Must we forever the rough stones be heaping, And building temple walls for evermore? Comes there no blessed day for Sabbath-keeping, No time within the temple to adore? In faith's long contest have life's quenchless fountains Bade calm defiance to the hostile sword? But when, all beautiful upon the mountains, Shall come the herald of our peace restored? Must we forever urge the brain with learning, And add to moral, intellectual woes? Nor hold in peace the spoils we have been earning, And find in wisdom's self the mind's repose? Long have we watch'd, and risen late and early, Rising to toil, and watching but to weep; When will the blessing come like dewdrops pearly, "On heaven's beloved ones even while they sleep?" Since life began, our life has been beginning, That ever-nascent future's treacherous vow; When shall we find, the weary contest winning A present treasure, an enduring _now_? Ten thousand nameless earthly aims pursuing, Hope we in vain the recompense to see, And must our total life expire in _doing_, And never find us leisure time _to be_? Has not our life a germ of real perfection, As holds the tiny seed the forest's pride? And shall its ask'd and promised resurrection In dreams of disappointed hope subside? Yes, all is hopeless, man with vain endeavor, May climb earth's rugged heights, but climb to fall; Ever perfecting, yet imperfect ever, Earth has no rest for man--if earth be all. Yet oft there dwell, in temples frail and mortal, Souls that partake immortal life the while; Nor wait till death unbar heaven's pearly portal, For heaven's own essence, their Redeemer's smile. _--12th Month_, 1844. * * * * * From the Journal relating to daily affairs, at this time, kept distinct from her spiritual diary, the following, and a few other extracts, have been taken. Never suspecting that this would see the light, she left it in an unfinished state. Had it been reconsidered, portions of it would probably have been altered; but it sufficiently shows her desire to understand the agencies of intellectual action, and the philosophy of knowing and acquiring. She recognizes the importance of systematic knowledge, questions the purpose and use of every attainment, and manifests throughout a desire that all the operations of the intelligence may subserve a nobler aim than knowledge in itself possesses:--