What is the sum of thy duty, but obedience to righteous rule, Yet mark me, proud gainsayer! I say not, obey unto sin; But, where the Principal is silent, take heed that thou despise not the Deputy : And he that loveth order will bless thee for thy faith, If thou recognize his sanction in the powers that fashion human laws. Toward whom a good man's loyalty floweth from the hearts of his religion, From thy dizzy pinnacle of greatness, remember thou also art a subject, So shalt thou prosper, and be strong, grafted on the strength of another; And thou shalt flourish as an oak, the monarch of thine island forests, A ruler hath not power for himself, neither is his pomp for his pride; Nevertheless, every way obey him, so thou break not a higher command ment; For Nero was an evil king, yet Paul prescribeth subjection. If the rulers of a nation be holy, the Lord hath blessed that nation; 1 Yet be thou resolute against them, if they change the mandates of thy God If they touch the ark of his covenant, wherein all his mercies are en shrined: Be resolute, but not rebellious; lest thou be of the company of Korah: And Azarias shouted from the furnace,-I will not bow down, O KING. They were loud and bold against the sin, but bent before the ensign o authority. Honesty, scorning compromise, walketh most suitably with Reverence; Man, thou hast a social spirit, and art deeply indebted to thy kind: Therefore claim not all thy rights; but yield, for thine own advantage. Society is a chain of obligations, and its links must support each other: The branch cannot but wither, that is cut from the parent vine. Wouldst thou be a dweller in the woods, and cast away the cords that bind thee, Seeking, in thy bitterness or pride, to be exiled from thy fellows? Behold, the beasts shall hunt thee, weak, naked, houseless outcast; Disease and Death shall track thee out, as bloodhounds, in the wilder ness: Better to be vilest of the vile, in the hated company of men, Whence then cometh the doctrine that all should be equal and free ?— another. We are equal and free! was the watchword that spirited the legions of Satan, We are equal and free! is the double lie that entrappeth to him conscripts from earth: The messengers of that dark despot will pander to thy license and thy pride, And draw thee from the crowd where thou art safe, to seize thee in the solitary desert. Woe unto him whose heart the syren song of Liberty hath charmed; He is free toward God and good; but to all else a bondman. Thou art in a middle sphere, to render and receive honour, If thy king commandeth, obey; and stand not in the way with rebels; But if need be, lay thy hand upon thy sword, and fear not to smite a traitor, For the universe acquitteth thee with honour, fighting in defence of thy king. If a thief break thy dwelling, and thou take him, it were sin in thee to let him go; Yea, though he pleadeth to thy mercy, thou canst not spare him and he blameless; For his guilt is not only against thee, it is not thy moneys or thy mer chandise, But he hath done damage to the law, which duty constraineth thee to sanction. Feast not thine appetite of vengeance, remembering thou also art a man, But weep for the sad compulsion, in which the chain of Providence hath bound thee: Mercy is not thine to give; wilt thou steal another's privilege? Or send abroad among thy neighbours, a felon whom impunity hath Dar dened? Remember the Roman father, strong in his stern integrity, And let not thy slothful self-indulgence make thee a conniver at the crime. Also, if the knife of the murderer be raised against thee or thi ie, And through good Providence and courage, thou slay him that would have slain thee, Thou losest not a tittle of thy rectitude, having executed sudden justice; Still mayst thor walk among the blessed, though thy hands be red with blood. For thyself, thou art neither worse nor better; but thy fellows should count thee their creditor: Thou hast manfully protected the right, and the right is stronger for thy deed. Also, in the rescuing of innocence, fear not to smite the ravisher; She that lieth in thy bosom, the tender wife of thy affections, Yea, break stones upon the highway, acknowledging the Lord in thy lot, Happy shalt thou be, and honourable, more than many children of the mighty. Thou that despisest the outward forms, beware thou lose not the inward spirit; For they are as words unto ideas, as symbols to things unseen. Keep then the form that is good: retain, and do reverence to example; And in all things observe subordination, for that is the whole duty of man. A horse knoweth his rider, be he confident or timid, And the fierce spirit of Bucephalus stoopeth unto none but Alexander; The tigress roused in the jungle by the prying spaniels of the fowler, Will quail at the eye of man, so he assert his dignity; Nay, the very ships, those giant swans breasting the ighty waters, And yet, in travelling the world, hast thou not often known A gallant host led on to ruin by a feeble Xerxes? Hast thou not often seen the wanton luxury of indolence Hath emptied the vial of confusion over a thousand homes: Alas' for the palaces and hovels, that might have been nurseries for heaven By hot intestine broils blighted into schools for hell⚫ None knoweth his place, yet all refuse to serve, None weareth the crown, yet all usurp the sceptre: And perhance some fiercer spirit, of natural nobility of mind, That needed but the kindness of constraint to have grown up great and good, Now, the rich harvest of his heart choked by unweeded tares,- All bold to dare and do, unchecked by wholesome fear, A scoffer about bigotry and priestcraft, a rebel against governert auki lak A kingdom is a nest of families, and a family a small kingdom; |