XVI.

And yet I fear lest men who read these lines,

Should judge of them as if they wholly spake

The love I bear Thee and thy holy sake;

Saying: “He doth the high name wrong who twines

Earth's highest aim with Him, and thus combines

Jesus and Art.” But I my refuge make

In what the Word said: “Man his life shall take

From every word:” in Art God first designs,—

He spoke the word. And let me humbly speak

My faith, that Art is nothing to the act,

Lowliest, that to the Truth bears witness meek,

Renownless, even unknown, but yet a fact:

The glory of thy childhood and thy youth,

Was not that Thou didst show, but didst the Truth.