Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/299

 ODE TO CONSCIENCE 289

And from the dark void of the past

Thou wilt draw out the thing at last,

Even as a dog brings stones that in the waves are cast,

And o'er and o'er the action will repeat.

And drop them reeking at his master's feet.

Or, as from deep earth out of sight

He drags a murdered corpse to light.

So from the guilty past thou drawest, unhid.

The thought that from its very self was hid,

And before blushing memory's eyes wilt lay

The hateful thing in the full glare of day.

��Through stole and cassock thou canst see

The cold heart of hypocrisy;

Thou dost rend off the covering thin

Of vanity's gay, painted skin.

And what a virtue seemed wilt show a sin.

Pride thou detectest in humility,

Fraud in sweet smiles, and selfishness canst see

In what the world deemed magnanimity.

The false, midst praise, still hear thy voice condemn,

Saying, " Woe betide thy deeds ! Thou wouldst be seen

of men." Names in thy thought do not for natures stand ; What men deem go'd to thee is glistering sand ; And whom the world calls fair, or just, or wise. When tried by thee, thou dost so worthless prize. That ugliness grows foul in its own eyes.

��Who so just that can be sure

In thy judgment to stand pure ?

Sole court whose verdicts none can doubt.

Setting our sins to find us out,

Thou doomest each, howe'er he err,

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