There is not an enemy so stout as to storm and take the fortress of the mind, Unless its infirmity turn traitor, and Fear unbar the gates. The valiant standeth as a rock, and the billows break upon him; Yet oftentimes is evil but a braggart, that provoketh and will not fight; The precious smiting of a friend, whose frowns are all in love: Often the storm threateneth, but is driven to other climes, And the weak hath quailed in fear, while the firm hath been glad in his confidence. OF HIDDEN USES. THE sea-wort (3) floating on the waves, or rolled up high along the shore, Ye counted useless and vile, heaping on it names of contempt: Yet hath it gloriously triumphed, and man been humbled in his ignorance, For health is in the freshness of its savour, and it cumbereth the beach with wealth; Comforting the tossings of pain with its violet-tinctured essence, And by its humbler ashes enriching many proud. Be this then a lesson to thy soul, that thou reckon nothing worthless, Because thou heedest not its use, nor knowest the virtues thereof. And herein, as thou walkest by the sea, shall weeds be a type and an earnest Of the stored and uncounted riches lying hid in all creatures of God: Not long to charm away disease, hath the crocus (*) yielded up its bulb, Not long hath the twisted leaf, the fragrant gift of China, Nor that nutritious root, the boon of far Peru, Nor the many-coloured dahlia, nor the gorgeous flaunting cactus, In the sycamore's winged fruit, and the facet-cut cones of the cedar; When acorns give out fragrant drink, (5) and the sap of the linden is as fatness: For every green herb, from the lotus to the darnel, Is rich with delicate aids to help incurious man. Still, Mind is up and stirring, and pryeth in the corners of contrivance, Often from the dark recesses picking out bright seeds of truth: Knowledge hath clipped the lightning's wings, and mewed it up for a purpose, Training to some domestic task the fiery bird of heaven; Tamed is the spirit of the storm, to slave in all peaceful arts, To walk with husbandry and science; to stand in the vanguard against death: And the chemist balanceth his elements with more than magic skill, Commanding stones that they be bread, and draining sweetness out of wormwood. Yet man, heedless of a God, counteth up vain reckonings, Fearing to be jostled and starved out, by the too prolific increase of his kind; And asketh, in unbelieving dread, for how few years to come Fear not, son of man, for thyself nor thy seed :—with a multitude is plenty; God's blessing giveth increase, and with it larger than enough. Search out the wisdom of nature, there is depth in all her doings; And dews are sucked into the cloud, dropping fatness on the world: Yet hath she specially for each its microscopic purpose: There is use in the prisoned air, that swelleth the pods of the laburnum ; If the lowest menial of nature knew not her secret office? If the thistle never sprang up, to mock the loose husbandry of indolence, For otherwhile falleth it out that truth, driven to extremities, O, blinded is thine eye, if it see not just aptitude in all things; The sage, and the beetle at his feet, hath each a ministration to perform ; The brier and the palm have the wages of life, rendering secret service. Neither is it thus alone with the definite existences of matter; But motion and sound, circumstance and quality, yea, all things have their office. The zephyr playing with an aspen leaf,-the earthquake that rendeth » continent; The moonbeam silvering a ruined arch,—the desert wave dashing up a pyramid; The thunder of jarring icebergs,—the stops of a shepherd's pipe; The howl of the tiger in the glen,—and the wood-dove calling to her mate; The vulture's cruel rage,―the grace of the stately swan; The fierceness looking from the lynx's eye, and the dull stupor of the sloth ̧ To these, and to all, is there added each its USE, though man considereth it lightly; For Power hath ordained nothing which Economy saw not needful. All things being are essential to the vast ubiquity of God; Neither is there one untig overinucn, nor freed from nonourable servitude. For essence without necessity argueth a moral weakness. And his pervading unity quickeneth the whole creation. Man doeth one thing at once, nor can he think two thoughts together; OF COMPENSATION. EQUAL is the government of heaven in allotting pleasures among men, The poor man rejoiceth at his toil, and his daily bread is sweet to him: Or the straitened appetites of man drink more than their fill of luxury ‣ Also though penury and pain be real and bitter evils, I would reason with the poor afflicted, for he is not so wretched as he seemeth. What right hath an offender to complain, though others escape punishment, If the stripes of earned misfortune overtake him in his sin? Wherefore not endure with resignation the evils thou canst not avert? For the coward pain will flee, if thou meet him as a man: Consider, whatever be thy fate, that it might and ought to have been worse, Need hope, and patience, and courage, be strangers to the meanest hovel ? And these be as precious ore, that waiteth the skill of the coiner: hardly, And now thou hast drained the bitter, take heed that thou lose not the sweet. Power is seldom innocent, and envy is the yoke-fellow of eminence; The poor man counteth not the cost at which such wealth hath been pur chased; He would be on the mountain's top without the toil and travail of the climbing. |