"
I have attributed a general utterance to these men, widely different from
each other as I know they are.
Here is a voice from one of them, Arthur Hugh Clough, who died in 1861,
well beloved. It follows upon two fine poems, called _The Questioning
Spirit_, and _Bethesda_, in which is represented the condition of many of
the finest minds of the present century. Let us receive it as spoken by
one in the foremost ranks of these doubters, men reviled by their
brethren who dare not doubt for fear of offending the God to whom they
attribute their own jealousy. But God is assuredly pleased with those who
will neither lie for him, quench their dim vision of himself, nor count
_that_ his mind which they would despise in a man of his making.
Across the sea, along the shore,
In numbers more and ever more,
From lonely hut and busy town,
The valley through, the mountain down,
What was it ye went out to see,
Ye silly folk of Galilee?
The reed that in the wind doth shake?
The weed that washes in the lake?
The reeds that waver, the weeds that float?--
young man preaching in a boat.
What was it ye went out to hear
By sea and land, from far and near?
A teacher? Rather seek the feet
Of those who sit in Moses' seat.
Go humbly seek, and bow to them,
Far off in great Jerusalem.
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