Let Nature be your teacher

Thought and theory must precede all action, that moves to salutary purposes. Yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.

The sightless Milton, with his hair Around his placid temples curled; And Shakespeare at his side,-a freight, If clay could think and mind were weight, For him who bore the world!

A lawyer art thou? Draw not nigh! Go, carry to some fitter place The keenness of that practised eye, The hardness of that sallow face.

I listened, motionless and still; And, as I mounted up the hill, The music in my heart I bore, Long after it was heard no more.

From the body of one guilty deed a thousand ghostly fears and haunting thoughts proceed.

Sad fancies do we then affect, In luxury of disrespect To our own prodigal excess Of too familiar happiness.