POEMS
COMPOSED OR SUGGESTED DURING A TOUR IN THE SUMMER OF 1833
POEMS
XIV DESIRE we past illusions to recall? To reinstate wild Fancy, would we hide Truths whose thick veil Science has drawn aside? No,–let this Age, high as she may, instal In her esteem the thirst that wrought man’s fall, The universe is infinitely wide; And conquering Reason, if self-glorified, Can nowhere move uncrossed by some new wall Or gulf of mystery, which thou alone, Imaginative Faith! canst overleap, 10 In progress toward the fount of Love,–the throne Of Power whose ministers the records keep Of periods fixed, and laws established, less Flesh to exalt than prove its nothingness.