose In God; and reverence for the dust of Man."
« ПредишнаНапред » |