 | Later Lyrics |  |
133
FIRST CAUSES.
“We need no God,” the Atheist said;
“The World is wound, and set to go:
How it was wound we do now know;
But go it will when we are dead.
“The World is wound, and set to go:
How it was wound we do now know;
But go it will when we are dead.
You question me as one who pleads
To keep his ancient faith with tears:
In this our harmlessness appears,—
We rob no nature of its needs.
To keep his ancient faith with tears:
In this our harmlessness appears,—
We rob no nature of its needs.
The weak, for whom a God must be,
Will hold the apt invention still,
While from the arbitrary will
We and the hardier souls are free.”
Will hold the apt invention still,
While from the arbitrary will
We and the hardier souls are free.”
134
Like one who in the dark would walk
Where men by day securely tread,
And stumbles with uneasy dread,
The Atheist blundered in his talk.
Where men by day securely tread,
And stumbles with uneasy dread,
The Atheist blundered in his talk.
Now from my window I survey
This amphitheatre of peace,
Where moon and stars, without surcease,
Nightly present their heavenly play.
This amphitheatre of peace,
Where moon and stars, without surcease,
Nightly present their heavenly play.
I see the beauteous drama wrought;
Its acts and interludes I trace:
I need not seek the Author's face,
Whose spirit visits me unsought.
Its acts and interludes I trace:
I need not seek the Author's face,
Whose spirit visits me unsought.
And what that need, both old and new,
The eternal need of human-kind?
Not that we keep a fable blind:
It is that thou, dear God, be true.
The eternal need of human-kind?
Not that we keep a fable blind:
It is that thou, dear God, be true.
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