History, and science, and prophecy, and art, are workings all of God: Not in vain, O brother, hath soul the spurs of enterprize, Nor aimlessly panteth for adventure, waiting at the cave of mystery: Not in vain the cup of curiosity, sweet and richly spiced, Is ruby to the sight, and ambrosia to the taste, and redolent with all fra grance: Thou shalt drink, and deeply, filling the mind with marvels; Count, count your hopes, heirs of immortality and love; For lo, my trust is strong to dwell in many worlds, And cull of many brethren there, sweet knowledge ever new: I yearn for realms where fancy shall be filled, and the ecstacies of freedom shall be felt, And the soul reign gloriously, risen to its royal destinies : I look to recognize again, through the beautiful mask of their perfection, The dear familiar faces I have somewhile loved on earth: I long to talk with grateful tongue of storms and perils past, And praise the mighty Pilot that hath steered us through the rapids: He shall be the focus of it all, the very heart of gladness,— My soul is athirst for God, the God who dwelt in man! Prophet, priest, and king, the sacrifice, the substitute, the Saviour, Rapture of the blessed in the hunted one of earth, the Pardoner in the victim: How many centuries of joy concentrate in that theme, How often a Methusalem might count his thousand years, and leave it unexhausted! And lo, the heavenly Jerusalem, with all its gates one pearl, That pearl of countless price, the door by which we entered,— Come, tread the golden streets, and join that glorious throng, The happy ones of heaven and earth, ten thousand times ten thousand; Hark, they sing that song,-and cast their crowns before him; Their souls alight with love,-Glory, and Praise, and Immortality !- And even the seraph at thy side hath covered his face with wings. Both he not speak parables?—each one goeth on his way, Ye that hear, and I that counsel, go on our ways forgetful. For the terrible realities whereto we tend, are hidden from our eyes, Slow to dread those coming fears, the thunder and the trumpet; Motes, steaming on the sight, dim our purblind eyes, Dark to see the ponderous orb of nearing Immortality: A pleasant voice, and nothing more,-doth he not speak parables? Look to thy soul, O man, for none can be surety for his brother: Of Ideas. Mind is like a volatile essence, flitting hither and thither, A solitary sentinel of the fortress body, to show himself everywhere by turns: Mind is indivisible and instant, with neither parts nor organs, That it doeth, it doth quickly, but the whole mind doth it: An active versatile agent, untiring in the principle of energy, Nor space, nor time, nor rest, nor toil, can affect the tenant of the brain; His dwelling may verily be shattered, and the furniture thereof be disarranged, But the particle of Deity in man slumbereth not, neither can be wearied: It taketh in but one idea at once, moulded for the moment to its likeness: A maze ever altering, as the dance of gnats upon a sunbeam, Swift, intricate, neither to be prophesied, nor to be remembered in succession, So, the mind of a man, single, and perpetually moving, Flickereth about from thought to thought, changed with each idea; For the passing second metamorphosed to the image of that within its ken, And throwing its immediate perceptions into each cause of contemplation. 17 It shall imagine pride or pleasure, treading on the edges of temptation; Or heed of God and of his Christ, and grow transformed to glory. Therefore, it is wise and well to guide the mind aright, That its aptness may be sensitive to good, and shrink with antipathy from evil: For use will mould and mark it, or nonusage dull and blunt it;— So to talk of spirit by analogy with substance; ;་ And analogy is a truer guide, than many teachers tell of, Nevertheless, heed well, that this Athlete, growing in thy brain, And see thou discipline his strength, and point his aim discreetly; A common mind perceiveth not beyond his eyes and ears: He is swift to speak and slow to think, dreading his own dim conscience; He cannot dwell apart, nor breathe at a distance from the crowd, But minds of nobler stamp, and chiefest the mint-marked of heaven, Walk independent by themselves, freely manumitted of externals: They carry viands with them, and need no refreshment by the way, Nor drink of other wells than their own inner fountain. Strange shall it seem how little such a man will lean upon the accidents of life, He is winged and needeth not a staff; if it break, he shall not fall: His eyes may open on a prison-cell, but the bare walls glow with imagery; His ears may be filled with execration, but are listening to the music of sweet thoughts; He may dwell in a hovel with a hero's heart, and canopy his penury with peace, For mind is a kingdom to the man, who gathereth his pleasure from Ideas. |