A temple and a teacher I did find, With a large text to comment on. No ear But eyes themselves were all the hearers there, And every stone, and every star a tongue, And every gale of wind a curious song. The Heavens were an oracle, and spake Divinity: the Earth did undertake The office of a priest; and I being dumb (Nothing besides was dumb), all things did come With voices and instructions; but when I Had gained a tongue, their power began to die. Mine ears let other noises in, not theirs, A noise disturbing all my songs and prayers. My foes pulled down the temple to the ground; They my adoring soul did deeply wound And casting that into a swoon, destroyed The Oracle, and all I there enjoyed: And having once inspired me with a sense Of foreign vanities, they march out thence In troops that cover and despoil my coasts, Being the invisible, most hurtful hosts. Yet the first words mine infancy did hear The things which in my dumbness did appear, Preventing all the rest, got such a root Within my heart, and stick so close unto 't, It may be trampled on, but still will grow And nutriment to soil itself will owe. _The first Impressions are Immortal all_, And let mine enemies hoop, cry, roar, or call, Yet these will whisper if I will but hear, And penetrate the heart, if not the ear. SILENCE A quiet silent person may possess All that is great or high in Blessedness. The inward work is the supreme: for all The other were occasioned by the fall. A man that seemeth idle to the view Of others, may the greatest business do. Those acts which Adam in his innocence Performed, carry all the excellence. Those outward busy acts he knew not, were But meaner matters of a lower sphere. Building of churches, giving to the poor, In dust and ashes lying on the floor, Administering of justice, preaching peace, Ploughing and toiling for a forct increase, With visiting the sick, or governing The rude and ignorant: this was a thing As then unknown. For neither ignorance Nor poverty, nor sickness did advance Their banner in the world, till sin came in. Those therefore were occasioned all by sin. The first and only work he had to do, Was in himself to feel his bliss, to view His sacred treasures, to admire, rejoice, Sing praises with a sweet and heavenly voice, See, prize, give hourly thanks within, and love, Which is the high and only work above Them all. And this at first was mine; these were My exercises of the highest sphere. To see, approve, take pleasure, and rejoice Within, is better than an empty voice. No melody in words can equal that; The sweetest organ, lute, or harp is flat And dull, compared thereto. And O that still I might admire my Father's love and skill!