Nugae Canorae :: :: University of Virginia Library

Humble yourselves, my Countrymen!—Bow down
The stubborn neck of Pride! for, east and west,
Do Anarchy and Outrage raise a shout,
And tempt with blasphemy the God of Heaven!—
Humble yourselves, my Countrymen!—behold,
Save in this quiet isle, how Discord stalks,
Spoiling the fair Creation. Discord, child
Of grasping Lust, who, many-handed beast,
Seizes whate'er of rich munificence,
Or plenteous benefit is pour'd abroad;
Wallowing unprofited, and unendow'd,
'Mid all that ministers to use and joy.

Why have We such immunity from woe?
Why is the wrath of heaven averted hence?
What have We left undone, or what perform'd,

To appease the God of Justice?—Countrymen—
With minds not unprepar'd; and consecrate
From all imaginations light, and vain,
From all unholy and polluting things,
Seek out the hidden cause: and, if ye find
(As sure ye will) no argument to calm
The humble man who loves his brethren all,
And knows their crimes; and night, and morn, puts up
A silent prayer for them who heed him not;
With deeply smitten, and o'erflowing hearts,
Turn to the God of Love!—

There is abroad
An evil spirit; a spirit evil and foul,
Who, under fair pretence of modern lights,
And vain philosophy, parcels the dole
Of human happiness (that quality
Sought for six thousand tedious years in vain)
With lavish distribution! who with speech
Drest up in metaphysic eloquence,
And eked out plausibly with abstract phrase,
Would snatch from God himself the agency
Of good and ill!—would spoil for ornament,
Particular and relative, this universe;

Where circumscribed frailty and defect,
And harmless prejudice, and discipline,
Lead on the social and religious man,
(A thing more sensitive than rational,
Whom one poor unrepealable restraint
More benefits than thousand abstract truths)
To gifted penitence, and righteous rule,
And meek suspension of the human will,
Till He imbibe the Heaven-evolved lore
Of Wisdom and divine Philosophy,
Through many a fruitful, and unfruitful age
Piously register'd! And so prepar'd,
By patient noting of the ministries
Of Heaven below; in shadows manifest;
And dim relations; binding ages past,
With present times, and ages yet unborn;
By persevering patience so prepar'd,
(And mind that loves to find a good in evil.
Not banish evil for uncertain good.)
The vast procession of created beings,
The Will that links the vilest elements,
In a perpetued influence,
To Highest natures, He shall comprehend:
Till the magnificence of forms unveil'd
The universal world shall seem to him

A scene of order, and progressive joy,
A blaze of light where God himself transfus'd
Lives in no fabled presence!

This foul spirit
God's holy place irreverently treading,
Break its solemnities, and shameless brings,
Scandal on many a sacred ordinance.
It mocks neglected worth, and secret grief,
That dare not lift a streaming eye to Heaven!
It promiseth the beauteous fruit of peace,
And virtue's coronal, no trial past,
No fiery anguish of the human will
Quench'd with sweet drops of mercy!

'Twould revoke
The judgment and the privilege annex'd
To Wealth and Talents, Influence and Power!
'Twould snatch the promis'd blessing from the poor,
Hatching an obstinate sedition
From pamper'd lust and infidel despair;
And blot out from its calendar of grace
Faith and forbearance; and deride the heart
That seeks in this “tempestuous state of things,”

To live a life whose inoffensive rule
Owes not its charter to the earth's wise men.

How were the graces of the mind produc'd?
Did not omniscient Deity defer
To banish hence, the appointed difference
Of states and things, of joys and earthly stores,
Of office and magnificence, and rank,
Which some, misnamed wise, affect to call
(Masking their hate in scorn) human abuse,
A vicious usurpation?—Countrymen,—
Beware of these, so opulent in speech,
So fair and plausible,—beware of these!—
For they would separate what their God has join'd
In mystic co-existence, evil and good,
Pleasure and Pain, Honour and Infamy!—
This is a scheme of means—we vainly look,
For ends, or resting-places here obtain'd!—
Where were temptation, Vice annihilate?
Could Charity exist where never came
The ills of persecution? Love perform
Its perfect work where hate inflicts no wound?
Could pity weep had man no miseries?
Meekness endure did proud men ne'er prevail?

Or Faith with fixed eye, be crown'd above
Did not some clouds obscure the moral world?

I ask of Thee, thou poor oppressed Man,
Who friendless feel'st thyself, save when thou turn'st
To the Everlasting Friend—I ask of Thee
Whose actions never have been understood,
Whom falsely fixed blame (attach'd to deeds
Inexplicable, save to the All-seeing One)
Has led a superficial world to cast
Among its vile dishonourable things;—
I ask of thee, whether the darkest hour
Of man's rejection, has not brought a boon
Thou prizest more than worlds.—Thou lovedst all,
And perhaps thou lovedst One, a fellow being,
Better than life itself;—thou hadst a soul
Of deepest, tenderest feeling;—yet for thee
There was a fix'd and secret interdict
Inwoven in the mystery of thy fate,
Which blasted all thy promises of joy!
It seem'd that thou wert guilty—'twas not so!
Thou wert what proud men call unfortunate!—
I ask of thee again, oppressed man,
If this withdrawing of all goodly things,

All the desirable blessings of the earth,
Has not more wrought in thee; more solid peace,
More quiet joy, and heavenly grace, produc'd,
Than aught a smiling providence could give?

And these resources which we ne'er foresee,
But which experience, sanctified by Heaven,
Holds it most safe to trust, this evil spirit
Would utterly destroy; impatient ever
Of present ill; and ne'er from pious faith
Trusting that all things tend to happiness.—
This evil spirit misnamed Liberty—
Licentiousness 'mong wise men deem'd, and call'd
By angels blasphemy; rejects a God
Not seeing as man sees; who sets at nought
All earthly wisdom, and of smallest things
Works mighty marvels of stupendous power!

But heed not, Countrymen, the bleating Wolf!
Humble yourselves before the God of Heaven,
Remembering still that Liberty ne'er comes
Where more of wishes, more of lusts intrude
Than human skill has power to gratify!
That liberty comes not with laws relax'd;
With troublous opposition, and with rude
And boisterous promise that futurity,

Blest with the flush of prosperous event,
And grac'd with revel joys, shall put to shame
The pale experience. Rather, Liberty,
Thou liv'st with social confidence and peace!
Where, reasoning from the unfallacious past,
We trust with sweet and sober certainty
The issue of the meditated deed.—
Or rather, Liberty, thou lov'st to dwell
Where personal honour, not defined rules;
Where manly generosity, and pride
That shrinks from every stain; not civic laws
That force us to be free, till Freedom's self
Becomes a galling servitude;—are found!

Then bow yourselves, my Countrymen, and own,
That, in a world where voluntary slaves
Exist by millions—wretched slaves to vice—
That, in a world where victims to the sword,
Famine, and pestilence, are swept away
As summer insects by an eastern blast,—
That, in a world like this—you're Blest and Free!