The
professor, notwithstanding the idea of Christ has by him been exhausted
of all that is peculiar to it, yet recommends him to the veneration and
worship of his hearers, "rather than all who went before him, and all
who ever followed after." But why? says the poet. For his intellect,
"Which tells me simply what was told
(If mere morality, bereft
Of the God in Christ, be all that's left)
Elsewhere by voices manifold?"
with which must be combined the fact that this intellect of his did not
save him from making the "important stumble," of saying that he and God
were one. "But his followers misunderstood him," says the objector.
Perhaps so; but "the stumbling-block, his speech, who laid it?" Well
then, is it on the score of his goodness that he should rule his race?
"You pledge
Your fealty to such rule? What, all--
From Heavenly John and Attic Paul,
And that brave weather-battered Peter,
Whose stout faith only stood completer
For buffets, sinning to be pardoned,
As the more his hands hauled nets, they hardened--
All, down to you, the man of men,
Professing here at Goettingen,
Compose Christ's flock! So, you and I
Are sheep of a good man! And why?"
Did Christ _invent_ goodness? or did he only demonstrate that of which
the common conscience was judge?
"I would decree
Worship for such mere demonstration
And simple work of nomenclature,
Only the day I praised, not Nature,
But Harvey, for the circulation.
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