PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY. First Series. PREFATORY. THOUGHTS, that have tarried in my mind, and peopled its inner chambers, The sober children of reason, or desultory train of fancy; Clear running wine of conviction, with the scum and the lees of speculation; Corn from the sheaves of science, with stubble from mine own garner; Searchings after truth, that have tracked her secret lodes, And come up again to the surface-world, with a knowledge ground ed deeper; Arguments of high scope, that have soared to the keystone of And thence have swooped to their certain mark, as the falcon to its quarry; The fruits I have gathered of prudence, the ripened harvest of my musings, These commend I unto thee, O docile scholar of Wisdom; WHAT though a guilty man renew that hallowed theme, Sweet is the virgin honey, though the wild bee have stored it in a reed; And bright the jewelled band that circleth an Ethiop's arm; COMMEND thy mind unto candor, and grudge not as though thou hadst a teacher, Nor scorn angelic Truth for the sake of her evil herald; Heed not him, but hear his words, and care not whence they come ; The viewless winds might whisper them, the billows roar them forth, The mean, unconscious sedge sigh them in the ear of evening, Or the mind of pride conceive, and the mouth of folly speak them. Lo, now, I stand not forth laying hold on spear and buckler; I come a man of peace, to comfort, not to combat ; With soft, persuasive speech to charm thy patient ear, Giving the hand of fellowship, acknowledging the heart of sympathy: |