FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   >>  
e, War, and bind him in his cell!' The blood red ran from the Grey Monk's side, His hands and feet were wounded wide, His body bent, his arms and knees Like to the roots of ancient trees. When Satan first the black bow bent And the moral law from the Gospel rent, He forged the law into a sword, And spilled the blood of mercy's Lord. Titus! Constantine! Charlemaine! O Voltaire! Rousseau! Gibbon! Vain Your Grecian mocks and Roman sword Against this image of his Lord; For a tear is an intellectual thing; And a sigh is the sword of an angel king; And the bitter groan of a martyr's woe Is an arrow from the Almighty's bow. * * * * * GEORGE CANNING From THE PROGRESS OF MAN [MATRIMONY IN OTAHEITE] There laughs the sky, there zephyrs frolic train, And light-winged loves, and blameless pleasures reign: There, when two souls congenial ties unite, No hireling bonzes chant the mystic rite; Free every thought, each action unconfined, And light those fetters which no rivets bind. There in each grove, each sloping bank along, And flowers and shrubs, and odorous herbs among, Each shepherd clasped, with undisguised delight, His yielding fair one--in the captain's sight; Each yielding fair, as chance or fancy led, Preferred new lovers to her sylvan bed. Learn hence each nymph, whose free aspiring mind Europe's cold laws, and colder customs bind; O! learn what Nature's genial laws decree! What Otaheite is, let Britain be! * * * * * Of whist or cribbage mark th' amusing game; The partners changing, but the sport the same: Else would the gamester's anxious ardour cool, Dull every deal, and stagnant every pool. --Yet must one man, with one unceasing wife, Play the long rubber of connubial life. Yes! human laws, and laws esteemed divine, The generous passion straighten and confine; And, as a stream, when art constrains its course, Pours its fierce torrent with augmented force, So passion, narrowed to one channel small, Unlike the former,--does not flow at all. For Love then only flaps his purple wings When uncontrolled by priestcraft or by kings. FROM THE NEW MORALITY [ANTI-PATRIOTISM AND SENTIMENTALITY] With unsparing hand, Oh, lash these vile impostures from the land! First, stern Philanth
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   >>  



Top keywords:

passion

 

yielding

 

amusing

 

changing

 
partners
 

anxious

 

stagnant

 

ardour

 
gamester
 

aspiring


Europe
 
lovers
 

sylvan

 

colder

 

Otaheite

 

Britain

 

decree

 

customs

 

Nature

 

genial


cribbage
 

straighten

 

priestcraft

 

uncontrolled

 

MORALITY

 

purple

 
PATRIOTISM
 
impostures
 

Philanth

 
SENTIMENTALITY

unsparing

 

esteemed

 
divine
 

generous

 

confine

 
Preferred
 
unceasing
 

connubial

 

rubber

 

stream


channel

 

narrowed

 

Unlike

 
constrains
 

fierce

 
augmented
 

torrent

 

shrubs

 

Gibbon

 
Rousseau