Madam,
I cannot but congratulate
The happy Omen of your last Nights fate;
For those that wou'd live undisturb'd and free
Must never put on Hymens Livery.
Perhaps the Outside seems to promise fair
but the Liveing only Greive and anxious Care.
But once you let that Gordion Knot be ty'd
That turns the name of Virgin into Bride,
Your life's best Scene, in that fond Act forego
And run into a Labyrinth of Wo:
Whose Strange Meanders you may search about,
But never find the Clue to lead you out.
The Married Life affords but little ease,

I believe in God, who is for me spirit, love, the principle of all things.

I believe that God is in me, as I am in Him.

I believe that the true welfare of man consists in fulfilling the will of God.

I believe that from the fulfilment of the will of God there can follow nothing but that which is good for me and for all men.

I believe that the will of God is that every man should love his fellowmen, and should act toward others as he desires that they should act toward him.

I believe that the reason of life is for each of us simply to grow in love.

If heaven loved not the wine,
A Wine Star would not be in heaven;
If earth loved not the wine,
The Wine Spring would not be on the earth.
Since heaven and earth love the wine,
Need a tippling mortal be ashamed?
The transparent wine, I hear,
Has the soothing virtue of a sage,
While the turgid is rich, they say,
As the fertile mind of the wise.
Both the sage and the wise were drinkers,
Why seek for peers among gods and goblins?
Three cups open the grand door to bliss;
Take a jugful, the universe is yours.
Such is the rapture of the wine,

How sad if, by some strange new law,
All kisses scarred!
For she who is most beautiful
Would be most marred.

And we might be surprised to see
Some lovely wife
Smooth-visaged, while a seeming prude
Was marked for life.

How long I've loved thee, and how well—
I dare not tell!
Because, if thou shouldst once divine
This love of mine,
Or did but once my tongue confess
My heart's distress,
Far, far too plainly thou wouldst see
My slavery,
And, guessing what Love's wit should hide,
Rest satisfied!

So, though I worship at thy feet,
I'll be discreet—
And all my love shall not be told,
Lest thou be cold,
And, knowing I was always thine,
Scorn to be mine.
So am I dumb, to rescue thee
From tyranny—
And, by my silence, I do prove

& what is Love the sweetest of all pains
Yet teazing more then madness to the mind
It wants no setoffs garniture or gains
Better acceptance in the heart to find
On lily breasts & rosey mouths love binds
Its image which no power on earth can free
Though called inconstant as the shifting winds
Tis Truth on earth as heaven itself can be
I've felt it ever since I loved Haidee.

Haidee the lovliest of all thats loved
The venus of young life the poets dreams
A vision of the mind by all approved
A beauty of the heart that all esteems

Once the life that ran in my veins was stronger;
Now youth burns my blood with desire no longer;
Soon my grizzled head must be disapproving
Bondage of loving.

Young, I served King Love, and my April squandered
As his valiant trooper, and bore his standard,
Which at Venus' shrine to her care I tender,
Forced to surrender.

Now no more shall words of delight the sheerest,
“Sweet, my soul, thou life of my life, my dearest,”
Thrill me. They whose hearts have new blood to heat them,
Hearing, repeat them.

I will find, to kindle my life, new physic,

O Source divine and Life of all,
The Fount of being's fearful sea,
Thy depth would every heart appall,
That saw not Love supreme in thee!

We shrink before thy vast abyss,
Where worlds on worlds eternal brood;
We know thee truly but in this,—
That thou bestowest all our good.

And so, 'mid boundless time and space,
O grant us still in thee to dwell,
And through thy ceaseless web to trace
Thy presence working all things well!

Nor let thou life's delightful play
Thy truth's transcendent vision hide;
Nor strength and gladness lead astray

'Twas He, who once descending from the Height
Of heavenly Bliss, assum'd our mortal Clay;
That, cloth'd in human Flesh, and in our Stead,
He, our kind Surety, might discharge the Debt,
The dreadful Debt we ow'd, and on Himself
Transfer the Vengeance of the threatening Law,
The Guilt of Man, and Sin's dire Punishment
See, prostrate on the Ground, forlorn He lies,
On the cold Grass diffus'd; His guiltless Hands
Towards His own Heaven, uplifted; and his Face
Placid and mild, turn'd to His Father's Seat,
Not to receive the Kisses of His Love,

“L OVE is eternal,” sang I long ago
Of some light love that lasted for a day;
But when the fleeting fancy passed away,
And other loves, that following made as though
They were the very deathless, lost the glow
Youth mimics the divine with, and grew gray,
I said, “It is a dream: no love will stay.”
Angels have taught me wisdom. Now I know,
Though lesser loves and greater loves may cease,
Love still endures, knocking at myriad gates
That lead to God—stars, winds and waters, birds,
Beasts, flowers and men—speaking its sweetest words