Forbearance - By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Beareth all things.--2 COR. xiii.7.


  Gently I took that which ungently came,
  And without scorn forgave:--Do thou the same.
  A wrong done to thee think a cat's-eye spark
  Thou wouldst not see, were not thine own heart dark
  Thine own keen sense of wrong that thirsts for sin,
  Fear that--the spark self-kindled from within,
  Which blown upon will blind thee with its glare,
  Or smother'd stifle thee with noisome air.
  Clap on the extinguisher, pull up the blinds,
  And soon the ventilated spirit finds
  Its natural daylight. If a foe have kenn'd,
  Or worse than foe, an alienated friend,
  A rib of dry rot in thy ship's stout side,
  Think it God's message, and in humble pride
  With heart of oak replace it;--thine the gains--
  Give him the rotten timber for his pains!

1832.