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XI.
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COMPENSATION.
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For each ecstatic instant
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We must an anguish pay
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In keen and quivering ratio
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To the ecstasy.
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For each beloved hour
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Sharp pittances of years,
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Bitter contested farthings
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And coffers heaped with tears.
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XII.
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THE MARTYRS.
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Through the straight pass of suffering
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The martyrs even trod,
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Their feet upon temptation,
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Their faces upon God.
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A stately, shriven company;
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Convulsion playing round,
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Harmless as streaks of meteor
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Upon a planet's bound.
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Their faith the everlasting troth;
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Their expectation fair;
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The needle to the north degree
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Wades so, through polar air.
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XIII.
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A PRAYER.
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I meant to have but modest needs,
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Such as content, and heaven;
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Within my income these could lie,
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And life and I keep even.
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But since the last included both,
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It would suffice my prayer
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But just for one to stipulate,
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And grace would grant the pair.
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And so, upon this wise I prayed, --
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Great Spirit, give to me
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A heaven not so large as yours,
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But large enough for me.
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A smile suffused Jehovah's face;
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The cherubim withdrew;
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Grave saints stole out to look at me,
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And showed their dimples, too.
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I left the place with all my might, --
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My prayer away I threw;
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The quiet ages picked it up,
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And Judgment twinkled, too,
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That one so honest be extant
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As take the tale for true
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That "Whatsoever you shall ask,
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Itself be given you."
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But I, grown shrewder, scan the skies
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With a suspicious air, --
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As children, swindled for the first,
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All swindlers be, infer.
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XIV.
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The thought beneath so slight a film
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Is more distinctly seen, --
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As laces just reveal the surge,
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Or mists the Apennine.
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XV.
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The soul unto itself
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Is an imperial friend, --
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Or the most agonizing spy
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An enemy could send.
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Secure against its own,
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No treason it can fear;
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Itself its sovereign, of itself
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The soul should stand in awe.
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XVI.
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Surgeons must be very careful
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When they take the knife!
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Underneath their fine incisions
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Stirs the culprit, -- Life!
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XVII.
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THE RAILWAY TRAIN.
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