One nature, as there is one sun in heaven;
  That objects, even as they are great, thereby
  Do come within the reach of humblest eyes; 160
  That Man is only weak through his mistrust
  And want of hope where evidence divine
  Proclaims to him that hope should be most sure;
  Nor did the inexperience of my youth
  Preclude conviction, that a spirit strong, 165
  In hope, and trained to noble aspirations,
  A spirit thoroughly faithful to itself,
  Is for Society’s unreasoning herd
  A domineering instinct, serves at once
  For way and guide, a fluent receptacle 170
  That gathers up each petty straggling rill
  And vein of water, glad to be rolled on
  In safe obedience; that a mind, whose rest
  Is where it ought to be, in self-restraint,
  In circumspection and simplicity, 175
  Falls rarely in entire discomfiture
  Below its aim, or meets with, from without,
  A treachery that foils it or defeats;
  And, lastly, if the means on human will,
  Frail human will, dependent should betray 180
  Him who too boldly trusted them, I felt
  That ’mid the loud distractions of the world
  A sovereign voice subsists within the soul,
  Arbiter undisturbed of right and wrong,
  Of life and death, in majesty severe 185
  Enjoining, as may best promote the aims
  Of truth and justice, either sacrifice,
  From whatsoever region of our cares
  Or our infirm affections Nature pleads,
  Earnest and blind, against the stern decree. 190

  On the other side, I called to mind those truths
  That are the common-places of the schools—­
  (A theme for boys, too hackneyed for their sires,)
  Yet, with a revelation’s liveliness,
  In all their comprehensive bearings known 195
  And visible to philosophers of old,
  Men who, to business of the world untrained,
  Lived in the shade; and to Harmodius known
  And his compeer Aristogiton, [L] known
  To Brutus—­that tyrannic power is weak, 200
  Hath neither gratitude, nor faith, nor love,
  Nor the support of good or evil men
  To trust in; that the godhead which is ours
  Can never utterly be charmed or stilled;
  That nothing hath a natural right to last 205
  But equity and reason; that all else
  Meets foes irreconcilable, and at best
  Lives only by variety of disease.