Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/344

 334 CONSOLATIONS OF SOLITUDE

��TO THE MEMORY OF WASHINGTON.

O, wise of counsel ! With unseemly speech

Men still describe thee, though thy worth they know,

And, ranking thee with heroes, yet would teach That thou wast great but by not being so —

As if than wisdom aught can greater be.

More perfect aught than perfect symmetry !

Some would deny thee genius, friend of right !

Since with firm will thy passions thou couldst sway; Such genius deem but some erratic light,

That darts across the heavens and dies away. Fond of the strange, they think the master mind Must needs be something of the monstrous kind.

But 'tis distorted objects seem most great.

Like hunchback dwarfs scarce even a cubit high ;

While Antwerp's proudest fane men underrate, Whose lofty pinnacles transfix the sky.

Just forms appear not bulky to our eyes.

While shapes uncouth seem swelled to monstrous size.

So distance cheats. The mountain viewed from far Seems low ; experience wise seems mean to youth,

Small to the naked eye each distant star,

Dark to the ignorant mind the light of truth.

Fools deem them weak that godlike wisdom teach ;

All things seem least that lie most out of reach.

By the same law, the vain and narrow mind,

Skilled in one art, will noisiest praise command.

Most to the greater beautiful are blind, Despising where they do not understand.

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