The world, that hath left him to starve, itself wallowing in The world, that denieth him his rights,―he daringly robbeth it of them. I say not, such a one is innocent; but small is the measure of his guilt To that of his wealthy neighbor, who would not help him at his need; To that of the selfish epicure, who turned away with coldness from his tale; To that of unsuffering thousands, who look with complacence on his fall. OR perchance the continual dropping of the venomed words of spite, Till, in some weaker moment, tempted beyond endurance, He striketh, more in anger than in hate; and, alas! for his heavy chance, He hath smitten unto instant death his spiteful life-long enemy! And none was by to see it; and all men knew of their contentions; Fierce voices shout for his blood, and rude hands hurry him to judgment. Then man's verdict cometh, -Murderer, with forethought malice; And his name is a note of execration; his guilt is too black for devils. But to the righteous Judge seemeth he the suffering victim; a man, And though his guilt was grievous when he struck that heavy, bitter blow, Yet light is the sin of the smiter, and verily kicketh the beam, To the weight of that man's wickedness, whose slow, relentless hatred Met him at every turn, with patient continuance in evil. Ir is in vain, it is in vain, saith the preacher; there be none but the righteous and the wicked, Base rebels and stanch allies, the true knight and the traitor; And he beareth strong witness among men, There is no neutral ground, The broad highway and narrow path map out the whole domain; Or grovel there a wretch condemned, to die among the million. Heaven hath no dusky twilight; hell is not gladdened with a dawn. Yet looking round among his fellows, who can pass righteous judg ment, Such a one is holy and accepted, and such a one reprobate and doomed? There is so much of good among the worst, so much of evil in the best, Such seeming partialities in Providence, so many things to lessen and expand, Yea, and with all man's boast, so little real freedom of his will, That, to look a little lower than the surface, garb, or dialect, or fashion, Thou shalt feebly pronounce for a saint, and faintly condemn for a sinner. Over many a heart good and true fluttereth the Great King's pen nant: By many an iron hand, the pirate's black banner is unfurled : But there be many more besides, in the yacht, and the trader, and the fishing-boat, In the feathered war-canoe, and the quick, mysterious gondola : Of mingled characters and kinds goeth forth the countless host; There is the turbaned Damascene, with his tatooed Zealand brother, There the slim bather in the Ganges, with the sturdy Russian boor, The sluggish inmate of a polar cave, with the fire-souled daughter of Brazil, The imbruted slave from Cuba, and the Briton of gentle birth. And the Church, his mercy's ark, hath some of every sort. In some it is as earliest dawn, the scarce diluted darkness; In some the dayspring from on high breaketh in all its praise. Who shall pluck from earliest dawn the promise of the day? Wrecked on the shoals of passion, and numbered of the lost; Counted a brand among the burning, and left uncared-for, in his sin: Yet I waited a little year, and the mercy thou hadst forgotten While the dry well of thine affections is choked with secret mam mon. ⚫ SOMETIMES at a glance thou judgest well; years could add little to thy knowledge: When charity gloweth on the cheek, or malice is lowering in the eye, When honesty's open brow, or the weasel-face of cunning is before thee, Or the loose lip of wantonness, or clear, bright forehead of reflec tion. But often, by shrewd scrutiny, thou judgest to the good man's harm : For it may be his hour of trial, or he slumbereth at his post, Or he hath slain his foe, but not yet levelled the stronghold, with passion. Also, of the worst, through prejudice, thou loosely shalt think well: For none is altogether evil, and thou mayst catch him at his prayers: There may be one small prize, though all beside be blanks; THERE is to whom all things are easy: his mind, as a master-key, To force, with groaning labor, the stubborn lock of learning: Often the brow that should be bright with the dormant fire of genius, Within its ample halls, hath ignorance the tenant. Yet are not the sons of men cast as in moulds by the lot? From his make will read the man, and err not far in judgment: Findeth or maketh for itself an apposite dwelling in the body: Accident may modify, circumstance may bevil, externals seem to change it, But still the primitive crystal is latent in its many variations: For the map of the face, and the picture of the eye, are traced by the pen of passion; And the mind fashioneth a tabernacle suitable for itself. A mean spirit boweth down the back, and the bowing fostereth meanness; A resolute purpose knitteth the knees, and the firm tread nourisheth decision; Love looketh softly from the eye, and kindleth love by looking; THERE be deeper things than these, lying in the twilight of truth; But few can discern them aright, from surrounding dimness of error. For perchance, if thou knewest the whole, and largely, with comprehensive mind, Couldst read the history of character, the checkered story of a life, And into the great account, which summeth a mortal's destiny, Wert to add the forces from without, dragging him this way and that, And the secret qualities within, grafted on the soul from the womb, And the might of other men's example, among whom his lot is cast, And the influence of want, or 'wealth, of kindness, or harsh ill usage, Of ignorance he cannot help, and knowledge found for him by others, And first impressions, hard to be effaced, and leadings to right or to wrong, And inheritance of likeness from a father, and natural human frailty, And the habit of health or disease, and prejudices poured into his mind, And the myriad little matters none but Omniscience can know, And accidents that steer the thoughts, where none but Ubiquity can trace them: If thou couldst compass all these, and the consequents flowing from them, And the scope to which they tend, and the necessary fitness of all things, -- Then shouldst thou see as He seeth, who judgeth all men equal, |