And with ambition's purest glow inspires
The youthful soul, not yet by sense enchained.[1]
O spectacle divine, where, heart to heart,
Father and mother, sons and daughters, blend
Their inborn sympathies in concert blest!
One body well compact by love's great law;
Each member fit, in its own native grace,
To fill the measure of the perfect whole.
Envies and jealousies, ye grow not here
Indigenous, as hated nettles spring
'Mid rows of marjory and beds of thyme;
Or if ye start—since e'en earth's fairest spot
Yields still some noxious weeds—are quick subdued,
As all unmeet to root and flourish thus.
Oft by attrition in its torrent bed
The precious gem may wear its roughness down,
Till from its polished surface back the beam
That brightly falls is thrown as bright again;
So generous souls in daily contact lose
- ↑ Appendix, Note C.
