O HAPPY they whose hearts receive The implanted word with faith; believe Because their fathers did before, Because they learnt, and ask no more. High triumphs of convictions wrought, And won by individual thought; The joy, delusive oft, but keen, Of having with our own eyes seen, What if they have not felt nor known An amplitude instead they own, By no self-binding ordinance prest To toil in labour they detest: By no deceiving reasoning tied Or this or that way to decide. O happy they! above their head The glory of the unseen is spread; Their happy heart is free to range Thro' largest tracts of pleasant change; Their intellects encradled lie In boundless possibility. For impulses of varying kinds The Ancient Home a lodging finds: Each appetite our nature breeds, It meets with viands for its needs. Oh happy they! nor need they fear The wordy strife that rages near: All reason wastes by day, and more, Will instinct in a night restore. O happy, so their state but give A clue by which a man can live; O blest, unless 'tis proved by fact A dream impossible to act. |