Though to give timely warning and deter Is one great aim of penalty, extend Thy mental vision further and ascend Far higher, else full surely shalt thou err.[206] What is a State? The wise behold in her 5 A creature born of time, that keeps one eye Fixed on the statutes of Eternity, To which her judgments reverently defer. Speaking through Law’s dispassionate voice the State Endues her conscience with external life 10 And being, to preclude or quell the strife Of individual will, to elevate The grovelling mind, the erring to recal, And fortify the moral sense of all. [206] 1845. … thou shalt err. 1842. X “OUR BODILY LIFE, SOME PLEAD, THAT LIFE THE SHRINE” Our bodily life, some plead, that life the shrine Of an immortal spirit, is a gift So sacred, so informed with light divine, That no tribunal, though most wise to sift Deed and intent, should turn the Being adrift 5 Into that world where penitential tear May not avail, nor prayer have for God’s ear A voice--that world whose veil no hand can lift For earthly sight. “Eternity and Time” _They_ urge, “have interwoven claims and rights 10 Not to be jeopardised through foulest crime: The sentence rule by mercy’s heaven-born lights.” Even so; but measuring not by finite sense Infinite Power, perfect Intelligence. XI[207] “AH, THINK HOW ONE COMPELLED FOR LIFE TO ABIDE” Ah, think how one compelled for life to abide Locked in a dungeon needs must eat the heart Out of his own humanity, and part With every hope that mutual cares provide; And, should a less unnatural doom confide 5 In life-long exile on a savage coast, Soon the relapsing penitent may boast Of yet more heinous guilt, with fiercer pride. Hence thoughtful Mercy, Mercy sage and pure, Sanctions the forfeiture that Law demands, 10 Leaving the final issue in _His_ hands Whose goodness knows no change, whose love is sure, Who sees, foresees; who cannot judge amiss, And wafts at will the contrite soul to bliss. [207] “In the eleventh and twelfth sonnets the alternatives of secondary punishment,--solitary imprisonment, and transportation,--are adverted to.” (Sir Henry Taylor.)--ED. XII “SEE THE CONDEMNED ALONE WITHIN HIS CELL”