The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 168

The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 168

Frail creatures are we all! To be the best, Is but the fewest faults to have:-- Look thou then to thyself, and leave the rest To G.o.d, thy conscience, and the grave.

? 1830.

FOOTNOTES:

[486:2] First published in 1834.

[COELI ENARRANT][486:3]

The stars that wont to start, as on a chace, Mid twinkling insult on Heaven's darken'd face, Like a conven'd conspiracy of spies Wink at each other with confiding eyes!

Turn from the portent--all is blank on high, 5 No constellations alphabet the sky: The Heavens one large Black Letter only shew, And as a child beneath its master's blow Shrills out at once its task and its affright--[486:4]

The groaning world now learns to read aright, 10 And with its Voice of Voices cries out, O!

? 1830.

FOOTNOTES:

[486:3] Now first published from a MS. of uncertain date. 'I wrote these lines in imitation of Du Bartas as translated by our Sylvester.' _S. T.

C._

[486:4] Compare Leigh Hunt's story of Boyer's reading-lesson at Christ's Hospital:--'_Pupil._--(. . . never remembering the stop at the word "Missionary"). "_Missionary_ Can you see the wind?" (Master gives him a slap on the cheek.) _Pupil._--(Raising his voice to a cry, and still forgetting to stop.) "_Indian_ No."' _Autobiography of Leigh Hunt_, 1860, p. 68.

REASON[487:1]

['Finally, what is Reason? You have often asked me: and this is my answer':--]

Whene'er the mist, that stands 'twixt G.o.d and thee, Defecates to a pure transparency, That intercepts no light and adds no stain-- There Reason is, and then begins her reign!

But alas! 5 ----'tu stesso, ti fai grosso Col falso immaginar, s che non vedi Ci che vedresti, se l'avessi scosso.'

Dante, _Paradiso_, Canto i.

1830.

FOOTNOTES:

[487:1] First published as the conclusion of _On the Const.i.tution of the Church and State_, 1830, p. 227. First collected, _P. and D. W._, 1877-80, ii. 374.

SELF-KNOWLEDGE[487:2]

--E coelo descendit ????? sea?t??.--JUVENAL, xi. 27.

G???? sea?t??!--and is this the prime And heaven-sprung adage of the olden time!-- Say, canst thou make thyself?--Learn first that trade;-- Haply thou mayst know what thyself had made.

What hast thou, Man, that thou dar'st call thine own?-- 5 What is there in thee, Man, that can be known?-- Dark fluxion, all unfixable by thought, A phantom dim of past and future wrought, Vain sister of the worm,--life, death, soul, clod-- Ignore thyself, and strive to know thy G.o.d! 10

1832.

FOOTNOTES:

[487:2] First published in 1834.

LINENOTES:

t.i.tle] The heading 'Self-knowledge' appears first in 1893.

FORBEARANCE[488:1]

Beareth all things.--1 COR. xiii. 7.

Gently I took that which ungently came,[488:2]

And without scorn forgave:--Do thou the same.

A wrong done to thee think a cat's-eye spark Thou wouldst not see, were not thine own heart dark.

Thine own keen sense of wrong that thirsts for sin, 5 Fear that--the spark self-kindled from within, Which blown upon will blind thee with its glare, Or smother'd stifle thee with noisome air.

Clap on the extinguisher, pull up the blinds, And soon the ventilated spirit finds 10 Its natural daylight. If a foe have kenn'd, Or worse than foe, an alienated friend, A rib of dry rot in thy ship's stout side, Think it G.o.d's message, and in humble pride With heart of oak replace it;--thine the gains-- 15 Give him the rotten timber for his pains!

? 1832.

FOOTNOTES:

[488:1] First published in 1834.

[488:2] Compare Spenser's _Shepherd's Calendar_ (Februarie):--

'Ne ever was to Fortune foeman, But gently took that ungently came.'