Alone must thou stand, O man! alone at the bar of judgment; Alone must thou bear thy sentence, alone must thou answer for thy deeds: Therefore it is well thou retirest often to secresy and solitude, To feel that thou art accountable separately from thy fellows: For a crowd hideth truth from the eyes, society drowneth thought, And being but one among many, stifleth the chidings of conscience. Solitude bringeth woe to the wicked, for his crimes are told out in his ear; But addeth peace to the good, for the mercies of his God are numbered. Thou mayst know if it be well with a man,--loveth he gaiety or solitude? For the troubled river rusheth to the sea, but the calm lake slumbereth among the mountains. How dear to the mind of the sage are the thoughts that are bred in loneliness; For there is as it were music at his heart, and he talketh within him as with friends: But guilt maddeneth the brain, and terror glareth in the eye, Where, in his solitary cell, the malefactor wrestleth with remorse. Give me but a lodge in the wilderness, drop me on an island in the desert, And thought shall yield me happiness, though I may not increase it by imparting: For the soul never slumbereth, but is as the eye of the Eternal, And mind, the breath of God, knoweth not ideal vacuity: At night, after weariness and watching, the body sinketh into sleep, But the mental eye is awake, and thou reasonest in thy dreams: In a dream, thou mayst live a lifetime, and all be forgotten in the morning: Even such is life, and so soon perisheth its memory. OF SPEAKING. [Illustration: "S"] Speech is the golden harvest that followeth the flowering of thought; Yet oftentimes runneth it to husk, and the grains be withered and scanty: Speech is reason's brother, and a kingly prerogative of man, That likeneth him to his Maker, who spake, and it was done: Spirit may mingle with spirit, but sense requireth a symbol; And speech is the body of a thought, without which it were not seen. When thou walkest, musing with thyself, in the green aisles of the forest, Utter thy thinkings aloud, that they take a shape and being: For he that pondereth in silence crowdeth the storehouse of his mind, And though he hath heaped great riches, yet is he hindered in the using. A man that speaketh too little, and thinketh much and deeply, Corrodeth his own heart-strings, and keepeth back good from his fellows: A man that speaketh too much, and museth but little and lightly, Wasteth his mind in words, and is counted a fool among men: But thou, when thou hast thought, weave charily the web of meditation, And clothe the ideal spirit in the suitable garments of speech. [Illustration]