University of Virginia Library

LETTER TO A FRIEND.

Expand thyself, my comrade, and be kind
To all good things and scorn the local mind,
Which dwells on its own spot or village pump
Or glories in its pet peculiar hump
And void or vices; look beyond the bound
Of vestry vision, and the barren ground
Where the old meanness in its fetters moves
As on a treadmill through the ancient grooves
And ruts; away with sour parochial pride!
But leave the doors and windows in thee wide
To every grace that comes however far,
And do not deem thy private stain a star
Or others' beauty blots. The mind is deep
And soars above the petty rounds of sleep
Which custom builds, and daily links or loads
Along the beaten regulation roads.
Look up to Heaven and know thyself as large
As that, and measured by no prison marge
Of cold conventions. All the earth and sky,
The universe and even eternity,
Belong to thee—thou art; and nothing less
Than infinite, though in a mortal dress
Clothed but not coffined, tied but never chained
To any wheel of passion pre-ordained;
With instincts more than consecrated pelf—
Yea, thou art God; arise, and be thyself!
In present moods and moments do not live,
A purblind toy, by fancies fugitive
Tost to and fro with every idle gust
Or nosing like the swine amid the dust;
Before and after send thy searching aims
In quest of duties, not the sordid claims
Which drag men down to their primordial earth
And feed their hearts with hunger. Out of dearth
From darkness lift thy life in thought, to be
Thy better self, Divinity, and free.
No more the shutters of a sheltered vice,
And dismal curtains woven by prejudice
That keep the shadows in and sunbeams out
And throw fantastic figures with the doubt
Engendered! Let the freshening breezes blow
Through all the chambers of thy heart and flow
Into each act and fact, the airs that fly
Abroad in wingèd words of liberty,
To make or break the peoples. Join the hand
Of fellowship with every fair demand.
And honour woman, as thou would'st a tryst
With the Belovèd One, the Blessèd Christ.
Nature is big, and broadens at the tread
Of truth and love which into regions dead
Breathe life and light; it opens its great walls,
When once the honest seeker comes and calls
And knocks for entrance; and it takes him in
Though torn with trouble and defiled by sin,
To tell him secrets and the solemn use
Of higher things, the miracles profuse,
The ends and issues, where the fountains flow
Forth from God's feet to water worlds below.
Be all with Nature, be not much with men
Who travel not past their own pavement ken
Or grope in gutters for some jewel; stand
Upright and sunward, and about the land
Look as a child might in his mother's face
With confidence, who knows a foremost place
Lies ever there and welcome in her arms;
O commune with her kindly, let her charms
And teaching be thy daily cheer and rest;
Hang on her lips, and hide within her breast.
But, mixed with her, thou shalt be likewise son
Of God and with her and thyself at one.