 | The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery |  |
SACREDNESS OF INFANCY.
A dew-drop, trembling on the stem of Life;
A rose-bud peeping into fairy bloom;
A billow on the Sea's maternal breast
Leaping, amid some jubilee of airs
By glad winds caroll'd; or, a dancing beam
Of sunlight, laughing in its brightest joy;
In truth, whate'er is delicate and soft,
Minute and fragile, innocent or gay,
Oft to the mirror of the mind presents
Types of that beauty which a tender babe
To feeling Manhood's fascinated eye
Affordeth; touch'd at times with solemn hues,
Which Hearts prophetic cannot fail to cast
Round a frail Heritor of life unknown!
A rose-bud peeping into fairy bloom;
A billow on the Sea's maternal breast
Leaping, amid some jubilee of airs
By glad winds caroll'd; or, a dancing beam
Of sunlight, laughing in its brightest joy;
In truth, whate'er is delicate and soft,
Minute and fragile, innocent or gay,
Oft to the mirror of the mind presents
Types of that beauty which a tender babe
To feeling Manhood's fascinated eye
Affordeth; touch'd at times with solemn hues,
Which Hearts prophetic cannot fail to cast
Round a frail Heritor of life unknown!
But, when o'er Revelation's book we bend,
There do we find, with more than love confirm'd,
Whatever Nature by her mute appeals
Hath prompted: for the Bible e'en to babes
Lends the sweet mercy of its soft regard
And bland protection. Other creeds may scorn
Such aidless Being; and the gibing laugh
Of Science o'er their frailness may uplift
Its godless péan; but in this we boast,—
That Christianity the cradle seeks,
Stoops to a babe with condescending brow;
And while the Pagan, by her creed transform'd
From yearning softness into heartless stone,
Commits her infant to broad Ganga's stream
Foodless to perish, Christ in Spirit comes,
Commands the Priesthood on its forehead plant
The sealing water, and the mystic sign,
And bids it welcome to His Ark of grace.
There do we find, with more than love confirm'd,
Whatever Nature by her mute appeals
Hath prompted: for the Bible e'en to babes
Lends the sweet mercy of its soft regard
And bland protection. Other creeds may scorn
Such aidless Being; and the gibing laugh
Of Science o'er their frailness may uplift
Its godless péan; but in this we boast,—
That Christianity the cradle seeks,
Stoops to a babe with condescending brow;
And while the Pagan, by her creed transform'd
From yearning softness into heartless stone,
Commits her infant to broad Ganga's stream
Foodless to perish, Christ in Spirit comes,
Commands the Priesthood on its forehead plant
The sealing water, and the mystic sign,
And bids it welcome to His Ark of grace.
| The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery | |