Page:Poems, Alexander Pushkin, 1888.djvu/33

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Introduction: Critical.
27

Like a corpse I lay in the desert,
And God's Voice unto me called:
Arise, О prophet, and listen, and guide.
Be thou filled with my will
And going over land and sea
Fire with the word the hearts of men!"

"Be thou filled with my will!" His ideal began with abandonment of self-will; it ended with complete surrender of self-will. When we have done all the thinking and planning and weighing, and pride ourselves upon our wisdom, we are not yet wise. One more step remains to be taken, without which we only may avoid the wrong; with which, however, we shall surely come upon the right. We must still say, Teach us, Thou, to merge our will in Thine.…