Poetical Fragments from Ethel Churchill Volume I/The Mind’s Unrest

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

CHAPTER XXVII.

LADY MARCHMONT TO SIR JASPER MEREDITH.

Mind, dangerous and glorious gift!
Too much thy native heaven has left
Its nature in thee, for thy light
    To be content with earthly home.
It hath another, and its sight
    Will too much to that other roam;
And heavenly light, and earthly clay,
But ill bear with alternate sway:
Till jarring elements create
    The evil which they sought to shun,
And deeper feel their mortal state
    In struggling for a higher one.
There is no rest for the proud mind,
Conscious of its high powers confined;
    Vain dreams and feverish hopes arise,
    It is itself its sacrifice.

Blanchard’s title is:

THE MIND’S UNREST

Taken from the Golden Violet, Amenaïde