THE TWO HERBERTS.
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| Are here discerned,—and, from its own impulse, |
| It is permitted to the soul to circle, |
| Hither and thither rove, that it may see |
| Laws and eternal covenants of its world, |
| And stars returning in assiduous course, |
| The causes and the bonds of life to learn, |
| And from afar foresee the highest will. |
| How he to admirable harmony |
| Tempers the various motions of the world, |
| And Father, Lord, Guardian, and Builder-up, |
| And Deity on every side is styled. |
| Next, from this knowledge the fourth stage proceeds: |
| Cleansing away its stains, mind daily grows more pure, |
| Enriched with various learning, strong in virtue, |
| Extends its powers, and breathes sublimer air: |
| A secret spur is felt within the inmost heart, |
| That he who will, may emerge from this perishable state, |
| And a happier is sought |
| By ambitious rites, consecrations, religious worship, |
| And a new hope succeeds, conscious of a better fate, |
| Clinging to things above, expanding through all the heavens, |
| And the Divine descends to meet a holy love, |
| And unequivocal token is given of celestial life. |
| That, as a good servant, I shall receive my reward; |
| Or, if worthy, enter as a son, into the goods of my father, |
| God himself is my surety. When I shall put off this life, |
| Confident in a better, free in my own will, |
| He himself is my surety, that a fifth, yet higher state shall ensue, |
| And a sixth, and all, in fine, that my heart shall know how to ask. |
| CONJECTURES CONCERNING THE HEAVENLY LIFE. |
| Purified in my whole genius, I congratulate myself |
| Secure of fate, while neither am I downcast by any terrors, |
| Nor store up secret griefs in my heart, |
| But pass my days cheerfully in the midst of mishaps, |
| Despite the evils which engird the earth, |
| Seeking the way above the stars with ardent virtue. |
| I have received, beforehand, the first fruits of heavenly life— |
