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The Christian Scholar

By the Author of "The Cathedral" [i.e. Isaac Williams]

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II. THE GEORGICS.
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274

II. THE GEORGICS.

So great and silent was thy love
For Nature's children, thence to prove
A power within thee to make wise
In all their ways and sympathies;—
With inmates of stream, vale, and wood,
E'en like a sacred brotherhood;
Looking on their things with their sense,
Nay rather with intelligence
Investing them, and thought and eye
Of reflective humanity.
Till lifeless things begin to breathe,
Things animate their ways inwreathe
With intellect and human thought;
So Passion is with all inwrought;
For parts of her own self she makes,
For sympathizing spirits takes:—
With playfulness , as one that smiled
Still inwardly, and so beguiled
The thoughts that on his bosom press
From burden of some home-distress,
Or sense of mortal nothingness.

275

For love without will shadows find
Of what lies in the feeling mind.
Thus Eden's curse and Eden's woes
Seem reconcil'd in that repose
Of spirit, which divinely still
Breath'd of high virtue, thought, and will,
Judgment, and souls to good allied,
Thus exercised and purified.
We the same phases still explore
On Nature's face with him of yore—
Features the same that grow not old
With their expression manifold;—
See the same moon and stars and sky
Woods, streams, and Nature's progeny,
So multiform, yet still they rise
The same in their varieties.
But unto us to free from harm
There rests a new and holy charm,
All things are to the Cross allied,
And by Its shadow sanctified.
At Nature's shrines all seem'd to be
To him replete with deity,
All living things with power indued,
Like children of his solitude.
Hence with instinctive Godhead wise,
And eloquent with auguries,—
Interpreters that are from high,
And messengers of destiny.

276

Creatures of God that meet our eyes,
They are like living mysteries;
And unto us they are made known
As children of the Holy One,
That teach a Father's care and love;
But how far of the things above
The varied semblance they may bear,
To things eternal minister,
No lights their airy paths illume,
'Tis hid in shadows of the tomb.
They share our woes, and speak the wrath
That is upon our mortal path,
Defy our knowledge, leave behind
Our vain enquiries on the wind.
 
------“Molle atque facetum
Virgilio annuerunt gaudentes rure Camœnæ.”