To join advantage to amusement, to gather profit with pleasure, Is the wise man's necessary aim, when he lieth in the shade of recreation. For he cannot fling aside his mind, nor bar up the flood-gates of his wisdom; Yea, though he strain after folly, his mental monitor shall check him: For knowledge and ignorance alike have laws essential to their being,-- The sage studieth amusements, and the simple laugheth in his studies. Few, but full of understanding, are the books of the library of God, And fitting for all seasons are the gain and the gladness they bestow: The volume of mystery and Grace, for the hour of deep communings, When the soul considereth intensely the startling marvel of itself: The book of destiny and Providence, for the time of sober study, When the mind gleaneth wisdom from the olive grove of history: And the cheerful pages of Nature, to gladden the pleasant holiday, When the task of duty is complete, and the heart swelleth high with satisfaction. The soul may not safely dwell too long with the deep things of futurity; The mind may not always be bent back, like the Parthian, straining at the past; And, if thou art wearied with wrestling on the broad arena of science, Leave awhile thy friendly foe, half vanquished in the dust, Refresh thy jaded limbs, return with vigour to the strife,-- Thou shalt easier find thyself his master, for the vacant interval of leisure. That which may profit and amuse is gathered from the volume of creation, For every chapter therein teemeth with the playfulness of wisdom. The elements of all things are the same, though nature hath mixed them with a difference, And Learning delighteth to discover the affinity of seeming opposites: So out of great things and small draweth he the secrets of the universe, And argueth the cycles of the stars, from a pebble flung by a child. It is pleasant to note all plants, from the rush to the spreading cedar, From the giant king of palms, to the lichen that staineth its stem; To watch the workings of instinct, that grosser reason of brutes,-- The river horse browsing in the jungle, the plover screaming on the moor, The cayman basking on a mud-bank, and the walrus anchored to an iceberg, The dog at his master's feet, and the milch-kine lowing in the meadow; To trace the consummate skill that hath modelled the anatomy of insects, Small fowls that sun their wings on the petals of wild flowers; To learn a use in the beetle, and more than a beauty in the butterfly; To recognize affections in a moth, and look with admiration on a spider. It is glorious to gaze upon the firmament, and see from far the mansions of the blest, Each distant shining world, a kingdom for one of the redeemed; To read the antique history of earth, stamped upon those medals in the rocks Which Design hath rescued from decay, to tell of the green infancy of time;