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 recall, And fortify the moral sense of all. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EPITAPHS OF THE WAR, 1914-18: BATTERIES OUT OF AMMUNITION by RUDYARD KIPLING AN ORCHARD AT AVIGNON by AGNES MARY F. ROBINSON MANNERLY MARGERY, MILK AND ALE by JOHN SKELTON UNDERWOODS: BOOK 1: 22. THE CELESTIAL SURGEON by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON CALIBAN IN THE COAL MINES by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE VOICE IN THE GLOAMING by WILLIAM ALLAN |