POEM

DELIVERED BEFORE THE

SOCIETY OF UNITED BROTHERS,

AT BROWN UNIVERSITY,

On the day preceding Commencement, Sept. 6, 1831,

BY N. P. WILLIS.

POEM.

If in the eyes that rest upon me now I see the light of an immortal fireIf in the awe of concentrated thought, The solemn presence of a multitude Breathing together, the instinctive mind Acknowledges aright a type of God— If every soul that from its chambers dim Answers this summons, be a deathless spark Lit to outburn the ever constant stars,— Then is the ruling spirit of this hour Compell'd from Heaven, and if the soaring minds Usher'd this day upon an untried flight Stoop not their courses, we are met to cheer

Spirits of light sprung freshly on their way.

How strangely certain is the human mind, Godlike and gifted as it is, to err !

It wakes within a frame of various powers,
A stranger in a new and wondrous world.
It brings an instinct from some other sphere,
For its fine senses are familiar all,

And, with th' unconscious habit of a dream,
It calls, and they obey. The priceless sight
Springs to its curious organ, and the ear
Learns strangely to detect the articulate air
In its unseen divisions, and the tongue
Gets its miraculous lesson with the rest,
And in the midst of an obedient throng
Of well-trained ministers, the mind goes forth
To search the secrets of a new-found home.

Its infancy is full of hope and joy.
Knowledge is sweet, and Nature is a nurse
Gentle and holy; and the light and air,
And all things common, warm it like the sun,
And ripen the eternal seed within.

And so its youth glides on; and still it seems
A heavenward spirit, straying oftentimes,
But never widely; and if Death might come
And ravish it from earth as it is now,

We could almost believe that it would mount,