Page:Songs, Legends, and Ballads.djvu/48

30 The throbbing brain will burst its tender raiment
 * With futile force, to see by finite light

How man's brief earning and eternal payment
 * Are weighed as equal in th' Infinite sight.

'Tis all in vain to struggle with abstraction—
 * The milky-way that tempts our mental glass;

The study for mankind is earth-born action;
 * The highest wisdom, let the wondering pass.

The Lord knows best: He gave us thirst for learning;
 * And deepest knowledge of His work betrays

No thirst left waterless. Shall our soul-yearning,
 * Apart from all things, be a quenchless blaze?