Page:Joan of Arc - Southey (1796).djvu/52

Of all the Powers which God for use had given?
But chiefly this, with holiest habitude15
Of constant Faith, him First, him Last to view
Thro' meaner powers and secondary things
Effulgent, as thro' clouds that veil his blaze.
For all that meets the bodily sense I deem
Symbolical, one mighty alphabet20
For infant minds; and we in this low world
Placed with our backs to bright Reality,
That we may learn with young unwounded ken
Things from their shadows. Know thyself my Soul!
Confirm'd thy strength, thy pinions fledged for flight25
Bursting this shell and leaving next thy nest
Soon upward soaring shalt thou fix intense
Thine eaglet eye on Heaven's eternal Sun!
But some there are who deem themselves most free,
When they within this gross and visible sphere30
Chain down the winged thought, scoffing ascent
Proud in their meanness: and themselves they cheat
With noisy emptiness of learned phrase,

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