X. FROM FREDERICK TO HONORIA.
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ousin, my thoughts no longer tryTo cast the fashion of the sky.Imagination can extendScarcely in part to comprehendThe sweetness of our common foodAmbrosial, which ingratitudeAnd impious inadvertence waste,Studious to eat but not to taste.And who can tell what's yet in storeThere, but that earthly things have moreOf all that makes their inmost bliss,And life's an image still of this,But haply such a glorious oneAs is the rainbow of the sun?Sweet are your words, but, after allTheir mere reversal may befallThe partners of His glories whoDaily is crucified anew:Splendid privations, martyrdomsTo which no weak remission comesPerpetual passion for the goodOf them that feel no gratitude,Far circlings, as of planets' fires,Round never-to-be-reach'd desires,Whatever rapturously sighsThat life is love, love sacrifice.All I am sure of heaven is this:Howe'er the mode, I shall not missOne true delight which I have known.Not on the changeful earth aloneShall loyalty remain unmovedT'wards everything I ever loved.So Heaven's voice calls, like Rachel's voiceTo Jacob in the field, 'Rejoice!'Serve on some seven more sordid years,Too short for weariness or tears;Serve on; then, oh, Beloved, well-tried,Take me for ever as thy Bride!'
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