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75

V. THE CHILD.

Germ of a world of thought! that shall create
Thought-worlds, or else belie thy parentage—
What full profession doth thy spirit engage
Of all of which thine elders make debate,
And yet know nothing? What they contemplate,
Is it even now thy fresh mind's heritage
To know and feel, without that surplusage
Of reasoning which doth reason agitate?
There is no childish touch about thy look;
But seriousness and seeming thought-result—
A still-unwritten, but arrangéd book,
Which we are all too eyeless to consult:
But it assures us, as the heavens do,
Of infinite beauty veil'd by that we view.
18th December 1838.