Works of the Hon. and Very Rev. William Herbert ... Excepting those on botany and natural history. With additions and corrections by the author |
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SONNET.
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 | Works of the Hon. and Very Rev. William Herbert |  |
SONNET.
1804.
“Parent of good! since all thy laws are just,
Say, why permits thy judging providence
Oppression's hand to bow meek innocence,
And gives prevailing strength to fraud and lust?
Who steels with stubborn force the arm unjust,
That proudly wars against Omnipotence?
Who bids thy faithful sons, that reverence
Thine holy will, be humbled in the dust?
Amid the din of pleasure Virtue sighs,
While the fierce conqueror binds his impious head
With laurel, and the car of triumph rolls.”
Thus I;—when bright before my wondering eyes
A heavenly spirit stood, and smiling said:
“Blind moralist, is earth the sphere of souls?”
Say, why permits thy judging providence
Oppression's hand to bow meek innocence,
And gives prevailing strength to fraud and lust?
Who steels with stubborn force the arm unjust,
That proudly wars against Omnipotence?
Who bids thy faithful sons, that reverence
Thine holy will, be humbled in the dust?
Amid the din of pleasure Virtue sighs,
While the fierce conqueror binds his impious head
With laurel, and the car of triumph rolls.”
Thus I;—when bright before my wondering eyes
A heavenly spirit stood, and smiling said:
“Blind moralist, is earth the sphere of souls?”
| Works of the Hon. and Very Rev. William Herbert | |