AN INFERENCE .

I F I had lived ere seer or priest unveiled
 A life to come, methinks that, knowing thee,
 I should have guessed thine immortality;
For Nature, giving instincts, never failed
To give the ends they point to. Never quailed
 The swallow, through air-wilds, o'er tracts of sea,
 To chase the Summer; seeds that prisoned be
Dream of and find the daylight. Unassailed
 By doubt, impelled by yearnings for the main,
The creature river-born doth there emerge;
 So thou, with thoughts and longings which our earth
Can never compass in its narrow verge,
 Shalt the fit region of thy spirit gain,
And death fulfil the promptings of thy birth.