* * * * *

WISDOM AND PRUDENCE

  Wouldst thou the loftiest height of Wisdom gain? 
  On to the rashness, Prudence would disdain;
  The purblind see but the receding shore,
  Not that to which the bold wave wafts thee o’er!

* * * * *

THE UNANIMITY

  Truth seek we both—­Thou, in the life without thee and around;
  I in the Heart within—­by both can Truth alike be found;
  The healthy eye can through the world the great Creator track—­
  The healthy heart is but the glass which gives creation back.

* * * * *

THE SCIENCE OF POLITICS

  All that thou dost be right—­to that alone confine thy view,
  And halt within the certain rule—­the All that’s right to do! 
  True zeal the what already is would sound and perfect see;
  False zeal would sound and perfect make the something that’s to be!

* * * * *

TO ASTRONOMERS

  Of the Nebulae and planets do not babble so to me;
  What! is Nature only mighty inasmuch as you can see? 
  Inasmuch as you can measure her immeasurable ways,
  As she renders world on world, sun and system to your gaze? 
  Though through space your object be the Sublimest to embrace,
  Never the Sublime abideth—­where you vainly search—­in space!

* * * * *

THE BEST GOVERNED STATE

  How the best state to know?—­It is found out,
  Like the best women—­that least talked about.

* * * * *

MY BELIEF

  What thy religion?  Those thou namest—­none! 
  None!  Why?—­Because I have religion!

* * * * *

FRIEND AND FOE

  Dear is my friend—­yet from my foe, as from my friend, comes good;
  My friend shows what I can do, and my foe shows what I should.

* * * * *

LIGHT AND COLOR

  Dwell, Light, beside the changeless God—­God spoke and Light began;
  Come, thou, the ever-changing one—­come, Color, down to Man!

* * * * *

FORUM OF WOMEN

  Woman—­to judge man rightly—­do not scan
  Each separate act;—­pass judgment on the Man!

* * * * *

GENIUS

  Intellect can repeat what’s been fulfill’d,
  And, aping Nature, as she buildeth—­build;
  O’er Nature’s base can haughty Reason dare
  To pile its lofty castle—­in the air. 
  But only thine, O Genius, is the charge,
  In Nature’s kingdom Nature to enlarge!