The good is sought, because it pleases God, Not with the doer, but with what is done. Good has its origin in th’ idea God, And what He loves; but to continue good It must retain approval in the act, And not transfer it to the agent’s self. The consciousness that God approves a deed, Makes Man approve, and thus his mind is brought In correlation with the Mind Divine. The man who does an alms, if done to gain God’s favor for himself, feels selfish pain; But if because the act, not he, will please, He finds the pleasure. Man, as time rolls on, Finds general laws that please or displease God, And ranging, under these, subordinates Amenable to them and not to God, The moral quality of lesser deeds He reckons by these laws, nor does ascend To God, that gives their moral quality. Jouffroy, in Order, placed the Abstract Good, And paused a step below the real truth, The idea God, whence Order emanates. Thus Man, progressing, good withdraws from God And seems an independent entity, And man denominates it, Abstract Good. He can attain the Abstract but in part; When mind is freed from flesh, he may attain To its full grandeur. Here, at most, he grasps A faint outline, and fits it on concrete. No concept occupies one act of mind, But opening the lettered label, he May count the attributes, and by an act Complex, of memory and cognition, gain Some idea of his Abstract. Thus of “Man,” One act can only cognize M-A-N, But opening, he finds the attributes, As “mammal,” “biped,” “vertebrate.” This act Is complex, and he cannot unitize, Save by the bundle of a word. You’ve said It answers all the purposes of life, Then why seek more? lest speculation vain Point out dim realms, where Man can never tread, These baffling thoughts are given, as peacocks’ feet, To Man’s fond pride. The simplest avenue Of thought, pursued, will reach absurdity, To comprehension finite. Even the truth Of numbers you presume to doubt. Two balls, You claim, can ne’er be two unless alike. You mingle quantity and number, foolishly, As if a ball the size of Earth, and one, A tiny mustard-seed, would not be two! You deem all Mathematics wide at fault, Because Man’s powers to illustrate are weak. Earth has oft seen a pure right angle drawn, Because Man’s sight could not detect a flaw; And if to his discernment perfect made, He must admit its perfect form. If life, In every intricate demand, finds truth, Why seek to overturn by sophistry? You see and know Achilles far beyond The tortoise, yet the super-wise must prove That he can never pass the creeping thing, Although his speed a hundred times as swift! When Man commences, he may find a doubt In everything; his life, his neighbor’s life,