How happy is he born and taught
That serveth not another's will;
Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his utmost skill!
Whose passions not-his-masters are,
Whose soul is still prepared for death,
Untied unto the worldly care
Of public fame or private breath;
Who envies none that chance doth raise,
Or vice; who never understood
How deepest wounds are given by praise,
Nor rules-of-state, but rules of good:
Who hath his life from-rumours freed,
Whose conscience is his strong retreat;
Whose state can neither flatterers feed,
Nor ruin make oppressors great.
Who God doth late and early pray
More of his grace than gifts to lend;
And entertains the harmless day
With a religious book or friend.
This man is freed from servile bands
Of hope to rise, or fear to fall;
Lord of himself, though not of lands:
And having nothing, yet hath all.
How are thy servants blest, O Lord!
How sure is their defence!
Eternal wisdom is their guide,
Their-help Omnipotence.
In foreign realms and lands remote,
Supported by thy care,
Through burning climes I pass'd unhurt,
And breath'd the tainted air.
Thy mercy sweeten'd every toil,
Made every region please;
The hoary Alpine bills it warm'd,
And smooth'd the Tyrrhene seas.
Think oh my soul, devoutly think,
How, with affrighted eyes,
Thou saw'st the wide extended deep
In all its horrors rise.
Confusion dwelt in every face,
And fear in every heart;
When waves-on-waves, and gulfs-on-gulfs,
O'ercame the pilot's art.
Yet then from all my griefs, O Lord,
Thy mercy set me free,
Whilst, in the confidence of prayer,
My faith took hold on thee.
For, though in-dreadful-whirls we hung
High on the broken wave,
I knew thou wert not slow to hear,
Nor impotent to save.
The storm was laid, the winds retired,
Obedient to thy will;
The sea, that roar'd at thy command,
At-thy-command was still.
In midst of dangers fears, and death,
Thy goodness I'll adore;
And praise thee for thy mercies past,
And humbly hope for more.
My life, if thou preservest my life,
Thy sacrifice shall be;
And death, if death must be my doom,
Shall join my soul to thee.
DID sweeter sounds adorn my flowing tongue
Than ever man pronounced, or angels sung:
Had I all knowledge, human and divine,
That thought can reach, or science can define;
And had I power to give that knowledge birth
In all the speeches of the babbling earth :
Did Shadrach's zeal my glowing breast inspire
To weary tortures and rejoice in fire:
Or had I faith like that which Israel saw
When Moses gave them miracles and law:
Yet, gracious Charity! indulgent guest!
Were not thy power exerted in my breast,
Those speeches would send-up unheeded prayer,
That scorn-of-life would be but wild despair;
A cymbal's sound were better than my voice-
My faith were form, my eloquence were noise.
Charity decent-modest - easy-kind-
Softens the high, and rears the abject, mind;
Knows, with just reins and gentle hand, to guide
Betwixt vile shame and arbitrary pride.
Not soon provoked, she easily forgives,
And much she suffers as she much believes-
Soft peace she brings wherever she arrives,
She builds our quiet as she forms our lives;
Lays the rough path of peevish nature even,
And opens in-each-heart a little heaven.
Each other gift, which God on man bestows,
Its proper bounds and due restriction knows;
To one fix'd
dedicates its power,
And finishing-its-act exists no more:
Thus, in obedience to what heaven decrees, Knowledge shall fail and prophecy shall cease;But lasting Charity's more ample sway,
Nor bound by time nor subject to decay,
In-happy-triumph shall for-ever live,
And endless good diffuse and endless praise receive.
As, through the artist's intervening glass,
eye observes the distant planets pass,
A little we discover, but allow
That more-remains-unseen than art can show:
So, whilst our mind its knowledge would improve,
(Its feeble eye intent on things above)
High as we may, we lift our reason up,
By faith directed, and confirm'd by hope;
Yet are we able only to survey
Dawning of beams and promises of day,-
Heaven's fuller effluence mocks our dazzled sight,
Too great its swiftness, and too strong its light.
But soon the mediate clouds shall be dispell'd:
The sun shall soon be face-to-face beheld
In all his robes, with all his glory on-
Seated sublime on his meridian throne.
Then constant faith, and holy hope, shall die,
One lost in certainty, and one in joy:
Whilst thou, more happy power, fair Charity!
Triumphant sister, greatest of the three!
Thy office, and thy nature, still the same,
Lasting thy lamp, and unconsumed thy flame,
Shalt still survive--
Shalt stand before-the-host-of-heaven confest,
For-ever blessing, and for-ever blest.
True Nobility.
SEARCH we the springs,
And backward trace the principles of things: There shall we find that, when the world began, One common mass composed the mould of man; One paste of flesh on all degrees bestow'd,
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