Page:The poems of George Eliot (Crowell, 1884).djvu/443

 A COLLEGE BREAKFAST-PARTY. 407

Making their absolute and homogene

A loaded relative, a choice to be

Whatever is —supposed : a What is not

The Church demands no more, has standing room

And basis for her doctrine : this (no more) —

That the strong bias which we name the Soul

f hough fed and clad by dissoluble waves, '

Ijas antecedent quality, and rules

By veto or consent the strife of thought,

MaJiiiig arbitrament that we call faith."'

Her3 was brief silence, till young Hamlet spoke

"I c.fave direction. Father, how to know

The sign of that imperative whose right

To sw;iy my act in face of thronging doubts

Were a^ oracular gem in price beyond

Urim ai)d Thummim lost to Israel.

That bias of the soul, that conquering die

Loaded with golden emphasis of Will

How find it where resolve, once made, becomes

The rash exclusion of an opposite

Which draw's the stronger as I turn aloof."

"I think I h.?ar a bias in your words,"

The Priest sa^cl mildly— " that strong natural bent

Which we cal'l hunger. What more positive

Than appetit(- ? — of spirit or of flesh,

I care not — 'sense of need ' were truer phrase.

You hunger fa^r authoritative right.

And yet discern no difference of tones,

No weight of i^od that marks imperial rule ?

Laertes grantij^g, I will put your case

In analogic form : the doctors hold

Hunger which gives no relish — save caprice

That tasting velnison fancies mellow pears

A symptom of (disorder, and prescribe