246 CONS OLA TIONS OF SOLITUDE
Yet, when the book I open, and begin,
Through cloud of comment, the commands to read "Let him who would cast stones be free from sin,"
" Clothe ye the naked and the hungry feed," Or, " As ye love yourselves your neighbors love," Or, " Be ye perfect even as God above ; "
��Still farther when I read : " Do to another As thou wouldst have another do to thee,"
And find that man is named of man the brother, And all mere outcasts who lack charity ;
While the great Father, imaged as a dove,
Proclaims the peaceful government of love, —
Then do I learn that every man his creed
Less from its doctrine than his heart derives ;
'Tis still the wish is father to the deed ;
Our gods are but the portraits of our lives ;
And different natures from the self-same law
Their different acts and different motives draw.
Yet, if from precepts to great Nature's face I turn my gaze, what glorious scene appears !
What beautiful diversity of race
Through the wide world the boundless prospect cheers
Herb, mineral, animal, in infinite kind.
Ranged orderly by one creative Mind !
If I look farther, I perceive I stand
Upon a frail, unpropped, revolving ball. Where sea is ever battling with the land.
Earth a mere crust, like an o'erarching wall That spans a vault so thin, almost a breath The shell could shatter, flaming fire beneath.
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