Then comes the question of this abstract good, That moral sense declares the end of life. What is its nature? whence does it arise? And whence does man derive the half-formed thought? You have compared the systems that define, Each in its way, the hidden theory. None satisfy, though each some element Sets forth in clear distinctness. Take them all, Select the true of each, as Cousin does, And will eclecticism satisfy? And does the soul not cry for something more? For something that it feels ’twill never reach, The good, as known to minds unclogged with flesh? Man takes the dim outlines of abstract thought, And seeking to evolve their perfect form, The very outlines grow more indistinct; As gazing at a star will make it fade. Man’s only forms of good are blent with flesh, And when he seeks to take the flesh away, And leave the abstract, he is thus confused, As if he should withdraw the wick and oil, And seek to find the flame still in the lamp. To learn the source of ideas of the Good, Trace Man collective, to his babyhood; For ’mid the prejudice of full-grown thought, The truth would be effectually concealed. Through every people scattered o’er the globe, There does prevail some idea of a God; Though rude and barbarous this idea be, It still, in some form, does exist. The good, With all, bears reference to this thought; And what this Deity approves is good, And what He disapproves is bad. Men learn What He approves, and what He disapproves, By revelation, inference, and instinct. God’s sanction then is origin of Good, Though afterwards men learn the sweet effects, And practise it for its own sake; and call Their little effort, grandest abstract truth. Developing in intellectual strength, They plaster up this good in various forms, Until, refined beyond all subtilty, It seems to them a self-existent good. The good is then a certain quality, In actions, or existence, that assures Divine approval. This vast idea, God, Creation sows in every human heart; All Nature’s grand designs demand a God, A God intelligent. The same instinct That tells His being, teaches what He loves; And what He loves with every people’s good. But different nations entertain ideas Diverse in reference to a Deity, And different notions of what pleases Him. One deems the care of God’s child-gift her good; Another tears the heart-strings from her babe, And feeds, for good, the sacred crocodile. The good lies in the thought of pleasing God: The consciousness that God is pleased with us, A pleasure yields, and good might there be sought For pleasure’s sake, and prove a selfish aim; But moral selfishness a pain imparts, And good, for pleasure sought, defeats the search.