University of Virginia Library

XXI.

“Akin to lofty song, its source the same,
But speaking in a higher, holier name,
And with superior power—O reverence thou
The Holy Faith that hath been taught thee now!
Walk by its rule thyself, and gently draw
Thy erring people to embrace its law,
Who—thus ‘made happy by thy peaceful sway,
To thee through life shall willing homage pay.’”
He smiled again, then said: “Be duly checked,
In thee, the pride of wakening Intellect,
Nor be thy reason borne along by it,
An inch beyond the scope of what is writ.
The virtue, Aymund, of a humble trust
Becometh beings who are made of dust.
What we are here, to us, my friend, is known;
What we shall be, belongs to God alone.
But safely in His care we may repose,
Who cared for us ere Earth itself arose,
Without presuming more of aught to know,
Than He, to us, hath seen it good to show.
Searching the Unrevealed, the strongest Mind
Its perfect emblem in the Thames may find.
See! how—a current deep, and swift, and strong—
It rushes, Aymund, in its pride along,
As if of power—when it at length shall gain
The foamy margin of the onward main—
To make a felt impression, far and wide,
Upon green Ocean's unresisting tide!
Alas for pride! 'Tis met by mightier force,
Met, and rolled backward on its distant source,
Compelled to re-survey each inland shore,
Which it had passed, with so much pomp, before!”