Volume 1 — FRAGMENT. Excellence of the Christian Principle set forth, and recommended. [From an unpublished work.]

If thou would’st lay thee in the grave at last, And die as dies the good man; if thy heart In that sad hour would feel its sympathies Sweeten’d, and soothed by solitary thought; Let thy whole life with virtuous actions teem, With virtue’s law compare. Thou can’st not live Too pure, or o’er thy smallest actions keep Too close restraint. Thou can’st not think too oft, There is a never, never sleeping eye Which reads thy heart, and registers thy thoughts; Thou can’st not say too oft—‘Teach me to know My end, that I may feel how short it is’— Nor can’st thou lie too frequent, or too low Before that cross whereon the Saviour hung— A blameless sacrifice. It is his fate, And by his disobedience invoked, That man shall view the sepulchre with dread; That when he looks into its narrow depths, Its gloom—its cheerlessness; and, spurning earth, Reflection lifts the separating veil Which hides the future, undissembled awe Shall grasp his soul, and will not be dispell’d. Yet in this chalice hath a provident God Commingled blessings. He hath mark’d a path, And promis’d peace to him who walks therein, And safety through the portals of the grave: And though thorns weary, and temptations press To win him into crime—his word is sure, And it will save him. Our emotions take Their hues from the complexion of the heart, As landscapes their variety from light; And he who pays his conscience due regard, Is virtue’s friend, and reaps a sure reward. He who has train’d his heart with lib’ral care, Has robb’d the sable tyrant of his crown, And torn the robe of terror from his breast. Death cannot fright him; he has that within Which, as the needle to the Arctic kept By law immutable, his mind upbears, And fastens where earth’s influence cannot reach: Let loose the cohort of diseases—rend The finest shoots of passion from his heart— Snap ev’ry tie of common sympathy, And let the adverse and remorseless waves Of disappointment roar against his breast— And you have struck some rock on Newstra’s coast, With but the heavings of a summer’s sea. His spirit knows no thraldom, and it takes A flight sublime, where earth hath never power. There is a half-way virtue in the world Which is the world’s worst enemy; its bane; Its with’ring curse. It cheats it with a show— But offers nought of substance, when is sought Its peaceful fruits. It suffers men in power To let the young aspirant rise or fall As chance directs. The rich man fosters it; And for the favor, it shuts up his ears Against the cry of virtuous penury; Or bids him dole out with a miserly hand, A farthing, where a thousand should be thrown And proffer’d kindly. The lone orphan’s cries, The widow’s wail in impotence, perchance Secure a few unmeaning tears—but not The pity which administers relief. Words flow as freely as a parrot talks At tales of suffering; and tears may fall As free as Niobe’s; but not a sacrifice The heart accepts, nor pleasure is forgone, Which marks the principle of virtue there, Or such as finds acceptance in the skies. Who pays with pity, all my debt of love— Who weeps for me, yet never sees my lack— Who says be clothed, yet never proffers aught— He’s not my fellow, nor deserves the name. A feeble virtue is a vice, adorn’d With virtue’s semblance. ’Tis a negative And useless quality. It exempts from wo Insufferable, yet grudges perfect bliss; And he but tricks him in a knave’s attire, Who boasts no other. He’s but half the man Who, when temptation stares him in the face, Assents, yet trembles to be overcome! Such men do things by halves, and never do Aught with an earnest soul. They fool away A life, in which the good and evil mix So equal, that the sum is neutralized; And Justice on their sepulchres inscribes No sterner truth, than when she writes—a blank. Why linger then betwixt the two extremes— The passive puppet of each circumstance? Why pure, and dev’lish—mortal, and immortal— Too good for earth—and yet unfit for Heaven? Why not at once, dispel these baneful mists, Thrust from thy path, the arts and blandishments Which win to wickedness; and rise at once With a proud moral freedom, until thou Can’st stand upon the stars—and see to Heaven?