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 | The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere |  |
LXIII. TRUTH.
Profane are they, and without ruth,
Unclean, unholy, and unjust,
Who, loving knowledge, love not Truth:
Such love is intellectual lust.
Unclean, unholy, and unjust,
Who, loving knowledge, love not Truth:
Such love is intellectual lust.
He loves not Truth who over-runs
Like hunting-ground her harvest store
Trampling the birthright of his sons;
Truth's gambler, staking ‘all’ on ‘more.’
Like hunting-ground her harvest store
Trampling the birthright of his sons;
Truth's gambler, staking ‘all’ on ‘more.’
Who Truth from Error scorns to sift;
Contemns that Truth enthroned in state,
God's Vestal keeping her sweet gift
In fruitfulness inviolate;
Contemns that Truth enthroned in state,
God's Vestal keeping her sweet gift
In fruitfulness inviolate;
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Who thirsts for truths of lesser place,
Discovered Fact, or Natural Law,
Yet spurns the supernatural base
Of Truth's whole kingdom without flaw:
Discovered Fact, or Natural Law,
Yet spurns the supernatural base
Of Truth's whole kingdom without flaw:
For on the adamantine Rock
Of Truth, Revealed, and Spirit-proved
Stands Faith, and meets the warring shock
Of world on world with face unmoved,
Of Truth, Revealed, and Spirit-proved
Stands Faith, and meets the warring shock
Of world on world with face unmoved,
Thrice blest because not ‘Flesh and Blood’
That knowledge certain and serene
To Peter taught of old, but God
Sole Teacher of the things unseen.
That knowledge certain and serene
To Peter taught of old, but God
Sole Teacher of the things unseen.
| The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere | |