CX.

HIGH wisdom holds my wisdom less,

That I, who gaze with temperate eyes

On glorious insufficiencies,

Set light by narrower perfectness.

But thou, that fillest all the room
Of all my love, art reason why

I seem to cast a careless eye
On souls, the lesser lords of doom.

For what wert thou? some novel power
Sprang up for ever at a touch,

And hope could never hope too much,

In watching thee from hour to hour,

Large elements in order brought,

And tracts of calm from tempest made,
And world-wide fluctuation sway'd

In vassal tides that followed thought.

CXI.

'TIS held that sorrow makes us wise;

Yet how much wisdom sleeps with thee

Which not alone had guided me, But served the seasons that may rise;

For can I doubt who knew thee keen
In intellect, with force and skill

To strive, to fashion, to fulfil—
I doubt not what thou wouldst have been :

A life in civic action warm,

A soul on highest mission sent,
A potent voice of Parliament,

A pillar steadfast in the storm,

Should licensed boldness gather force, Becoming, when the time has birth, A lever to uplift the earth

And roll it in another course,

With many shocks that come and go,

With agonies, with energies,

With overthrowings, and with cries,

And undulations to and fro.

CXII.

WHO loves not knowledge? Who shall rail Against her beauty? May she mix With men and prosper! Who shall fix Let her work prevail.

Her pillars?

But on her forehead sits a fire:

She sets her forward countenance

And leaps into the future chance, Submitting all things to desire.

Half-grown as yet, a child, and vain-
She cannot fight the fear of death.
What is she, cut from love and faith,
But some wild Pallas from the brain

Of Demons ? fiery-hot to burst

All barriers in her onward race

For power. Let her know her place ;

She is the second, not the first.

A higher hand must make her mild,
If all be not in vain; and guide

Her footsteps, moving side by side
With wisdom, like the younger child :

For she is earthly of the mind,

But wisdom heavenly of the soul.
O, friend, who camest to thy goal

So early, leaving me behind,

I would the great world grew like thee,
Who grewest not alone in power

And knowledge, but from hour to hour

In reverence and in charity.

N