The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery Collected and Revised by the Author |
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MORAL INFLUENCE. |
 | The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery |  |
MORAL INFLUENCE.
Our moral centre is a point minute:
But our circumference, oh! who can grasp,
In action, suff'ring, or involved Result?
A smile, a glance, a single breath, a tone,
A look of meaning, or a laugh of scorn,
The mere expression of the hectic mind
Clothing our features,—each may, haply, thrill
Some chord which touches by effectual ties
Events unborn; and make th' eternity
We dread, to vibrate with the deed we do!
But our circumference, oh! who can grasp,
In action, suff'ring, or involved Result?
A smile, a glance, a single breath, a tone,
A look of meaning, or a laugh of scorn,
The mere expression of the hectic mind
Clothing our features,—each may, haply, thrill
Some chord which touches by effectual ties
Events unborn; and make th' eternity
We dread, to vibrate with the deed we do!
Oh! for a sense of Duty more sublimed,
In all our ways, our wishes, and our words:
A sense that we are links in that long Chain
Of Consequence, which e'en from Adam's sin
To our last error, its unbroken length
So reaches, that we cannot act alone!
But rather, each with each is so inwove
By past connection, or by future power,
That Conduct grows immortal; and the act
From soul to soul with multiplying power,
Itself repeateth, when the Agent sleeps
In cold oblivion, by the world forgot.
The blemish'd morals and the blotted mind
How often thus our Rev'rence would escape!
And 'stead of reckless pride, religious care
The paths would purify where Virtue walks,
And solemnize existence. Action, then,
Inward, or bodied forth in social form,
Of sacredness in every sphere would breathe;
Till the whole Earth a mystic Temple grew
Hallow'd by God, by angels overwatch'd,
And by Humanity in all its moods
Devoutly-trodden: then would Duty spread
Its canopy above our ways and walks,
E'en as the heaven o'ervaults the varied earth
For ever: Faith would be our Law supreme,
And guarded Life one long religion prove.
In all our ways, our wishes, and our words:
A sense that we are links in that long Chain
Of Consequence, which e'en from Adam's sin
To our last error, its unbroken length
So reaches, that we cannot act alone!
But rather, each with each is so inwove
By past connection, or by future power,
That Conduct grows immortal; and the act
From soul to soul with multiplying power,
Itself repeateth, when the Agent sleeps
In cold oblivion, by the world forgot.
The blemish'd morals and the blotted mind
How often thus our Rev'rence would escape!
And 'stead of reckless pride, religious care
The paths would purify where Virtue walks,
And solemnize existence. Action, then,
Inward, or bodied forth in social form,
Of sacredness in every sphere would breathe;
Till the whole Earth a mystic Temple grew
Hallow'd by God, by angels overwatch'd,
And by Humanity in all its moods
Devoutly-trodden: then would Duty spread
Its canopy above our ways and walks,
E'en as the heaven o'ervaults the varied earth
For ever: Faith would be our Law supreme,
And guarded Life one long religion prove.
| The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery | |