THE COURSE OF TIME. BOOK III. BEHOLD'ST thou yonder, on the crystal sea, Before it, Virtue stands, and smiling sees, The Bible held this mirror's place on earth. But, few would read, or, reading, saw themselves. The chase was after shadows, phantoms strange, That in the twilight walked of Time, and mocked The eager hunt, escaping evermore. Yet with so many promises and looks Of gentle sort, that he whose arms returned Empty a thousand times, still stretched them out, And grasping, brought them back again unfilled. In rapid outline thou hast heard of man, "Love God, love truth, love virtue, and be happy;" These were the words first uttered in the ear Of every being rational made, and made For thought, or word, or deed accountable. Most men the first forgot, the second none. Whatever path they took, by hill or vale, By night or day, the universal wish, The aim, and sole intent, was happiness. But, erring from the heaven-appointed path, Strange tracks indeed they took through barren wastes, And up the sandy mountain climbing toiled, As if he saw some verdant spot, where grew The heavenly flower, where sprung the well of life, Though Wisdom's eye no vestige could discern, Wisdom was right, for still the terms remained Unchanged, unchangeable, the terms on which True peace was given to man, unchanged as God, Who, in his own essential nature, binds Eternally to virtue happiness, Nor lets them part through all his universe. Philosophy, as thou shalt hear, when she Shall have her praise, her praise and censure too, Did much, refining and exalting man; But could not nurse a single plant that bore True happiness. From age to age she toiled, And starry heavens; and then retired far back And there sat pale, and thoughtfully, and weighed Relations, and pursuits, in reason's scale; And searched and weighed, and weighed and searched again, And many a fair and goodly volume wrote, If carefully attended to, to cure Mankind of folly, to root out the briers, And thorns, and weeds, that choked the growth of joy; And showing, too, in plain and decent phrase, Which sounded much like wisdom's, how to plant, Were tried; but still the fruit was green and sour. |