Page:The poems of George Eliot (Crowell, 1884).djvu/444

 408 POEMS OF GEORGE ELIOT.

Strict discipline. Were I physician here

I would prescribe that exercise of soul

Which lies in full obedience : you ask,

Obedience to what ? The answer lies

Within the word itself ; for how obey

What has no rule, asserts no absolute claim ?

Take inclination, taste — why, that is you,

No rule above you. Science, reasoning

On nature's order — they exist and move

Solely by disputation, hold no pledge

Of final consequence, but push the swing

Where Epicurus and the Stoic sit

In endless see-saw. One authority,

And only one, says simply this, Obey :

Place yourself in that current (test it so f-)

Of spiritual order where at least

Lies promise of a high communion,

A Head informing members. Life that^' breathes

With gift of forces over and above

The j^lus of arithmetic interchange.

' The Church too has a body,' you oy^^^h

' Can be dissected, put beneath the )|-6^s

And shown the merest continuity

Of all existence else beneath the sr['^*

I grant you ; but the lens will not Ttiisprove

A present which eludes it. Take '^[{^^^ ^^*'

Your highest passion, widest-reachp^^S thought;

Show their conditions if you will

But though you saw the final atonp"^*^^^^*^®

Making each molecule that stand&f ^^^ ^^^^^

Of love being present, Avhere is stP^ ^^^^ love ?

How measure that, how certify itP "^'eight ?

And so I say, the body of the Chp^'^^^

Carries a Presence, promises and f K^f ts

Never disproved — Avhose argumr^* ^^ found