 | Romance and revery |  |
103
TOLERANCE.
He is not great whose work or word,
By fiery indignation stirred,
Would judge all evil hearts that live
With no relenting palliative.
By fiery indignation stirred,
Would judge all evil hearts that live
With no relenting palliative.
Nor he that by too neat a skill
Would axiomate the human will,
And bid our fettered minds declare
Responsibility a snare.
Would axiomate the human will,
And bid our fettered minds declare
Responsibility a snare.
Nor he that seems for those who list
An icy intellectualist,
Cramping morality's wide span
In bounds utilitarian.
An icy intellectualist,
Cramping morality's wide span
In bounds utilitarian.
Nor he that mercy's form would dress
With tinselled robes of mawkishness,
And give to crimes of worst intent
His facile tears for nutriment.
With tinselled robes of mawkishness,
And give to crimes of worst intent
His facile tears for nutriment.
104
Nor he (nay, he the least of all!)
Who speaks of sin's eternal thrall,
And deems that by some dark decree
Man is what man shall ever be! ...
Who speaks of sin's eternal thrall,
And deems that by some dark decree
Man is what man shall ever be! ...
But he is great who looks on shame
And dares to name it by its name,
Yet feels his breast burn warm for those
Hard-struggling in temptation's throes!
And dares to name it by its name,
Yet feels his breast burn warm for those
Hard-struggling in temptation's throes!
Who rates at full and dreary worth
The bitter despotisms of birth,
Where tyrant ignorance controls
Her loyal tens of thousand souls!
The bitter despotisms of birth,
Where tyrant ignorance controls
Her loyal tens of thousand souls!
Who sees how vice her venom wreaks
On the frail babe before it speaks,
And how heredity enslaves
With ghostly hands that reach from graves!
On the frail babe before it speaks,
And how heredity enslaves
With ghostly hands that reach from graves!
Who well has pored on life and thence
Deduced sublime experience;
Who pities error since he must,
Though still his pity leaves him just!
Deduced sublime experience;
Who pities error since he must,
Though still his pity leaves him just!
105
Whom random ire, whom sudden ruth,
Can turn not from the vital truth,
Nor once retard nor once advance
His calm and regal tolerance ...
Can turn not from the vital truth,
Nor once retard nor once advance
His calm and regal tolerance ...
Ah! such as he should walk afar
With Plato in some purer star,
And mark the grand Greek muse and dream
In some new deathless Academe!
With Plato in some purer star,
And mark the grand Greek muse and dream
In some new deathless Academe!
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