Hence, the Poet would have knowledge advance and increase to the utmost, “a beam in darkness” ever growing. But reverence must grow with it; so that mind which accumulates knowledge, and soul which is the dwelling-place of faith, according well with each other, may make one music—be in harmony “as before,” that is, I presume, as at first; but now “vaster” in their compass owing to the greater reach of modern thought and research.
This warning against scientific assumptions, in opposition to spiritual truths, is repeated from Poem cxiv.
The concluding humble prayer, contained in the three last stanzas, has the true ring of devout piety.
“Forgive what seem’d my sin in me;
What seem’d my worth since I began;
For merit lives from man to man,
And not from man, O Lord, to thee.
“Forgive my grief for one removed,
Thy creature, whom I found so fair.
I trust he lives in thee, and there
I find him worthier to be loved.
“Forgive these wild and wandering cries,
Confusions of a wasted youth;
Forgive them where they fail in truth,
And in thy wisdom make me wise.”
“What seem’d my sin,” would be the Poet’s excessive grief for Hallam’s death: for he elsewhere says,
“I count it crime
To mourn for any overmuch.”[89]
“What seem’d my worth,” would be his devoted love for his friend, which he felt had ennobled his own life; and so he says,
“To breathe my loss is more than fame,
To utter love more sweet than praise.”
But this worth was only comparative,
“from man to man,
And not from man, O Lord, to thee;”