University of Virginia Library

TRUE VICTORIES.

Truth has calm conquests, where the sword and spear
Can claim no part—not loud or noisy, tho'
Of mightiest results: and from these flow
The blessings which, with heart-deep ties, endear
The altar and the fireside, and rear,
On the sublime affections which thence grow,
(Eternal pillars, proof against each blow
Of outward chance and self-betraying fear)
The state's vast fabric, on its one sure base;
For brute force reaches not unto the thought
And heart of Man, nor can it thence displace
One prejudice—great changes must be wrought
By Men's best feelings, thro' their ownselves: they
Must work the good for themselves, their own way,
Else it is none to them, it is as naught:
Man is not a machine, that's made to play,
And spin his happiness, so much per day!
Let but the inward eye of Reason first
See clear: instruct him to allay his thirst
At the pure waters from Truth's springheads brought,
And thou may'st leave the rest to him—they ought
Surely to know best their own wants—the worst
Of all ways is by force to make Men do
That which alone can be reached, surely, thro'
Their own cooperation, their own will
And feelings, which once forced, the object still
Remains imperfect, unattained, nay grows
A bitter evil; for the wise man knows
That there is only one compulsion, one
Divine constraint, by means the gentlest won,
Whereby men can, sublimely, certainly,
Be urged to godlike things: and that is, of
Truth, truth divine, and still diviner love:
The cónstraint of the God within the breast,
Whose fiat gained, brings over all the rest;
For, still, by gentlest ways the highest ends
Are gained, and that, which will not break, soon bends!
Kind words are mightier than the hand of Force,
And Mens' affections, led into their course,
Flow gently, which, obstructed, fret and chafe,
And make, what else were easy, hard, unsafe;
And Love is mightiest, and maketh all
The motions of Man's spirit musical!
And what are hand and sword without the heart?
As reeds within a child's weak grasp at best:
Which break short, when home to their object pressed.
And with it? less—what boots the meaner part,
When that which is most godlike is possest?
Then use them not: use thoughts! these are the true
And viewless rundles of the ladder of
All spiritual greatness: far above
Earth's mists they lift us, full in God's own view;
By these His angels missions bring of Love,
(Our thoughts the imagin'd wings on which they move)
And God himself makes use of them, as do
His angels, only with a higher view,
The Jacob's ladder which He sometimes déscends too!