There are who ask not if thine eye
Be on them; who, in love and truth,

Where no misgiving is, rely
Upon the genial sense of youth:
Glad Hearts! without reproach or blot;

Who do thy work, and know it not:

May joy be theirs while life shall last!

And Thou, if they should totter, teach them to stand fast!

Serene will be our days and bright,

And happy will our nature be,

When love is an unerring light,

And joy its own security.

And bless'd are they who in the main

This faith, even now, do entertain:

Live in the spirit of this creed;

Yet find that other strength, according to their need.

I, loving freedom, and untried;
No sport of every random gust,

Yet being to myself a guide,
Too blindly have reposed my trust:
Resolved that nothing e'er should press
Upon my present happiness,

I shoved unwelcome tasks away;

But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may.

Through no disturbance of my soul,
Or strong compunction in me wrought,
I supplicate for thy controul;
But in the quietness of thought:
Me this uncharter'd freedom tires;
I feel the weight of chance desires:
My hopes no more must change their name,
I long for a repose which ever is the same.

Yet not the less would I throughout
Still act according to the voice

Of my own wish; and feel past doubt

That my submissiveness was choice :

Not seeking in the school of pride

For "precepts over dignified,"

Denial and restraint I prize

No farther than they breed a second Will more

wise.

Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear
The Godhead's most benignant grace;

Nor know we any thing so fair

As is the smile upon thy face;

Flowers laugh before thee on their beds;

And Fragrance in thy footing treads;

Thou dost preserve the Stars from wrong;

And the most ancient Heavens through Thee are

To humbler functions, awful Power!
I call thee: I myself commend

Unto thy guidance from this hour;

Oh! let my weakness have an end!

Give unto me, made lowly wise,

The spirit of self-sacrifice;

The confidence of reason give;

And in the light of truth thy Bondman let me POEMS

COMPOSED

DURING A TOUR, CHIEFLY ON FOOT.