To individuals, unless deserved. Throughout your reas’ning, like all Earthly minds, When dataless, essaying hidden truths, You wander blindly in conjecture’s field, And if you find the truth, it is a chance. You fain would raise a stone of skepticism, By granting souls immortal unto beasts; You prove your pointer must possess a soul, And by your argument, the trees have souls; For when an oak has fallen, every twig May still be there, and something, life, be gone. A chair, a table, anything you see, Possesses something, not of any parts, But that to which the parts are said, belong, Then, one by one, take all the parts away, The something called the table must exist, For ’twas not in a part, nor is removed. The mind of beasts exists but through their flesh, And is developed subject to its laws, And flesh is the condition of their life. When flesh dissolves, the mind disintegrates, And ceases to exist. Man feels within, The consciousness of soul, that would survive Though flesh were torn to shreds upon the wheel. The parts of soul that live alone through flesh, Must perish with it in the hour of death. But having postulated Self, as source Of human conduct, you compel the acts To fit your theory. You change effect For cause. Where’er a moral pleasure’s found, You judge that for its gain the deed was done; As if the pleasure could be gained by search! That Self does enter largely into inner life Is very plain, for everything affects, In some way, Self; but does the mind regard Effect, or is its object something else? The appetites, affections, and desires, You make of selfish origin, yet know That is not selfish, which alone affects; But acting with a reference to effect. The appetites are instincts; as you breathe, You hunger, thirst, in helplessness. Not Self, But food or drink, the object of your thought. And even while the taste is in your mouth, The mind dwells on the taste, not on the Self. Desires are partly selfish in their mode; Desire of knowledge, seeking honor’s meed, Is selfish; led by curiosity, ’Tis not more selfish than an appetite. Desire of power, esteem, and wide-spread fame, Is selfish, when the thought of their effect On Self shapes out the conduct; when desired For their own sake, unselfish. On the list Affections terminate, you falsely rail The mother, and the lover; both sincere, And both without a thought of selfish aim. ’Tis no reproach to say the mother’s love, In fervid instinct, and development, Is like the cow’s, that God in wisdom gives. No love so pure as that which moves the cow To hover round her young, to bear the blows Impatient hunger deals the udder drained, To smooth with loving tongue the tender coat,