HERE closed the Tenant of that lonely vale His mournful Narrative commenced in pain, In pain commenced, and ended without peace : Yet tempered, not unfrequently, with strains Of native feeling, grateful to our minds; And doubtless yielding some relief to his, While we sate listening with compassion due Such pity yet surviving, with firm voice,
That did not falter, though the heart was moved, The Wanderer said—
For the calamities of mortal life
That the procession of our fate, howe'er Sad or disturbed, is ordered by a Being
Of infinite benevolence and power, Whose everlasting purposes embrace All accidents, converting them to good. -The darts of anguish fix not where the seat Of suffering hath been thoroughly fortified By acquiescence in the Will Supreme For Time and for Eternity; by faith, Faith absolute in God, including hope, And the defence that lies in boundless love Of his perfections; with habitual dread Of aught unworthily conceived, endured Impatiently; ill-done, or left undone, To the dishonour of his holy Name.
Soul of our Souls, and safeguard of the world! Sustain, Thou only canst, the sick of heart; Restore their languid spirits, and recall Their lost affections unto Thee and thine!" Then as we issued from that covert Nook, He thus continued
To Heaven."How beautiful this dome of sky,
And the vast hills, in fluctuation fix'd
At thy command, how awful! Shall the Soul,
Human and rational, report of Thee
Even less than these? Be mute who will, who can,
Yet I will praise thee with empassioned voice:
My lips, that may forget thee in the crowd,
Cannot forget thee here; where Thou hast built, For thy own glory, in the wilderness!
Me didst thou constitute a Priest of thine,
In such a Temple as we now behold
Reared for thy presence: therefore, am I bound To worship, here, and every where -as One Not doomed to ignorance, though forced to tread, From childhood up, the ways of poverty; From unreflecting ignorance preserved,
And from debasement rescued. By thy grace The particle divine remained unquenched; And, mid the wild weeds of a rugged soil, Thy bounty caused to flourish deathless flowers, From Paradise transplanted, wintry age Impends; the frost will gather round my heart; And, if they wither, I am worse than dead!
Come, Labour, when the worn-out frame requires Perpetual sabbath; come, disease and want; And sad exclusion through decay of sense;
But leave me unabated trust in Thee
And let thy favour, to the end of life, Inspire me with ability to seek
Repose and hope among eternal things
Father of heaven and earth! and I am rich, And will possess my portion in content!
And what are things Eternal?- Powers depart," The grey-haired Wanderer steadfastly replied, Answering the question which himself had asked, "Possessions vanish, and opinions change, And Passions hold a fluctuating seat:
But, by the storms of circumstance unshaken, And subject neither to eclipse nor wane, Duty exists;-immutably survive,
For our support, the measures and the forms, Which an abstract Intelligence supplies;
Whose kingdom is, where Time and Space are not :
Of other converse, which mind, soul, and heart, Do, with united urgency, require,
What more, that may not perish? Thou, dread Source, Prime, self-existing Cause and End of all,
That, in the scale of Being, fill their place, Above our human region, or below,
Set and sustained;-Thou- Who didst Of Infancy around us, that Thyself, Therein, with our simplicity a while
Might'st hold, on earth, communion undisturbed —
Who from the anarchy of dreaming sleep, Or from its death-like void, with punctual care, And touch as gentle as the morning light, Restor'st us, daily, to the powers of sense, And reason's steadfast rule-Thou, Thou alone Art everlasting, and the blessed Spirits, Which thou includest, as the Sea her Waves: For adoration thou endur'st; endure
For consciousness the motions of thy will; For apprehension those transcendent truths Of the pure Intellect, that stand as laws, (Submission constituting strength and power) Even to thy Being's infinite majesty! This Universe shall pass away a work Glorious! because the shadow of thy might, A step, or link, for intercourse with Thee. Ah! if the time must come, in which
my feet No more shall stray where Meditation leads, By flowing stream, through wood, or craggy wild, Loved haunts like these, the unimprison'd Mind May yet have scope to range among her own, Her thoughts, her images, her high desires. If the dear faculty of sight should fail, Still, it may be allowed me to remember What visionary powers of eye and soul
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