148
GROTON AND PROVIDENCE.
| Canst to devotion’s highest flight sublime |
| Exalt the mind, by tenderest pathos’ art, |
| Dissolve, in purifying tears, the heart, |
| Or bid it, shuddering, recoil at crime; |
| The fond illusions of the youth and maid, |
| At which so many world-formed sages sneer, |
| When by thy altar-lighted torch displayed, |
| Our natural religion must appear. |
| All things in thee tend to one polar star, |
| Magnetic all thy influences are!’ |
‘Some murmur at the “want of system” in Richter’s
writings.
| ‘A labyrinth! a flowery wilderness! |
| Some in thy “slip-boxes” and “honey-moons” |
| Complain of — want of order, I confess, |
| But not of system in its highest sense. |
| Who asks a guiding clue through this wide mind, |
| In love of Nature such will surely find. |
| In tropic climes, live like the tropic bird, |
| Whene'er a spice-fraught grove may tempt thy stay; |
| Nor be by cares of colder climes disturbed — |
| No frost the summer's bloom shall drive away; |
| Nature’s wide temple and the azure dome |
| Have plan enough for the free spirit’s home!’ |
‘Your Schiller has already given me great pleasure.
I have been reading the “Revolt in the
Netherlands” with intense interest, and have reflected
much upon it. The volumes are numbered in my
little book-case, and as the eye runs over them, I
thank the friendly heart that put all this genius and
passion within my power.
‘I am glad, too, that you thought of lending me “Bigelow's Elements.” I have studied the Architecture attentively, till I feel quite mistress of it all.
