“Though To Give Timely Warning And Deter”

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. What is a State? The wise behold in her 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 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.

1845.

… thou shalt err.

1842.