II.
“Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.”
Matt. x. 28.
What is the moral life? Of conscious power
The brute partakes: he thinks, and feels, and knows.
Say, is it mind or matter which thus shews
Like reason? Yet, in common with the flower,
Insect, or worm, the' enjoyment of his hour
Of being is his all, and death its close.
Not so the life that changes as it grows,
Knowledge of good and ill its fearful dower;—
The life of spirit, which is choice and will,
And by its choice self-shaped, becoming what
It loves and seeks,—essential good or ill;
Its character foreshadowing its lot;
A life which foes and tyrants cannot kill,—
Which death, that slays the body, harmeth not.
