University of Virginia Library

Bound in the links of that ethereal Chain
Which upward, from the insect's tiny pulse
On earth that throbs, to yonder wheeling orbs
Enormous, its unbroken coil extends,
Are all things by the Hand almighty held.
And thus, what chance to vulgar sense appears,
Is veil'd causation, and confirm'd decree.
Nature herself, through each organic change
And form, or function, is but Will supreme,
In might, or beauty, marching to result
Predestined. Not an atom is consumed;
No leaf can vibrate, not a billow laugh,
Nor wild breeze flutter on its fairy wing,
But God o'errules it, with control as nice
As that which belts the planets with a zone
Of harmony, and binds the stars with law.
And though mere chaos, to an eye immersed
In sensual darkness, Life's perturbèd scene
Must ever be, not thus to them who scan
The world's confusion by celestial light
From scripture beaming, does mysterious time
Appear. For then, disorder is but plan
Divinely-working, by arranged degrees
Upward and onward into truth evolved
Through the long maze of labyrinthine wills,
Or human actions. Kings, and slaves, and priests;
Erected monarchies, or crumbled thrones;
The shout of warriors, or an infant's wail;
In life, in faith, in conduct, or in creed
Whate'er be witness'd, God behind the scene
From His high watch-tower of incessant sway
Governs, and guides the blended Whole of man.
Never the Eye omniscient drops its lid,
Or slumbers: whether Virtue's godlike brow
Be laurell'd, and the Church's heart exult;
Or dark temptation, like a Demon come,
Harness the soul, and lash Desire along
To ruin,—in that change, no change exists.
For in the freedom of the foulest will
Venting itself in vanity, or vice;
Or in the soarings of a strong-wing'd faith
That heavenward mounts, and leaves low earth behind,
Around them moves One all-inclusive Will
Which, leaving man responsible and free,
For God retains supremacy and law.

And none, whose souls, by sacred fear made wise,
The lesson of their weakness well have learn'd;
Or rightly weigh'd, how much from ties of love
And charms of social power the moral frame
Impression gathers,—dare to Chance ascribe
A covenant of Hearts, when struck between
Two in the faith, accordant and conjoin'd.
Pure Love our moral gravitation makes;
At once the motion, and the rest of man:
But when, and where, and how electric chains
Are closely fasten'd into Friendship's heart,
Should make us ponder; since for bane, or bliss,
Over man's conscious destiny they cast
A character Eternity will not efface!
Since Love is plastic; and by secret charm
Shapes to resemblance with its moral self
Our yielded bosom; and the yearning heart
Thus takes the likeness of each thing it loves,—
E'en as some insect from the herb derives
A hue responsive to the food it eats.
Hence, only virtue forms a solid base
Rooted, and grounded in the heart of truth,
Where friendship's high and holy structure stands
Bedeck'd, and order'd, by approving Heaven.
Two Finites can no lasting friendship make;
Between them both an Infinite must stand,
And He is God! Without Him, all is mock;
The paint and pageant of a soul's outside
By fancy colour'd, or by feeling tinged;
But, wanting holiness, that All it needs
Which crowns a friendship with undying charm.
Fair Amity! when thus, indeed, the fruit
Of sacred principle, by love inspired,
Thy bloom is fragrant of yon world of bliss
Ethereal, and with fadeless beauty rife.
And such, when Luther and Melancthon's heart
In oneness holy blended their deep powers,
Wert thou; a friendship from the Cross which sprang
In the green fulness of their common faith.
And, in the archives of the past, how few
The feelings, that more lovingly have twined
A wreath of nature round the brow of grace,
Than those, which from the young and verdant breast
Of their twin Manhood, did together rise!