I took it for a faery vision
Of some gay creatures of the element,
That in the colors of the rainbow live
And play i' th' plighted clouds.
Comus. MILTON.
Oft fairy elves,
Whose midnight revels by a forest side,
Or fountain, some belated peasant sees,
Or dreams he sees, while overhead the moon
Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth
Wheels her pale course, they on their mirth and dance
Intent, with jocund music charm his ear;
At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds.
Paradise Lost, Bk. I. MILTON.
FAITH.
Faith is the subtle chain
Which binds us to the infinite; the voice
Of a deep life within, that will remain
Until we crowd it thence.
Sonnet: Faith. E.O. SMITH.
Nor less I deem that there are Powers
Which of themselves our minds impress;
That we can feed this mind of ours
In a wise passiveness.
Expostulation and Reply. W. WORDSWORTH.
One in whom persuasion and belief
Had ripened into faith, and faith become
A passionate intuition.
The Excursion, B. VII. W. WORDSWORTH.
Faith builds a bridge across the gulf of Death,
To break the shock blind nature cannot shun,
And lands Thought smoothly on the further shore.
Night Thoughts, Night IV. DR. E. YOUNG.
A bending staff I would not break,
A feeble faith I would not shake,
Nor even rashly pluck away
The error which some truth may stay,
Whose loss might leave the soul without
A shield against the shafts of doubt.
Questions of Life. J.G. WHITTIER.
I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope,
And gather dust and chaff, and call
To what I feel is Lord of all,
And faintly trust the larger hope.
In Memoriam, LIV. A. TENNYSON.
The Power that led his chosen, by pillared cloud and flame,
Through parted sea and desert waste, that Power is still the Same;
He fails not—He—the loyal hearts that firm on Him rely;
So put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry.[A]
Oliver's Advice. COLONEL W. BLACKER.