A SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATION. Read at the President's Levee, Brown University, 29th 6th month, 1870. #NAME? - - - - Its summer bloom discloses; #NAME? #NAME? #NAME? - - - - The lesson that he taught her, #NAME? #NAME? - - - - Is 't fancy that he watches still #NAME? #NAME? #NAME? - - - - Methinks I see that reverend form, #NAME? - - - - He rises up to speak; he jogs #NAME? - - - - "Good friends," he says, "you reap a field - - - - I sowed in self-denial, #NAME? #NAME? - - - - "Great grace, as saith Sir Thomas More, #NAME? #NAME? - - - - The heretic to Heaven! - - - - "I hear again the snuffled tones, #NAME? - - - - Dyspeptic dreamers, spiritual bores, #NAME? - - - - "Each zealot thrust before my eyes - - - - His Scripture-garbled label; #NAME? #NAME? - - - - "Scourged at one cart-tail, each denied - - - - The hope of every other; #NAME? - - - - At the conscience of his brother! - - - - "How cleft the dreary drone of man. - - - - The shriller pipe of woman, - - - - As Gorton led his saints elect, - - - - Who held all things in common! - - - - "Their gay robes trailed in ditch and swamp, - - - - And torn by thorn and thicket, #NAME? #NAME? - - - - "Shrill Anabaptists, shorn of ears; - - - - Gray witch-wives, hobbling slowly; - - - - And Antinomians, free of law, #NAME? - - - - "Hoarse ranters, crazed Fifth Monarchists, - - - - Of stripes and bondage braggarts, #NAME? #NAME? - - - - "And last, not least, the Quakers came, - - - - With tongues still sore from burning, - - - - The Bay State's dust from off their feet - - - - Before my threshold spurning; - - - - "A motley host, the Lord's debris, - - - - Faith's odds and ends together; #NAME? #NAME? - - - - "If, when the hangman at their heels - - - - Came, rope in hand to catch them, - - - - I took the hunted outcasts in, #NAME? - - - - "I fed, but spared them not a whit; - - - - I gave to all who walked in, - - - - Not clams and succotash alone, #NAME? - - - - "I proved the prophets false, I pricked - - - - The bubble of perfection, #NAME? #NAME? - - - - "And looking backward on my times, - - - - This credit I am taking; - - - - I kept each sectary's dish apart, #NAME? - - - - "Where now the blending signs of sect - - - - Would puzzle their assorter, - - - - The dry-shod Quaker kept the land, #NAME? - - - - "A common coat now serves for both, - - - - The hat's no more a fixture; - - - - And which was wet and which was dry, #NAME? - - - - "Well! He who fashioned Peter's dream - - - - To bless them all is able; #NAME? - - - - Make clean upon His table! - - - - "I walked by my own light; but when - - - - The ways of faith divided, #NAME? #NAME? - - - - "I touched the garment-hem of truth, - - - - Yet saw not all its splendor; #NAME? #NAME? - - - - "God left men free of choice, as when - - - - His Eden-trees were planted; #NAME? #NAME? - - - - "So, with a common sense of need, - - - - Our common weakness feeling, #NAME? - - - - And His all-gracious dealing! - - - - "I kept His plan whose rain and sun - - - - To tare and wheat are given; - - - - And if the ways to hell were free, - - - - I left then free to heaven!" - - - - Take heart with us, O man of old, - - - - Soul-freedom's brave confessor, - - - - So love of God and man wax strong, #NAME? #NAME? - - - - In ours one hymn are swelling; - - - - The wandering feet, the severed paths, - - - - All seek our Father's dwelling. #NAME? - - - - That makes us all thy debtor,-- - - - - That holy life is more than rite, - - - - And spirit more than letter; #NAME? - - - - Perchance the common Master, #NAME? - - - - Who graze one narrow pasture! - - - - For truth's worst foe is he who claims - - - - To act as God's avenger, - - - - And deems, beyond his sentry-beat, - - - - The crystal walls in danger! #NAME? - - - - Of verbal quirk and quibble, #NAME? - - - - With Satan's borrowed dibble. #NAME? - - - - One Master's touch are feeling; #NAME? #NAME? - - - - Co-workers, yet from varied fields, - - - - We share this restful nooning; #NAME? #NAME? - - - - Forgive, dear saint, the playful tone, - - - - Too light for thy deserving; - - - - Thanks for thy generous faith in man, #NAME? #NAME? - - - - The words that thou hast spoken; #NAME? #NAME? #NAME? - - - - From Roman or Genevan; #NAME? - - - - Henceforth the road to Heaven!