Friends and Neighbors; Or, Two Ways of Living in the World






LOVE.

     OH! if there is one law above the rest,
     Written in Wisdom—if there is a word
     That I would trace as with a pen of fire
     Upon the unsullied temper of a child—
     If there is anything that keeps the mind
     Open to angel visits, and repels
     The ministry of ill—'tis Human Love!
     God has made nothing worthy of contempt;
     The smallest pebble in the well of Truth
     Has its peculiar meanings, and will stand
     When man's best monuments wear fast away.
     The law of Heaven is Love—and though its name
     Has been usurped by passion, and profaned
     To its unholy uses through all time,
     Still, the external principle is pure;
     And in these deep affections that we feel
     Omnipotent within us, can we see
     The lavish measure in which love is given.
     And in the yearning tenderness of a child
     For every bird that sings above its head,
     And every creature feeding on the hills,
     And every tree and flower, and running brook,
     We see how everything was made to love,
     And how they err, who, in a world like this,
     Find anything to hate but human pride.

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