 | The Poetical Works of Robert Story |  |
XIX.
Here the King left me, for my heart, he knew,Required some time its transports to subdue,
And then, returning, said: “Thy realm's affairs,
Henceforward, ask—demand thy gravest cares.
Look—now thou hast ‘regained thy high command’”—
He smiled—“‘look to the lowly of thy land!’
The rich and great have power themselves to guard;
The honest poor man in his Sovereign's ward!
The sentiments expressed in this passage, and elsewhere, are agreeable to the character and conduct of the Great Alfred, as described by Asser: “The King, eager to give up to God the half of his daily service, and more also, if his ability on the one hand and his malady on the other, would allow him, showed himself a minute investigator of the truth in all his judgments, and this especially for the sake of the poor, to whose interests, day and night, among other duties of this life, he was ever wonderfully attentive.”
To him thy bounties, with free hand, dispense;
See justice done him; be his Providence.
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That makes thy goodness rather felt, than seen.
Yon Sun himself, with undiminished power,
Is ever finest in his shaded hour,
When his bright place in heaven is only known
By the fine splendours all around him thrown—
Excessive splendours which, as men behold,
Transmute the meanest clouds they touch, to gold!
| The Poetical Works of Robert Story | |