Page:Poems on Various Subjects - Coleridge (1796).djvu/175

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155

That vex and desolate our mortal life.
Wide-wasting ills! yet each th' immediate source
Of mightier good. Their keen necessities
To ceaseless action goading human thought
Have made Earth's reasoning animal her Lord;240
And the pale-featur'd Sage's trembling hand
Strong as an host of armed Deities!
From Avarice thus, from Luxury and War
Sprang heavenly Science: and from Science Freedom.
O'er waken'd realms Philosophers and Bards245
Spread in concentric circles: they whose souls
Conscious of their high dignities from God
Brook not Wealth's rivalry; and they who long
Enamour'd with the charms of order hate
Th' unseemly disproportion; and whoe'er250
Turn with mild sorrow from the victor's car